by Native Instruments

5 handy sampling tricks and techniques

Try out some new sampling techniques with this selection of video tutorials

Native Instruments has assembled five key videos for those looking to venture into the world of sampling. From laying down boom bap drums to making house music, the following videos are a treasure trove of inspiration and education tips for all.

There is no denying that sampling has firmly established itself in today’s musical landscape. Whole genres and milestone albums would not exist if it wasn’t for the use of samples. Drum and bass and rave defining samples like the Amen Break or one of hip hop’s most used drum loop, the Funky Drummer are still being flipped in fresh and unique ways today. As with every aspect in music production, technological progress also brought new possibilities and facettes to sampling. This compilation of videos will keep you up to date with current sampling tricks and techniques. Time to load up the sampler and flex some studio muscles.

 

Sample-based house with MASCHINE

French house connoisseur Demuja lays down a sample based cut in his home studio using a turntable, records and his MASCHINE as point of departure. From flipping through his crates and finding the main sample to go with, to laying drums and own melodies on top. Dive into the hip shaking world of disco infused house music and learn a thing or two about arranging, filtering, and chopping samples.

Boom-bap drums

Watch as Dubs Bangers gets down on his Akai MPC2000XL, flipping a vinyl sample into a bass heavy, boom bap banger. As he goes step by step through every part of the track you get insight into a lot of useful chopping and sample processing tricks here, explaining drum layers, frequency tweaking and using effects to create certain sounds. A goldmine of sampling tricks.

Advanced piano sample-flipping

YouTube star and studio virtuoso Andrew Huang breaks down a hip hop beat using a jazzy piano motif as the harmonic basis. From chopping up the piano sample in different ways and messing with it’s time signature, to sound processing the bassline with saturation, this video is “a little bit of advanced sample flipping” as Huang describes it himself. Read the Native Instruments interview with Andrew Huang here.

One track, one sample.

Tim Keiling a.k.a. Erdbeerschnitzel, is well known by fans of groovy and atmospheric house music. Famous for his unique approach to sound design and loose grooves he has found his very own niche within the dance music spectrum and influenced a big part of the underground house music scene with his sound characteristics.

In addition to his production career, Keiling also runs a YouTube channel providing insight into his production techniques. In this video Kelling demonstrates the art of sampling by only using one randomly picked sample and building a whole track with it, proving that sampling indeed is an artform in itself.

Finding the right melody

Chris Punsalan breaks down a chilled piano-based beat, step by step, including all the techniques he used on slicing, EQing, and pitching. By giving a full overview of all the elements used in this beat it’s almost a masterclass in producing sample based beats including a little expedition into harmonies and scales so even a music noob can find the right notes to play over sampled chords.

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