The Beginner

[eliasmqz]

I'm new at this I was watching a little bit of the Beat Diggin' documentary. I'm interested in this I wanted to know what do I need to sample vinyl records or just how what i need to know to get started.

[zoidanum]

To sample Vinyl you want to own a turntable (doesn't need to be a special one most likely any turntable will do) and a computer with some recording software or a hardware sampler like the MPC.
If you got everything together all you need to do is to connect the turntable to the computer / sampler and sample the part you want to use. From that point on its all about your creativity and what sounds good for you.

I won't make any suggestions on what software or hardware you should use to make your beats because imo it depends on the person. I know some people trying to make beats with Reason for along time without any mentionable results but the first few times they got their hands on the MPC they did some crazy shit. And so it can be the same way round you gotta test whats good for you and stick with it.

[eliasmqz]

I know you don't want to give suggestions but can you just say a few names of the software to point me in the right direction?
how does an mpc work? is there a website or book I can read to learn how?
I just want to learn stuff before I put my hands on them.

[Rafferty]

Originally Posted by eliasmqz

I just want to learn stuff before I put my hands on them.

That's not always possible. In fact it usually isn't. It's like skateboarding: you can read all about skateboarding, in books and on the internet, you can totally understand the physics of how an ollie works, but that doesn't mean you're able to execute an ollie. Not by a long shot. If I explain to you how an MPC works (it's a sampler, and you assign certain samples to certain pads, and you trigger the samples by hitting the pads, and you can change the tuning of them individually, and you can record your performance and change it later, and you can add effects and filters, etc etc) you still need to put your hands on one to really understand how it works in your bones.

That being said, you should get your hands on free versions of software, demos and cracked versions, to try out before you buy anything. Ableton Live, Reason, FruityLoops, Cubase, Logic, umm what else... Sonar.... I personally advocate Ableton Live, because it can do a hell of a lot of stuff, but I haven't tried most of the other big ones.

Good luck

[eliasmqz]

thanks man by the way I learned to ollie by reading then experimenting. put if I know what it does then I can grasp what it can do. like when you said you assign something to a pad ok i understand now. i just thought it was a bunch of keys put together.

[user280]

I got started with a sleepy cat and a squirrel in a bag.
I used a rocking chair as a timing device.
I got to rocking forwards and backwards in that chair until I rocked right over a sleeping cat's tail.
After that cat let out a big ol' yelp I shook that bag with the squirrel in it and got him chirping.
Then it was like meoooooww! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Meoooowww!!!

[Rafferty]

Originally Posted by user280

Then it was like meoooooww! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Meoooowww!!!

Now I know who's been channelling Dilla from beyond the grave. User280, all this time!

[semantik]

straight up!!! haha.

seriously though... most producers/beatmakers find their signature sound through experimenting and just finding out what sounds good to them. you can't really plan it out. Same thing with your record digging style... after spending years in the crates, you just develop a sense of what has dope beats or sounds on it.