Quick Chop Technique for SP-303

[BOOMBAP Bodega]

I'm sure many of you ninjas do these things already but this is the quickest way I've found to chop a one shot sample and then sequential samples after that.

So you sample to a pad. Let's say you sampled 8 bars of a songs. The first chop you want is the 3 bar( be any bar). So you play the sample until the the bar comes and you press mark. Now this is assuming you are not in gate mode. Press the pad again to stop it. Turn it on to gate. Hold down mark when you press the sample so it will start from the last point you marked. You can let go of mark. Then this is the cool thing. When you let go of the pad it will place the end mark where you let go of the pad. Very quick and easy chop. Just fine tune the start and end points and your good to go.

Placing the start point is an art form on the sp-303. I usally put the pad on gate and press it like a mad man and move the start point to it sounds and plays right. For the end point I do the same. I put the pad in reverse and gate and press it like a mad man so I don't hear the beat one of the next bar or whatever I want to chop out. This makes it so fast to chop out the dead air at the end of drums or one shots.

Then you resample to another pad. So that's done. The key to getting the next chop is simple. If you hold down the original sample it will play from the place you just marked. play the pad and stay holding it ( in gate mode) press the mark button to cancel you previous marks. The sample will still be playing. Press mark at the next chop/bar. Again if you release the pad because it's in gate mode it will place the end mark where you released the pad. If your good with timing you can chop almost perfect most of the time. Now fine tune and resample. Then repeat for the next chop.

These are a few things I do to speed up my workflow. The SP-303 just gives you such a hands on experience chopping samples it's great. Hope you find something useful out of this.

[Deli_Cuts]

This is almost exactly what I do and found this out on my own...the only thing I don't do is the final part where you re do the marks...never bought of that...so now I will def be doing that

[BOOMBAP Bodega]

Great I'm glad this helps!

I forgot to mention that I also usally chop 3-5 off the start point of of a resample. Not always but especially things like drum hits that need to have no latency get trimmed.

[Euclid Ov Oåklånd]

This is awesome, I've never done this. I just used to drive myself insane marking samples the regular way, this should help a lot.

[don cheadle]

Thanks for sharing.

[EarlGrey]

Thanks for the tip!

So basically you have a 'main pad' with the full sample. You use this one to mark start and end points (with the great method you just explained) and resample each bit/chop to another pad?

How do you go about the resampled chops? These need start/end trimming as well right after you resample?

[Euclid Ov Oåklånd]

I've been able to mark them fine after the resample, but a trick I devised is to make a drum pattern in the sequencer at the same bpm as your loop you cut the pieces from. When you resample your chop to another pad put the sample on loop playback and let it record for several bars, then put the sample to one-shot and start the drum loop you have in the sequencer. Now just tap the sample to the drums to get it cued on time and when you're on beat let the sample play and quickly switch it back to loop and on the next bar mark the beginning and end(this is why its good to reasample it on loop for a few bars at least so you have time to get a good mark). When that's done just truncate the sample and move on to the next, the drums make it easier to chop on beat and I suggest something real simple to start like kick....snare....kick....snare
hihat....hihat....hihat....hihat
kinda like a metronome to chop to, then you can add the samples to the sequencer and make a more suitable or complex drum arrangement.

[VinylCani]

Now I'm stuck thinking why I didn't do this in the first place....
Thank you for the tip! You're a life saver

[ryba]

OK. I think this was mentioned here somewhere, but I'd like to share it here...
There are two tricks for chopping long samples:

1.

play sample and hit MARK for the START point
If you set the START point and hit the pad once again, sample will play from your marked START point and let you set the END point
(or it will set the END point to the end of a sample automatically if you reach the end of a sample and if the sample is not in LOOP mode)

or:

play sample and hit MARK for the START point
then hit another pad
303 will set the END point to the end of the sample
unless you'll do this, you have to set END marker to finish the operation

2.

set pad to LOOP
play sample and hit MARK for the START point
then hit REVERSE
sample will play backwards to the beginning of the sample, through the end, to the beginning of a sample and so on
(hit REVERSE to play sample in Forward direction)
hit MARK to set the END point

PS:
If you want to set the START point right to the beginning of the sample, hold down MARK, then press the pad

[ellaguru]

cool
thanks