dude I've been struggling for years with chopping breaks but this right here is the best tutorial on youtube probably and most "respectful" to the break as well without warping and messing it up thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Thanks a lot! I hope it helped. 'How to turn any drum break into a Jungle Break' is something I would definitely invest in 👍🏻, but unfortunately, a lot of breaks don't really work for Jungle DnB / faster tempos. I will be doing a new Mac based, Ableton 10 chopping tutorial soon. Cheers! J
@@MikeHancho663 Hey Julian, chopping the ghost snares / grace notes can be difficult, especially on some breaks. What break are you having issues with btw? (I personally found some problems getting the ghost snares right in a lot of 'Pretty Purdie' breaks, as they're drowned with reverb and played quite loose, always hard to get them to sit right when I'm reprogramming). I would say try to tweak the start point of the sample after you've chopped it / when programming, it can take a while to get it right tbh. This is also why I try to set the tempo in Ableton to match the break (unwarped / left at its natural tempo / pitch), so you get a MIDI file that matches the exact timing of each slice / warp marker you've put in. Also, try to chop the ghost / grace notes a little earlier, leaving a tiny space before the main transient, that sometimes helps I find, because a lot of drum breaks will have a little groove in the shuffle / ghost snares, this helps keep it a little natural (again, this is just the way I do it, there are no rules). Let me know what break you're working on, i am quite intrigued now. Cheers. J
Lovin this mate! I always throw my break into the sampler and get the whole ”now I have to eq and compress the entire break”- dilemma. This eradicate that problem. Cheers
Wicked. Cheers man. There are loads of different ways of doing it tbh, I much prefer the painful, bang your head against the wall way, haha. Ableton 11 soon, shit, I'm going to have to upgrade again 🙃👍🏻
SliceX inside fl studio 20 is way faster the same work flow and you are able to apply declick-in and declick-out one each sample if needed. Great tutorial bro
Rather than looking for a 0 point on both stereo outputs, you can just put a fade at the begining and end. That should start and end the samples at a 0 point and stop any clipping. Thanks for the help on chopping breaks, slicing to midi makes it so much easier!
Hello mate just found your channel and this breaks video is fantastic, never considered the implications of stereo breaks. that tip with utility is spot on. Cant wait to finish work and have a mad break chop up on Ableton. Big ups Scarecrow
in live 9 too: 1. load drumrack / 2. put same drumbreak in each pad / 3. in each pad editing drumbreak file in simpler put slice in start and end from sound yout select / 4. repeat last step in each pad (kicks, snares, hats) / 5. put rec and made your own drums...
Brilliant tutorial mate - would have liked to see you maybe make a couple more variations and talk a bit more about the musical theory behind the break in relation to jungle/dnb but in terms of explaining process and method this is very helpful, thanks!
Hey Jacob, thanks a lot. I will be posting up some more in depth vids covering different techniques soon (sped up vs individually chopped samples etc, each has its own merit). Regarding the musical theory side of things, you could get REALLY into that side of things, i.e. tuning drums, what hand is paying what etc, but I prefer to just go with what sounds good, i will try to include some theory in the next vid though (from what little understanding I have of it, haha :)...). Cheers! J
Really helpful tutorial, well explained. Thanks! 🙏 How does your process differ if the break is faster than the tempo you want to use it at? Do you use ping pong looping to extend the tails of your chops to fill the gaps when slowing the tempo? Also, are you Lohan from Search and Destroy?
