J Dilla halftime trick

Menco wrote:Same story with the sped up soul technique. People saying that's Kanye's trick.

Every time I hear that " the sped up soul technique" (is it really "technique"?), it reminds me of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
(Not to be confused with "sample speeded-up song, when speed down on sampler" technique.)

Lampdog wrote:

I was a dj to, not since a LONG time ago though. From what i've seen, Dj's make the better producers, imo.

Because of juggling records and pitches forever, they are just adept at handling such things with ease.

Now all these kids do are hitting that auto sync button on that numark dj controller.

That's why they come up with these kind of questions when they start producing.

Is it possible that he could have used the Korg ESX slice function to produce the effect?

I actually thought the trick that was being discussed was the one from the royce song lets grow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TEWrZpiuiA

Check at 3:27, the end of the song, where dilla flips it into a bounce track with the same samples

Sbtst6,

If you are referring to "The Donut Of Heart" (it seems that we are discussing a few different "tricks" here, I'm still now sure what "J Dilla halftime trick" really refers to), I think it may be able to done with Electribe ESX's slice sample function, although the function can only apply to one bar sample.
I own Electribe ES-1, but slice function is one of very few function that I haven't used yet.
While Dilla did own Korg Electribe ESX, I don't think it was used on his Donuts album, and I'm not sure Dilla would use slice function (I just cannot picture Dilla using slicer.)

@ JVC

Dont really know what trick is be refered to also.

But, After seeing various videos of the ESX in action on youtube, it seems like alot of the things that are possible to do with a sample in the ESX point directly to some of those donuts tracks. Also seeing as the manipulation aspect can be done on the fly, vs alot of detailed editing in the likes of a protools, mpc, etc.
Dilla doesnt seem like one for spending alot of time on a beat, which would explain the amount of beats tapes that are floating around with 30-40 beats at a time. Probably spent 30 minutes average on a beat just to keep his high and flow going.

This is the video i was refering to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHzWjAt5uJo

sbtst6 wrote:...
But, After seeing various videos of the ESX in action on youtube, it seems like alot of the things that are possible to do with a sample in the ESX point directly to some of those donuts tracks. Also seeing as the manipulation aspect can be done on the fly, vs alot of detailed editing in the likes of a protools, mpc, etc.

On electribes' slice sample function, there is no way to control how the machine chop the sample. That's main reason why I haven't used slicer function on Electribe yet, although I've been using it a lot. Now I'm king of curious, I'll experiment with slicer on Electribe.

sbtst6 wrote:Dilla doesnt seem like one for spending alot of time on a beat, which would explain the amount of beats tapes that are floating around with 30-40 beats at a time. Probably spent 30 minutes average on a beat just to keep his high and flow going.

I don't believe he would use autochop (he was mainly using MPC-3000, but he used his laptop computer to product beats on "Donuts" album, in a hospital room.)
According to many interviews, Dilla was very hard working man (we all know that, however), the guy was always in home studio whenever he can work. I think he spent a lot of time making music in his short life, which explains why there are so many Dilla beats floating in Internet.
Considering the fact that he was still making beats even after his health was deeply deteriorated, I can imagine that he recorded quite long hours of music thru his lifetime.
Plus, he was really fast to make beats (also from interview), I heard that some of the Tribe beats, he made in less than 30 minutes.

JVC wrote:I don't believe he would use autochop (he was mainly using MPC-3000, but he used his laptop computer to product beats on "Donuts" album, in a hospital room.)

I'm fairly certain he didn't even edit his samples. I've seen a few videos where he just got his samples by letting the record play and recording what he wanted and cutting it very short. Basically sampling concisely so he didn't have to edit after sampling. Instead of taking a whole section he would just take the parts he wanted and assign them to pads. Very quick method of working.

séance wrote:I'm fairly certain he didn't even edit his samples. I've seen a few videos where he just got his samples by letting the record play and recording what he wanted and cutting it very short. Basically sampling concisely so he didn't have to edit after sampling. Instead of taking a whole section he would just take the parts he wanted and assign them to pads. Very quick method of working.

Ah, yes, I think I should start doing that with my MPC. I've seen Just Blaze doing that way.

JVC wrote:

séance wrote:I'm fairly certain he didn't even edit his samples. I've seen a few videos where he just got his samples by letting the record play and recording what he wanted and cutting it very short. Basically sampling concisely so he didn't have to edit after sampling. Instead of taking a whole section he would just take the parts he wanted and assign them to pads. Very quick method of working.

Ah, yes, I think I should start doing that with my MPC. I've seen Just Blaze doing that way.

This is the quickest way to chop, espicailly if you have used older samplers (SP1200, s950, mpc 60/3000, etc.) that where very limited as far as sample time and options like newer model samplers (autochop, Non Destructive chop).

@jvc

I think with the ESX slice function, you should be able to manual select where you want the slices to go..but it also will automatically do it also, which is probably has a bad result. A partner of mine uses the ESX for his live show, Im a connect with him over the holidays to dig into this more.

-niN wrote:I never new this was a "Dilla trick"

I was doing that on FruityLoops4 before I even knew Dilla existed.. (I was diggin some of his beats though, but didn't know ****.. )

T'was kinda necessary though cos the step edit only contained of 16 steps, so if you wanted to do crazy ass 32s, there was simply no other way

I heard that stevie wonder guy layered different notes and came up with something called "chords" ..Brilliant! thats why he is called Wonder you know, because everyone wonder how i did it!

Lol, i do wonder sometimes though how some methods suddenly gets someones name infront of it, as if they were the inventor or something.. It kinda seems these days that people can even just find a menu they never seen before and suddenly they have discovered a "trick"who cares if its in the manual... Its like with genres, someone slows down or speeds up or add or remove some silly little element and think they have invented music and it needs a new name lmao

dilla halftime trick @1:09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73kd6wsBq0