A beginner's sampling questions

[reddvinylene]

Hello,

I got this track here that I just recorded off this old cassette. It's got this really hot sample and I got a couple of questions on how to best deal with it.

1. Should I cut out the sample beforehand in Sound Forge or similar, considering it only makes out about 1% of the entire track? Or is it best practice to do everything in Live? I can imagine it would be slightly more convenient having Live keep track of all my files.

2. How do I best locate exact transient points? So far I'm playing around with loop regions and setting the transient point at the start of the loops (ofcourse zooming all the way in to make sure I hit it on a zero-point crossing). Maybe my ears just aren't trained enough, but I find it kinda difficult knowing if the sound starts a little bit before or after the chosen transient point.

3. If it's just one sample that loops continuously throughout the beat, should I keep it in the audio track or slice it to MIDI? Like, is the latter only necessary when dealing with multiple samples / samples that appear in special places, or is it best practice regardless?

Thanks!

[variant]

Sorry, wrong topic.

[cbit]

1. Should I cut out the sample beforehand in Sound Forge or similar, considering it only makes out about 1% of the entire track? Or is it best practice to do everything in Live? I can imagine it would be slightly more convenient having Live keep track of all my files.

It doesn't much matter. Though i think this is more convenient to do in Live. Crop the clip to the part you want, if you prefer the idea of this small section existing as an independent audio file, consolidate the clip (on a mac this is apple+J when you have the clip selected in arrange view).

2. How do I best locate exact transient points? So far I'm playing around with loop regions and setting the transient point at the start of the loops (ofcourse zooming all the way in to make sure I hit it on a zero-point crossing). Maybe my ears just aren't trained enough, but I find it kinda difficult knowing if the sound starts a little bit before or after the chosen transient point.

I believe that by default, live creates micro-fades at clip boundaries which suppresses non zero crossing clicks. This is very convenient if you're doing a lot of chopping. I haven't found these fades to have a damaging effect on the quality of the transients. In Live 8 these microfades can be manually adjusted on clips in the arrange view (right click a clip in arrange view and select 'show fades'). In session view each clip has a 'fade' button which applies a fixed duration microfade.

3. If it's just one sample that loops continuously throughout the beat, should I keep it in the audio track or slice it to MIDI? Like, is the latter only necessary when dealing with multiple samples / samples that appear in special places, or is it best practice regardless?

Assuming you're in arrange view: My suggestion is put the clip on your track, crop it as you like to matching the tempo of your track, re-select exactly one bar of the track containing the clip, and consolidate that section (this will make sure you have a clip that's exactly one bar in length). Then with the newly consolidated clip selected, set its warp mode to re-pitch so you can activate the clip 'loop' button. Finally drag out the end boundary of your clip to the length you'd like it to repeat to.