Signal Chain & Amplitude
The purpose of the Sample Operators Union,
and this article in particular, is to explore
the art of making music using an electronic
device known commonly as a sampler. The sampler
(and more specifically the art of building
sound collages from "moments" taken
from phonograph records) has received little
acceptance from the masses, probably due to
the back-alley way in which the sampler came
into play. With the advent of hip-hop, and
deejays scratching records as "music",
the sampler became the staple in hip-hop production.
What we hope to do with the Sample Operators
Union is to provide topics, tips, discussions,
and dissertations on the art of using a sampler
to create music.
This article will focus on working with drum
breaks lifted off records. Specifically, how
to cut them up, beef them up, and make them
bump, using a few simple techniques, which
are:
The Signal
Chain refers to the path a sound takes
to reach its final destination (your ears,
or your tape deck). For example, an emcee
will rhyme into a microphone, the microphone
is plugged into a microphone preamplifier,
the preamplifier is patched into a mixing
board, the channel of the mixing board that
the microphone is patched into is run through
a compressor, the compressor is patched back
into a different channel of the mixing board,
and finally, the signal is sent from the mixing
board to an open track on a recorder.
This same process can be applied to drum
breaks. By chopping a drum break into individual
sounds
(kick, snare, hi-hat, etc.), then sending
each individual sound through it’s own
signal chain (rather than running a drum loop
through a single channel), there are more
choices available for applying different processes,
such as boosting the low end of a kick drum,
while cutting some hiss from a particularly
noisy hi-hat.
Amplitude
is, quite simply, volume. Separating
drum sounds allows you to adjust the
volume of each individual sound. For
instance, if the drum break you are
sampling has a very loud snare, separating
the individual sounds allows you reprogram
the drum pattern and lower the level
of the snare (Joe Farrell’s "Upon
This Rock" break is a perfect example
of snare that needs taming). For demonstrative
purposes, I will use a very common,
easy to find drum break: "Footsteps
in the Dark, part 1" by the Isley
Brothers, off their Go for Your Guns
LP on the TNeck label (1977). Everyone
reading this should have a copy of this
record, and if you don’t, run out
to your nearest used record store and
treat yourself. Just because it’s
an easy album to find, doesn’t
mean that it’s not good. This album,
besides having a break, is chock full
of niceness. Songs worth the listen
are, "Tell Me When You Need It
Again," "The Pride,"
"Livin’ in the Life,"
just to name a few. And "Footsteps
in the Dark" is well worth attention
past the break. It’s a slow-and-low
ballad about finding your woman on the
creep, "I keep hearing footsteps
baby, in the dark." Sample spotters
will recognize the song, as it was the
source for Ice Cube’s "It
Was a Good Day".
[Listen
to the "Footsteps in the Dark"
break as it appears on the LP]
STEP 1: PULL IT OFF THE PLATTER
The first thing you’ll need to do is
sample the first 2 measures of the song, which
is where the break is located (Side 1, song
2, approximately 6 seconds). I sampled the
drums with the record playing at 45 rpm. This
is an old habit of mine, from back in the
days when a sampler only offered a few seconds
of sample space. By sampling the drums at
45 rpm, the record is spinning faster, therefore
eating up less time. Once the drums are in
the sampler, the pitch of the sample can be
offset -5.25 cents to return the drums to
their initial pitch. Some people believe this
process also makes your drums "grittier,"
"dirtier," or "more street."
Truth be told, it depends on your processor,
but think what you want! I also sampled the
drums in mono, for simplicity.
[Listen
to the mono sample of the "Footsteps"
break after it’s been sampled at 45 rpm
and offset –5.25 cents]
STEP 2: CHOP THAT SHIT, HOMIE!
Once you’ve got the break in the sampler,
you need to amputate each individual hit from
the body of the break. I cut out 6 hits from
the body of the break.*
They are:
1.
Kick:
From beat 3 of the first measure (because
there is no hi-hat on the 3).
2. Snare
1: From beat 2 of the first measure.
3. Snare
2: From beat 4 of the first measure.
4. Hi-hat
1: From the "and" (or
upbeat) of beat 1 of the first measure.
5. Hi-Hat
2: From the upbeat of beat 2
of the second measure.
6. Open
hi-hat: From the upbeat of beat
4 of the last measure (the only open
hi-hat in the break).
*See Figure
1 for visual explanation of where these
drum sounds lie.
 I like to trim the sounds close, beginning
the sample within a few milliseconds of when
the sound hits, and ending it just after the
sound fades. Some prefer a wider cut, as it
gives more of a loose feel; the choice is
up to you. Once you’ve got the individual
sounds cut, simply assign them to their respective
places (pads, keygroups, zones, etc.).
[Listen
to each of the six individual drum sounds]
STEP
3: BOOM BAP THAT ASS UP
Now you need to program a beat. With the drums
sounds separated, you have the ability to
rearrange the pattern anyway you want, which
is something you can’t do with a loop.
