I've done some sampling in the past, and usually start out with pretty clean source material, but what happens if your source material isn't very clean? It seems that it just isn't possible to sample everything, however sometimes you hear people who DO. I was just curious if any of you had any ideas. The particular track that is bugging me is C-Mos - 2 Million Ways. The sample is quite clearly taken from Carl Douglas' Run Back. I can only come up with 3 possibilities...
1. C-Mos had access to original stems
2. C-Mos replayed the part (some inflections sound very much the same, some a little different)
3. C-Mos is magical and knows something that I don't
What do you guys think? Should I just leave little things like this alone and stick to sampling clean sources, or am I missing something?
Here are links to short, 2 bar phrases of each.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nudnfzz4odm
Thanks in advance!
Bothersome Sampling Question - How do they do it?
Re: Bothersome Sampling Question - How do they do it?
I'm no authority, but in my opinion:
the producer used a filter/eq to get rid of some of the lower frequencies, and possibly a dip in some of the mids, leaving the horn part clear, but obscuring/taking out the drums, then layered in his own drum parts, further covering up what little was left of the original drums. I doubt he had access to the original stems or replayed it; it sounds like the exact same sample to me.
the producer used a filter/eq to get rid of some of the lower frequencies, and possibly a dip in some of the mids, leaving the horn part clear, but obscuring/taking out the drums, then layered in his own drum parts, further covering up what little was left of the original drums. I doubt he had access to the original stems or replayed it; it sounds like the exact same sample to me.
Re: Bothersome Sampling Question - How do they do it?
+1 to clockwatcher.... yes the trick is definitely to pick out the frequency(ies) that is(are) dominated by the sound you're trying to use in the sample... then filter out the rest. One other option is to try using the utility plugin in ableton... and either drop or turn up the width... a lot of times if one sound is mono, while the other one is stereo, you can cancel out one and be left with the other.... except the middle of its spectrum which you can rebuild via eq, panning and throwing a bunch of effects on top to cover up the weird sounding sample which you are left with. 
Re: Bothersome Sampling Question - How do they do it?
Thanks for the advice! I've stated messing around with the loops with more drastic EQing (a bunch of notch filters and one, large hi-pass) and think I'm starting to get something that sounds a little better. Seems like it takes quite a bit of skill to sample like the pros! I'd never reuse this sample, but boy is it good practice...