Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
By artschi Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:18 pm
hi, i asked this question in an other thread , but could not really get a good answer......
whats your tips to get a really dynamic and NOT STATIC drumloop from your chops. how do you slice your samples?

By artschi Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:17 pm
hi psitech. i mean with static, that the beat has no human touch, like from drummachines ie. tr909+808. this sounds for drummachines samples ok, but when i chop a 70s funkbeat with a good flow, i dont like this. of course i know, that you have not to hard quantize and play with velo., but i think it depends also on how you slice the samples... and this is my question
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By psitech Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:05 pm
hmm.. I'm still not sure what you mean with human touch... the main problem when chopping seems to be the unatural tails of the hits, is that what you mean?? .....there is usually some background noise in between the hits.. and it does'nt sound too good when making a beat and there is a lot of pauses in the noise..

you can try to emulate the background noise...
i use a cheap behringer mixer to add different noise textures just to fill up in between the hits..

you can read a bit on a simple technique on how to make a snare tail longer here: http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.ph ... did=363349

By ed Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:03 pm
Be more specific with your questions....if you chop a break and re-arrange it you have to place your slices at an exact point so they all match up to form a fluid loop...use your ears and lower the quantize

By ed Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:58 pm
What I siad...but better explained , fluent how exactly do u slice a sample into 1/4 and eights...is there a function that does that?
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By TicToc Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:09 am
also dont always chop into individual hits (kick, snare, hi hat).

Chop like this: kick+hat

So instead of it sounding like "boom", it sounds like "boomtss"

Also chop snare+hat so it sounds like "baptss"

then play with that.

By grimaybeats555 Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:19 am
I use the chopping at 1/4th and 1/8th technique myself. BUt also you really have to use your ears. Its really best to chop the break according to how you want your new programmed break to sound.

As far as there being function on your mpc that does this...

How do you chop your other sounds? JUST DO IT THE SAME WAY!
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By cyrus Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:36 am
there are 2 main components to a break beat.

1: the groove
2: the way it breaths(dimension).

**** with quantize and no quantize to get a good groove with your chops. if you are using all one shots, mess with velocities and durations, attempting to replicate human feel.

what i mean by breath is the air and space in the background. THe stuff that gives the break dimension.

you can make a breakbeat from one shots, you gotta mix, pan, groove, add space, compress, maybe add hiss, snag some air from vinyl, snag some crackle, reverb, delay, etc.

even if you can replicate a good groove, a break beat is all about its dimension.

with your chops id recomend getting a good arrangement leaving on as much air as you can, then try to overlay some of the air in between the one shots where there is blank space.

djshadow mentioned doing this. I find that if im overlaying a vinyl sample sometimes you dont need to fill in the blank spots cause the sample has enough to do so. sometimes you need to mix back your hihat to get it to match, etc. most of the time some air from the original sample will do the trick.

By artschi Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:32 am
wow, thx all for the good answers, really usefull.
@tictoc: this is what i mean: bd+hh, sn+hh as one slice......
i read the tutorial on http://www.mpc-samples.com/tutorial.php?xTutorialID=13
about creative splicing, and i had done like this. it also works best for me, but not allway perfect. my question is, that there is another tutorial on mpc-samples.com from ebook "beat making on mpc2kxl" and there he chops a drumloop in 4 slices, timestretch it (cause few drumhit falls between chopzones) and then he slices again and at the endresult he gets small peaces of drumhits. and i dont understand, why he does timestretching and zoning... would be faster, if he slices only the needed drumhits out from the loop :?:
@cyrus: also nice tips, will try it. if i understand you correct, you cut the silence parts out from your loop and after you arranged the loop with bd, sn, hh you drop the silence parts in the blank space between drumhits?