Big up Tom, you know I'm a massive fan of your stuff (and I'm humbled that you'd watch this and even more so if it has helped in any way tbh). I'll be posting more up soon. Cheers! J
Haha! You have a good eye mate ;). TBH, I installed that just before filming this, didn't have time to get it all sorted and learn it (plus i didn't have an adequate mic). Thanks for watching 👍🏻
@@CrazyLohan all jokes aside this tutorial was absolutely fantastic, you are a skilled producer and even more importantly a skilled teacher. i spent 6 hours just practicing chopping breaks after watching yesterday, thanks for posting it
@@ugent_ Haha! Nice one Evan, thanks a lot. I'm glad it helped :). I'm going to get my arse in gear and do some more tuts soon (maybe using OBS lol ;)...). Happy chopping! Cheers. J
super useful tho im stuck wondering more about the oldschool techniques youre talking about, like pitch shifting the whole sample, and it seems like they liked to use breaks more as-is or maybe would chop a few hits together, or to 1/8ths or 1/16ths. idk any suggestions for more of that 1992/93 sound? thx for making this
Hey Josh, thanks a lot man, I hope it helped. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing the old school way of doing things, some breaks sound much better sped up tbh, and a lot more 'Jungly'. I guess it was the limited technology back then, it was so much harder to chop each individual hit and pitch it etc (limited sample time/memory on earlier samplers etc). Also, it was all so new, so it all sounded great, plus, the tempo of tracks back in the early Hardcore / Jungle days were much slower than modern day DnB, so each break wasn't sped up THAT much. From what I know, you used to pitch up the break to the tempo of the track you were working on (anything between 140-165bpm, depending on the era), then a few people used to chop the main sections (8ths and 4ths, Kick & hat, then Snare, hats and ghost notes/rolls/shuffles..... you can hear it in the way early Jungle was programmed, but again, there weren't many rules, which is what was the beauty of it all, I guess, just whatever worked and sounded good). I'll be doing a couple more tuts soon, I'll go through a few sped up breaks. Thanks again for checking it out, much appreciated. Happy programming man! :)
Thanks for checking the vid. Ahhhhh, a fellow old school Akai data wheel twiddler :). I used to get serious RSI from that back in the day, haha. I've been a bit manic with other stuff since lockdown over here, but I'll be doing V2 and a few other new tuts in Dec / Jan. Cheers! 👍🏻
in Logic you don't necessarily have to be limited to only processing the entire break you can use the exs24 as multiple output and send Kicks, snares etc. to different outputs and then process them individually like you are doing in Ableton
Hey, thanks a lot for checking out the vid. I used to rock Logic, and I'll be honest, I do miss EX24 (not many software samplers are as easy to use or can do what EXS can do, but Ableton is a little more open ended). I get that you can route multiple outs in EXS now, but I like the way Ableton does it automatically, plus it gives you individual envelope control over each sample / slice etc (but I do miss Logic....). Cheers! J
If you use the multi out option on exs24 you can bus each individual sample on the mixer or just some of them, you said you couldn’t , just letting you know you can! Super helpful video though thank you!
Hey man, thanks for checking the vid. Yeah, I understand you can route multiple outputs in EXS24, but you have to do it manually, right? Just that, when you've got say, 70 or so slices etc, it can be a bit long, Ableton does it automatically, and gives you individual envelope control etc and a mixer channel for each slice (don't get me wrong, I really miss Logic and EXS, goddamn I spent so many hours on EXS bloody 24 man :)...), I just find Ableton a bit quicker with workflow etc, each to their own, no one way is better than the other. Cheers! J
Thanks a lot Jaime, much appreciated. I hope it helped. The link for the Bluewater site and the main break are in the description, but if you search for 'omfg breaks' on DOA forum, you'll find them all, well, most of them (kinda like Pokemon, innit? ;)....). Cheers!
Amazingly generous work here! Looking forward to thr Mac version but this was very helpful. Ive just started trying my hand at chopping breaks in Reaper but this is making me want to, ahem, >>find
Thank you for your kind words. Ableton is awesome for speedy workflow etc, once you get the hang of it (like everything I guess...). I have heard a lot of good things about Reaper, will be checking it out soon. Hope this helped, happy break chopping! Cheers, J
Hi, really good video. I am doing it the same way but didn't think about taking just one of the stereotracks instead of merging, also I never grouped the same hits for further processing. Did you know that simpler also allows to play the sample as long as the note is held? So you can move your chopped bits around but if you dont find a good one fast enough you can just lengthen the midi note (like you said in the old days but having more or less both in one). I would be really interested in a tutorial how you process the groups. Stopped dnb ages ago in favour of tech house but always having choped processed funkloops inside I am now going back making some oldschool dnb when it just went from jngle to dnb. Any good recommendations on saturation / distortion to not having to buy an old cr1604 for driving the 808's?
