Sample Packs - Loopmasters and the like?

[crakbot]

I search for a lot of loop packs, but only buy a few due to quality. So I am familiar with a lot of loop packs and I have heard several top songs on Beatport where I recognized the exact loop. I go back and find it, and there it is, totally unchanged.

There are NO rules. If you can make a song out of 100% loops that gets people rocking, then you are a producer and you produced a good song. Obviously it is harder to do that and still sound unique. But there is no problem with using loops to any degree.

Honestly, going through tons of loops to find snippets to edit together for a unique sound is no different from spending that same time working on your own synth preset. What's the difference?

Some people like crate digging, some people like tweaking software, some do a combination. Work how you want.

[mostapha]

lol did he actually do this, what song are you referring to? or are you just fucking around?

There was a big stink about it. A bunch of top-end producers came to his defense saying that using things the ways he did still got something new out of stagnant and boring material. I'm not one to really judge that, as I think that whole genre is boring. But, the use of samples has nothing to do with it.

Your taking what im saying and warping it to your liking. All I said is that you should be making your own sounds. This guy was talking about sample packs. Not taking a sample and changing the hell out of it for your own production and making it your own LOL.

I, at least, am saying that's not necessary. There's a track on Lupe's last tape where he just raps over a movement of Love Supreme (Coltrane). I'm pretty sure he does the same thing to a couple Nero songs and (gasp) a remix of that ellie goulding song everybody knows (as opposed to the better one everybody ignored). If they're different from the originals, I can't tell (but I also don't listen to them).

He released it for free on the internet partially because of how badly the label fucked him with his last couple albums but also because his beats were just other tracks. Not like the old school hip hop looping a break kind of way……just flat-out playing them. And it's one of the better albums I've heard this year.

I search for a lot of loop packs, but only buy a few due to quality.

That's the problem I see. The loop packs I see for sale online just don't seem to be worth their price.

[olisharp]

Whilst there's certainly nothing wrong with sample packs, I'd recommend investing in a mic or field recorder instead.

You can get some pretty good samples for free from the Wave Alchemy web site, so can fall back on these for more "standard" drum sounds, to use in conjunction with your recorded ones.

One word of caution for using sample packs: stereo. Very often sample packs will include stereo widening effects on the hi hats, rides, claps, crashes etc to make them sound more impressive. Check them in mono to avoid nasty surprises! You can get round this by adding some frequencies in the middle of the stereo field using a mid/side eq (in mid mode).

Something I did recently that I'd really recommend is this: get together with some producer friends and book a commercial recording studio and a session drummer. We recorded a couple of hours of hits, drum rolls and breaks at various tempos, and a bunch of random percussion stuff. Studios often have drum machines that you can record as well, and have the obvious benefits of super high grade mics and hardware eq and compression. You can also record some desk overdrive on you drums, sounds way better than software overdrive / distortion.

Another benefit of recording is to add some human elements to electronic music, the little imperfections which are hard to fake yet really add to the feel of songs.

Even recording on an iPhone works pretty well, although the low frequency reproduction is not good so only use it to record hi frequency sounds. "fire" is a really good app for recording.

Good luck!

[rdubs]

Without sampling, dance music and hip hop wouldn't exist.

To people who say it's cheating, go fuck yourself. Then listen to any good hip hop. Then listen to classic house. Then realize that basically all of drum & bass is based off a 6-second clip from a soul record, that Lupe Fiasco's last album has several tracks where he just rapped over songs by Nero, Bassnectar, and John Coltrane. Then see if you can spot the one beat that Kanye took out of Fire by Jimmy Hendrix to put on My Beautiful….

There's nothing uncreative about sampling. If you think there is, then you're doing it wrong.

I see no problem using sample packs……I just haven't had much luck with finding sounds I liked in them……but I also haven't really tried. I do have a pile of records and CDs that I bought just to sample off of whenever inspiration strikes.

Absolutely nailed it on the head here. Sampling is and always will be a part of producing any kind of music electronically. These samples for the most part are royalty free and are there to be used. As long as what you are using is royalty free, than the only real rule is to make music that sounds good by any means necessary. Am I saying that I support taking a construction kit from a Vengeance/Loopmasters sample pack and using that as the entire basis for your track? I wouldn't do it, but there are elements in there that are great and should be used. Honestly, from my experience, a lot of these people who have this "holier than thou" attitude about not using samples and creating everything themselves, also make shitty music.

Like I said before, sample packs are made for you to use, if you can draw inspiration from them, mangle them to your liking, or hell even take a loop and make it into something more exciting. More power to you. The fact is maybe one douchebag out there will hear your track and be like "Dude, that's from Vengeance Dirty Electro 2, you noob!" or something like that. When this happens, you can simply reply "Well maybe you should've made the track then and you would be on the one on stage "

I find in particular that Vengeance has an extraordinary collection of drums, particularly snares and claps, the kicks are a little less quality in my opinion, but with some digging you can find great ones. In conclusion, the only real rule is to make great tracks by any means necessary as long as you are not directly stealing from another artist. I know a lot of people may claim that constructing songs full of samples is "stealing", don't worry about those people, as they are simply wrong.