Hep getting rid of hiss and noise in samples.

Just started an account but I've been browsing here for awhile. I'm having problems with a lot of hiss and other artifacts in my samples. I got a lot of dope samples but they never come out sounding exactly how I want them to. I recently was messing around with Come Dancing by Jeff Beck break and I tried my best to eq how I wanted it but I couldn't get it to sound right. De La made it sound nice and fat without losing any high end clarity. And I never hear much hiss or noise in old school producers beats.

Even when they chop a break into individual hits, I never hear any hiss being cut off between each hit. Like when Premo chopped up that Manhattens sample for "Work," I tried to recreate it for fun but when I would cut off each little horn sample, you could hear the hiss and other background frequencies drop out to silence and its super noticeable. You can't even really hear it on the Gang Starr track.

I guess my samples always come out sounding TOO clean, they don't have that nice warmth that people like P Rock and Tribe get. Even cutting out some of the frequencies above 8 - 16 khz just makes it sound muddy and not warm. I don't wanna have to pay $1k for an SP or an s950 cause I know it can be done on the MPC 2000s or 1000s.

Right now I'm using a 1200 straight into my stereo's phono preamp and then straight to the MPC1000. I was thinking I should get a mackie vlz mixer. Maybe the EQing will be a little easier and it might give it some color?

Anybody got any suggestions? Sorry for the long ass book report post.

ok noise can be caused by many factors.
everything from RF interference, ground loops, johnston noise. You need to find where the noise is coming from and deal with that. This will help you get a better sound and you can always dirty it up later. I suggest you check turntable is grounded to preamp if possible. Also try the USB option as well to get samples into your MPC. This might help as you might be able to get a cleaner sample. I sample directly into MPC and get no noise (except the TV, thats always noisy )
So change cables, try moving cables away from the interference, or earth your turntable.
EQ is not a good way to get rid of noise........if you have computer, there is dedicated software for cleaning up noise. Might i suggest a filter, that is probably a better option, i even filter and resample.
Also note that the music you listen to is mastered. Low end theory used Pulteq EQ and a DBX compressor in parallel to fatten it up no end. You will struggle to get it that good but it can be done with desk eq and comps....

If the sample cuts out straight away then I find it quite noticeable too. If the cut out is on the beat (1/8ths 16ths, etc) then it can have an interesting rhythmic effect.

But the easy option is to put a Release Envelope on it & it is surprising how effective just that can be. Even quite noisy samples can appear quite clean.

If you want to be even more sophisticated then us a release envelope on a filter. All the brighter bits are at the front of the hits & decay quite quickly. So if you roll off the Low Pass Filter once the initial brighter bits are through then, if its done right, you won't here any artifacts and the hiss has gone(ish).

All this is assuming that there isn't any additional noise being introduced by a MPC & Hardware fault, like ground loops etc.

I've always found de-noiser type plugins work quite well within certain limits, epecially for hiss.

If you've got a sound editor, play around with your sounds in there and see what you can do.

Damn lots of good tips. The hiss I'm speaking is mostly just the hiss and noise from old records. Stuff that is maybe a little scratched or older that has a bunch of surface noise. Unfortunately, a lot of the breaks I've found aren't in the best of condition so they're almost unusable. And I know Premo and Tribe and all that has been professionally mastered, ("Bob Power you there?") so I know I'm not gonna get exactly that, but I've heard a lot of random kids on the net making nice, mastered beats. Appreciate the tip on what EQ and compressor they used.

LZ Roberts wrote:But the easy option is to put a Release Envelope on it & it is surprising how effective just that can be

When you chop a sample in trim mode and convert it to sliced samples, it give you the option of having a release on a scale of like 0 to 10 or something like that. Is that the release you're talking about? If not, does anyone have any info on exactly what this does? I've messed around a little with it but couldn't really find any info in the manual or the web.

Maybe it would be easier if I had an example of the noise I'm talking about. Maybe I can upload a quick beat

ghostmaker wrote: ... The hiss I'm speaking is mostly just the hiss and noise from old records. Stuff that is maybe a little scratched or older that has a bunch of surface noise. Unfortunately, a lot of the breaks I've found aren't in the best of condition so they're almost unusable. And I know Premo and Tribe and all that has been professionally mastered, ("Bob Power you there?") so I know I'm not gonna get exactly that, but I've heard a lot of random kids on the net making nice, mastered beats. Appreciate the tip on what EQ and compressor they used. ...

I think many "kids on the net" use sample library though.
I think using a good turntable, phono cartridge, and pre-amp would greatly improve the sound quality.
Also try to eliminate ground noise and hum noise by reposition AC cords and ground wire.
If you hear those noise even then you are not playing record, then you have issue with the audio system.
Having said that, by chopping samples, you can cutout quiet part (the part that you'd hear noise most), like how DJ premier chop samples.

