In today’s video I wanted to take a look at my process for creating a track using just samples and a hardware sampler. If you normally work with instruments and midi, this type of beatmaking can be a unique exploration into sound design and seeing how far you can push sounds. If you’re struggling with a track or looking for a new way to create, check it out. The other huge bonus to this style of working is it can be as portable and modular as you’d like: Today’s song was chopped and performed on a $5 iOS app (Koala Sampler) and the SP404 was just used for performance effects. If you wanted to, you could even incorporate this into a DAW or do all the chops and what not there. So let’s check out how to chop a sample, mix it and master it:
Sample Chops and Arranging the Beat
From the original sample, I chopped smaller segments onto different pads. Some chops were repitched, some time stretched and others left as they were. On all chops I did some “eq” using the tone setting to cut low end, this allowed a new bass sample to go underneath
Drums were kept minimal, just a kick snare and 2 hats
A bass one shots with added attack, release and some high end dropped on tone was added to add some extra low end
A few quick arrangement hacks using the piano roll -
Add movement and variety with velocity changes on the drums (ghost notes)
Quantize some of the drum hits to ground the beat, but also add in some of them unquantized to add swing and bounce
Here's the piano roll for this beat: the darker more hollow notes have lower velocity settings and some hats and snares are off grid and unquantized ⬇️
🔷 Want to Make the Most Out of the SP and Koala Sampler? Check Out My Cheat Sheet and Quick Start Guides: https://www.sunwarper.com/shop
Performance Effects and Bus FX on the SP
The iPad's audio is routed into the SP, making Bus 2 a changeable effect, enabling switching between cloud delay, isolator and a filter with a synced lfo (those were my preferred effects for the beat, but you can switch between any)
Bus 3 was set to cassette, adding some grit with drive and age, while also compressing slightly and shaping the high end
Bus 4 was set to compressor. This fattens the sound, balances the level and adds punch
Mastering Chain to Add Final Polish and Meet Loudness Metrics
With the SP already handling some "mastering" on the 2 bus fx, I used a minimal mastering chain on the recorded audio, mainly to finesse the sound and get the level up to loudness standards. This is a much simpler and stripped down chain compared to what I use for my own main releases and for my mastering clients. Part of that is due to the fact that there is already some mastering being done on the SP with bus' 3 and 4 Cassette and Compressor effects.
Here's the signal:
EQ - drop some deep low end, and shape the kick/bass a little by toning down under 75hz
Compressor - minimal compression around .5 to 1 DB at the highest audio peaks only (already had a ton of compression on the SP). This effect can also add a little more grit and distortion using the 'soft clip' setting
Limiter - even out the sound and bring it up to streaming levels
Final Thoughts:
This is a super simple setup, can be portable and the best part: its completely modular to your needs at any time. It can be shrunk down to simply a phone using just a sampler app on a phone and pulling sounds from your own sample creations or sampling random sounds, etc. On the other end, you could add additional hardware through the SP's audio inputs, or connect everything into a computer and track it all in a DAW. This setup is quickly becoming my go to for creating as I can start tracks on my phone and slowly incorporate more of my studio when I am able.
Support
Buy/Stream: https://fanlink.to/iJnp
Sample Packs: https://soundsbysunwarper.bandcamp.com/\
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/sunwarper
------------------------
Let's Connect
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunwarper/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sunwarper
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunwarperMusic/
If you're looking to get into the dawless world or want an objective ear on some mixes to bring a final bit of polish and reach competitive loudness levels, email me for mastering rates and online lessons: sunwarpermusic@gmail.com