Hey Jens, thanks for checking the vid. I'm intending to do some more tuts soon, finally got my set up sorted. I'll check some of your music out, cheers! For distortion on 808's etc, i usually use Camelphat/crusher, Trash 2, there's a plugin i got recently called Front DAW, which is nice and a bit more subtle (good for use on all tracks tbh). But the best and probably most old school way would be to run them / overdrive them through a mixing desk (most cats use Soundcraft or older Mackies to get that jungle flavour), whack the gain right up, let it red light, and bring the fader down on that channel..... that's my favourite tbh. Thanks again! Cheers. J
Thanks for checking the vid man, I hope it helped. If you're using intro, I think the only way to slice to MIDI is by loading the sample into a Simpler instrument, turn off the warping and loop options and select 'slice' mode. It will add slices / markers which you can change and add your own. Once you're happy with them, right click / control click and select 'Slice To New MIDI Track', that should create a new sampler / drum rack with the slices you've made. Let me know if that works. From my understanding, that's the closest way to process and chop up breaks / samples like this in Ableton's Intro version. Happy chopping. Cheers! J
listened to your tunes and would really like a tutorial from you on bass and then mixing that in with breaks, that'd be sick, this video was perfect. Also do you have a SoundCloud?
Hey, thank you very much for watching. I'm intending to do a few more tuts soon, will do my best :). Yes, my Soundcloud is: soundcloud.com/scarecrowlives ... some new bits on there now (have been focussing on Dubstep recently, got to get it out, innit?). Big up!
Thanks a lot! I've heard a lot of good things about renoise, have been meaning to check it out for a while tbh, just that whole paradigm shift to another DAW can be a little jarring at first, it's kind of like Octamed, isn't it? Cheers!
Thank you very much. I hope it has helped (even a little, that's the whole point, I guess). Cheers for watching, there will be another break tut coming soon. Peace :)
Hey, hope you're good. I have been working on a Mac specific video, then I realised it's been 4 years since I posted this vid, eeeesh, time flies aye? I will post one (or more) up soon, but yes, it's exactly the same on a Mac, exactly the same, only difference is the keyboard / shortcut functions (control, alt & command on a Mac work slightly differently than alt & command do on a PC, but it's essentially the same). Thanks for checking the vid, I'll try to post some more stuff soon. Cheers 👍🏻
ok this seems like a very stupid question but how do they do the thing in the clip view where they audition certain parts of the sample really quickly over and over again, like what they were doing with the ghost snare
Hey man, thanks for checking the vid. If you turn the global quantisation at the top left from 1 Bar to none, then when you're viewing the sample/audio in clip view, hover the mouse on the lower half of the audio (the cursor should turn from a magnifying glass to a speaker icon), if you click and hold (or click real fast) you should be able to audition the same way as in the vid (holding the mouse button down and scrolling/scrubbing through is probably better tbh). You can then zoom right in and double click to add the warp marker where you want it. Hope that helps man, cheers ✌🏻
Hey man the sample I've used has quite a lot of swing to it, meaning it's impossible to line the whole sample up on the beat as to line one kick up moves another off if you get me 😂. Thought I'd just trooper on but it's completely messed up the sampling when converting it to midi. How would I get around this? Would I need to warp on the transient markers I've put in to fix the hits onto the grid or is that gunna completely mess it up. Would it be better to just start with another sample? Regardless massively appreciate the tutorial 👌
Is there a way to save the midi notes? Or lay out the slices to use in other tracks? Because I can't imagine chopping manually and "slice to new midi track" with every new track
Hi Will, thanks a lot, hope it helped. I'm just auditioning each warp marker /slice manually with the mouse. I think there is a way you can trigger each sample/slice from the warp marker / transient point (but as far as i'm aware, you can only do it in arrangement view, doesn't work in clip view). If you go to clip edit view in the arrange page, hold option/alt (on a Mac, ctrl on a PC) and you can then scroll through / select your transients / warp markers by holding option and pressing the left or right arrow keys. To audition each sample from that warp marker, select warp marker (as before), then hold option and press space / play (ctrl & play on a PC), you can then go through and audition each warp marker holding option and pressing the arrow keys and space bar as you go. Hope that helps. Cheers!
(Also, just to add, trying this out, when you do the above, it does also snap to the closest recommended warp marker (even if you haven't technically added a yellow warp marker there, so you'll have to add your own and delete the recommended warp markers / transient points that Ableton adds). Cheers! I learnt something there too... ;)....)
Hi there, the greyed out notes in the MIDI clip are muted notes (press 0 to mute / unmute). I copy and paste parts of the rhythm I am using and mute them, so they are readily available for edits etc, bit of a bad habit as it can get quite messy, but handy having various different shuffles and sections of the break available straight away, Cheers!
