Struggling to chop the 'Soul Pride' break in the MPC2500

Hi, i'm new to the forum and the MPC. I mostly make electronic music using single hits from drum machines etc. I used to use Reason making Jungle, but mainly used the (already chopped) Jungle Warfare refills etc. When I did chop stuff myself, obviously the DRrex would place the slices appropriately.

The problem i'm having is chopping the Soul Pride part 3. Here:

http://rhythm-lab.com/breakbeats (just command/ctrl f and search soul pride)

I am trying to chop it into 8 equal slices. I've looped the first 2 bars perfectly, and obviously because its a real drummer I know I need to adjust each slice to compensate - I think in this particular instance the drummer was playing slightly behind the beat, making it feel loose.

I can get the first 4 slices to sound fine. These are my end points:
Slice 1 - 18372
Slice 2 - 35930
Slice 3 - 53630
Slice 4 - 73467

I just cant get the rest of the shuffle portion to sound right, and i'm a little confused, as when I am extending the end points i'm ending up with shorter chops towards the end, which makes them unequal chops?

The resolution is a bit of a shock to the system for me, as i'm struggling to see portions of the hits, and using Log view is quite difficult for me to get a handle on where I am. I'm trying to rely more on my ears but for some reason this break just isn't letting go of its juicy innards lol.

Has anyone got any tips, or methods i'm missing, or can point me to where I might be approaching the process from the wrong perspective. Any help would be great,

Cheers.

On the product page for my 'Beat Making on the MPC2500' book there's two free chapters which teach you the basics of chopping, try working through those, they should help you understand the process in more detail.

http://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/ ... e-mpc2500/

BTW, you rarely get equal chops with live drums - if that's what you need, time stretch is your friend.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. It's not that I want equal chops, I was just concerned that I was going about it wrong by ending up with unequal chops. Even that little crumb of info is a great help.

It leads me to another question though. Do you think, then, I should chop the rolling/shuffle portion of the break into smaller bits and sequence them with a finer resolution? At the moment i'm trying to chop into 8 sections and sequencing them in Step Edit on each quarter note/beat.

Also, if I want to get rid of the lazy feel, would I need to chop into individual hits and re-sequence the entire thing?

Cheers

When chopping breaks you either chop into smaller 'chunks' (e.g. 16ths, 8ths etc), or you just chop it all the way down to individual hits (or a bit of both). Chopping down to individual hits means you are free to re-sequence the break as you wish, with any feel and tempo you want. If you retain chops containing more than one hit, you will also be retaining the feel and tempo inherent in the original break (for those chops at least).

Personally I only chop down to individual hits and just create a drum kit from those hits. I can then sequence as I please. I advise you initially split that break down into smaller portions making a new sample from each portion, and then chop each portion separately.

Thanks MPC-Tutor, you've been a great help. I actually bought your guide in preparation for getting an MPC, but it took a while longer for me to get one, and it ended up slipped under the radar as a result.

I'll crack on with this and get stuck in, thanks again!