By the way, I see many people using the portable Numark record player for sampling (Kev Brown, Ski Beatz, etc.), how's the sound quality, any one?

I think many "kids on the net" use sample library though.

I don't really mean kids, I just meant unsigned artists who make dope beats, like the guy who does Overdoze Recordings, Scripto Mysterious or something. I know where he gets most his drums from, its just he knows how to make em fit with the other samples.

My turntable is grounded to the amp and the cables are all fine. Got a brand new cartridge and stylus. Like I said, it's more from old records. Brand new records play fine with no surface noise on my table.

Having said that, by chopping samples, you can cutout quiet part (the part that you'd hear noise most), like how DJ premier chop samples.

I think maybe you misunderstood. I do cut out the parts between the horn hits, but thats the problem. You hear a the horns with a bunch of vinyl noise then I cut it off and its silent until the next chop plays. like this...

Bah dum (silence) bah dum (silence) dah dum (silence) dah dum). Bah dum= horns dah dum = piano. If you listen to the song you'll get what I'm saying. Appreciate the response though.

ghostmaker wrote:
Right now I'm using a 1200 straight into my stereo's phono preamp and then straight to the MPC1000. I was thinking I should get a mackie vlz mixer.

maybe the phono pre amp is the weak link on the chain.
which kind of pre do you use?
cheap electronic equipment doesnt help in this cases
but sometimes even a good piece of gear got some problem (IE fukked-up capacitors etcetera results in hiss and noise)
try using a good dj mixer or a good hi fi amplifier

I have the turntable hooked up to the phono preamp in my home surround sound stereo system. It's a Technics brand (same as the 1200's I use). It's probably about 20 years old but it looks like it was the shit back in like '92 haha. I've been thinking about getting a Mackie VLZ pro mixer and running the deck straight into that and out to the MPC. I've used em before at work and I see A LOT of people using them for beats. Anyone have any experience with them?

You hear a the horns with a bunch of vinyl noise then I cut it off and its silent until the next chop plays. like this...

Bah dum (silence) bah dum (silence) dah dum (silence) dah dum). Bah dum= horns dah dum = piano. If you listen to the song you'll get what I'm saying. Appreciate the response though.

The problem is that the sample is not long enough to play all the way to the next hit, so you get a little gap. You can cover up those gaps in a few ways.

Make your sample longer. You can timestretch the sample a small bit (or better yet, timestretch just the very end of it so you dont mess up the important part at the beginning).

You can reverse the sample and join it on at the end. This means that when you get to the end of the sample, it starts to play backwards but this is ok if its just for a short time before its cut off by the next sample. It keeps that 'air' playing just long enough to cover the gap.

You can also sample the air itself (either from the end of the sample, or from somewhere else in the beat/vinyl) and play it during the gap.

ghostmaker wrote:I have the turntable hooked up to the phono preamp in my home surround sound stereo system. It's a Technics brand (same as the 1200's I use). It's probably about 20 years old but it looks like it was the shit back in like '92 haha. I've been thinking about getting a Mackie VLZ pro mixer and running the deck straight into that and out to the MPC. I've used em before at work and I see A LOT of people using them for beats. Anyone have any experience with them?

OK, sounds like you already have a pretty good turntable and preamp to sample vinyls already. If your Technics receiver is about 20 years old, then you probably have the one with "MASH" print on it. Those are pretty good receivers.
By the way, I still use Technics CD player that holds 110 disks(!) and it sounds pretty good.

I think now I understand the "problem" that you are having. No matter what you do, I don't think you can get rid of vinyl record noise completely.

JVC wrote:
By the way, I see many people using the portable Numark record player for sampling (Kev Brown, Ski Beatz, etc.), how's the sound quality, any one?

thats what i was starting to wonder. im positive those portables sound shittier than your standard tech. unless you have a really really shitty needle.
ghostmaker, maybe you're being picky? dunno i'd like to hear an example. or maybe try masking the noise by adding air in between chops. yeah, you still have the noise, but atleast when you treat the entire track you dont get gaps and get consistancy through the entire track, perception.

I used to sample from a 7 band EQ to get rid of vinyl debris. I had an old Technic EQ and it was a freak because it would filter some dope basslines from records. Anyway, I used to cut off the high frequencies and that would reduce the hiss and air within the recording. The mids and lows, I would maximize them but not distorting, just right . Then I play the sample and record it to tape and sample that again but with the bass and treble at moderate levels and the highs reduced but not cut off.

This was before the dawn of resampling but the forumula still works.

you just need something to eq. a daw or a good mixer if your into hardware more so.

the filters on an mpc only go so far.

i've been able to get MUCH better results since i started toying with the eq functions on ableton, whereas before i would just go straight off the mp.

Vinyl noise is awsome... faulty equipment noise like ground loops and shit is horrible..

I'd like an example..