Hi all,

This is my first post and I was wondering if anyone can assist me please?

Treat me like an idiot! Ok I'm a bedroom guitarist, I have a rubbish PC and I've been wanting to create some electronic type music like the Prodigy, Chemical Bros, Pendulum etc and play my guitar over the top. Someone suggested I get a sampler, which has led me here

Now I've never touched a sampler in my life before so I havent got a clue where to start. So are there any good sources on the net to get me started? I want to create some fat dance beats and jam along with my axe!!

Cheers!

First thing you will need to get are samples!

I suggest you go here - great free samples, - lots of drum&bass oriented stuff:

rhythm-lab.com

use the right column to get thru the categories.

To start with there are 2 paths you could take, depending on how comfortable you are with making music -

- if you're really just beginning, you could get some drum loops and synthesiser loops and have a play with layering them - check the drum loop, music loop, and construction kit areas. This is a fun way to get into things, but youre gonna want to move on from here as soon as youre ready, because nobody likes the guy who calls himself a producer and only uses other peoples loops!

- if/when you're confident enough to start making your own stuff from scratch,
check out the drum kits section for single drum sounds, and the 'single sound' section for single synthesiser sounds. - also since youre into drum and bass, get some breaks from the drum loop section, and learn to chop them up into individual drum hits to rearrange them.

Some other tips:

- Read the manual.. then read it again a week later after youve forgotten everything. Always keep it beside you while you're working till you know things inside out.

- Find stuff you really like, and study it.. this is something I never used to do - I was all like "Nah man, im just going off raw creativity, i dont want to sound like anyone else"... This is not so much about creativity though, as learning techniques - there are certain 'rules' - not so much rules of 'how to write a song' - but rules of what things work well on human minds.. that are best learnt, and then broken by choice.. rather than breaking them because you dont know they're rules...

- Learn what the effects do to a sound - not just, how it sounds - but like, the reason it does that. Wikipedia is great for this, eg:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanging

Hey man, thanks for the links.

Yeah I like the idea of trying loops first. Maybe I should try a software sample first before purchasing the 404 to see how I get on?

But I really like the idea of making my own samples. It feels like my own work then.

So let me get this straight, I could load in single Hats, Kicks, Claps etc then overlay them and create some beats? How is this done/loaded in?

Then maybe plug in a Bass guitar and create a groove, plug in the guitar with my POD effects and make loads of weird noises save them to overlay my beat and bass then possibly plug in a Korg Kaossilator for some weird synth noises. Hopefully create somekind of track

How would I save it? I assume you can mix it all in program on the PC to save as an mp3?

you can record everything into a boombox (with rca inputs) or a casset recorder or what not... then take that tape and record it back into you 404 sampling it to a pad... then export the whole thing to a memory card.. you get some grunge doing it that way especially if you use worn out/in gear and reuse tapes... i use a dj mixer to use two different instruments at once ( a keyboard and a kord drum machine) and use the outs on the dj mixer to the audio IN on my 404 and export to card after i apply 404 effects and magic to my ish... there is always recording to the computer with various programs but most of the cats on here stay away from that.. or at least they use to..

get some stuff started and figure out the details as you go

if you want a clean electronic sound similar to the artists you mentioned,, i would suggest intergrating your computer at least for cleaning up loops you find, maybe adding light fx, syncing them with software and then importing them through the CF card with a reader from your computer
if you want dirty, grimey or lofi sound though then it doesnt matter - record right into the 404