NEWBIE DIGGER NEED DIGGIN ADVICE!

wassup diggers. you know what irritates me? when i go to a record shop with no earthly idea on what i'm looking for. i'm relatively new to the diggin game. i got my lil stash but its not REAL quality stuff. i've made a few joints off what i got but its not really hitting the spot! so when i listen to the stuff from the likes of my favorite mc's & their producers i'm like "WTF? where did he get that from?" gimme some advice on where to start because i'm not too familiar with old school music (circa late 1960's to 1970's).
yeah, i know all the stuff my parents listen too (you know the usual, your marvin gayes, temptations, betty wrights, millie jacksons, isley bros, etc.) but what about the other stuff that was somewhat obscure? i'm diggin rare earth, new birth, kane & abel, undisputed truth, edward mann, david axelrod & stuff like that. who are some more folks i can get into? because i hate hitting & missing. its a waste of time & money for me sometimes. and btw, what would david axelrod be considered as? and what is exactly psych & prog rock? please reply because i'm looking to learn more about the diggin game. thanks.

I always dig by cover.. then by song title.. I see if the titles seem to say shit about me.. Do I identify with them >? Or if it's just got dope cover art.. I grab it. (not as much anymore because I'm literally drowning in wax here.. 5 book cases... and a stray stack here and there..)

Anyway, long time music fan.. Just now got an MPC myself and am just learnign to produce beats.. I've messed with loops and chopping indivdual sounds vis soundforge and acid... but never had my own drum machine/sampler..

I've been digging for years just checking the instruments.. drums, bass, some keys.. whatever. See if the instruments are the kind that lend to whatever sound your digging for..

buy tons of crappy dollar lp's.
tons.

Don't be afraid to pick up somthing that looks totally wack.. but unfamiliar...
If you've been diggin in the crates for a minute and YOU still don't know who this record is.. well maybe you'll be the cat to unearth a break like skull snaps or some shit...

just some thoughts.

study the records you know already the ones your parents play read the liner notes and see the musicians and then look for there records,
stay away from listen to rap and listen to your local classic rock or oldies station,

BReaks are everywhere you just have to listen to different music,
expand your mind beyond rap and soul/funk/r&b.

you can't really claasify david axelrod as one type of music he does all types of music some dope easy listening "the edge" by David McCallum produced by David axelrod plus he does some jazz and christian music as well

the learn the way each instrument or vintage keyboard sounds, study the musicians that play those instruments, and look at the back of each record to find the stuff your looking for.

take a chance on rare/obscure stuff so that you won't be chopping the same sample as somebody else.

i learned by diggin up records that have been sampled before. My homies would say, ohh heres a dimond d sample, ohh here's a blackmoon and so on and so on..

that made me go home and listen to the sample and think how they looped, chopped, distorted, and rearranged it.

soo over time i would collect known samples, but once in a while i would come accross a record that an artist was featured on and played with another artist that was on a small label and i would make a beat and people would be like, where is that from?

so, once you really start diggin for a year after diggin for known stuff your going to develop a sense of labels, artist, catalogs, etc.

just go out and dig.

search dollor bins and thrift stores.

because there is alot of junk that is over priced.

key words.

dollor bins (bargin bins) at thift shops and record stores and swap meets.

and knowledge.

just dig and listen.

hope this helped.

How I learned what little I know:

I used to be very narrow minded about music. When I started digging I went through a phase of buying a lot of cheap records at thrift stores and maybe record shops. This helped me develop new tastes in music and if I got something bad it wouldn't cost me too much.

Then after a while you start to hear what you like and you start noticing things like artists, labels, etc. I started reading a lot about music. The more time you put in the more you learn. And there's always more to learn. Just keep with it. You'll find some dope music. If that's what you're after....

I don't even care about samples any more. I just wanna hear good msuic I've never heard before.

spectre wrote:
I don't even care about samples any more. I just wanna hear good msuic I've never heard before.

exactly!

i buy records because they are just dope albums now.

thanks peeps for the advice. what i've been doing lately is looking at the Linear Notes column of Scratch magazine & familiarizing myself with some of the records that the producers are using. i love diggin & finding the originals that people sampled from. i especially like finding stuff people haven't used yet! my first enjoyable find was when i bought "songs of innocence" by David Axelroad & found the sample Diamond D used on Rass Kass's "soul on ice" remix. anyways again, thanks for the advice.

the shaman wrote:thanks peeps for the advice. what i've been doing lately is looking at the Linear Notes column of Scratch magazine & familiarizing myself with some of the records that the producers are using. i love diggin & finding the originals that people sampled from. i especially like finding stuff people haven't used yet! my first enjoyable find was when i bought "songs of innocence" by David Axelroad & found the sample Diamond D used on Rass Kass's "soul on ice" remix. anyways again, thanks for the advice.

thats a good way, you know why?

because when you an artist with an album you never seen, youll get it, and if you like it then its dope, but if it sucks then you will stay away. thats how i developed my way of digging.

immerse yourself in it... spend a day looking throught the phone book and driving around learning and hitting alll the thrift and music spots around you and remember them well. Buy records every week and have fun in doing so. Buy records over food sometimes and spend hours geting your hands dusty through each stack. You are a digger now but soon you will become a experienced digger, that looks for Ron Carter and and diffrent instruments like the violin or chello and so on... You will learn sort of what is good and not but will still waste a few dollars every now and then... it doesnt matter though when the other 5 records that yu bought got something nice on them that noone else has used and its what your heart felt and what your ear heard

Dougzaster wrote:immerse yourself in it... spend a day looking throught the phone book and driving around learning and hitting alll the thrift and music spots around you and remember them well. Buy records every week and have fun in doing so. Buy records over food sometimes and spend hours geting your hands dusty through each stack. You are a digger now but soon you will become a experienced digger, that looks for Ron Carter and and diffrent instruments like the violin or chello and so on... You will learn sort of what is good and not but will still waste a few dollars every now and then... it doesnt matter though when the other 5 records that yu bought got something nice on them that noone else has used and its what your heart felt and what your ear heard

+1... nicely stated.

A lot of good tips and tricks here!

I did not see anyone mentioning it (guess I did not look closely enough):
GET YOURSELF A PORTABLE TURNTABLE!

With a portable you can check out a lot of stuff you'r curious about, and decide if you like it or not without paying money for it. After some years of digging you'll be glad to have many records that you love instead of some records you love and mostly garbage records you hate. Records are heavy, and take up space. Good records are as heavy as bad records, but you don't mind if they are, because you love them.

Check out everything that looks interesting.

And another thing:
CHECK THE INSIDE OF THE COVER!
Its not cool having bought a good album with scratches and clicks or getting the wrong record.

first thing i check is the year, 1980's is basicly a no go zone for me. secondly its genre Classical and soul i work well with. then artist if its a really well known artist il often put it back.

as someone wise and that i look up to said

What advice do you have for those who are just starting to dig for samples?

Check online, there's different websites that'll hip you to certain records. Other than that, find a store where you can listen to records. Listen to everything that you see, no matter what. Get into all different types of music, don't be closed-minded about certain records because styles change, and different people sample different records. Over time, certain stuff gets popular to sample, and all that. Just be open-minded, I guess is the best advice.