Ernie Isley (the drummer we’re sampling)
arranged his break in a pretty straightforward
manner. It’s a basic 4/4 pattern, with
the kick on the 1 and the 3, and the snare
on the 2 and the 4, and the hi-hats doing
a little shuffle, for pizzazz. For those of
you who are not familiar with the rudiments
of drumbeats, let’s review quickly.
 The first thing you should know is 99% of
sample-based drum programming (and hip-hop
in particular) is written in 4/4 time. The
top number of the time signature refers to
how many counts there are in the measure,
that is, count from 1 to 4, and then start
at 1 again. The bottom number determines the
value of the notes, such as quarter notes.
In the case of "Footsteps," the
kick lands on the 1 and the 3, while the snare
lands on the 2 and the 4 (these are the quarter
notes). The hi-hat lands on the downbeats
as well as the upbeats (or eighth notes).
For spice, Ernie plays the hi-hats in sixteenth
note successions just after the upbeat of
the 2 and the 4, and just before the upbeat
of the 3 (Figure
2). The "Footsteps" break is
about 80 beats per minute. For practice, try
programming your pattern (at 87 bpm) to sound
identical to Ernie’s (using Figure 2
for help if necessary – I overlaid a
voice that counts the bars for clarification).
[Listen
to the reprogrammed version of Ernie’s
pattern]
 For my beat, I reprogrammed the "Footsteps"
break similar to Ernie’s pattern (kick
on the 1, snares on the 2 and the 4), but
I did away with the shuffling sixteenth note
hi-hats. Instead, I used sixteenth note kicks,
and positioned them throughout the pattern
(Figure
3). These "ghost" kicks create
a little more movement within pattern (and
are very common in hip-hop drum programming).
Unlike Ernie’s pattern, my beat is 8
bars long. Bars 1 – 3 and 5 – 7
are quite similar, but I added "rests"
(music vernacular for silence) after the snare
on the 2 beat in measures 4 and 8 (another
popular hip-hop technique). This creates a
little anticipation. The drums come back in
after the rests with a succession of sixteenth
note kicks, acting as a "pick up".
I used my first hi-hat sample, "Hi-Hat
1," for the down beats throughout the
pattern, and "Hi-Hat 2" for the
upbeats. I adjusted the volume of "Hi-Hat
2" to be slightly quieter than "Hi-Hat
1". This programming variance was used
to enhance the pulse of the beat. If I had
the same exact sample playing the same exact
way through the entire song, it could get
monotonous. I also offset the pitch of "Hi-Hat
1" raising it 5 cents. I assigned the
"Kick" to two different pads on
my sequencer. I dropped the pitch of the first
pad two steps (making it sound lower). I used
the first pad only on the 1 beat of each pattern.
This adds emphasis to the beginning of each
beat. I find that adding these subtle variances
in volume and pitch tend to produce that head
nodding effect. Drummers call this "syncopation".
[Listen
to the new 8 bar programmed beat]
STEP 4: "I
DOMINATE BREAK LOOPS"
You’ve got your break all chopped, you’ve
got your program in place, now you need to
focus on the sound. First things first; we
need to get that kick drum thumpin’.
The "Footsteps" kick is nice enough;
i.e., clean, solid, not-too-noisy, and it’s
got a little oomph! But, in my opinion, it
needs a little help. This is where personal
preference plays a role. Some people like
their shit all flimsy and "lo-fi"
sounding, some need 40 gallons of low end,
and some people want it to sound exactly like
DJ Premier’s beats. To each his own.
 Me? I likes me some low end! So, for the
sake of argument, let’s assume you
do as well. The first thing I do is assign
the
kick, snare,
and hi-hats to their own individual outs
within the sampler. This means that each
sound is coming
out of a different output (e.g., kick = output
1; snare = output 2; hi-hat = output 3).
Depending
on the sampler you’re using, you may
have to turn the general output for your
drum
group off to prevent the sounds from coming
out of their individual outs as well as
the
main L/R outputs. Obviously, this process
requires multiple outs. It also requires
a
mixing board of some kind, as you need some
device that will accept 5 inputs (the sampler’s
main outs as well as the 3 individual outs).
For this demonstration, assign your kick drum
to the sampler output 1, patching sampler
output 1 into mixer input 1. Likewise, assign
the snare to output and input 2, and the hi-hats
to 3. With the kit in this configuration,
you have separate control for each piece.
Why not take advantage? Let’s do 3 simple
things to the kit, 1) Boost the lows, 2) EQ
the hi-hats, and 3) leave the snare alone.
Boosting the
lows:
 In order to beef up the kick a little, we
need to EQ channel 1. The "oomph"
of the kick resides in the 80 to 100 hertz
range of the frequency spectrum. Therefore,
boosting the low frequency of channel 1 will
add the boom to our kick (Figure
5, depending on your EQ device, adjustments
may vary).
