Chop and Screw on the CPU...

bigwillz24

New member
OK I got a PM from someone I guess wishes to remain anonymous.

The person asked:

hey wat up i was wondering how do i create the new stylish "chopped & screwed" style on my cpu

I figure there are many more people more qualified than me to answer this question (DJ's) but here is my best answer.

Screwing the music is really very simple. Find a program that has a pitch shift function. Set the pitch shifter to -1 through -3 depending on how "screwed" you want the music to be.

Chopping is a little more complicated you're gonna need a DJ program that will let you play two songs at the same time.

I use Tractor and I'm not very good at it.

But place the same song in deck a and deck b.

Set the cross fader all the way over the deck b.

Press play on deck a then press play on deck b.

Now the trick is to get deck a to play about a beat ahead deck b.

Then use the crossfader to slide back and forth quickly between deck a and deck b.

Making "chop" on the snare.

Good Luck... :D

If anyone has a better solution I'd love to hear it as I said before I'm not very good at it.
 
i'll tell you how i do it, which is very far from anything near as professional as you're talking, but the end result sounded pretty good considering i dont have turntables or anything like that. i take my song in cubase and first slow it down to the speed i wanted using the time stretch, then i use pitch shift to get the vocals to sound how i want and that takes care of the screwed part. then i just zoom on the waveform and wherever i want it to "skip" or chop, i just splice it and move it backwards or forwards. im sure michael watts would laugh if he read this, but it really sounds pretty good. ill post a link if you want to hear it. i dont know if this helps you or not, but i figure if this guy who's asking you this doesnt have the crazy kind of equipment that swisher house has he should be able to do something similar and get decent results.
 
yep

pcp, i pretty much do it the same way as you the only difference is i double the tracks in cubase, set one slightly ahead but on tempo. I time stretch both (but making sure the length of the song is checked to remain the same), I then begin to chop what ever i want emphasized. ;)
 
I'm kinda like that too. I screw the track down in traktor and then load the screwed track in cubase and make my chops in there with a double track. Sometimes I don't even need to double it, but I usually do anyway. Not that I do screwed and chopped much, but I do it on request if an artist wants their track done that way after they've recorded it. Doesn't mean I don't charge 'em for that though :)
 
hey willz you have any sound clips of what you're talking about here? i have no idea about chopping screws or whatever it is you're describing hehe...
 
Hey zed...have you ever heard a song that has the pitch slowed down. Kind of like a record playing really slow. Then some of the vocal parts skip to fit the pitch shifted beat? That's chopped and screwed music.

Chopping is editing the vocals so that they have a small skip in them that repeats partially.

Screwing is using the pitch shift to slow down the beat.

I just wanted to give you some kind of knowledge before you listened to it so you'd know what to expect.
 
BTW Traktor is one of the best DJ progs I've come across. I love playing with that thing and seeing what comes out.
 
i'm goin to try and C&S a song tonight in Cubase....see if i can get it right...

i had Traktor but could never get it to start right like i wanted it to to do C&S
 
jugalo180 said:
pcp, i pretty much do it the same way as you the only difference is i double the tracks in cubase, set one slightly ahead but on tempo. I time stretch both (but making sure the length of the song is checked to remain the same), I then begin to chop what ever i want emphasized. ;)


i think when i chopped and screwed the song on my cd, i actully pitch shifted it, but made sure i selected the length to remain the same. sorry if my previous post was a little misleading. :o
 
bknot1 said:
im going to see if this work later today on a track..


i'm not at home behind cubase, but from memory: you right click the track, scroll down, select pitch shift, if you don't see pitch shift then it must be time stretch. if it's time stretch, don't stretch the time just change the pitch and click process. i also used that technique to do the Intro on my cd.
 
pcp said:
i'll tell you how i do it, which is very far from anything near as professional as you're talking, but the end result sounded pretty good considering i dont have turntables or anything like that. i take my song in cubase and first slow it down to the speed i wanted using the time stretch, then i use pitch shift to get the vocals to sound how i want and that takes care of the screwed part. then i just zoom on the waveform and wherever i want it to "skip" or chop, i just splice it and move it backwards or forwards. im sure michael watts would laugh if he read this, but it really sounds pretty good. ill post a link if you want to hear it. i dont know if this helps you or not, but i figure if this guy who's asking you this doesnt have the crazy kind of equipment that swisher house has he should be able to do something similar and get decent results.


i don't know how i skipped over your post. that's very very close to what i did.
 
