ieism wrote:I've had this problem for a long time, and took some piano lessons. I can now figure out what key to press on a keyboard, but my problems turned out to be with the sampling.
I sampled everything from vinyl, but changed the pitch on my turntable to match the sample to my beats tempo. I never realized this also changed the pitch of all the notes in the loop/chop, so when ever i played a bassline with it it sounded all wrong.
So when you sample, make sure your sample is not out off tune!
If you still want to match the loop to a tempo, don't pitch the record but timestrech the sample.
This is why, when you sample, Leave the pitch fader on your turntalbe alone. Then once the sample is in the mpc, then pitfch it up or down. Use the 16 levels so it pitches up or down in +10 increments (half steps) These half steps correspond to the tuning that are on a piano. So say you have a sample that is in key of G, if you tune it down a whole step (2 half steps) your sample is now in the key of F........this is -20 AGAIN only use increments of (+ or -) 10.
Also. If you use a piano patch, it is easier to match the notes because you can hear it better.. Then just switch back to the bass patch. Listen to the way the piano resonates against the sample............dont just listen to the initial attack. Use the middle octaves, then just use the same notes in the lower octaves for your bass.
Also. Pick out 1 note or hit in the sample. Let your beat loop over and over, start with the c note, play it simaltanesou, decide if it matches, then keep going up the keyboard until you find the one that works. You might have to try each note several times. Then go to the next note.
You want your main bass hits to land on the down beats.......the 1s and 3s. Although this is just a rule of thumb, obviously its not always true. The best thing is to match your basslinese with your kick drums.
Go simple with your patterns once you get the notes. Most of the time you really only can match like 1, 2, or 3 notes to samples.......especially if you dont have bass playing skills its harder to get more then that to fit in. So keep everything simple. Try da dum patterns-a la wutang. These patterns are easy. Put the main bass note on the 1:1:00, and a kick drum 1/16th before the bass hit. Layer the bass hit with a kick.
Create simple patterns over multiple bars. You dont have to have a "meldoy" bassline. You can just do a more percussive type. For example. 1 bass hit per bar.......then on the 4th bar, you can do a change up or turn around. like this: boom.......boom........boom.......boom ba boom.
So for example^find 2 notes. Repeat the main one for 3 bars and use tboth of them for the turnaround.
Also after you find the main note or the "root note" Use a note a 4th or 5th above or below that note. That usually works for finding tghe other notes as most basslines follow chord progressions, and most chord progressions follow a I-IV-V pattern.
Just some ideas^^^nothing set in stone. SOmetimes you just gotta wack keys until you find something that sounds good.
Oh, yeah, it is best to use a midi keyboard........and to use a synth. If you use bass samples you want to make sure you know what note the original sample is in, that way you can chromaticallly create multisamples.....and the correct note matches with the right key on your midi keyboard. A good place to start in learning how to do this with bass samples is by purchasing mpc-tutors bass packs. They all are chromatically sampled and the midi numbers match the notes correctly.
peace
