adding air to tracks...different techniques?

i read the info from sumedho's (spelling?) site and even searched around here but im still trying to work it out. it did help me out a little, as far as recording air from a record and so forth. im just looking to get an idea of how everyone does it. someone was talking about how what type of room sound you want actually matters in the end. interesting stuff. no one wants a flat ass beat riiiiight?

Don't chop all the dead air from your samples. I take drums from sample cd's and re-sample em. I always leave some of the dead air on them because it fills up the track more. Cutting all the air of a sample can make a track sound empty and thin sounding, and then you try to add more unneccessary instruments/sounds when their really not needed.

also, when you add air to the end, the decay is much less steeper and more natural.

gotcha. any tips if you get some samples that are already tightened up? like if you get some drums off sample disks or anything like that?

You could always use a little reverb, or layer up some 'room sound' real quietly in the background.