Cheers man! Hope it helped. There's no such thing as a dead or stupid question man :). Yes, you can side chain anything to anything in Ableton. The way I've done this, split the breaks to separate slices in the Drum Rack / Sampler and grouped them... you can then add an Ableton compressor to any other track and select any of the slices / kicks / snares from the chopped break to be the trigger for that sidechain compressor. Add a compressor to the destination track / track to be sidechained, click the down arrow on the top left to expand it, click 'Sidechain', and select the 'Audio From' drop down menu to choose the channel / group you want to affect the destination / ducked sidechain channel. Where I've grouped the kicks and snares separately, you can either just select the group / all kicks / snares to affect to destination compressor, or select the drum rack / MIDI channel that the break is on, then in the box below that, you can specify what drum hit / kick / snare you want to be the side chain trigger.... Ableton makes it very easy (although it will give you 'post mixer, 'pre fx' & 'post fx' options, I usually go with post....). Then, adjust the ratio (I usually go for at least 3:1 - 4:1, to make sure it affects it) then adjust the threshold & attack /release to get the desired effect. Hope that helps man, any questions, post em up. Cheers! J
Thanks a lot! TBH, Ableton doesn't really have any tools etc, there's no need really (apart from when you're in MIDI part edit mode, where B toggles between Pencil and cursor). The speaker icon / cursor appears automatically in the audio editor window when you hover your pointer on the lower half of the waveform. it changes from the speaker / scrub icon on the lower half, the standard cursor on the top half of the waveform, then to the loop selector/brace tool when you hover over the loop points / bar, then to zoom at the very top the waveform window, so you can zoom in/out etc. Partly why I love Ableton, theres no need for tools, it changes to whatever you need depending on what section / window you're on. I hope that helps. Cheers!
Hey Anthony.Do you mean while I'm auditioning / checking the transients / warp markers? It's because the main quantise is set to none, you can hover on the lower / bottom half of the waveform and hold the mouse click, it will play / repeat depending on what your quantisation is set to, I mostly set it to none, so it doesn't audition the waveform from the closest 16th / 8th note etc, so I know where the marker should go, PS.... good to record that shit down sometimes, just for fx and that. Hope that helps man. Cheers! J
Hey Oliver, thanks for checking the vid. I've had a dig and I believe the original song is 'Mickey And The Soul Generation - Football' (the break is right at the very end of the track), incredibly hard to find a decent, high quality version, apart from the mighty Bluewater's breakbeat collection (or unless you have the vinyl). There's a link to Bluewater's version in the description 😉. Hope that helps man. Cheers! J
After I "Slice to MIDI" and play the newly created MIDI Track, I'm getting clicking sound in between the MIDI notes. If I rearrange the note creating my own break, I don't hear the clicking that much on some of the notes. I am setting the points at the zero point, sometimes slightly ahead as suggested...Any thoughts as to where the click is coming from?
Hey, thanks for checking the vid. Just out of interest, what break are you using? What tempo is the original break compared to what you're working with / programming at? If the break is fast and chopped to a fast tempo (& especially if you slow the arrangement tempo down after this) you could be getting clips from the end of each slice, that can sometimes cause this. As there's a gap in-between the end and start of each sample, which can cause artefacts, as most breaks (most, mind, not all) are sped up from their original tempo so the tails are cut sooner or muted by the next slice, if you are using choke mode etc (which I'll go into on the next vid). Would be good to know the above tbh, it's probably the tails or end of the sample causing this. Let me know what break it is (or send it to me) and i'll check it out further. Cheers, J 👍🏻
@@Krookedskater1001 Cheers for watching, same as I commented above (or below, to modetoo's comment). Let me know what break it is and what tempo you're going from and working with and I'll check it out. Cheers 👍🏻
@@CrazyLohan Thanks for responding. I tried chopping 3 breaks. Amen Brother didn't give me any trouble. I had trouble with "I Got Some" - Billy Gardener (92 BPM) and "Let A Woman Be A Woman" - Dyke & The Blazers (113 BPM). Do you have those? I can sort you out if needed. I kept all breaks at their original BPM when I made my warp markers, sliced to MIDI, (clicks are there in the original BPM) then adjusted to BPM to 170. I made sure to use the Utility, especially for "Let A Woman" because one channel has the drums plus 'jangle' (a la Digital & Spirit - Phantom Force), and the other channel is straight drums. After messaging you I went to the Abelton site to troubleshoot. One person mentioned adjusting the start/zero point in the Sampler. It cleaned up maybe 2 slices. I'm not familiar with Choke mode, so I don't think I am using it.
