I just got a ton of drum loops and jazz samples and it's easy to make the jazz samples and drums into a rhythm but it's hard to match them both so it sounds good. Could anyone give me any advice?

aside from putting them into something with good time stretching or something, you could chop your samples down more. i dont know about the 404, but the 303's bpm change is terrible. though it makes for neat glitchy sounds sometimes. also you could use the pattern sequencer in the same tempo as your drum break so that what you sample over it changes with the end of the loop. i'm sure someone else has better options... my experience is with the 303.

Fluentt, man, good question about techniques.

Try to learn the rhythm of the loop you're making. Is it in 4/4 time? Count out your loop then figure out where the accented (loudest/strongest) notes are. Try to keep the loops fairly short, def no longer than 4 bars. 1 or 2 bars is fine most of the time.

Next chop your drum loop for your track into quarter note lengths (if the loop's in 4/4, make 4 chops, if 5/4 then 5 chops). If your drums are at a slightly different tempo to the melodic loop then you'll end up with some swung & loose sounding rhythms.

Make sure that you make your drums fit those accented notes in the melody. Most 4/4 jazz (that I've heard anyway) tends to keep the snares on the 2nd & 4th counts of the bar & the kick drum on the 1st & 3rd. If those notes aren't played on the drums at those times you can usually put them there because that's what the rhythm players are thinking about. Always make sure your snares cut an even rhythm & then place the kicks whever they fit. Follow what the bass player's doing. You can't go wrong chucking kicks whenever the bass player hits a note.

If you set each drum chop to the same mute group & hit each chop in time with the melodic loop you'll go just fine. Even though loads of dudes here are non-quantize, you can blend in & out of time techniques to awesome effect.

Hope that all made sense.

if your lucky and lazy you get a 4 bar loop that snaps, bump that shit, otherwise keep chopping it in half and adjusting the tempo, if it doesnt fit, then you just wasted a bunch of time. maybe then you can do something else with the chops. its a good idea, if you are pitching your sample, to know the tempo before you sample it, that comes in handy.

+1

on the 404sx i like to chop my sample into either quarter notes, or half notes. imagine that pads 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 have chops on em. i like to put my kick on pad 11, my snare on pad 7, and a hat on pad 8, with mabey another hat or a percussion sound on pad 12. pads 9 and 10 can have more drums, or mabey a little vocal sample. i usually like dialogue for skits. once you have your chops ready to go, just play a beat in real time while triggering samples. this method involves some skill as a drummer, but is useful for creating loops with a human feel. it is an instrument approach rather than a programming approach, but you are using an sp, not a computer with a sequencer.


i think most people will use a variation of this approach. some people like to re-sample their drums into one pad. i personally just do it all at once, then re-sample with sub bass.

Chop your drums into individual hits, eg kick only on one pad hi hat on on other pad and snare on another pad I think this might make things easier record in pattern mode every snare on the second and forth metronome beep, build up the drums into a simple patten then play the jazz samples over the top copy a jazz loop sample to a few different pads then change the sample start position on every pad then play around and record.

Thanks for the helpful tips guys