Sampling in Ableton: Pitching Without Changing Tempo

Sampling
Pitching without Changing Tempo

Photo Used Courtesy of Plat'Num World ProjeX

So, I have been producing pop, hip-hop, dance, and R&B music since the mid 80’s. Professionally, I have been engaged since the mid 90’s. However, last week I sat in as a guest lecturer at the Music Industry Workshop in Chicago. The panel was on making beats in Ableton Live. Normally, my production is completed in Protools, Logic, or Reason, but I got stumped on a basic sampling question on how to sample in Ableton. Well, I am here to dispel that confusion.

Suffice it to say, I rarely use sampling in my production. However, it has been a game changer for the face of popular Hip-Hop music. According to Thorn Holmes, author of “Early Synthesizers and Experiments,” in 1944, composers at the Groupe de Recherchés Musicales at the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF), originally created looping and sampling on magnetic wire. The Primary intent was to be utilized for compositional pieces of electronic music. Additionally, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, contributed to some early findings (Holmes).

Once digital samplers went into full production, Hip-Hop evolved by regurgitating old hits into newer generations via sampling and looping. This opens a totally different issue of copyright infringement-not for this blog post. However, a sample clearance form is in place to rectify those potential disasters. Some of the pioneering sampling manufacturers are Mellotron, Synclavier, Fairlight Instruments, Emu, Akai, Roger Linn, and Roland. In my early days, I used the Asr-10, EPS 16+, Akai MPC 60, Akai MPC 60-II, Roland W-30, Akai S-900, Akai S-950, Akai S-1000, Linn Drum Machine, Emu SP1200, Synclavier, Akai MPC 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000.

Here is a really great interactive look at a timeline on how music has been recycled: http://jklabs.net/projects/samplinghistory/

Lastly, I did not realize James Brown was the number one sampled artist in history (The-Breaks.com).

                                                                                          

Here is a video tutorial I put together specifically for this blog. It demonstrates how to pitch a sample without changing its tempo within a software-based application called Ableton Live versus the external physical hardware samplers:

Ableton Beat Making_Sample and Pitch in Time (Pt 1)

 Ableton Beat Making_Sample and Pitch in Time (Pt 2)

Ricco Lumpkins

Reference:

The-Breaks.com http://www.the-breaks.com/stats.php - http://www.the-breaks.com/stats.php

        

Holmes, Thom (2008). "Early Synthesizers and Experimenters". Electronic and experimental music: technology, music, and culture (3rd ed.). Taylor & Francis.

JK Labs (2004). Retrieved January 22, 2012 from http://jklabs.net/projects/samplinghistory/

Photo Used Courtesy of Plat'Num World ProjeX

Song Used Courtesy of Plat'Num World ProjeX-“Sample and Pitch,” Produced by Ricciano Lumpkins aka the Vet Boi™ for PWPX, LLC and Written by Ricco Lumpkins and Nate Butler, Published by Archives of RachelJames Music (SESAC) © 2000 and 2012, Vocal performance by Olethia Ritchie.