Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
By Scrawny Wed Mar 18, 2020 10:43 pm
So if I try I can usually come up with at least two or more decent ways to sequence my samples, but I can never figure out how to properly transition between them, or they never seem to fit in quite well with each other. Is it just a matter of practice? And are there any specific things I can pay attention to when figuring out alternative sequences for say, the chorus for example? Or the intro?
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By NearTao Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:34 pm
You should consider why the sequence is good on its own and why it may clash with a different sequence. You might need a build up or drop to bridge the two. Heck, you might need a third sequence. It is even possible they work well and you have killed your ears listening to it loop for too long.

Take a step back, you will find the answer
By terry towelling Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:56 am
-are your samples in the same key? if no, tune them up or down till they are.

-for transitions, place a crash cymbal on the one of the first bar of your sequence. in the last bar of the sequence, put in snare roll or tom fill, whistles etc. throw the lot at it. what this does is prepare the listener for a change. it will remove any abruptness in sequence changes. it also adds anticipation and excitement.

-use the same sample in all the sequences. for sequence two, tune the sample up or down 5 or 7 semitones. in general, anything moved 5 of 7 semitones up or down will fit together and give your song change. although tuning up and down with samples can be tricky as it changes the length and so may not fit the beat anymore.

--if all else fail, ditch the samples that don't seem to fit and make the second sequence all drums. but you'll have to make that sequence rhymically interesting... throw lots of percussion at it. add ride cmybals, timbales, whistles, congas, bongos, maybe a short vocal snippet played rhtymically.
By Scrawny Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:58 pm
terry towelling wrote:-are your samples in the same key? if no, tune them up or down till they are.

-for transitions, place a crash cymbal on the one of the first bar of your sequence. in the last bar of the sequence, put in snare roll or tom fill, whistles etc. throw the lot at it. what this does is prepare the listener for a change. it will remove any abruptness in sequence changes. it also adds anticipation and excitement.

-use the same sample in all the sequences. for sequence two, tune the sample up or down 5 or 7 semitones. in general, anything moved 5 of 7 semitones up or down will fit together and give your song change. although tuning up and down with samples can be tricky as it changes the length and so may not fit the beat anymore.

--if all else fail, ditch the samples that don't seem to fit and make the second sequence all drums. but you'll have to make that sequence rhymically interesting... throw lots of percussion at it. add ride cmybals, timbales, whistles, congas, bongos, maybe a short vocal snippet played rhtymically.



Damn that second tip is pretty obvious but gold. Thanks! I'm gonna look into all of them. This is just the sort of thing I was looking for.
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By Menco Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:44 pm
Another tip is smart sequencing and looping. I'll give you an example:

Let' say you have 4 bar sample and you chop it up in 16 slices, spread out over the 16 pads. Let's say you come up with this 2 bar pattern as your first sequence:

|A16, A16, A3, A2|A16, A15, A7, A8|

Then for the second sequence I start with A9 -because this is the original order going from A8 to A9- and build my sequence from there. That way the transition sounds more natural because for two counts you follow the original melody/ sample.
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By The Jackal Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:53 pm
- spin backs & air horns














srsly tho...


- drum fills/drops (adding fills, dropping out/muting drums and end of measures)

- risers & filter sweeps; effects sweeps (delay/reverb washouts & feedback etc.)

- creating room at the end of a pattern with mutes/fades so the new one comes in with new energy or conversely, building up a lot of energy at the end of a pattern and bringing in the new pattern slowly

- mute/unmute tracks between the 2 sequences until you find which combination works well enough you can switch between sequences without things clashing i.e. playing one pattern and slowly muting/fading tracks out, then switching to new pattern with tracks muted and then unmuting/fading them in

- sometimes you have 2 good ideas that just kinda sound like one idea, but really, they aren't. it's okay to work on two different projects with the same sounds. just call them 'remixes' or 'ver 1.XX' or whatever lol. it's also okay to scrap one idea if the other feels stronger

- energy levels. you might be going from one part that's low energy to something that's really high energy. maybe something really loud to quiet. fast to slow. without an appropriate transition, this will sound bad

- i think in terms of: intro, outro, build up, wind down, verse 1, verse 2, chorus 1, chorus 2, , breakdown, bridge. if i want to make it even simpler: beginning, end, the hook and like one other part. a lot of the time i just start making patterns and figuring out where they fit. point being, sometimes you're trying really hard to force an intro into being the chorus, maybe what you want for the chorus isn't working because the beat is better for the verse, maybe a lead sound that if muted in a certain pattern, that pattern would now make sense and would be easier to transition in/out of
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By The Jackal Sun Mar 22, 2020 7:15 pm
oh shit, forgot key & scale.

- make sure all your patterns are in the same key

- sometimes things sound like shit because you've got a note or two that sound really good across a few patterns, but that note happens to fall within several scales and you've been playing different scales across the patterns without realizing it.

- sometimes all your samples are not tuned to one another. this goes hand in hand with the scales/keys things i.e. you can be playing a pattern and all samples gel with each other, and you can be playing another pattern where everything gels, but as soon as you play them back to back something just sounds...off. This is because all the samples across all patterns are in key, but different samples are different notes and therefore produce different scales and the patterns are in different scales due to which samples where used & sample tuning. you can either swap out the samples that are not in scale for ones that are or tune them appropriately.

- sometimes your chops/timing is shit. as in, maybe a sample sounds good over one pattern, but when you switch the pattern, you can tell something is off because something wasn't on beat or the sample wasn't chopped right. sometimes this is masked in another pattern by many other sounds, or even incorrect tempo.
By Scrawny Sun Mar 22, 2020 11:47 pm
Menco wrote:Another tip is smart sequencing and looping. I'll give you an example:

Let' say you have 4 bar sample and you chop it up in 16 slices, spread out over the 16 pads. Let's say you come up with this 2 bar pattern as your first sequence:

|A16, A16, A3, A2|A16, A15, A7, A8|

Then for the second sequence I start with A9 -because this is the original order going from A8 to A9- and build my sequence from there. That way the transition sounds more natural because for two counts you follow the original melody/ sample.



Damn that makes sense. Really smart.

Lots of good tips. Thank you.
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By saltmcgault Mon Mar 23, 2020 1:39 am
There’s alot of good tips in this thread. I find myself getting stuck trying to get sequences to mesh while switching it up sometimes.
By DokBrown Mon May 04, 2020 8:04 pm
what drives the song or set ?
What is your speciality ?


dj/sampler vs drums vs keys vs vocals/MC


if you can answer those 2 questions, then you have a good idea of where to come up with transitions.

1 of the best out there doing it.
Clearly he's into pad drums . . . . . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n660VufHmk8
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By peterpiper Tue May 05, 2020 12:45 am
Yeah the tip with the 5th is nice. Nt just for trasitions betwen sequences but also for sample usage in general. Good for pitch AND tempo.
There is math behind it i can't explain right now :) maybe tomorrow :lol:
Here is an example of a bass/organ sample I used this method on. One of the few tracks from my old studio that survived. Made on Emu E64 &Atari Cubase :)




original




peace