Chopping samples - Best practice and tips?

J.O.BEATS wrote:What the edit page shows for bpm isnt really relevant as it’s not 100% precise.

100%

Heavily relying on numbers
Forgetting they have ears.

Menco wrote:I always check and lot of times manually adjust the startpoints of each chop. Startingpoint of each sample must be very precise and must not have any space before the transient of the kick, hat or snare that’s in the sample. When you convert the sample into a Non-destructive program you can also adjust the startpoints in program mode when things are still off.

J.O.BEATS wrote:What the edit page shows for bpm isnt really relevant as it’s not 100% precise. Loop the sample in sequencer at 154 and if it sounds good you know 154 is correct

But if it wasn’t you don’t need to convert to 154 to then time stretch to a different tempo. Just stretch it from its current bpm to what ever you want it to be

Lampdog wrote:

J.O.BEATS wrote:What the edit page shows for bpm isnt really relevant as it’s not 100% precise.

100%

Heavily relying on numbers
Forgetting they have ears.

corruptdata wrote:So you're telling me you hear the difference between 154 and 154.16?


But thanks for your very constructive comment!

corruptdata wrote:Hello there, I am relatively new to chopping samples and have a hard time with it atm

When trying to chop up a song I always end up with chops which are a little mistimed, meaning the timing of the sample kick and my drum program kick are bad and you can hear both hitting after another.

I mainly wanna do sample based house music and sample old disco, blues and soul records. So I wanna end up with my sample being chopped 1 bar per row, so all snares and kicks line up perfectly on the 4x4 grid.

Can you guys maybe explain your best practice in chopping samples for me? Like there are several ways to change BPM and pitch it/time stretch it and I am getting slightly confused by it which to use when.

B-Wise wrote:Samples from music made without quantize (like Soul music) will not stay on beat perfectly, That BPM 154.16 or whatever is the best estimate & that's if the sample was chopped well at the start & end. If your just chopping by 1 bar you can chop each bar to the start of the downbeat of the next bar.

One way I used to do it is take a 1 bar sample into to seq & adjust the tempo until it loops nicely.

jpeg wrote:I suggest watch more videos on youtube of people making sample based house music; it sounds like u over complicating thing, you dont need to know the bpm of a sample for it to fit ur existing drum loop.

use ur ears and just play the samples over ur beat until u find something that fits, u dont dont need to be concerned with the sounds being perfectly chopped, just vibe until u find a groove

I notice when i do house i tend to only need 3 chops; but when i do hip hop i mostly need 4 chops; but i like longer sample so I can take advantage of the groove that already exits within the sample, and just redirect it to fit the context/tempo of the beat i am making.

B-Wise wrote:Just so you chopping don't get interesting until you chop a bar into 4 or more pieces.

Like to mainly chop each bar into 8 pieces then come up with as many different patterns as I can. This is also a good way to time-stretch the sample:

corruptdata wrote:

So you chop 1 Bar into 3 chops?
Yeah, I tend to overcomplicate it, but I am also new and have ADHD so its naturaly that I overcomplicate it lmao. But all the posts in here were really helpful so far. I just need to practice more I guess.

Yeah thats what I already do. I am watching a lot of Malobeats, Tubedigga, Ricky Tinez and Ryan Makes Beats. Even though the first 2 are more into Hip Hop Beats.