Chopping samples

I am getting ready to go home tonight and start sampling some records for the first time. Where is a good place to start. How do you acually chop them up and so forth..... This is the newbie forum right????LOL

i think a lot has to do with choosing the right sample to use...when i first started sampling records, i wasnt choosing the right stuff. it sounded right, but something just wasnt right..

chopping is pretty easy when you get the hang of it. once you figure out what to take (sample) and what not to take, then it should get pretty easy from there...

not sure where to start to tell you how to chop...you need a way of course. you can use your mpc or some kind of audio editing software to chop them up.

i use Adobe Audition. www.syntrillium.com

if its your first time sampling, i think the easiest thing to do would be taking your sample and chopping it evenly beat by beat. i mean like taking one bar and chopping it into four pieces...everytime it hits. once you get the hang of that, move on to chopping it sound by sound...

it depends on the sound u want. If you wanna chopped sound or flip it beyond recognition, that is your own art- can't give advice on that.


If you want it to sound like the original, you want to do the least chopps possible. just play the original sample over the drums- assuming it is off beat, go play around with the sample tune/speed or play around with the drum speed till it sounds closer to being on point. find where it goes off beat and chopp it there. now you have 2 seperate chopps. considering that it went off beat at that point, you now have to condense the 2nd chopp closer together or seperate it further from the first chopp. and do the same when it goes off beat again.

or you could just layer drums on a sample that allready has drums.


thats just me. my bad on making it sound like a school report, i just wanted to explain in the most basic possible way.experience will help you decide the best way. don't get pissed if u can't get it to sound on point at first.

I getting the hang of it pretty good.. I made my first sampled track. It sound tight.. I had a hell of a time fuguring out the tempo of the sample though.. I tried the tap tempo and it got me close but I still had to play with it.. Any way to figure out the correct tempo of a sample easier....

buy a pioneer efx500 (dj effects), its got a pretty accurate (tap)bpm counter and some nice effects. You probably wouldn't buy it just to find your bpm ($475), but its saved me a lot of time in that dept.

what did you chop? drums, strings

I chopped some keys from a John Lennon record and a phrase to go over them for the hook from the same song. It's sounds cold!!! This is going to be a whole new door opened up for me. I always just made beats from drum sounds and keys I played myself etc. This is going to be ridiculous as far as creativity. The keys were a little challenging to cut up at first, but I got it pretty good...

cool i wanna hear! i wont be too hard on u lol

It on my Myspace joint...

I got some other shit on there right now that I did it's at
myspace.com/1lifers

I worked with fifth el on a few tracks.. He a cold as Chicago cat!!!!

IT"S UP!!! ITS CALLED DREAMIN OF THE PAST

www.myspace.com/1lifers

acq1 wrote:IT"S UP!!! ITS CALLED DREAMIN OF THE PAST

www.myspace.com/1lifers

damn that sounds good...needs a nice bassline tho. what mpc u using?

acq1 wrote:I am getting ready to go home tonight and start sampling some records for the first time. Where is a good place to start. How do you acually chop them up and so forth..... This is the newbie forum right????LOL

look out for ultimate breaks and beats, dont know where you are but selctadisk and hard to find records do them

I'm using a classic...MPc2000

nice beat man, i like the way u chopped the keys, and the vocal sounds sik!

ph0cus wrote:nice beat man, i like the way u chopped the keys, and the vocal sounds sik!

I appreciate the feedback as this was my first sampled joint...... Good Look!!!