what a weekend.
between me needing an EKG early friday morning, and me finding out that i was making beats the hard way...it was pretty interesting.
see the EKG story at the other spot.
(worth mentioning though, is that even the smallest of events can godsmack you back to reality, and make you cherish those nights when you can't create, and it seems like your art was lost somewhere back. )
but sunday.
my mans and 'nem came through to check out how i worked. i ended up learning quite a bit from him, and finding out that the way i make beats is slightly longwinded.
he's a Sony Acid/PC dude who's recently decided to go the way of the MPC 1000. i can't even front. after piddling with it a bit a few weeks ago, and knowing that it's the technical equivalent of an MPC 2000XL, i want it too. can't beat the cuteness/portability of it, either.
anyway. as i'm showing him my set up and explaining the drawn out process of going from taking a sound from a record to making a beat, he notices that my samples don't cut each other off. this is known as monophonic sampling, where a sampler will play a sound, but as soon as a key (that same one, or another, loaded with a different sample) is triggered, the new sound will cut off the previously played one, giving the traditional feel of chops. think DJ Premier on Common's 6th Sense.
i say "yeah..." not really thinking much of it, because i had success working the way i do. he was dumbfounded.
"yo, if you could figure out how to do that man, it would really be a dope set up."
apparently, the mpc does this by default.
i had tried to figure out monophonic sampling before, in Kontakt 2, with no success, and i lost interest before i got to really study the massive PDF manual. he was hell-bent on figuring it out, though. so we study the manual. we get confused, we look some more, we push buttons, we try literally everything remotely worth trying. i'm thinking to myself, as good (and EXPENSIVE) as kontakt is, you mean to tell me i CAN'T play my samples monophonically?
it frustrates us, but we move on.
i'm pretty familiar with the sampler that comes standard in FL Studio, and i always thought that if i had more control over FL slicer, i'd probably use that instead of Kontakt, but again, being lazy, lost interest in trying to figure it out. (fatal flaw. seriously.)
but, with chris being there and being so determined to show me the light on monophonic sampling, i stayed with it and tried to figure it out.
turns out FL slicer does pretty much everything i want it to. INCLUDING playing samples monophonically.
take that, Native Instruments.
after a few tweaks, i figure out that this type of sampling is very easy with FL slicer. between kontakt taking forever to load, being an incredible processor hog, and not doing exactly what i want it to, i'll pass. only thing it has over the FL slicer (right now, at least) is that i know how to map samples and it's incredibly intuitive. the built in effects (albeit very good) aren't even much of a plus, since i have crazy 3rd party effects like flangers, filters, compressors, eqs, granulizers, whatever.
kontakt lost. yikes.
that was just the half. we spent the next hour or two chopping up DRUM BREAKS- maybe one or 2 chops on a full 2 bar loop- and playing them out of sequence on the pads.
oh. what. fun.
i had sworn off of using breaks because the extent i used them was simple as looping them up and using the break as my drum pattern. very elementary, very wack. drum breaks always sound good, but hearing impeach the president- as banging as that break is- gets old quick. and it really tends to date the song. and. well. it's just lazy.
but this is a whole new world! i'm excited to get home to day and chop some up in recycle, throw em in FL slicer and bang out some crazy rhythms.
only problem i was still having was, the way FL maps out slices in slicer, it starts on a weird point on a keyboard, where my pads weren't assigned properly. up until 1:30 this morning, i had forgotten how to program the trigger finger. now it's all about pad # 05. chea. it's programmed, things work beautifully...the funk is just around the corner, yo.
lets all put one in the air for chris.
*buck!*
see the EKG story at the other spot.
(worth mentioning though, is that even the smallest of events can godsmack you back to reality, and make you cherish those nights when you can't create, and it seems like your art was lost somewhere back. )
but sunday.
my mans and 'nem came through to check out how i worked. i ended up learning quite a bit from him, and finding out that the way i make beats is slightly longwinded.
he's a Sony Acid/PC dude who's recently decided to go the way of the MPC 1000. i can't even front. after piddling with it a bit a few weeks ago, and knowing that it's the technical equivalent of an MPC 2000XL, i want it too. can't beat the cuteness/portability of it, either.
anyway. as i'm showing him my set up and explaining the drawn out process of going from taking a sound from a record to making a beat, he notices that my samples don't cut each other off. this is known as monophonic sampling, where a sampler will play a sound, but as soon as a key (that same one, or another, loaded with a different sample) is triggered, the new sound will cut off the previously played one, giving the traditional feel of chops. think DJ Premier on Common's 6th Sense.
i say "yeah..." not really thinking much of it, because i had success working the way i do. he was dumbfounded.
"yo, if you could figure out how to do that man, it would really be a dope set up."
apparently, the mpc does this by default.
i had tried to figure out monophonic sampling before, in Kontakt 2, with no success, and i lost interest before i got to really study the massive PDF manual. he was hell-bent on figuring it out, though. so we study the manual. we get confused, we look some more, we push buttons, we try literally everything remotely worth trying. i'm thinking to myself, as good (and EXPENSIVE) as kontakt is, you mean to tell me i CAN'T play my samples monophonically?
it frustrates us, but we move on.
i'm pretty familiar with the sampler that comes standard in FL Studio, and i always thought that if i had more control over FL slicer, i'd probably use that instead of Kontakt, but again, being lazy, lost interest in trying to figure it out. (fatal flaw. seriously.)
but, with chris being there and being so determined to show me the light on monophonic sampling, i stayed with it and tried to figure it out.
turns out FL slicer does pretty much everything i want it to. INCLUDING playing samples monophonically.
take that, Native Instruments.
after a few tweaks, i figure out that this type of sampling is very easy with FL slicer. between kontakt taking forever to load, being an incredible processor hog, and not doing exactly what i want it to, i'll pass. only thing it has over the FL slicer (right now, at least) is that i know how to map samples and it's incredibly intuitive. the built in effects (albeit very good) aren't even much of a plus, since i have crazy 3rd party effects like flangers, filters, compressors, eqs, granulizers, whatever.
kontakt lost. yikes.
that was just the half. we spent the next hour or two chopping up DRUM BREAKS- maybe one or 2 chops on a full 2 bar loop- and playing them out of sequence on the pads.
oh. what. fun.
i had sworn off of using breaks because the extent i used them was simple as looping them up and using the break as my drum pattern. very elementary, very wack. drum breaks always sound good, but hearing impeach the president- as banging as that break is- gets old quick. and it really tends to date the song. and. well. it's just lazy.
but this is a whole new world! i'm excited to get home to day and chop some up in recycle, throw em in FL slicer and bang out some crazy rhythms.
only problem i was still having was, the way FL maps out slices in slicer, it starts on a weird point on a keyboard, where my pads weren't assigned properly. up until 1:30 this morning, i had forgotten how to program the trigger finger. now it's all about pad # 05. chea. it's programmed, things work beautifully...the funk is just around the corner, yo.
lets all put one in the air for chris.
*buck!*
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