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Hey y’all,

I tried to write this to be DAW neutral on this one, but for specific DAW lingo maybe people can help in the comments. I’ll answer any questions I can as well. Sorry if this is long.

Eqing the same sample differently

I saw a video on Youtube about how J. Dilla would enhance the “life” of his sample so to speak. For the hook section he might let the sample play looped as is with whatever other effects and then during the verse section he’d filter out the hi frequencies in the mix so that it was just the bass section of the sample playing, giving the rapper space to rap over as well as giving the sample a new feel so it wouldn’t wear on the ears. Embrace the fuzziness of your samples low end, especially if sampling from Vinyl.

Video I was talking about

Hook Loop, Verse Chop

Similar to this idea of lengthening the life of a sample for your beat, I like to use one section of the sample looped, usually as the hook since it’s easier to understand if its a vocal sample while chopping up that section into quarter or half bars to give the verse section a new rhythm while still matching the feel of the loop since they’re both the same song anyway. Also if I have a sample with both vocals in it and an instrumental section, i’ll loop the instrumental during the verse then chop and play some filtered vocals over it at a super low volume to give the verse some texture. Here’s an example

 with the instrumental and some subtle vocals. Hear how much more vibrant that second one sounds?

Chopping samples with drums in them

I used to think that if a sample had drums in it for the whole song I was fucked and couldn’t use it. It took me many visits to Whosampled.com to realize how many of my idols were chopping up records and just eqing out specific frequencies such as the snare and lower low end/bass frequencies. Most of the time when I chop a sample with drums in it I am looking to eq out the hi-end (while still maintaining as much of the sample’s richness as possible) to get rid of some of the depth of the sample so that I can add my own percs and snare/clap to the drum section as well as my own kick/bass to the low end. Honestly, just play around with your EQ, it’s a sample-based producer’s best friend.

Play your drums in key with the sample!!

When adding your own drums on top of a sample it will seriously benefit you to know the key of the track so that if you add your own bass and percs they are in key, otherwise it’s likely to sound bad. Here’s a website I use to help determine the key if I can’t figure it out playing around on my keyboard.

Ok, I hope some of this was helpful or useful! And maybe more users can share their helpful tips in the comments too so we can get a whole bunch in one place.

• Sherpa Music