sometimes on the 404 when sampling from viynl ive bee havin trouble getting my snares to hit as hard as i want and as sharp. . . ive been using the fx to do it the best i can but no cigar. . .any ideas?

try playing with the pitch on the turntable a bit - can help change the characteristics alot, along with careful EQ

try a bit of eq, layer by resmplin' & decaying the length of snare by using one of them knobs(no homo) it should give it some sort of snap to your snare... peace...

I'd just suggest layering your kicks n snares with other kicks n snares. This takes practice and you need to use the EQ to properly filter the sounds so they don't get muddy.

If you want more natural drums leave your chops how they are.

Yah.... basically what everybody else has said.

you might try only sampling mono from either the left or right from the deck - but not both. If the sound you're after is smeared across the stereo image you won't get a sharp sound. The way the kit was originally recorded might be with a mic on the snare panned to one side but the stereo overhead mics have a delayed pickup of it on the other side - makes a bigger, more live sound but at the expense of attack and clarity when merged to mono. It should also be easier to get a clean start and end cut from a mono source.

Jim

sharpness and snappiness is largely an effect of the higher and mid frequencies of the first bit of the sample (the attack). if your sample sounds dull, layer it with the mids and highs of the attack part of a snappy snare or clap. fool around with how loudly you layer the new bit until you find something that feels right to you. btw- I agree about either choosing the left or the right...if you record both and then sample down to mono it sometimes doesn't work the way you wish it would.