To do PERFECT CHOPS

Using my FW1884 and Samplitude
(apply the principle to your equipment)
(This technique uses the "solo" & "mute" functions of your software program)


1. Some random song, i import it into an empty track in my software program
and slow the track down to the speed thats comfortable for what you wanna do.
2. make a copy of the imported song file and put it on the second track(empty)
3. find 1 snare or clap ...basically the 2 & 4 count of a 4/4 song(99% of hip hop) and then find the next one(this allows you to find the range of these 2 snares and establish the BPM)

4. Once the BPM is found, all you have to do is turn on your grid and shorten the 2nd track by 1 beat(cut from the beginning of the song)

5. Move the "cut-track" down so that it begins with the "1st-original-track"
6. Turn "mute" on for the 2nd track(cut-track).
7. Start the song:
This plays the 1st track which is the original track untouched.
Hit "solo" on the second track 1 beat before the snare hits(this will catch the snare from the 2nd track, then hit "solo" again to come back to the 1st original track.

8. Keep doing that through the whole song whenever you wanna put the chops.

I use samplitude to do the chopping screwing, and i record it into WAVELAB-"live".....so if I f*ck up I gotta start over but it's pretty hard to mess up cause it's set-up perfectly........you can take step 7 and instead of hitting the "solo" button 1 beat before the snare hits, you could hit it 1 beat after the beat. That make the words double up instead of the snare.

If you still can't get it, I"ll do a whole album(15songs-total < 60 min) for $300. It takes me a good hour to a half to do a whole album. Sometimes I mess up so I have to start over but hey it's perfect, I"ll have a few songs up of mine that i've done in a few days.
 
flossyboy said:
Using my FW1884 and Samplitude
(apply the principle to your equipment)
(This technique uses the "solo" & "mute" functions of your software program)


1. Some random song, i import it into an empty track in my software program
and slow the track down to the speed thats comfortable for what you wanna do.
2. make a copy of the imported song file and put it on the second track(empty)
3. find 1 snare or clap ...basically the 2 & 4 count of a 4/4 song(99% of hip hop) and then find the next one(this allows you to find the range of these 2 snares and establish the BPM)

4. Once the BPM is found, all you have to do is turn on your grid and shorten the 2nd track by 1 beat(cut from the beginning of the song)

5. Move the "cut-track" down so that it begins with the "1st-original-track"
6. Turn "mute" on for the 2nd track(cut-track).
7. Start the song:
This plays the 1st track which is the original track untouched.
Hit "solo" on the second track 1 beat before the snare hits(this will catch the snare from the 2nd track, then hit "solo" again to come back to the 1st original track.

8. Keep doing that through the whole song whenever you wanna put the chops.

I use samplitude to do the chopping screwing, and i record it into WAVELAB-"live".....so if I f*ck up I gotta start over but it's pretty hard to mess up cause it's set-up perfectly........you can take step 7 and instead of hitting the "solo" button 1 beat before the snare hits, you could hit it 1 beat after the beat. That make the words double up instead of the snare.

If you still can't get it, I"ll do a whole album(15songs-total < 60 min) for $300. It takes me a good hour to a half to do a whole album. Sometimes I mess up so I have to start over but hey it's perfect, I"ll have a few songs up of mine that i've done in a few days.

yo flossy, if you apply that same technique in a multitrack sequencer it would make your job a little easier.
 
I'm about to make your Screwing And Chopping lives easier.

When you pass this on reffer to it as as the 'Hi-D-H-Man method'

Tha Set Up

1. Pick a song, load it into an automation enabled program like Cubase, Sonar whatever.

2. Pitch shift to knock out the screw part.

3. Load a tempo controlled delay program like the free Voxengo plug here >> http://www.voxengo.com/product/tempodelay/

4. If you know the tempo put it in, if not Adjust the tempo to feel which is actually a bit better IMO.


Tha Method

The delay plug in allows you to chop on the fly in realtime as you see fit. Do this by switch the mix parameter on the dely from back and forth from 0% to 100%. 100% being your actual 'psuedo chop'. you record and play back your chop performance by using your sequencers automation feature.

Tha Down Side

1.If you screw up you gotta start over (unless u know how to edit automation, I don't)
2. Chops have to be clean or the levels may need to be compessed at the master fader.

Extra tips
add an extra delay plug or 2 with different tempo feeds (maybe one at half tempo) and do a second layer of automation.





I posted these tips a long time ago but I couldn't find the thread but try it out and tell me what ya'll think
 
Tell him to be original and create his own style, rather than following what the mainstream does

Whattup Hi di ho --- long time no talk....still schoolin the youngins I see :)
 
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