What is this technique?

At around1:08 in the following video Pete rock has a sequence playing and he scrolls the jog wheel and speeds up the whole sequence. What method is he using to do this? I know I everyone has there own ways to manipulate samples and speeds but I have no clue what he did. Anyone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73CcodfT_w

That's one of my favorite videos. I got it on a CD with a magazine in '05, I didn't even have internet back then. It's really lived on through YouTube.

I think he's just scrolling the wheel to change the BPM on fly. I believe what he's referring to is his chops being clean, a key factor to make a sample stand up to tempo changes. The XL has timestretch but he was playing a sequence live so I think he just means chop clean so you can maintain a samples original flavor even speeding or slowing.

thanks. It is a dope video I never saw it before tonight. I thought it was pitch shifting or tuning or something. I think he is referring to the speed he says" I can speed it up and it Plays the same" he is raising the bpm but the sample speeds up with it and still sounds like it fills the bars apposed to cutting off or overlapping if he just sped up just the bpm.

I could be wrong but there are so much to these machines that I always feel like there's 6 ways to dothe same thing and still a world of stuff I don't know how to use. I feel like he uses a different way to manipulate the pitch/bpm in unison. I'm probably wrong. But if not I want to know how.

Although I guess u are right the more I think of it. I guess if he tediously programmed it to note off or track mute certain samples it could work but it almost sounded like the pitch of the sample was changed with the tempo.

Doesn't he say that he makes loads of chops of the sample he wants to be ablr to do that to?

I thought he jus sliced it like 64 times instead of 16, laid out the pattern in grid mode so it plays in order.

Then if you adjust pitch or tempo it'd stay more in sync because of the amount of slices being individually pitched. could be completely **** wrong though.

I think the one thing we can all agree on and are sure about was his comment "it's like a jigsaw puzzle"

eleventhstage wrote:Doesn't he say that he makes loads of chops of the sample he wants to be ablr to do that to?

I thought he jus sliced it like 64 times instead of 16, laid out the pattern in grid mode so it plays in order.

Then if you adjust pitch or tempo it'd stay more in sync because of the amount of slices being individually pitched. could be completely **** wrong though.

Maybe I read you wrong, but you really just need to think about getting one shot hits chops if you want to be able to change bpm without it sounding weird. The amount of chops are completely irrelevant.

Someone posted the same video and question about a year ago. Basically he's poor-man timestretching, where you chop up a sample to the pads and speed it or slow it in the sequencer without pitch shifting the original pieces. Its an old school technique

Ibunshi wrote:

eleventhstage wrote:Doesn't he say that he makes loads of chops of the sample he wants to be ablr to do that to?

I thought he jus sliced it like 64 times instead of 16, laid out the pattern in grid mode so it plays in order.

Then if you adjust pitch or tempo it'd stay more in sync because of the amount of slices being individually pitched. could be completely **** wrong though.

Maybe I read you wrong, but you really just need to think about getting one shot hits chops if you want to be able to change bpm without it sounding weird. The amount of chops are completely irrelevant.

I disagree with your last sentence. If you have a 2 bar loop, at 80BPM, chopped into 1/4 notes and speed it up to 120BPM. It will sound less smoother than if you chopped into 1/8 or 1/16 notes IMO.

mastasteez wrote:

Ibunshi wrote:

eleventhstage wrote:Doesn't he say that he makes loads of chops of the sample he wants to be ablr to do that to?

I thought he jus sliced it like 64 times instead of 16, laid out the pattern in grid mode so it plays in order.

Then if you adjust pitch or tempo it'd stay more in sync because of the amount of slices being individually pitched. could be completely **** wrong though.

Maybe I read you wrong, but you really just need to think about getting one shot hits chops if you want to be able to change bpm without it sounding weird. The amount of chops are completely irrelevant.

