Sample Chop Calculator (Excel)

After doing some heavyweight chopping on my MPC500 last night, I realised that some kind of automated calculator would probably be of some use. Trying to cut a sample to fit equally onto all 12 pads isn't as easy as it first looks... (my mental arithmatic is poor at best)

*big fat geek alert*

I am building an Excel file that will calculate the start/end points of chops for you. I know this is terribly sad, but I am hoping that it will speed things up when working on the machine. In theory, it should run on your PDA/Blackberry/iPhone meaning you can chop, chop, chop on the go, go, go!

Post in here if you think it might be of use to you, and I'll put the link up later on tonight/over the weekend.

Ta much.

Eh, but you're still ending up with essentially random chops that are off beat. What's the point?

bedouin wrote:Eh, but you're still ending up with essentially random chops that are off beat. What's the point?

Well, duh! You can't count for sample material. However, by using a calculator of sorts, it can point you in the right direction (especially if you are counting your bars etc) and hopefully speed up the chopping process.

It was merely a project, sunshine. No need to get ancy 'bout it I was quite impressed with my work (seeing as I've not written any decent music in a while *sob*)

Nice initiative!

I have made a small program (pychop) in Python (runs on Mac, Windows, Linux) to chop samples. So far, the program can make just two chops and is a command line tool. So for example you have to type in a command like

> python pychop.py myloop.wav 12

to chop the sample myloop.wav into 12 wav files

Next step is to add some kind of beat detection, and maybe a user interface (GUI)?

Does something like this seem useful? If not, I will abandon the project again...

use your ears,
don't waste time building a calculator

It would take more time to dial in crap from a computer than it would be to just move the data wheel in common sense increments to get what you want.

And you're still going to have to fine tune the start and stop points, so what's the point?

Think what you like, haters...

Do it if u think it will improve ur workflow.

But I agree with what Bedouin said. When I chop with numbers I calculate the start and endpoints roughly, and finetune the points by ear.

I've checked a number of different beat detection algorithms for my little project - I think I will make my own using neural networks - could be fun!

The program pychop works now - it can chop samples into 2-64 slices, but yet it doesn't look at where the beats are...it will come

I fly around the 500 with no issues.

i thought you chopped samples by ear and not by random numbers generated from a calculator

Lord Toranaga wrote:use your ears,
don't waste time building a calculator

I wouldn't call building another tool a waste of time.

robthom wrote:

Lord Toranaga wrote:use your ears,
don't waste time building a calculator

I wouldn't call building another tool a waste of time.

well, I would.
if building tools is your thing, good for you.

my thing is making music, not tools.

Lord Toranaga wrote:
well, I would.
if building tools is your thing, good for you.

my thing is making music, not tools.

Thats cool, except that nobodies asking you to build it.

No reason to sh!t on his project any more than he should sh!t on your music.

Maybe somebody else would enjoy using it.

I just want to ask how can a program decide my start and end points? Because sometimes I like to sample a few bars of a song, but something funky could start at the 3rd down beat sliding into the bridge type sh!t.

I use a calculator too but after I've adjusted the sample by ear and feels to the touch when I hit the pads.

How's it work?