Sampling Techniques

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carp_81

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Hey everyone; I'm pretty new to this board, I just had some general questions for those of you, who sample sounds. As you may know there's a new phenomenon going on in hip hop, with the usage of sampling techniques of older jazz and vintage vocals and cuts, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to effectively sample a sound from a record. I use sound forge 6 and fruity loops to do most of my production, and I was wondering if anyone could give some tips on how to effectively retrieve a section of a song. I'm noticing that when I do it, there is a distinct difference between the sample and the beat that I construct, and what I'm wondering is how to blend the sounds better. If anyone has any suggestions or techniques it would be greatly appreciated. Oh! and if anyone knows of any websites where I can download loops and wav.'s please post, because I would like to get more variations in sounds such as strings and congo's. Thanks for any help you can give.

Carp_81
 
Hmm, well I'll attempt to help you but first I'll need some more info.

What kind of needle(s) and mixer are you using to sample your vinyl with?

You going into your soundcard from your mixer? Are you going into the LINE IN on the soundcard or are you pluging into the MIC IN? (do NOT plug from the mixer to the soundcard via the MIC IN)

You are saving as a .wav, right?
Also, you usually will want to sample at least in 16bit and often in mono (especially for drum sounds although lowering bit rate can make your drums "dirtier")

I imagine your problem is a technical one....as it sounds like your samples are not sounding like your preloaded fruity samples (which, bytheway, you'll soon learn to NEVER use the samples provided to you as it's less satisfying and your pieces will have less personality)

- if you are sampling your vinyl correctly, you shouldn't be able to tell a difference between your sampled sounds and your preloaded fruity sounds.


Of course, there are techniques and tricks to adding and layeringsamples more effectively....most effective is being drastic with sound choices and opting out of the obvious (a drum kick for your drum kick is ONE way to go...but then again you COULD use the thump of your girls ass grasshopper)
Also, VARY YOUR LEVELS/VELOCITIES
DON't FOGET YOUR GHOST NOTES (related to above)
DON"T FORGET YOUR BACKGROUND/ATMOSPHERE AND DEAD AIR (the silence is not really silence) i

t's often not WHAT YOU HEAR......but what you DON"T

....damn, i'm giv'n away gold here.....


So, give me some more info and I'll check back
and check the below link for general info and dl sites
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/articles14.htm
 
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you need to choose your "beats" and samples wisely. i'm guessing that you're not keeping an ear out for related keys and/or rhythms. it sounds like that might be what your problem is. i'd say write your "beat" around your sample and you may find it easier.
also as a side note...know that sampling copyrighted material is illegal. so if you're serious about your music, look into getting the rights to use the samples.
 
sampling the records is the easy part. it's creatively arranging them to work together that can be tricky. you may not be able to stack too many loops on top of one another without it sounding off, or without a good amount of editing. you can use sound forge to tune your loops as best you can without getting too many artifacts. also, screwing around with loops in sound forge can be pretty rewarding. just go wild, editing in the middle of loops, reversing portions, gating stuff. i love using the amplitude and pitch modulation envelopes. of course, make sure your waves start and end at a zero crossing to avoid clicks. if you're looking to preserve the sound of the loops, then you may only need to do some cutting with EQ so the loops don't step on each other so much, or if you're not stacking too many or are using loops from the same record on top of each other, you may not need to adjust anything.

you may also want to just sample notes instead of loops and arrange those using fruity's step sequencer or piano roll. copy individual hits from loops and use those hits to add to the arrangement as you like.

oh yeah, as for matching the sounds, make sure you're getting the proper levels. if you're going straight from record player to sound card, you'll either need a player with a line level output or a phono preamp.

good luck,
marcus
 
This is where the "key lock" feature on my new turntable (Numark TTX1) will come in handy. I can change the tempo of a track without changing the pitch. It'll be great for tempo-matching samples I make.
 
MadAudio said:
This is where the "key lock" feature on my new turntable (Numark TTX1) will come in handy. I can change the tempo of a track without changing the pitch. It'll be great for tempo-matching samples I make.
Click to expand...

Hey Mad Audio,

I like the sound of that feature. How do you find the decks overall? Good for scratching? Compared to the almighty 1200?

Thanks,
J

Carp: What I do when I find a sample that I can't find anything to go with is just put it aside. As I look for other samples for new tracks I will often run across something and think "shit, that would sound good with that other sample", then I load it into that original program and try it. It is really just trial and error, and lots of practice.
 
Afro J said:
Hey Mad Audio,

I like the sound of that feature. How do you find the decks overall? Good for scratching? Compared to the almighty 1200?

Thanks,
J
Click to expand...
Well I don't really do any scratching, but it's a solid deck. And it's heavy, like 40 pounds. I like it a lot. You can adjust the start-up and brake speeds. It also has a BPM display that updates while the record is playing!
 
competition for the 1200s has been long overdue. i agree that they were special to be in use for what, 20 years? but i've never understood why there haven't been other brands in the market until relatively recently. especially since 1200s are so expensive!

hope the numarks last as long for you. are there artifacts when using the key-lock at extreme pitches or is the processing pretty good? do they have a digital out?

-marcus
 
It depends. For example, if you're trying to max out the tempo on a slow song, you'll hear a few artifacts. But for the most part it works pretty well. It does have a SPDIF out, but I like to digitize my vinyl at 24-bit, so I don't use it.
 
sucram said:
competition for the 1200s has been long overdue. i agree that they were special to be in use for what, 20 years? but i've never understood why there haven't been other brands in the market until relatively recently. especially since 1200s are so expensive!

hope the numarks last as long for you. are there artifacts when using the key-lock at extreme pitches or is the processing pretty good? do they have a digital out?

-marcus
Click to expand...


True, but then again I've been VERY hard on my 1200's and they have stood the test of wear n tear. That's their main selling point...they'll last. And, if you buy em used u can sell them back for around the same purchase price.

Sure, the new straight arms are nice, but they can also teach people to be heavy handed

But of course the "inovations" that technics have made over the years (such as a BLUE! LED, and a BLACK FINISH!) have been pathetic
 
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