How to sequence a chopped sample smoothly...

it all depends on the sample and what works best for you... for example you cant just cut a 2 or 4 bar loop into nice even samples all the time, there may be some extended notes or blends that you would want to keep to together... yes I do like to chop small but its not a concrete rule.

coming from a DJ background I can usually get within 5 bpms of a samples actual tempo just by listening... from there I chop accordingly and well you know the rest.

The beauty of choping or zoning into 16 or 32 parts is that u can manualy play the sample to make it fit the sequence and it still sound on time by playing each part a little later or earlier depending on the part

The way I do it is to sample the loop and make sure I have the number of bars correct (mostly I record a number of full bars).

If I have that I trim it a bit so that it loops nicely.

After that I make a pgm with just that sample of a bar or a couple of bars.

Then I go to the main screen and create a sequence with it to find out the approximate tempo or I just go to the timestretch menu and check what bpm it gives.

Then I timestretch if necessary (for instance if it's really way too slow or fast).

Then I chop the sample either once or twice. If it's a sample with drums/percussion, I chop it once, maybe using the zone menu otherwise manually. If it's an instrumental sample I mostly chop it twice. I chop it once in the correct tempo, and once I chop the notes separately.

For me this kinda chopping works pretty good. I lay down the basic idea with the samples chopped to the timing and I add other notes here and there with the note chops.

I think it all depends on the sample though. Everybody needs to find his/her workflow that works for him I reckon.

WordsofWisdom, I checked out some of your tracks on your myspace page, and I really like what your doing! Personally, I think you could benefit from a little bit of a clearer deffinition when it comes to sequencing just to give it more of a punch, but I really do like where your coming from. Great samples, and you deffinately have your own sound. I also do like the choppiness, I just think it could be tightened just a bit. I did mark your page though, and I'll deffinately check back to it from time to time. Peace...

Thanks to everyone for your responses! I've really gotten a lot out of this post, as well as the one about the perfect swing. I think it;s great to get your own method down, but also incredably important to keep open to others methods and ideas. Especially when you are able to hear someones idea that is completely different from something that you might do, and if you have an audio example that really hits you, it can really get you to try new things and expand what you normally would do. Keep postin...

WHEN CHOPPIN YOU SET IT IN ZONE MODE WHEN YOU GET YOUR SAMPLES ALL READY TO BE CHOPPED YOU PRESS THE ORANGE KEY AND IT TAKE YOU TO ANOTHER SCREEN THAT SAYS PROGRAM AND IT HAS LIKE 30 I CANT REMEBER EXACTLY BUT YOU TURN OFF THE PROGRAM THAT WAY IT CUTS IT EXACTLLY THE WAY YOU WANT YOU HAVE NO SPACE, AND YOU WONT GET A FULL PROGRAM OF JUST ONE SOUND YOU HAVE TO MESS AROUND WITH THAT FEATURE A BIT,

BUT IF YOU DO A TIME STREGTH FIRST THEN CUT YOU WONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TEMPO,
IF YOU CANT FIGURE IT OUT GET AT ME LATER ...I CANT GIVE EXACT DETAILS RIGHT NOW ...I CAN DO IT LATER WHEN I GET HOME.


sorry for caps

Sorry dj e.d.e., but I'm just not gettin what your sayin. Walk me through it when you get the chance, as I'd love to find another method... Peace.

what i dont get is... why people aint includin space in theyre beats..

Its like peeps think the chops have to span the whole sequence.. like one chop ends and another is ment to start instantly with no gap between melody.

beats need space.. they need gaps between chops with just drum hits or open space.. that also gives room for the emcee and sh!t works together properly.

Then the key is cohiesiveness.. everything working together playing off each other.

Thats why premier and peeps alike have simple beats which sound so much better then alot of sh!t out there past present and future.

This is one of those things that alot of beat makers dont seem to realize.. its about space.

yeah.

you still need to patch something in there or you're gonna end up with sudden digital silence in the gaps unless you have some of the cleanest chops from the cleanest medium imaginable

imagine taking the melody out of your chops and leaving only the noise of the record.

it'd be like

hisssss____hissshisss_____

and that ____ is just about the most subtly irritating and distracting thing you can imagine

sonic space is shot to pieces. hence recording record static and patching it in.

Antonym wrote:yeah.

you still need to patch something in there or you're gonna end up with sudden digital silence in the gaps unless you have some of the cleanest chops from the cleanest medium imaginable

imagine taking the melody out of your chops and leaving only the noise of the record.

it'd be like

hisssss____hissshisss_____

and that ____ is just about the most subtly irritating and distracting thing you can imagine

sonic space is shot to pieces. hence recording record static and patching it in.

why would it hiss?? and if u work ur chops right it will work nice.

Another thing i find to do with that.. is people who chop exact on the lines when choppin theyre melodys.. its the tiny inaccuracys usually from choppin by ear when u really focus on the sound charicteristics of the chops.. and they seem to work 100 times better as small thin chops with gaps between

heres an example,.. real simple, alot of space etc etc

www.myspace.com/c0mplexphoneticistproductions listen to 19507

shit dont need to be that bare obviously.. its just a good example of chops workin clean like that as aposed to what ur talkin bout

why would it hiss??

...because when you're sampling from vinyl, anytime you grab audio you're also grabbing record noise

and when you break that record noise, you throw sudden dashes of total silence in among the record noise. resulting in something that actually sounds mangled as opposed to something that you're trying to slice and repatch.

you have to either have really really clean samples with no background noise whatsoever or a patch of record noise preferably from a silent part of the song to throw in the gaps.

otherwise, it's like leaving holes in a quilt, all the heat escapes

19507

i wouldn't really say this is a powerful example of chopping as far as making chops sound good together though - would you? i only hear like 4 one note sampled stabs used here, only 2 of which are used as the main melody. it's a good ol 92 beat dont get me wrong but i dunno if this is what the poster is really talking about.

it's not like a phrase sample which has been reworked. in this case you're not so much trying to make the chops blend with one another as you are using them as completely isolated oneshots.

Antonym wrote:

19507

i wouldn't really say this is a powerful example of chopping as far as making chops sound good together though - would you? i only hear like 4 one note sampled stabs used here, only 2 of which are used as the main melody. it's a good ol 92 beat dont get me wrong but i dunno if this is what the poster is really talking about.

it's not like a phrase sample which has been reworked. in this case you're not so much trying to make the chops blend with one another as you are using them as completely isolated oneshots.

I wasnt using it as an example for blending chops,.. i was using it as an example of having alot of space in beat between small chops without havin the "sudden silence" problem ur talkin of

definitely a good example then

Another good way to make the chops sound more smoother, is to mess with the release of the chops. By doing that your chops will blend in more with you r drum sequence. It the chops will not sound really choppy.