Chopping a break to harvest drum sounds issue

[Webbb82]

Whats up everyone just joined up and I love this site so far. Anyway I was wondering if anyone else runs into this issue when you chop up a break and leave the air and the hat and maybe the following snare/kick. When I go to play the new beat alot of the times it ends up sounding dope with the added parts. But sometimes the hats end up sounding spiratic and not to any beat. Does anyone else run into this problem when phrase sampling? I if so how do you work it out

Now I could just chop the kick/snare without the hat but sometimes. If u want to keep the air the hat comes along for the ride..like I said doing it this way sometimes ends up sounding bad ass like it was played by a real drummer.. Or is it just a 'sometimes it works' ' kinda deal. What do you all keep when chopping a break do u stop at the end of the kick sound or do u keep kick, air, hat, snare

[Kregan]

Whats up dude,

I personally chop up everything into single bits, so one instrument or stab per chop (for drum breaks) so I can have more freedom, arrange it how I like and at any tempo.

I've seen others do it the way you describe and I've seen people have great results when doing it but I cannot speak on it because I've never experimented with it myself. But if I had to guess I would think you would have to stay close to the tempo of the original break to make it work. Because the space/distance between the instruments on the single chop are predetermined they would sound off if the tempo was too far from the original break.

That's the only reason I can think of, others may be able to help more. Maybe use that technique when the tempo is close, and chop into single instruments (kick, snare, hat, etc) when the tempo is drastically different.

Hope that helps

[Webbb82]

Whats up dude,

I personally chop up everything into single bits, so one instrument or stab per chop (for drum breaks) so I can have more freedom, arrange it how I like and at any tempo.

I've seen others do it the way you describe and I've seen people have great results when doing it but I cannot speak on it because I've never experimented with it myself. But if I had to guess I would think you would have to stay close to the tempo of the original break to make it work. Because the space/distance between the instruments on the single chop are predetermined they would sound off if the tempo was too far from the original break.

That's the only reason I can think of, others may be able to help more. Maybe use that technique when the tempo is close, and chop into single instruments (kick, snare, hat, etc) when the tempo is drastically different.

Hope that helps

ya man i usually dont do it this way but i love to learn new way of doing things and on my first go at it came up with a really cool dynamic break but ever since ive come up with so so out come.

[Castro Beats]

Whats up everyone just joined up and I love this site so far. Anyway I was wondering if anyone else runs into this issue when you chop up a break and leave the air and the hat and maybe the following snare/kick. When I go to play the new beat alot of the times it ends up sounding dope with the added parts. But sometimes the hats end up sounding spiratic and not to any beat. Does anyone else run into this problem when phrase sampling? I if so how do you work it out

Now I could just chop the kick/snare without the hat but sometimes. If u want to keep the air the hat comes along for the ride..like I said doing it this way sometimes ends up sounding bad ass like it was played by a real drummer.. Or is it just a 'sometimes it works' ' kinda deal. What do you all keep when chopping a break do u stop at the end of the kick sound or do u keep kick, air, hat, snare

What Up Webb and Welcome to TBC,

If I'm not mistaken, I think we are on exactly the same page, as I use a similar technique with certain drum chops. Sometimes to have that extra percussive instrument after a kick/snare etc really adds a dope quality to the drum work. Anyway, what are you currently using production wise? For instance with an MPC, if you hit Mode, Program, then select the pad and hit Window, it brings you an option for "Note Off". What this allows you to do is trigger the sample based upon how long you are holding the pad. So if you have a kick with a hat after it, but only want the kick, you would turn that pad to Note Off which would let you just play the kick by tapping the pad for said duration. Without changing the Note option, if you trigger the pad the whole sample will play.

You could also just adjust the decay which would ultimately eliminate anything that followed your desired drum sound.

[Webbb82]

What Up Webb and Welcome to TBC,

If I'm not mistaken, I think we are on exactly the same page, as I use a similar technique with certain drum chops. Sometimes to have that extra percussive instrument after a kick/snare etc really adds a dope quality to the drum work. Anyway, what are you currently using production wise? For instance with an MPC, if you hit Mode, Program, then select the pad and hit Window, it brings you an option for "Note Off". What this allows you to do is trigger the sample based upon how long you are holding the pad. So if you have a kick with a hat after it, but only want the kick, you would turn that pad to Note Off which would let you just play the kick by tapping the pad for said duration. Without changing the Note option, if you trigger the pad the whole sample will play.