In order to get the kick to pack a little
more punch, we will compress it as well. You
will need a device commonly known as a compressor
(also known as a limiter). A compressor squashes
the dynamic range of a sound, allowing it
to occupy less headroom. Some engineers frown
on compression, as it has a tendency to stifle
the natural dynamic range of a sound. However,
most hip-hop producers not only use compression,
but rely on it to create their signature sound.
(Take Dr. Dre, his drums, basslines, vocals,
and keyboards are all compressed.) In hip-hop,
compression translates to, more bounce to
the ounce. Assign your kick drum (mixer channel
1) to an auxiliary send. (Again, depending
on equipment, this will vary. Just think of
an auxiliary output as a way to get whatever
sound is coming in on channel 1 out of the
mixer through another route besides the main
L/R outputs.) I am using a stereo compressor,
so auxiliary sends 1 and 2 on my mixing board
are assigned to inputs 1 and 2 of my compressor,
which sends the same signal from channel 1
twice to the compressor.
I am routing the compressor’s left
and right outputs back to the mixer, in
channels 15 and 16 (Figure
6); this is where the "signal chain"
comes in. Obviously, since the compressor
is now handling the kick drum, we don’t
want to hear what is coming through channel
1, instead we want to hear what is coming
through channels 15 and 16 (we want to hear
the post-compressor sound, not pre-compressor
sound). Therefore, we do not assign channel
1 to the main outs, only 15 and 16. This
can get a little complicated, as you are
routing one signal into the mixer multiple
times, which can result in a loop in your
audio signal if you’re not careful.
And, while loops are cool in the beat digging
world, loops are not cool in the signal
chain world. Loops in audio equipment cause
feedback, and feedback can cause damage
to equipment. If you are not sure what you’re
doing, I suggest turning your main volume
level down, then patch your signals, and
slowly turn the volume up while playing
your pattern to see if you’ve fucked
up the signal chain.
 Once you’ve got the kick drum coming
in through channel 1, out through auxiliaries
1 and 2, into the compressor, back into
the mixer through channels 15 and 16, and
out to your monitor, you can start adjusting
your compressor settings. With this kit,
I like the way the low end sounds with a
fairly strong compression setting. A 10:1
ratio squashes the kick rather nicely, and
a release setting of 0.3 milliseconds makes
for crisp and crunchy response. I am using
a compressor that’s classified as a
"hard-knee" compressor.
Compression, while helping your kick drum,
can also harm it. Two common problems associated
with compression are, 1) the "pumping"
sound, and 2) distortion. Once you’ve
dialed in a compression setting that’s
right for you, listen critically for a "pumping"
sound, or distortion in the low frequencies.
To alleviate pumping, decrease the compression
ratio, and increase the attack and release
times. Experiment with each setting to see
which is most responsible for the pumping
sound. Distortion of low frequencies is
usually caused by release time. Try increasing
the release time until the distortion goes
away.
EQing the hi-hats:
 Working with hi-hats that have been cut
from a sampled break can be problematic.
Hi-hats, when divorced from their break,
often contain a great deal of ambient noise
(which sounds normal in the context of
the
break, but can be quite distracting on
its own). A way to conquer this is to equalize
the hi-hats, cutting the low frequencies,
which lessens much of the surface and ambient
noise. For our purposes here, I simply
cut
out everything below 100 hertz. This serves
to clean up the hi-hats a bit. Another
resourceful
measure to take against hi-hat noise is
to decrease the sustain time in the envelope
generator (Figure
7). [More on envelopes in another S.O.U.L.
session.]
Leave the snare alone:
Sometimes you need to know when to say when.
In this case, the snare is fine. Fuck it,
right? I mean, you could probably compress
it, or EQ it, hell, you could even double
it, but why? So, we will process the snare
by not processing it at all. But, since
we are separating it from the rest of the
kit, we had to assign it to its own channel.
In this case, simply leave channel 2 as
it is. You only need to adjust the volume.
[Listen
to the reprogrammed beat, fully processed]
STEP 5: DEEP CONCENTRATION
Once the drum sound is set, I like to program
a handful of patterns that consist of variations
of the beat (whether they be different pick-ups,
random rests, or variations on the main
pattern). I add these throughout the song
to quill the redundancy. In this case, I
used scratching instead of programming to
switch up the pattern.
[Listen
to the drum pattern with scratch drum variations]
Now that everything is nestled in its own
place, all we need to do is add some piano,
organ, bass, and a little vocal garnish
(or whatever you prefer), and we’ve
got a jam! Again, everything depends on
your own taste. Whether you’re into
downtempo, hip house, or drum’n’bass,
all these methods can apply to your process
– all you need to do is adjust them
to your liking.
[Listen
to the main drum pattern with added instrumentation]
Now please listen to my song, "Destined To Get Tested", which
employs the break and techniques mentioned
above.Thanks for joining this S.O.U.L. session.
I hope it provided you with useful information
for your sampler operating endeavors. Please
let me know what you think, and if you’d
like to see any other specific topics or
methods discussed.
Peace,
--Bambouche of the Vanguard Squad
(Sample Operators Union, Local 718)
bambouche@vanguardsquad.com |
