Well damn. If there was something I thought would be easier than it seems, it’s making a sample. Have a listen to my finished product:
That took me about six hours to figure out.
Why that long?
First, I’ve never really programmed a sample before.
Second, I’ve never used Logic Pro to program samples before.
Third, I’m not used to the segmentation of the EDM / electronic music style. Whenever I wanted a sample before I usually just played on the kit or the keyboard and then grabbed what I liked from the whole track.
Maybe I should’ve done the same with this track but there was something about the layout and the number of choices that may have led me to overcomplicating the procedure.
So, to get a 5-second clip, it took you six hours?
Yup. I can’t say I’m really proud of the output but I can say I learned quite a bit in the process.
Why didn’t I just use what was already made?
That was the point: to make my own.
I’ve written before that there is a difference between the “DJs” and the “MCs” of the electronica world. DJs spin others music with minimal input, MCs create their own. Debate me on this, but, overall, there are the ones who make the original music and the ones who take it and mash it together with other music. That much can’t be debated. I wanted to make the music spun by others.
I tried, I failed, I sound like any other hack trying to have a go at EDM and, well, sounding like a hack.
There are no doubt far better samples out there than what you can download above. I know, cause I’ve used them myself. But how did they make those sounds? Where did those sounds come from?
I know where they came from, and that’s what I had in mind but I was trying to do something else. There is a difference between beat creation and the creation of the actual sounds, the actual music that makes up the sound packs out there.
There are the sound packs that have jams and other beats put together by artists, and then there are the sounds that those artists use to make their beats. I wanted to be part of the beginning portion of that creative process. And I failed.
I can’t be too upset because I now understand far better than before the commitment of time and effort that is needed to create those sound packs and those sounds.
To give an example, take a bass drum kick. There’s a usual bass drum kick:
But to get it to sound something like this:
Requires some work on the EQ and other digital tool finagling. And that’s what I was trying to do.
A few days ago I posted a track for “200 BPM” in which I used a set of ready made samples in Garageband and then mixed them to create an “original” track. This time, I wanted to create the exact bass drum sound I would use as a sample.
Now, given the tools I have the knowledge I have at the moment, I record both record the initial beat and then record the final sound, but I couldn’t figure out how to record the “in between” meddling around stuff. Ie, the stuff where I’m moving the compressor and EQ settings to create the different sounds. And I’m not just talking about the “FX” control board with which you can filter or repeat. I wanted to see the actual sound change by using the different knobs on the mixer.
So, in terms of actual output, I managed to get something together. In terms of idea realization, I failed. In terms of learning, I now know a lot better where I’m lacking and that I’ll have to spend more time learning how to actually input a sound source into the “square” of the sample board. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a screen shot of the set up today:
I was trying to figure out how to use the first screen to create one of the little squares in the second square. So it would look something like this:
Apparently it requires a little bit more work than just showing up.
Each of those squares contains an isolated sound file or sample that loops around and around until you press stop. Each square is a different sound. Each column is a different set of sounds. You can press one or many, or press the whole column. That’s what I was trying to create today and couldn’t get it to work just right. Or, at least as I found, it was taking much longer to create my “original sounds” than I had anticipated. Had I gone with pre-made samples I could probably have done it. However, then the problem becomes matching them all together, which can be a massive problem in and of itself.
So, the idea continues to try to create a “Track stack”, a “group of sounds”, a “mix”, a “loop” of some sort. This is what I’m attracted to in the electronica world and I can see myself going further with this. For now, I’ll chalk it up to an attempt but by no means a complete success. At the very least, however, I got a recording up today and I spent time going through the motions to create something with the tools for music production, and that’s one of my main goals with this whole month-long challenge.
Ah, and here are the MIDI files in case anyone else wants to have a go and quantize (fix the timing) or play around with them (cause you’re too lazy to make them yourself!):
Jamuary 7, 2021 – Make a Sample – Main Beat MIDI Jamuary 7, 2021 – Make a Sample – Crash Cymbal MIDI Jamuary 7, 2021 – Make a Sample – HiHat MIDI Jamuary 7, 2021 – Make a Sample – Electric Organ MIDI