How To Sample

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I know this is a dumb question but i wanted how do you actually separates the channels on songs to get just the drums, bass, vox, etc... on the computer(without samplers). And it would be good to have FREE programs(can Pro-Tools free do it?). thanx

― Chupa-Cabras, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm not up on the latest software gizmos, so there might be some fancy apps in this area, but to the best of my knowledge the only real tools you have to 'separate' sounds are EQ based. So you could use a low-pass filter to get just the bassline (or the bassline plus whatever else was happening down at those frequencies) or 'separate' any sound which inhabited a frequency range that other sounds/instruments were not active in.

Some artists do get access to original multi-track tapes and this may be what you're hearing in some sample driven songs. The only example I can think of off the top of my head is that I remember talk of US3 getting pretty much total access to the Blue Note catalog (because they were on Blue Note themselves).

I know that you can use software (I believe Recycle is used for this) to automatically separate drum sounds in a loop so that they can be sped up, slowed down (without changing pitch) or rearranged into different rhythms. I'm sure lots of ILMers have more to say about this....

― Ron, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dunno if this might help but you can always try

― nathalie, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As far as I know, nothing can really perform some karaoke magic type of surgical removal of vocals/drums/bass/etc. from an established mix of sound. Unless the sounds somehow occupy perfect frequencies without overlap, I'm not sure anything can help you. Everybody's running around looking for virgin drums.....

― Honda, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you need to find records where instruments are 'open' (in sampling terminology) i.e. where the instrument is playing solo, or where there's a loopable section or riff.

― michael, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

re: US3 - the master tapes for most of the Blue Note catalogue will be just stereo anyway - jazz is usually recorded live and not multitracked. the later Blue Note material like the Mizell brother's productions would be multitracked, but not stuff like Herbie's 'Cantaloupe' to name the most famous US3 sample

― michael, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sometimes vocals are spread evenly across the left and right channels and are the only layer to be that way (or so I've read). A few shareware and freeware programs take advantage of this fact, and allow you to isolate vocals in certain songs. I've never actually gotten this to work, so I can't recommend any programs, but try a search on download.com and you may get something.

― Vinnie, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

michael - yeah, you're probably right about the jazz recordings

― Ron, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I actually LIKE hearing samples where its main segment features intrusions from other instruments, vocals, etc.

― Brave Ulysses, Sunday, 31 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah, I do sometimes also. There was this hip hop song in the past couple of years where at the end of every measure this little snippet of vocal came in before the loop starts again. it sounded like ....sup..... if anyone can identify that song I'd much appreciate it.

― Ron, Sunday, 31 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Think break is like that with that little sped sound of James Brown yelping something. Part of what makes it so distinctive (at least until it was sampled thousands and thousands of times).

― Alex in SF, Sunday, 31 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no - not Lynn Collins

― Ron, Sunday, 31 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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