Beat conductor...........your avatar makes me think of a walking bannana! That sounds retarded, but its true.
dj e.d.e wrote:cyrus good technque man really infromative.
i got a question cause i've been chopping but i'm not really sure i 'm getting this down, when you chop to rearrange how do you chop them with a few intrsuments in the chop or break each instrumnt into individual chops then put them back how you want them, and what if you got a rythm section in there like a ride or hi hat that bleeds over how do you eleimate that sound cause you cant always take it out .
does any of this make sence
peace
It really depends on the sample. If there are layered sounds, it gets more difficult because you have to listen to what all the instruments are doing, not just the "main sound". Sometimes there are clean points where there is a brief pause, or a change up-sort of like a loop........a point in the sample that can be interupted, but wont sound bad musically......Or sometimes there isnt a clean spot, but you can make do.....and you use yoru sampler to fix it (setting attack and decay to smooth out the edges) or there doest seem like there is a clean spot, like in the middle of a song, but there is, you just have to listen closer...........you have to listen for natural spots...........like it all goes back to loopi.ng.
Firstly, when i say natural spots, im talking the starts and ends of a note, or riff, or chord. Think musically. chop where it sounds good.......You would chop everything into single notes if you could.......Chops themselves arent notes.......they are sections of single notes, or several notes, or melodies. So you dont want to end up chopping in the middle of a note if you can help it.........sometimes you do! sometimes you cant help it.
Usually when i sample a mini phrase that i like, I will loop the overall couple bars that surround it. This is why its nice to have extra memory. Instead of just sampling the 2 seconds of the phrase you want.......1 at a time. Sample the 2 bars surrounding it. This gets you a few things. You can loop the bigger piece to where it fits into bars. then you can better determine the tempo of the music. You can also use your zone function to chop the sample up into even 16ths or 8th notes-your chops arent always gonna be even, but alot of popular music naturally has good slice points evenly spaced relative to the beats of the music. If your bars are looped properly, youll be able to tell where the middle of the bar is, or divided it up.......and alot of times, most rearranged melodies contain multiple chops from the same piece of music! AS TIME GOES ON, you dont have to rely on this. You can do it by ear.
When you loop, what do you look for? a phrase that has a start and an end....when the end meets the start, they go together rhythmically and musically-that is, the timing is right, and it sounds good with no wierd pops or inturrupted melodies that effect the melody you are trying to capture.
When you are rearranging, its the same idea. slice the sounds like mini loops-with a front, and an end. Those front and ends of the chop, meet fronts and ends from other chops........if you have good chops, it usually doesnt matter what order you arrange them in, they all fit with a definate start and end. just like a loop......(.although the arrangement might not be catchy and the tempos can vary)
So what happens if there are like 3 instruments going, but you only want the piano? sometimes you can fix this with filtering. Or you can incorporate all of them into the chops. Most of the time there isnt much more you can do. Sometimes you can take a right or left channel if some instruments are panned one way or the other. Sometimes you can use attack or decay to eliminate interruped note behind your main melody chops.
dont worry about even chops. although i said its nice to be able to divide up a bar into 16ths.......not everything falls that perfect. This is why you still need to listen for natural spots.
Sometimes it is completely unavoidable to make clean chops. But this is where creativity takes over...........sometimes you can use it to your advantage, or build it into your melody. This brings me to a good point.......although you can visually chop, and know about timing, etc. your ear is your best tool. Just because the mpc tells you the loop is 90 bpm, doesnt mean its true. It could be 90.4 to get it to sound good.......feel me?
Replacing notes: Sometimes you can fix chops that end abrupptly by replacing the last note. You can do this by chopping the phrase just before that last note, then looking later in the song to find the same note, but a cleaner version. APPLY THIS SORT OF THINKING TO YOUR CHOPS-whether its replacing notes, or whatever, Its all about moving pieces around to get your melody to work.
Combining differant phrases from other pieces of music.......The biggest thing here is: tuning, tempo, and "good sounding" You gotta match the tuning of the samples. As in. If you are layering a sound over another, they have to be in the same key......filter also help to clean any muddiness that may occur because of layering. Tempo: Say you are taking a 3 note phrase and matching another 3 note phrase from a differant record, they they have to flow and maintain a consistent tempo. They also have to Sound good, as if they complete 1 melody, even though its differant pieces.
The smaller you can chop pieces, and chop them to sound good (no wierd cutoffs, etc.) the more you can mix and match pieces from differant records. This helps to avoid tempo issues, and you have more control over melody.
Some important points:
Im not an expert, and its more difficult to write this shit then it looks.
Try to start your chops where a note starts......if there is blank space at the begining, its difficult to get timing right, unless of course you intended to do so with your chop
Get familiar with attack and decay
smaller pieces means more control, but dont over do it if you dont have to.
Part of the art of chopping is also being able to maintain the emotion of the music sampled, or conveying something equally as good.
if it aint broke dont fix it. This goes back to "dont chop for chopping sake"
Its not always easy to chop.
Dont rearrange just for the sake of rearraning.
when you chop, your ultimate goal is to either change tempo/make phrase fit to a bar. Or create a new melody. BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER to think musically and use your ears.
with drums and hihats. Blend them in with shakers. Or chop your chops evenly so that you can incorporate the percussion into your rhythm.
When you are rearranging. Listen for a melody. Listen to each chop. Just as if you selected a few keys on a keyboard. What meldoy would you make with those keys? Do the same thing with the chops. Sometimes you gotta search for other sounds to complete that melody....its not always as easy as it all being in one sample.
