Make a Sample Based Hip Hop Beat

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. The wide spread use of sampling in popular music originated with the birth of hip hop music in New York in the 1970s. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program. Sampling is also possible with tape loops or with vinyl records on a phonograph.

Often “samples” consist of one part of a song, such as a break, used in another, for instance the use of the drum introduction from Led Zeppelin’s \”When the Levee Breaks\” in songs by the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mike Oldfield, Rob Dougan, Coldcut, Depeche Mode and Erasure, and the guitar riffs from Foreigner’s \”Hot Blooded\” in Tone Loc’s \”Funky Cold Medina\”.

HOW TO DO:
Isolate the portion of audio you wish to use in the sample, using the editing tools in your audio program. Once you have isolated the sample, you can repeat it to create a loop, or you can export it to a beat-making program (such as Fruity Loops Studio, Acid, Ableton or Reason) for processing into a completed beat.

When I use the samples I usually find the phrase/lyric that will work in the song context and drop it onto the waveform later, and nudge to perfection. Keep the same length between the samples, and repeat if it’s the hook.

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