an0va
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Just want to start off by saying that this is NOT talking about the legality/ethical issues of sampling so before you start to go there just hush yo mouf

Nor is it about drum or synth samples, but rather full songs/audio clips/acapellas/etc. - a discussion on the actual sampling process, techniques, and how you like to approach it. I know there's a bunch of guys here who do this if even just with trying it out so there's probably a lot of different beliefs here and in this medium, there isn't really a right answer.

Preferred method of sampling?
-directly slicing the audio
-slice to MIDI, playback on drum pads
-hardware samplers
-other (like field recordings, recording yourself)

What kind of samples do you look for in your music? What qualities do you like to find in a sample? What really inspires you? Acapellas? Instrumental? No drums? Why?

How do you like to mix samples? Things to look out for in blending the sample with added instrumentation (or another sample)? EQ/compression strategies?


The only time I've ever done anything like this was when I first got my Launchpad and made a little cheesy test here. It's just a sample of a Zappa instrumental break with no drums. The only thing I knew how to do was put in 808 drums and sidechain it...so I'm really looking to see what else I can do with this kinda stuff. I feel almost like I'm limited to parts of songs that don't have drums so they won't clash with any drum tracks I write in, but there's obviously i have a lot to learn.

http://tindeck.com/listen/ckei

i dunno talk about sampling or something

Last edited by an0va (May 10, 2012 1:20 am)

Jake Allison
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Tulsa, OK

I like recording my own drum sounds, and re-sampling synth drum sounds. I also get some crazy sounds out of modulated field recordings! I also modulate acoustic guitar sounds that I have recorded a lot.

The only samples I really am addicted to that I did not make myself, are the 909 kick, cool organ sounds, amen breaks, and great snares... which is a lot.

Nanoloop for iphone's sample length sucks, so to venture outside of drum hits too much is challenging. on the bright side, it is awesome for sample modification and adjustment!

an0va
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Very nice! You know at first I didn't think drum samples were applicable in this thread here but I totally forgot about drum breaks/loops as a longer sample, which would definitely apply to this topic here too

nordloef
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sweden
Jake Allison wrote:

Nanoloop for iphone's sample length sucks, so to venture outside of drum hits too much is challenging. on the bright side, it is awesome for sample modification and adjustment!

You probably already now about this, but to save space with samples just resample it with a higher pitch so the sample gets shorter and then you just slow in down in nanoloop. Its the oldest sampling trick in history smile

Jake Allison
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Tulsa, OK
nordloef wrote:
Jake Allison wrote:

Nanoloop for iphone's sample length sucks, so to venture outside of drum hits too much is challenging. on the bright side, it is awesome for sample modification and adjustment!

You probably already now about this, but to save space with samples just resample it with a higher pitch so the sample gets shorter and then you just slow in down in nanoloop. Its the oldest sampling trick in history smile

Yeah! I figured that out myself, and I felt like a genius, but since I have become more involved with other music makers, I have realized how much I should have already known about sampling!

that is the best for organ sounds! and i use it to make quiet samples louder! smile

I still would like it to be longer, for voice samples and such.

most of my tracks are 100% samples now, but I am moving away from that a bit and just doing sampled drums; I cant get remixes of 100% sampled songs!

Last edited by Jake Allison (May 10, 2012 3:04 am)

Je Mappelle
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an0va wrote:

Preferred method of sampling?
-directly slicing the audio
-slice to MIDI, playback on drum pads
-hardware samplers
-other (like field recordings, recording yourself)

What kind of samples do you look for in your music? What qualities do you like to find in a sample? What really inspires you? Acapellas? Instrumental? No drums? Why?

How do you like to mix samples? Things to look out for in blending the sample with added instrumentation (or another sample)? EQ/compression strategies?

I would say that all of this depends on what kind of song you're writing. It would be silly to have a set answer to all of these questions in my opinion. You do it differently every time.

an0va
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Je Mappelle wrote:

I would say that all of this depends on what kind of song you're writing. It would be silly to have a set answer to all of these questions in my opinion. You do it differently every time.

