To what extent do you guys use sample packs?

[lavalamp360]

I have only been producing for a few months now and come from a rock music background. I bought a copy of Ableton Live Intro a few months back and have been having a lot of fun with it (except the effects and vst caps) and it comes with a selection of the Live 8 library and an entirely seperate disc worth of sample packs from Loopmasters. All of the stuff that I have produced so far has been made using midi and vst synths (free ones). The only time I have ever reached for samples have been for drums and using Simpler. I am gonna try and build some songs using the loops in them now too but want to know how much you guys utilise them as well. Do you feel like using loops is cheating and unmusical?

[mthrfnk]

A thread like this got posted a while back.
Do what works for you, as you progress you'll probably find that you prefer not using loops and get more satisfaction from making your own stuff, however if you have a loop that nails the sound you want then why restrict yourself from using it?

[fragments]

^pretty much what mthrfnk said. I don't use sample packs a lot (except for drum hits), but I record a lot of loops from vinyl and chop them up for use in my tunes. When I first started producing I bought a ton of sample packs on sale during the winter holiday sales one year. Occasionally, depending on the kind of track I'm doing, I'll still go through those and find something that just works for the tune I'm doing, so I go with it. Or I'll chop it up. A lot of times for a 4x4 tune, I find percussion loops that just fit too well not to use ;p

Really at the end of the day, if it sounds good, it doesn't matter. The masses aren't going to recognize a loop from a sample pack. Or a preset from a synth. I dunno, I think a lot of producers get way out of whack about this shit and loose sight of the fact that what sounds good, sounds good.

[ehbes]

Most of my pads begin as samples and ill cut out a small section and go from there...so yeah quite a bit

[Jimcurve]

Btw, the more i listen the more i feel there's something off slightly off beat, dont know why, you have an idea ?


1.kick
2,5. hats
3,4. percussions

i feel like the 3 is wrong

[Jimcurve]

oops wrong thread sorry

[nameless133]

I doe everything with samples. Only freeware ones or selfmade, load them to samplers and modulate, that's all.

[hasezwei]

samplepacks are nice toolsets its all about how you use them.

often my best beats are created by layering a couple drumloops from samplepacks of different genres together until i find something that has a nice groove, then rebuilding that groove from the ground up by slicing and replacing all the different drumhits until it's become my own.

with synth and bassline loops et cetera i'm a bit more wary. its far too easy to just stack a lot of them and call that a tune (and i must add it's really fun in an instant gratification kind of way) but as much as you'll love blasting it on your mp3 player you won't feel nearly good showing it to your friends compared to something you really made yourself, somethign that represents your musical identity.

then again you can use them as an inspirational, or even educational tool. they're really good for learning song structuring/writing as they allow you to concentrate fully on arrangement and not worry about anything else.

[Jimcurve]

with synth and bassline loops et cetera i'm a bit more wary. its far too easy to just stack a lot of them and call that a tune (and i must add it's really fun in an instant gratification kind of way) but as much as you'll love blasting it on your mp3 player you won't feel nearly good showing it to your friends compared to something you really made yourself, somethign that represents your musical identity.

four tet said he praticly never uses syths, so i guess he just stacks up sounds, i guess its just an other way to create.

[fiveone]

i use sample packs only for one-hits. i usually delete the loops/pads/ambiance stuff unless they have a specific sound i can't find elsewhere/make myself which is very rare. i use a combination of samples for one particular instrument such as snares/kicks/hats ect. in one project i have 5 different samples that make up the snare. i mix them down separately so each sample has a particular element that stands out in the track.

with synths/bass, i've always insisted on not using raw presets that come with it, but rather use it as a building block. i "dismantle" the preset and see how the sound i like was achieved and then build my own on top of that - all whilst learning how it all works.

from a musical perspective, what isn't musical about using samples/loops? if you've changed it up yourself and put it into a brand new original track, then kudos. that's music. a lot of people don't have the ears for music and listening to the not-so-noticeable parts of a track. if you do, then get on it and learn from scratch! it's much more rewarding. (as you might of guessed, i tend to have a lot of free time......)

[Genevieve]

with synth and bassline loops et cetera i'm a bit more wary. its far too easy to just stack a lot of them and call that a tune (and i must add it's really fun in an instant gratification kind of way) but as much as you'll love blasting it on your mp3 player you won't feel nearly good showing it to your friends compared to something you really made yourself, somethign that represents your musical identity.

four tet said he praticly never uses syths, so i guess he just stacks up sounds, i guess its just an other way to create.

I think he heavily manipulates audio. A lot of his sounds are from his guitar or voice that he mangles. So not like prerecorded synth loops

[Jimcurve]

Ever found a video in which he's playing guitar or somethin' ???

[hasezwei]

well if you take a premade synth loop and use a part of it in a sampler maybe layered or just cut and sequenced and repitched by yourself
then thats totally fine
even if its one loop maybe cause it fits the tune so well (the lack of variation will be annoying though)
but just stacking a premade drumloop, one or two percussion loops, a pad and a synth with some risers all from the same samplepack together... thats not your tune, just a demo for that samplepack

[AxeD]

I do heavy processing on samples. Nothing to obvious, except for basic drum hits..
Just the way I like to work.

Used to be sample free when it comes to melody/bass etc..

[tpc_uk]

Do whatever you want.

If it makes you happy and/or sounds good then thats all that matters in my opinion.

I almost always use drum sample packs for 1 shot drums.

Other than that I just do whatever....

[Huts]

I'd say the majority of the sounds in my tracks are from some sample pack. Basses usually aren't, but that's only because most sample packs have shit bass sounds. The only thing I don't really use is musical loops.

[mikeyp]

I use samples for all my f/x, sweeps, builds, crashes, drum hits, etc. but never loops and my basses are always made from scratch, and I might tweak presets for leads and stuff.

nothing wrong with using lots of samples if you do it right

[Artie_Fufkin]

Use whatever you think expresses your ideas the best.
If you like sampling, create your own sample packs. Have a session of making your own sounds. When I was first starting out and experimenting with effects, I made a lot of risers/buildup sounds and bounced them and now I have a folder full of custom risers I've made. Try layering or processing samples to sound more like how you want them. Sample from anything you like. I stole a tambourine from a downlink tune cuz I thought it was dope.

[outbound]

Sure, I use sample packs all the time...

Doesn'y necessarily mean they sound anything like they did when I started after hours of audio fuckery

[Genevieve]

but just stacking a premade drumloop, one or two percussion loops, a pad and a synth with some risers all from the same samplepack together... thats not your tune, just a demo for that samplepack

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