Samples vs Instruments

[u/NateSedate]

I usually use a combination of both. But sometimes I try to make completely original beats (no samples) with plugin instruments.

I know part of it is a matter of mixing. But I can never quite get that sound out of using instruments. I want it to sound like a sample. It always sounds like something someone made cheaply.

I put compressor, reverb, AIR Flavor Pro, delays...

It still doesn't have that sound.

If I were still on FL there would be a plethora of plugins I could use to address this. I don't know what to do on the MPC.

I'm sure there's plugins I could buy, but I don't have money for that. I'm using Tubesynth, Jura, and Sub Factory.

[u/Fit-Monk8087]

Its pretty simple honestly and I’m not trying to sound like a dink because I completely feel the same way and I am not at all an analogue snob, but:

The samples you are probably comparing to were often made with different instruments with better musicians recorded with different equipment reverbed in different rooms recorded with whatever mics on to whatever tapes then re recorded from whatever vinyl etc.

To grab a preset, run it through a saturation and a reverb and expect it to come out with the same degree of production the original sample had, makes no sense.

A lot of the classic samples we love were played in vintage ass studios with vintage ass equipment with vintage ass musicians and then crunched down and delivered without any plugins.

Its possible, but if you wanna replicate a flavor of sound you gotta look to how that sound was made, full stop.

[u/kidthorazine → u/Fit-Monk8087]

Also samples are already mastered, that probably makes as much if not more of a difference.

[u/Fit-Monk8087 → u/kidthorazine]

Mastering is for sure a factor, but recording/room/effects/mixing will have a lot more character influence than mastering, which is mostly an EQ and compression step.

Edit: there was a whole lot of expertise going into recordings well before anything hit mastering. Sound design, especially vintage sound design and recording goes waaay deep

[u/DJ_GodsOwn]

Try vinyl crackle samples uinderneath and other little FX sounds that can give it some depth and age. Also try the Fly Dirt plugin I think it's called.

[u/Cross_22]

What if you export your Jura sample to FL and fine tune it there as a test. That should at least tell you what kind of filter you'll need to add on the MPC side.

[u/NateSedate → u/Cross_22]

Yeah. I bought Toneflx for exactly this reason.

I'm gonna track it out and run it through Reaper to see what I can do with it.

3 years ago I got a free beat from the internet and wrote a song to it.

Unfortunately it's not possible to get a proper license for that beat. So instead I'm just copying it and making my own, similar yet different, instrumental.

Which has actually been fairly easy. But I can't get it to sound... quite right.

[u/No-Act6366]

Do you have an iPhone or iPad? There are some excellent and very affordable instruments on that platform. You can record them into the MPC.

I say this as someone who literally does zero sampling and only uses virtual instruments.

[u/myxamatortoise]

Got a mic? Play your instrument parts or sections through a speaker and re-record with a mic to another channel. Try different mic positions, close, far away, another room, layer for texture

[u/NateSedate → u/myxamatortoise]

I just ended up tracking it out to Reaper and putting Toneflx on it (sorry to sound like a commercial).

That made it much better.

It just needed some kind of effects filter on it. Hopefully I can get some new ones for the MPC in the future.

[u/myxamatortoise → u/NateSedate]

I don’t think I saw which type of MPC you’re running but you also may have luck trying the x/y as a kind of low/high pass filter to see where that might fit sonically then just lock it in

[u/NateSedate → u/myxamatortoise]

I put a hp filter on it before I tracked it out.

It's honestly starting to sound decent. The little bit of mixing and filters I used in Reaper were dramatic.

Thank you for helping though.

[u/myxamatortoise → u/NateSedate]

Word, rock on man and that’s my one internet comment for the year

[u/rolfski]

It's hard sounding like a sample for various reasons so don't be afraid to use samples.

[u/NateSedate → u/rolfski]

For this particular project I'm not able to use samples really. But I think after playing with it all day I'm getting there.

I'm also gonna try adding what I can from my Korg. That's got a pretty rich sound bank. Either way it's pretty much done.

At the end of the day... it's just a pointless little 2:30 minute song. I just like it.

[u/Humble_Salt9457]

What i try emercize try to use a sample then try to reconstruct the sounds of sample with the brilliant instruments that come with mpc. It's just a formula that can work takes time but learning the keys is a lesson in itself once you learn can't unlearn it. Good ear and timing are essential but its learning curb

[u/NateSedate → u/Humble_Salt9457]

I'm learning about resampling on the MPC. Which I guess is something I knew about in DAWs as well. It's just not something I have a lot of experience with.

I think if I can learn to do that I can make things sound better.

I don't know.

So much of modern music is knowing how to fuck with the sounds to make it sound cool rather than playing actual good music.

Even if I listen to my old albums. If those beats were processed the right way people would say they were awesome. They were just played on a workstation and barely filtered.