Working with samples is a pain in the fucking ass on this!!!

[adrianT]

Yeah I'll admit it. I've been sleeping on the 303 ever since I got it. Well decided to get back into it, and one thing that I'm remembering that put me off of it in the first place, is working with chops. Not drum breaks, but say, take a smooth jazz lick, you chop it up and getting the samples to gel when playing them smoothly seems impossible. And I don't even want to talk about composing a whole track with it.

Yeah, I know it's the guy at the controls that needs to sort out his ish... but man. It seems like no matter how hard I chop a sample, I can't get it to where the samples as a whole flow fluidly between triggering them.

Anyone got any tips on working with chops that they've recently come across? I'll stop now and get back to the drawing board. I will make a friggin tune with this thing. Even if it kills me LOL.

[LimpyLoo]

Yeah I'll admit it. I've been sleeping on the 303 ever since I got it. Well decided to get back into it, and one thing that I'm remembering that put me off of it in the first place, is working with chops. Not drum breaks, but say, take a smooth jazz lick, you chop it up and getting the samples to gel when playing them smoothly seems impossible. And I don't even want to talk about composing a whole track with it.

Yeah, I know it's the guy at the controls that needs to sort out his ish... but man. It seems like no matter how hard I chop a sample, I can't get it to where the samples as a whole flow fluidly between triggering them.

Anyone got any tips on working with chops that they've recently come across? I'll stop now and get back to the drawing board. I will make a friggin tune with this thing. Even if it kills me LOL.

once you get proficient at taking a sample, setting the start/end points, resampling, then doing that 5 times...then you'll be stylin'. I find the 303 pretty easy-peasy, but of course you have to get used to the "workarounds" (to me they are just the way the machine works).

I love the 303 and am sorta not interested in a more modern/advanced machine.

[adrianT]

Here's a q.

When sampling into this thing, do you guys sample at the tempo of the song you are working in?

I'll have to say playing seriously with the 303 is humbling. Really have to unlearn what I know about making beats on the PC and really go back and relearn all over again.

Frustrating and at the same time, exciting.

[formal]

Since the SP doesn't properly pitch, it's good practice to try to match the tempo with your turntable before you sample. You can time stretch on these but if it goes too far in either direction it starts sounding robotic. Another option is to find one main element and then use smaller elements that can be easier chopped up to fit. Try to keep things simple on these machines and you'll have good results.

[tape smoke]

and if you dont have a turntable you can do clean time/pitch stretching with a computer, when your loop is at the bpm you want it, this will make it alot easier to chop it up and it will be bang on perfect to your drums of the same tempo.

[sonofadiplomat]

LimpyLoo has it right. Once you have you sample on, let's say 4 pads, chop the basic parts you want. Then go in and use the start/end/level button to manipulate the start mark and end mark.