Help!!! I need inspiration!

So i've been buying some gear over the last few months now. I got an MPC2000XL fully upgraded and a Virus B and a little crap behringer mixer . The only problem is that i'm struggling like hell to make some music. Here's the first area where i'm getting stuck. I'd appreciate any help some experienced cats might have out there,

Sampling:
Okay here's a big one. So far i've been buying old classical and funk CD's ripping em and slicing them up, but this takes day's, sometimes weeks and i end up with a whole bunch of samples...and no dams song to put em in. Where does sampling fit in the whole process? Do your samples kinda write the song for you or do they fit into the song....

Secondly, treating my samples is what irritates me. I've been adding a little compression EQ etc but i'm not sure how much to EQ and compress at the sampling stage because what do i do when i get to the tracking phase and i don't like my drums EQ. So the question is when to EQ and how much do i do at the sampling stage and what do i leave for the tracking and recording stage?

I gotta go to amovie now. So hopefully when i get back i'll have some answers. Then i'll hit you with the second part....

SEQUENCING!!!! Just MPC or MPC and a PC.......?

I just listen to my records for good loops, sounds, drums whatever. I just throw on a record and listen. When I hear something, I'll sample it. I don't know, it just comes. You don't always find what you're looking for. You may find a loop that you might not use for a while. Just save it for later.

About EQ, compression, etc. I only have one turntable, a dj mixer, MPC2kxl, and vinyl, so I do a lil EQ on the dj mixer when I sample but that's it.

Sometimes when I am lost and don't know what to do with a beat, I'll just leave it and come back. Sometimes hours, sometimes days.

smoke pot

See, i'm from South Africa. Much of the hip hop that happens here -which isn't much isn't so sample based. I don't get to speak to cats about their approach to it all. That's what i'm doing here. I'm no beginner. Been doing this for a few years...on a pc....but i'm just struggling to fit sampling into songs.

I listen to guys like RJD2 and i wonder how the hell does this guy do what he does with samples? It's just crazy.....

I guess what i'm really wanting to know with the whole sampling thing is....when....what.....how.....

Any other peeps out there got any tips for me.....

Binger....gimme something more than that....c'mon man.

just read thru the old posts and just practice alot. I try to force myslef to make at least one beat a day. Just take a lil break and comeback to it. Keep it fun and dont pressure yourself. break the time u work into practiocing skills like choppin and looping, sampling technique. I like to read magizines or listen to good producers that inspires me more than anything.

and thouse cats do alot of chopping and filtering. Thouse are skills u need to learn to mesh things together. Also make sure u can tune samples to eachover. its a lil hard to get down at first. But just keep doin it yo. then u will notice u have more keepers and more productive sessions in the lab.

So here's the other huge dillemma whjich has been keeping me from just buckling down and writing music.

I'm torn between using my MPC and my PC for sequencing.

I love using my MPC but i worry that i'm selling myself short because it's sequencer doesn't have the same resolution or features as say Cubase or any other software sequencer. The control you have from a PC is much greater, and i imagine you can get into much more detail but i cant lug the damn thing around to do gigs which is what i want to do.

How are all you cat's out there adressing this issue? Who uses PC? Who uses MPC and does anyone use both? if any of you do use both then how do you go about setting it up?

I cant tell you how much time i'm wasting going between the two. So please gimme some answers or even just opinions!!!

So are you saying that i change the pitch of all the samples that i make in one sitting to be in tune with eachother.... or do i just find a bunch of samples that i'm digging on and pitch shift them? Do guys like RJD2 spend days on end sampling and then sit down and see what works together, tweak, freak and filter the samples and then get down and dirty?

I've been doing all my filtering and stuff in fruity loops. I load up the parametric eq and use a little subtractive EQ to get rid of all the frequencies that i dont dig and leave the one's i'm looking for. Is that an okay approach to take or should i use the samples raw and then do all the filtering once i've tracked the beat?

what ur doin is cool. Yeah they will take sounds that are realitive and then use tuning in the mpc or whatever to make them mesh.

everysong has a key and a mode.

a key is what the root note, the first note u play, is.

the mode of a song is how it is the chord progression and scale progression, like how the notes should jump to the next note. Like how they go up a scale. U can have minor or major modes. I would do a search on music theroy to help u out.

see key is easy. the piano has 12 notes. 7 are the white keys, C D E F G A B C and the black keys are sharp or flat depending on how u are goin up or down the keys. now outta these 12 notes, for a song that u are workin on there is one that is the base of that song. Use the keys till u find out what key it is. use fruity loops keys to see what im talking about. the one note that blends perfectly. like mixs right in, is the key of that song.

Now when we are using sampling, this is important cause what u are sampling is one of thouse 12 notes. u find that then make ur bass in tune adn ur keys, guitars, horns, everything. use the tuning parameter on the mpc to match it.

with 16 levels also it is laid out like a piano. like a white key to a black key would equal the next pad. a white key to a white key is 2 steps. so 2 pads. this is helpful when u are making mode, or a scale. read up on some basic music threoy. it will help a lot. especcially bout key and mode. Peace

my beats mostly constist of samples and i think ur gettin too technical with the whole beat making process... when i sample i just dont sample whatever unless im tryin to prove something to someone that i can flip anything i sample cause i just feel it and it get the juices flowin, im like damn i can rip this ish... i dont mess with eq and compression until i track my beat out... if ur choppin, lay a quick drum pattern so you can get a feel of when to mess with chops... most importantly its suppose to be fun, if ur gettin frustated cause u cant make a sample do what u want, leave it for later, i done had my moments when i feel like breakin the record cause i got a hot a*s sample but my drums dont sync or whatever the reason... just take it easy and let it come to u.. its alot of techniques involved when it comes to samplin so practice practice practice..

I know...i just gotta chill and let the beats write themselves. I just always worry about not getting the most out of my sample at the source....and then paying for it later when people say my shit is whack.

It's real easy to start producing from the start and i find myself spending so long trying to get everything sounding right that i dont actually do any composing...

That's why i'm trying to figure out how far i should take the production side while im still in the writing phase....and what part i should leave till the tracking phase....

Usually I'll find some drums. Do some different patterns with those. Then I'll listen for sounds. It could be a loop or whatever, that I like and I want to add in. After it starts coming together more I might change the drums a bit.

I think you're taking too much time sampling before you really do anything with the samples. I don't know. I just like to do it all as I go along instead of finding all the samples I want first and then making the beat.

I sequence only on the MPC.

We all have our own methods, but my advice to you would be to work on your imagination more... Don't take this as an insult... What it means is don't worry in the composing stages how the sounds fit together... Have the imagination to see a few steps ahead and see that they will fit together... When your making/composing a beat just focus on Rhythms and making sure sh*t is in timing...

EQing and Compression is done in the mixing stages... So you shouldn't be worrying about this when making a drum track... Cause then you'll be off track...

I used to be like this also... It can get furstrating, But worry about where everything fits later... Don't force it... I've gone through slumps (I just got out of one) where I've gone weeks without makin anything really hot and it pissed me to hell... The second I finally gave up, BOOM inspiration came...

Just let it flow naturally.... That's my best advice...

i go the 8 out board. Do you guys send the bass drum and snare out separate outputs and the hats out the main output? Or do you send all the drums out the mains and wait till tracking and then use the separate outputs.