Any Advanced Sampling Techniques?

PLEASE READ ALL BELOW AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY!!!!! I JUST WANT TO EXPLAIN THIS IN DETAIL BECAUSE ITS ONE THING TO DO IT AND ITS ANOTHER TO COMPREHEND WHAT YOUR DOIN!!!!! AT THE END ILL MAKEIT EASY!!!! PLEASE READ THOUGH BECAUSE I WANT TO PASS ON MY KNOWLEDGE AND IM WILLING TO TEACH, @YAHOO.COM">TNERB706@YAHOO.COM….. Well i dont know if this would be any help, but im starting to trying and perfect a new way of sampling. If you haveany type of fruityloops (PERFERABLY VERSION 4, BUT MAY APPLY TO ALL VERSIONS) then create a new channel, it needs to be a slicer. When you get the sample loaded you want check out the slicer channell you just created and you will see your sample in real time. you can see each note individually. The next thing to do if it sounds right which it usually does click on the button that says fill gap, or you can add a small echo, the reason behind this is so that if the tempo isnt what it needs to be it will carry out that note until the next one. In the slicer channel you should see where it has the whole loop slice up. right above this you can see the individual notes if clicked on below. The reason i wanted to point this out is that above all those visiual slicers, there are 3 tabs. First is tab is to open up the sliced groove option, like a midi. The second is the load sample tab. and the third is what you need to go to. click once on that and it will give you a drop down option where you can choose the sensitivity or the slices (just means how many notes you want it select for each note on you keyboard). Another thing before i get to my point is that when you get to the main fruityloops window to hit CNTRL + T and it will send your piano notes to your keyboard starting with middle C on a piano as the Q button on your keyboard. So in lamens tools read below………….

step by step instructions below. WANT TO PASS ON THE KNOWLEDGE

01. OPEN UP NEW PROJECT.
02. RIGHT CLICK ON ANY PATCH AND CREATE A NEW SLICER
03. NOW OPEN UP THE BEAT SLICER CHANNEL U CREATED
04. ON THE RIGHT YOU SHOULD SEE A BOX WITH THE FILE NAME AND THE BPM/BARS
05 WELL TO THE LEFT OF THIS IS 4 TABS
06. THE THIRD TAB IS TO OPEN UP SAMPLE
07. ONCE YOUR SAMPLE IS LOADED FIND THE VISUAL KEYBOARD AT THE BOTTOM
08. RIGHT ABOVE YOU SHOULD SEE A SMALL OPTION THAT SAYS FILL GAPS, CLICK ON THIS.
09. IF THE WAY YOU WANTED IT SLICED ISNT CORRECT THEN GO TO THE THIRD TAB FROM (NUMBER 05 ABOVE) AND CHOOSE THE SENSITIVITY.
10. SO NOW YOUR IN BUSINESS.
11. WHETHER YOU ARE USING A DIGITAL KEYBAORD OR JUST YOUR COMPUTER KEYS, PRESS CNTRL + T AND YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO HIT INDIDUAL NOTES AND IT WILL PLAY DIFFERENT PART OF THE SAMPLE.

IF THIS WAS TO CONFUSING ID BE MORE THAN LIKELY TO WALK YOU THROUGH ON YAHOO MESSENGER. @YAHOO.COM">TNERB706@YAHOO.COM. EVEN IF THIS DID OR DIDNT HELP ID LIKE TO HELP WITH ANYTHING ELSE. IM HERE TRYING TO PASS MY KNOWLEDGE ON TO OTHER MUSICIANS.

Casque wrote:

does anyone have any tips on using more than one sample in a track and making both samples work together?

I think you might need to be a bit more specific with your question. You mean vocal samples yes? Well if you have one sample as a main hook, and want to layer it with another vocal fx sample, you could put a sidechain compressor on the vfx channel and trigger it with the vocal hook’s output. That way, you can have lots of lush delays and reverbs, and not worry about them overpowering the main vocal hook.

