Need help about cutting perfect samples

Hi eveybody!
I'm a newbie about sampling (i never sampled before getting my mpc2000 classic, i never used daws for sampling too) and i'm actually trying to get the right sample from songs but the results aren't the best.
The most difficult part is when i try to cut songs with no percussions, for example vocals only.
When i take the sample and i loop it (maybe changing the pitch with the param function) it sounds always a little bit out of tempo and it isn't precise.
I wanna ask if there are any tips and tricks to get the final sample you want. A sample that match perfectly with the tempo of the main screen

thank you!

don't loop the sample. use the sequencer. trigger the sample each loop. adjust the tempo of the sequencer to where you would like it. it helps to have the click running or lay down a metronome/click track so you can hear it.

the main power of the mpc is not the sample editing, but the sequencer.

My favorite thing about sampling is that you can never get it 100% perfect and because of that, it adds a lil more human element to your music; none of that robotic quantization going on.

If you're sampling vocals, you may want to cut it up into each individual word or a phrase or two. Cut up a sample into individual hits or 2 bar patterns. If you want to base your song around a whole vocal snippet, it's probably best to structure your beat and BPM around the vocal sample, instead of trying to shoehorn your vocal sample into the BPM you have set. Of course, I use a rack sampler for a lot of vocals and stuff and the nice thing about heavy-duty samplers is there's much more editing features, so if a sample doesn't fit perfectly, I might timestretch it a very, very small percentage to get it just right. Sometimes those few milliseconds can make a huge difference.

If I'm working with something like an 8 bar loop, then I create an 8 bar sequence with the loop triggered at the beginning of the sequence and mess around with the BPM until it fits more or less correctly. It's just that you have to realize your loop is audio, while everything in your sequence is going to be quantized, so if you really want your drums and everything else to line up, you're better off turning the quantization off. Typically I don't even bother with quantization or BPM if it's a long sample; I lay down my sample, play my sounds over that by hands, and then resample everything together. Then I have whole parts of a song I can trigger.

cut the sample.. but loud boom bap drums and crash cymbals and shit on the top and nobody will notice

In a case like this, when the vocal must be clear (without being splitted between the pads) it seems to me impossible to obtain a result like this, having the vocal perfectly fitted in the song.
I don't know how to cut it perfectly, catching the right bpm and playing it how i prefer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53DDc0YzBdo

you can hear Al Green singin' at 1:38

So is it impossible to do with mpc 2k (classic in my case) or are there any tips about?

Wal Martian wrote:That song could have been built around the Al Green vocal from the start

What do you mean with this?
Thank you everybody, you are motivational for me

ps: how do you match the vocal with your ears? At the moment i only know the method which consist by cutting the sample, assigning it to a pad and playing it consecutively with the count and changing the tempo

Sounds like the beat and the vocals might be playing at diffrent tempos or are out of sync.
It might be worth looking up what tempo of the acapella or original is.
Also, as one of the other posts said, you're probably going to have to chop it up into smaller phrases or into individual syllables for some parts especialy if they're diffrent tempos.
If you use Zone Edit you could chop the vocal so that each sample starts at the begining of each vocal phrase so you can trigger it on time, becouse it sounds like you're also recording a lot of gaps or silent parts where basically nothing happens.

You could also change the pitch of the sample in program edit effectively changing the tempo of the vocals.
It's only a little bit out.

I would approach this in one of two ways:

1. Cut the sample in TRIM so the start point is approximate. Add the sample to a program and set the pad to MONO. Trigger the sample a few times to see if you like the way the loop starts. This should be relatively instinctive - you will either like the way it plays 'live' or not. If not repeat and rinse. Next, go to the sequence page. Set the approximate number of bars, let's say in this case four. Now orange button over COUNT ON in sequence page and ON CLICK IN PLAY. Record a sequence of the sample triggering on the first beat of the first bar. Now play with the tempo until you get an ideal match. Additionally, you may want to play with the pitch of the sample or even timestretch (although I don't often use it because TIMESTRETCH on the MPC is pretty lame). Once the loop sounds tight, you can begin to sequence the drums.

As previously mentioned, it might not get you the result you have in mind. The key to sampling is to get creative. Occasionally, short loops sound fine. I would say in the old days loops in hip-hop sounded dope but things have moved way beyond that nowadays.

2. As others have suggested, chopping is the way forward here. Use the ZONE function in TRIM to chop, let's say an 8 bar loop, into 8 separate samples which you can trigger rhythmically against a pre-sequenced beat. Although, the rhythmic character of original sample will probably change depending on the way you play it in, the result will sound much tighter. Additionally, you can reorder the way the individual samples are played and come up with a unique spin on the original sample. This is the way to go IMO because you can manipulate the sample altogether and mix up elements with lots of different sounds to obtain something overall unique.

Watch Rhythm Roulette on youtube to get an idea of how top beatmakers chop and you will see that the creative possibilities with sampling are virtually endless. Hope this helped.

Chopping is the the way to go. It means you can fit samples to all kinds of tempo's without having to timestretch.

thank you for the replies!
Chopping looks difficult and slowly on the 2k classic for me, i need to practice more.
I do raw house/techno music, chopping vocals doesn't look the best way for what i have in mind.