an0va
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Might have a lot of good ideas here. This is about if you have your own synths/softsynths, and you resample them for usage in trackers.

I know it's obvious to sample a lot of your own stuff at C, and I get the idea of sampling chords in all different voicings for variety....but what about inversions? Like if you have a CMaj7 chord voiced G-B-C-E, would you usually sample that to C-4 or the lowest note (which in this voicing, happens to be G)?

Or if you have another chord like C - Db - F - Ab...? C is the lowest note here, but this is obviously a DbMaj7 chord. Sampling this to C-4 to me would confuse me because the root of this chord would always be a half-step higher than what's listed, so I'd sample the chord instead with B - C - E - G...does that make sense?

I guess it all depends on how seriously you take the note values in a tracker or if you just take them for face-value of "high" and "low." Kind of like drum tracks - you don't really "hear" a drum hit at just C-4 (unless it's pitched, but stfu). One note samples are obvious, but chords always interested me as to what you're really hearing when you see a note value.

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And a similar, yet parallel question: Do you sample your synths with a song idea in your head or do you ever have just sessions where you just sample chords and sounds for later use?

Panda Chan
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Melbourne, Australia

I personally with chords, would record them to the key of C, so if you want to use a DbMaj7, then record it in the key of C as a CMaj7, ie. B - C - E - G, and then just input it at the pitch you want it.

I like to think of it as a similar way to making chords in trackers with the distance rather than the notes, so, in LSDJ, I would have a table that has the major chord notes, and one for minor, and just apply them to the notes I want.

In sample recording, I would do similar, and record a major chord, minor chord, etc... and then just apply them for different notes.

breakphase
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Earth

I guess I don't know what you mean by "sample to" C, or G or whatever. If you mean which note to map it to, yeah I would stick with the root note. I'm with ya on that.

Personally I always try to have an intention for each sample as I record it, but the song can get "brittle" that way.

an0va
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breakphase wrote:

I guess I don't know what you mean by "sample to" C, or G or whatever. If you mean which note to map it to, yeah I would stick with the root note. I'm with ya on that.

Personally I always try to have an intention for each sample as I record it, but the song can get "brittle" that way.

Ah my bad! That's the phrase I was looking for - map to note. Thanks!

What I'm really talking about considers chord inversions. Like if I went to my synth and sampled a chord of C - F - A and then mapped that pitch to C-4, it would confuse me because the root of that chord is actually F

Vaina Moinen
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You could just try naming the sample something like "F", so you know it's an F chord you're playing when you press a C key. Or you can make the actual root note of the sample an F, so then it will play back as sampled at an F key.

If you find yourself in a situation where you need a C chord with something like an A in the bass, just use slash chords for naming, like "C/A".

It's all in the name.