Another thing: just because two samples might sound really good and you think they suit the song, that doesn’t always mean they will work together. Sometimes you just need to accept that a certain sample isn’t really gelling with the rest of the track, and throw it out.
Layering vocal samples can be a tricky business. Usually i find i have to filter one down, and treat it as an fx instead. But sometimes i get lucky and pick two samples that work really well. That’s why you need to be ruthless. If a sample doesn’t immediately fit the track with minimum tweaks, then just mute it and go find another. Eventually you should find two samples that work together, rather than work against each other.
Lastly, i would say, make sure your vocals samples are actually in key with each other! If not, then it’s going to sound horrible 99% of the time, no matter what you do.

Hope that helps a bit. You should definitely look into sidechaining though. It really helps keep your vocals clean.

Well everything in my previous post still holds true with non-vocal samples.
If samples aren’t working together, you’ve either picked the wrong samples to try and blend, or you haven’t EQ’d them properly. Light sidechaining or multiband compression are also good ways of fusing sounds together.

Just my humble opinion.

Does anyone know how to get technical with the exs24 on logic? like fill in the gaps if the bpm isnt fast enough or something. stuff like that?

Layering samples can be a pain sometimes as there are many problems that arise by having two similar sounds playing simultaneously. These problems can be grouped into 4 main categories:

A. Frequency Masking. This means that some part of the frequency spectrum of one sample is hiding the same part of the spectrum in the other sample. The main solution to this is EQing in most cases (or

filtering in the extremes of the frequency ranges e.g. Kicks , bass , hihats and cymbals etc.). Other tools for that are multiband dynamic processors (MB compressors, MB limiters etc.) and transient shapers

(these are the most advanced processors for this job and others , the math and the concept are a little hard to grasp at first tho).

B. Timing Problems. Most of the time this is solved by carefully editing the Start and End points of the samples as well as any loop points. A more subtle kind of timing problem is having to deal with problems in

the amplitude envelopes of the samples (e.g. having 2 snare layers, one with a short attack and another with a long attack. In the most extreme cases this will sound like two snare hits , one slightly later than the

other.). The usual solution to this is using your samplers envelope controls (ADSR or AHDSR) to sculpt the timing characteristics of your samples. Transient shapers can also be used here (e.g. SPL Transient

Designer or Waves Trans-X) if using an envelope generator is not an option.

C. Pitch Problems. This is the simplest of the problems in layering and the first that you should try to tackle. In melodic samples you have to make sure that the two layered sounds are playing either the same

note or two notes that are harmonically compatible thus making the end result a chord. (for example if you layer two synths one playing D and another playing D# it will sound like shit , at least in most western

music). Percussive sounds are a little harder to tackle as there normally isn’t any pitch information on the sample filenames. There you either have to transpose your sounds until they fit (only 12 semitones in an

octave anyways) or if you are a little technical-minded do the math (open up a spectrum analyser , find the fundamental frequency of the sample (the loudest frequency on the analyser) and calculate the closest

musical note to that frequency and then tune the other sample to match.) On vocal samples you can either do the random transpose until it fits method or , even beter use a program like Melodyne that shows the

whole vocal in Piano roll-like view with all the different notes the singer sing clearly visible as if they were MIDI data.

D. Phasing Problems. Sometimes when two similar sounds are playing together , one is sort-of cancelling the other (its a lot more complicated than this but this is EXACTLY what the result sounds like). This is

called phase cancellation. Most modern DAWs have either a phase reverse switch on each track or even better a knob that changes the phase more subtly than simply reversing it. Simply tweaking that knob or

reversing the phase of one of the samples solves the problem.

All in all Sampling is and artform based on complexity and attention to the finest details. The more complex your sampler-patch the closer it is to real music. A simple cheap-ass nylon guitar is more complex than

any multisample but a good sampler has many tools at his disposal to make it almost real or at least as real as he or she needs it.

I hope my loooong ass post was helpful.