Making samples more alive!

[NRJay]

You probably know the feeling you get when you make a drum rack with some samples, make a nice beat with them, but think: this sounds OKAY, but it's so stale and dry! And this is beacaue you allways hear the exact same version of the same samples in a row...

What can you do to your samples so that every beat you hear, sounds just a tiny bit different than the previous one? Changes should be minimal, but enough to make is sound more alive instead of the same boring samples repeating over and over.

What can I do ?

[33tetragammon]

You probably know the feeling you get when you make a drum rack with some samples, make a nice beat with them, but think: this sounds OKAY, but it's so stale and dry! And this is beacaue you allways hear the exact same version of the same samples in a row...

What can you do to your samples so that every beat you hear, sounds just a tiny bit different than the previous one? Changes should be minimal, but enough to make is sound more alive instead of the same boring samples repeating over and over.

What can I do ?

if you have sampler,it's easy.

use velocity sens or modulation.you can assign it to cutoff,sample start,whatever.
or layer different mods of the same sample on one key.
or assign different samples to different velocities,with crossfades so they don't switch abruptly.

experimentation is the key.and Live excels at that!

hope that helps

[hurlingdervish]

i like to freeze/flatten and start replacing drum hits after i get the initial feel of it. make glitchy sounds for fills etc.

[houseofmidi]

I use Battery for Drums and often set up the BiPolar and Unipolar Random Generators to send a little bit of randomness to any of:

- Pitch (but less than 1 tone, you don't really want to 'hear' the pitch variations. like 1% variation)
- Pan position. not a lot you just want 1-5 degrees variation.
- Volume - not much variation just +/- 1dB say.

In all cases you shouldn't really be able to hear the variation but just kinda sense that its not quite the same as last time. well sometimes you can just hear the change in pitch. but its like you are not sure if you really did? it will sound a lot more real

I use that on Snares and Hi-Hats all the time

[Swedish Sam]

For shakers/hats etc, use the envelopes and adjust to taste: Pitch (fine), Sample start and sometimes length and filter cutoff. Start with every 8th and just use what sounds best to the music you're doing.

For Snares/claps, use your sampled snare and layer it with another "loose" played clap/snare. Play it by hand and the small changes will make it more fluid.

[three]

Also, try using beat-repeat with extremely long timescales. Put in a buzzing repear something like every 14 bars.

[hurlingdervish]

i have recently fallen in love in notch filters on slow lfos. they can make something that used to be harsh be a bit soft without loosing its edge and giving it more motion