Well I mean, I'm not really looking for a set answer though to be honest-we can talk about different ways! It's obvious to say that there's different ways to do it per song, but there's probably a lot we all could learn here in different styles. For example, I never even thought of nordloef's resampling to higher pitch trick before. This is a topic that I admittedly know very little about and would love to hear how other people approach it in whatever style of music they make. I hear creative sample use all over this community and I'm sure there are great lessons to be learned.

Last edited by an0va (May 10, 2012 3:58 am)

Cartoon Bomb
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VA

Sometimes I'll open Reason or some vst, find a sound I like that will be polyphonic, then just export a variety of chords, which I then use in LGPT. Of course I'll sample all kinds of other stuff, I just like the chord thing for trackers because it just seems less confusing and probably sounds better than using more than just one channel.

Sampling from songs is pretty rare for me, but when I do, I pretty much just look for instruments that I like, then try to find a place in the song at least mostly everything else is silent. I'll eq out what I can, but I don't really know how so it's a big experiment.

Anyone here play around with the mlr or mlrV MAX5 patches? I'm getting a little better with it but it's too fun and addictive to make a song with...

DKSTR
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Finland

I love sampling. I also like to stretch, reverse and do other things to samples without really caring about the artifacts it creates, I think it is part of it. I like to do sequences (eg. drum loop or bassline or whatever) with mpc, then record those as loops to Live and then cut them again there to bits and rearrange them. I use the same method with synths too.

DKSTR
Offline
Finland

Btw, best sampler I know for iOS is definetly iMaschine. It doesnt have that many options but the interface/sequencing is nice.

I made this track by sampling stuff in my holiday in Egypt. Every piece here is just samples with iPod4's mic.

http://soundcloud.com/dkstr/sharm

an0va
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Cartoon Bomb wrote:

Sometimes I'll open Reason or some vst, find a sound I like that will be polyphonic, then just export a variety of chords, which I then use in LGPT. Of course I'll sample all kinds of other stuff, I just like the chord thing for trackers because it just seems less confusing and probably sounds better than using more than just one channel.

I've been meaning to start doing this with Renoise, but I'm confused on how you would make a continuous looping sound without clicks to make pads and such. Also, is it possible to alter the volume envelope of the afterwards?

Cartoon Bomb
Offline
VA

To combat clicking and sudden changes when trying to loop a short chord sample for a pad sound I'll just try to find a beginning loop point that is similar to the ending point. Other times I'll set good loop points and play back the sample in ping pong mode.

Other times I'll just make the sample really long, especially if the project I'm using it for is already in progress.

And for your last question, it definitely depends on what you are using smile

Last edited by Cartoon Bomb (May 10, 2012 6:02 pm)

Cartoon Bomb
Offline
VA

btw what do you use your launchpad for?

Last edited by Cartoon Bomb (May 10, 2012 6:03 pm)

Decktonic
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Westfield, NJ
an0va wrote:

-directly slicing the audio
-slice to MIDI, playback on drum pads

I've done both of these, even on the same track. Usually when I'm sampling I'm working in Ableton Live, and I've done a lot of this when making disco house. I only use slice to MIDI when I'm trying to extract a single instrument (usually playing in an intro or break), otherwise I use direct slices.

When it comes to filtering, obviously it depends on the source material. I try to get a FLAC copy so as to minimize loss of quality, and obviously Ableton is really good at resampling, even when making huge changes in pitch or tempo, and even joining slices that don't go together (it will find ways to join the waveforms seamlessly). I've done a lot of different techniques to process the samples, like:

- adding slight reverb to the sample track and other tracks
- doubling the sample track and panning them to either side to get a fuller sound
- applying excessive EQ or high/band/low pass filters to remove layers
- applying "tape mastering," "tape delay" or "analog mastering" effects to get that softer lo-fi sound -or- to make the sample "phat"
- downsampling / bit crushing because that's what the kids like to hear (right?)

p.s. I especially like slicing vocals to midi, makes for a fun way to play back vocal samples.

p.p.s. sampling chords in Nanoloop, yes.

p.p.p.s. here are some songs I made with samples: http://soundcloud.com/miamislice/sets