how good can you extract samples by EQing a track?

hi guys!
I have a question. One of my favourite track of all time is "don't sweat the technique" by eric b and rakim. Samples comes from a kool and the gang track (you can check it out on whosampled.com), bassline from a youngholt record. As I did with some other beats I like, I have tried to recreate it but this time I really can't. First of all horn samples don't come out clean cause there are still drums, guitar, bass etc loud in the background, and at some points the 'swing' to them seem slightly different.
How did they do it? Have they perfectly "EQed out" the horns from the track? Is this something that can actually be done with such good results? (I'd consider buying a big ass equalizer in that case...). And what about the different way they are played? It's not something achievable with simple pitch shifting... I'm starting to think they hired musicians to re-play it from skratch, Dre-style.. I hope not, that would make Eric B less of a myth to me!

I got to say i dont have a perfect answer for you but i assume a guy like Eric B had relatively limited equipment since that was so long ago.

I know you can obviously use high and low frequency passes in software like fl studio to only allow sounds at certain frequencies to play.

One really obvious and silly question is did you listen to the full song that was sampled? Is the part you are talking about played with background music at one time and then just horns at another point in the song?

Sorry i dont have a clear answer for you its a very interesting question.

keep in mind that Eric B and Rakim became famous in 1987, so by the time that track was produced (1992) they had great resources, a lot of money and for sure access to professional studios and performers. Plus they were close to marley marl since the beginning, so the "replayed by musicians" scenario is very plausible

This track is 100% sample based, and most of them are straight loops. No offensive but I guess you need to learn how to hear with an analyzing ear. The piano and the guitar of the Kool and the Gang track is hearable in in the back of the Eric B & Rakim track.
But yes they put a heavy lowcut EQ / filter on the hornsample. something like everything under 600Hz is cut.
I already started a recreate version a while back and there was no big problem with the horns

peace

It would be really nice if you could make a video, or maybe just some step by step audio clips of the process of recreating this beat. That'd be really interesting

I'll watch out for a screen recorder and see what I can do.... (BTW any recommandations on a free screen recorder software with sound for Win?)

peace

Id say camtasia but it's more of a guess, never used such things

@ Piper

Jing

http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

Or just use Google Hangout. You can do great conferences on it. Starting to think we should ask for a akai MMPC forum Google Hangout page in here for instructional purposes.

Cheers,
Ian

There are basic ways to strip down samples of instruments. I'm just going by my own experiences, but it works.

In the 90's, I had a voice canceller. That was supposed to remove the vocals off stereo tracks but most times it would boost certain frequencies and cut others. Sometimes the guitar in the far background would be right up front and the bass is ultra thick while the drums and piano just disappeared. I would use that to see what I can get, though I desired the vocals to be completely removed, but these strange results gave me new stuff to try and sample. Also, stereo tracks can have drums and guitar on the right channel and bass and keys on the left channel, so I would remove one jack from the Inputs and sample either channel in mono to get the pieces seperated. EQ is your friend too, combine that with the above techniques and you'll carve out instruments from tracks in no time. Practice practice practice.

^^good point. Voice canceller is nothing more than cut out the middle of a stereo signal to get only the side signal. Other term: Phase cancelling, karaoke, M/S mid/side.
There could be one difference on a voice canceller (I have an old AKAI stereo with a karaoke button that work this way): The signal gets divided by a frequency splitter first and only the mid and high frequencies running thru the cacelling process. Since the bass is often in the middle of the stereo field it would get cacelled but with this filter stage the kickdrum and bassline will still be there.


peace

Took me a while to create a video with synced sound and to upload it. Cam studio didn't liked my audiointerface so I had to do it with the laptop. I did't manage to show the EQ. It only showed an empty window wherwe the plugin should be, so I did another video without this window. I used the mequalizer (melda) with a lowcut at 1000Hz and I rolled off the highs too (this EQ is only hearable when the song plays not at the beginning when I played the samples solo)

Yes, I know, there is still work to do on this track and at this stage it isn't a perfect reproduction of the Eric B & Rakim track.
I need to add the 808 kick. and I think one of the horn samples is not the correct one. The arrangement is not complete and so on. But I think it's quite good to show whats going on in the Rakim track.



peace

^ Good effort man.