emusonacid! legacy

how do you guys layer your breaks? just curious.
i am interested in seeing how every one does this with your samplers...

I use an MPC for my breaks, personally, so I don't have any comments specific to EOS samplers...

But anyway, I like to EQ 'em before layering. Usually strip off the low end for all but one of them (let that one dominate the low end). That also lets you layer without worrying as much about clashing kicks or slightly off timings. Sometimes other EQing helps as well. All in all, it's somewhat of a bitch

What I would like to do is try using the Emu and loading up several breaks with an LFO controlling amp volume so that they fade in and out of each other. That could create a very nice effect...

WHAT?!?!?!?

only one response...

well thank you mind mech...

here is what i do. tell me what you guys think.

i have tried to sync breaks up by layering them in midi. for example break one and break two would be on different tracks. but i found that i had stuff getting out of sync.

so what i have started to do is layer the sounds on top of each other in the preset screen. so voice one would have a kick from one break and another kick form another break, and maybe even a cymbal from even another break. so what happens is i play all those at once, and they stay in time better.

now you might be thinking that: well what if i only want one of the sounds to play instead of all of them. i use the midi controllers and set up amp comtroller's so i can turn them off. so i can choose what sounds i want to play by setting the various controllers to off. also if i have a sample that needs to play longer then what the actual sample length of that particular hit is, i use the key~>keysust>100% so the sample plays the entire length. seems to work well for me.

the idea for this thread what to kick around ideas on making breaks easier to sync and deal with in general. i hope some more people have so other ideas they wouldn't mind sharing..

well time to get back to my music...

i haven't yet done any beats in the EMU, im still a ways off that. Im concentrating on refining my bass technics and trying to get some wikid cool Cause 4 concern type filter modulations...so far it aint happnin.

But anyways, years ago when i did beats in my K2500 id have about 32 layers (Voices in EMU) of drum sounds from different breaks which was a complete kit that id use most of the time. Id usually draw notes in the sequencer of the various kik's id want layered and play them back. From then id usually narrow the field a bit till i found a decent combo of kiks then id place hi pass filters at various frequencies on each of them until it sounded right. The idea was that some kik had a nice boom so id lowpass it while other kiks had a different mid/top sound so id hi pass them around the same freq as the cutoff of the low passed kiks.

From there id usually resample the mix of kiks then use that kik as the one for a loop id program in the sequencer. Id do the same with snares an sometime hats. The samples would have pretty much a zero release cos id draw the note lengths i wanted for each drum in the sequencer.... Once my sequenced loop is tight id either make another one or use a loop from another source an hi -pass it an layer on my sequenced loop so as to use it for fills on the top...this used to work quite well.

When i get around to doing drums on my EMU im sure ill have more to add..oh yeah i need a SCSI card for my puter fist so i can get drums into the EMU ;-) But for now i so badly need to get experiment with different basses..this Cause 4 Concern/Optiv Style has got me fsck'd tho....oh yeah that twisted phased bass in Stakka/Skynet's 'Straight Jacket' has totally got me in a twist.

Yeah SnH ... rip those individual hits out of breaks and make your own. try using the mid thump of one snare and the high thwack of another ... or use the initial transient (+the body) and the tail of another ... make sure you highpass anything that shouldn't have bass ... try using the tuning functions on the ones that don't go below 300Hz ... remember to syncopate rythms so that your woodblock hits on a note that the kick and snare don't, for example ... erm .... compress and resample .... erm ... yeah