I disagree with your last sentence. If you have a 2 bar loop, at 80BPM, chopped into 1/4 notes and speed it up to 120BPM. It will sound less smoother than if you chopped into 1/8 or 1/16 notes IMO.

not sure we're talking about the same thing any longer here lol... but i am talking about bpm clashes, keep it at single hits and it wont clash when you change the bpm.. if you have chops that contain a pattern, just 2 hits per slice are enough to make apattern that contains the original bpm.. then simply changing the bpm in the sequencer wont be enough to avoid a clash (unless you do half- or double time bpm) ..you would also have to either timestretch or use pitch to match those chops up with the new bpm.. which would need more fiddling than just changing the bpm in realtime on the mainscreen, and might be pretty troublesome if you want to do constant bpm changes as a way to loosen up the groove and make it sound more human

so if your only aim is to be able to simply change the bpm, then all you need to think about is to chop out single hits out of whatever it is you have.. and the amount of chops you do are then irrelevant, and depend completely on the material you chop up.. as you can end up with only 2 pieces or 50 (or whatever) as that would be up to you to decide which pieces you want to use, and if you want them all, it would depend on how many actual hits the sample material contains


at this point, as single hits.. if things are not sounding smooth, it has probably more to do with the fact that their original dynamics have been changed, or the programming itself doesnt suit those hits... you hack off tails, other hits get tail left overs.. then you are-arrange the hits and make a new pattern.. and so, naturally you will have hits that dynamically are made to fit something else, but now are put in a different context.. and then things can get awkward and much less smooth than the original recording..

.............


which is why i personally never use breaks or loops any longer.. just using single hits from drum libraries allows me to shape the dynamics to make the hits fit better for what i am doing, customized for that specific pattern and groove.. to do the same is more troublesome with hits taken from a break or loop.. because with libraries the single hits tend to often be neutral in how they have been played, making their useful for more things.. in a break its not, because the hits are played in a certain way to give the pattern the groove and feel it has, which makes up the break as a whole, and then you cant stray too far and some changes cant be made without it sounding weird, as they already have a distinct shape just from how they have been played... if that makes sense..

Keep it simple. He chopped up 2 bars to 16 pd which means he chopped in 8th.
If you chop up a saple in 8th you can simply increase the temop and it will sound ok you can't slow down the tempo tho because of the gaps that would sound terrible.
You cant do this with every chopped up loop. It always depends on whats happening in the loop. The more instruments and hits the more weird it will sound when you increase the tempo.
Another interesting thing is the kind of groove you can get with this "technique". Listen to the video again and compare the part where he just plaay the chops one aafter another and the part where he hit play on the sequencer. The same chops but with a higher tempo AND a different groove/swing/feel.
This is because a kick kick snare change into a kick kicksnare (not exactly but kind of) if you know what I mean

peace

saving your chops as a patch phrase will achieve the same thing, right?

peterpiper wrote:Keep it simple. He chopped up 2 bars to 16 pd which means he chopped in 8th.
If you chop up a saple in 8th you can simply increase the temop and it will sound ok you can't slow down the tempo tho because of the gaps that would sound terrible.
You cant do this with every chopped up loop. It always depends on whats happening in the loop. The more instruments and hits the more weird it will sound when you increase the tempo...

That isn't exactly keeping it simple either, and it is going to confuse people that are new as doing that would only work on samples that contains only 8th note patterns, so no use on breaks or material that contains 16ths or beyond shuffles/rolls or notes, as you then wouldn't be able to change the bpm on the sequencer without it clashing with the bpm of the sample.. So to stick to 8ths would have a pretty limited use for this.


If you really want to keep it simple and for the original context of this thread, then all you need to think about when cutting is to make everything single hits, that's all there is to it... single hits, as simple as it gets, anything else is pretty irrelevant for this task..

I'll have to disagree. The question was what technique PR used in this video. The answer is: He choosed a good sample of 2 bars and chopped it into 16 chops of an 8th note length. The sequencer BPM can be increased to a certain point without sounding too weird.
Thats simple IMO.
If you want to be more creative with it you can chop into more pieces (single hits) which is way more fexible but also more complicated in programming a natural groove because every hit will be quantized.
Taake the beginning of the video. PR played the chops in its original order. You can do this by just keeping the 8th timing in your fingers or sequece the 8th chops. Although the 8ths are quantized it will automaaticly have a groove from the "in between hits"
Try to archive this when you chop every single hit and you'll end up in a lot of sequencer work and moving chops tick by tick.

You called it limitation. I call it keep a bit of the original groove to get instant good vibe.

peace