You could also just adjust the decay which would ultimately eliminate anything that followed your desired drum sound.

hey Castro ya its nice to talk to someone who does the same technique. I was wondring how many people do it this way.but anyhow I have a mpc 2000xl. I actually didnt start chopping this way till i got the XL. I have not tried using note off yet just because untill not i have not really like useing note off on drums just because i like to be able to play the pads with a flowing rhythm. and i found note off kinda messed that up. but that would fix my prob. but then i found that changing decay or shortening the chop left a gap of dead air and missing hat. the air is easy to fix if i can find some air to sample. but if i run into that i will normally just give up and try a different pad combination..

[d.C.]

If the hi-hats or extra percussion from the original break is off I would try time stretching the sample so that it fits the tempo of the new beat better.

[Castro Beats]

hey Castro ya its nice to talk to someone who does the same technique. I was wondring how many people do it this way.but anyhow I have a mpc 2000xl. I actually didnt start chopping this way till i got the XL. I have not tried using note off yet just because untill not i have not really like useing note off on drums just because i like to be able to play the pads with a flowing rhythm. and i found note off kinda messed that up. but that would fix my prob. but then i found that changing decay or shortening the chop left a gap of dead air and missing hat. the air is easy to fix if i can find some air to sample. but if i run into that i will normally just give up and try a different pad combination..

What Up Webb,

As d.C pointed out, another technique is time stretching the sample so it fits into the designated tempo. You could also, similarly to time stretching, just pitch up/down the sample on the individual pads (on the MPC) to match the tempo in an attempt to blend the extra percussion. Adjusting the tenths and thousandths place in the pitch parameter of the pad might be more effective than an entire semi-tone at a time.

[Webbb82]

What Up Webb,

As d.C pointed out, another technique is time stretching the sample so it fits into the designated tempo. You could also, similarly to time stretching, just pitch up/down the sample on the individual pads (on the MPC) to match the tempo in an attempt to blend the extra percussion. Adjusting the tenths and thousandths place in the pitch parameter of the pad might be more effective than an entire semi-tone at a time.

Ya i think the prob is that the hat doesn't play exactly after the kick or snare every time exactly. So when I'm playing back a beat and use the hits out of order the hats don't sound rite because they were layed out for that beat. Now if the hats were played exactly on 1/16 intervals it would work.. It that makes any sense. I am playing at the same tempo so i know that's not the issue. I got it had d I cut out the hats and remade the tales of all my sounds with reverb and samples air from the same song.

[uhohbeats]

yea i just chop it like i would a sample, i time stretch just about everything. when you go too far off the original BPM time stretching can sound wack, but yea, if you got a kick and a hat, start the chop before the kick, and end it before the snare, so its basically a 1 beat chop.

you use the mpc, im not familiar with those, but in FL. there are ways to get more intricate as well and really rebuild a break, without any gaps or anything between sounds. you can do half beat chops. like just the kick and the air after, up until the point of the hi hat. time stretch that to one beat, now if its 90 bpm, its gonna sound wayyyy too stretched. so since the chop is half as long, you want it to play twice as fast, since you stretched it over a distance of 1 beat. (when its only a half beat long), so you can up the bpm to 180, and it will play normal. and you can do hihat chops the same length, snare chops etc. and arrange them how you like effectively building your own pattern, while keeping the live drummer feel

[RUDOLPH LYRICS]

You can also use sounds to cut off other sounds to give it a more natural feel. If the kick and snare already have that hi hat under it and you can't take it out , nothing but good can come from it with note cutoff.

[Webbb82]

https://soundcloud.com/webbb82/thebull this is what i ended up with. Its just the first draft now im going to go back and kinda cut it up again to add more elements to it and make it more dynamic of a beat but you can kinda see the direction its going. the only hard part is ive been trying to find some samples that go well with the beat but i just cant seem to find the exact thing im looking for.