Hey Brian, thanks for checking the vid. Sure thing, I'll post a link the the project file in the description in a mo. Only thing is, at the end of the tut, I unwarp the main break sample to show how it sounds pitched up, so the main break doesn't have my warp markers / slice points in it anymore (as i saved it after doing this), but I guess everyone can add theirs and make it their own. I'll give you a shout as soon as I've uploaded it (i'll add some break variations etc also). Cheers! J
@@CrazyLohan big ups brother. I have a way of chopping breaks and arranging etc myself but am excited to learn additional methods. Thanks for this ;) Here's a tune of mine featuring such style breaks... soundcloud.com/anguishdnb/og-returns-master I'd love to hear what you think if you have a minute ;) Free download of it on my page (shameless plug)
Hi Brian, apologies for the late reply, been away for a bit. Here you go: www.dropbox.com/sh/qne9i68c52celpf/AACzVyP9EUMikE_WUJq99WcQa?dl=0 I've updated the video description with the link also. It's real raw, and I've added a few variations and a choked version (which I'll go through on the next tutorial). Hope that helps. Cheers! J
Hey man, thanks for checking the vid. I turn the main quantise to 'none', so it doesn't snap to the nearest 16th / 8th / bar etc, that way you can keep your finger on the mouse button and scrub through the audio on the bottom half of the waveform, or just click real fast, haha. Cheers!
@@CrazyLohan thanks for getting back to me! is there a shortcut to make the playhead restart when you click? double tapping on a clip makes a warp marker
@@AT-eh2eo Hey man, no probs. Just out of interest, are you on the clip or arrangement view? Arrangement view is much better tbh (has a few extra features that aren't in clip view). You should be able to set the main arrangement quantise to 'none', then when you double click on the audio file and enter the sample editor view on the bottom, you should be able to hover your mouse over the bottom half of the waveform, the pointer will turn into a little speaker, you should be able to click away to audition any point of the sample, even hold the mouse down and scrub through it (it shouldn't add warp markers clicking on this part of the waveform, let me know if it does). There's another nice feature I found recently that i didn't know about, if you enter any warp marker in the sample, you can select a warp marker (click on it, the vertical line will go orange), if you hold option / ALT (on a Mac, I think it's CTRL on a PC) and press space bar / play, it will play from each slice / warp marker, you can also keep ALT held and press the left and right arrow keys, it will skip to the next / previous transient or warp marker / slice point, so you can audition them accurately (because using the mouse isn't technically accurate, as there's no quantise, and it's not technically playing from the warp marker you put in, just where you're clicking)..... anyways, I'll whack that in the next tutorial. Cheers!
@@CrazyLohan Hey i figured it out!! Thanks a bunch!! i def wanna see that in action! imma try next time im in the lab. I agree with the sentiment about arrangement view. Structuring beats is so much more organized. Im completely spacing on the name of the function, but its on the top right corner of arrangement view, Thats been really helpful for jumping back and forth between patterns im working on across the timeline without needing to do more than click an arrow, id like to try and midi map it so i can just press a button, havent tried yet. Clip view has been super great with randomizing patterns with launch settings if i make half patterns per clip.
Hi Mr Pope. I tried to explain what I was doing in great detail. I assume most people that view this know how to use Ableton Live a little, so I didn't explain every single click that I did, that would take AAAAGES. Anyways, it's my first tut, can only get better right? I hope it helped a little ;). Cheers!
the best video I've seen on the topic so far! unpretentious and to the point. thank you for sharing!
This is the best Breaks tutorial.
dude I've been struggling for years with chopping breaks
but this right here is the best tutorial on youtube probably
and most "respectful" to the break as well
without warping and messing it up
thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Cheers man. Thanks for watching. Happy chopping ✌🏻
It honestly doesn't take that long once you actually learn... this video is too long when the end result sounds baaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Great info. Thanks!
I think I watched this a while back but I must have been skipping or something because after watching it all this is an amazing tutorial. TOP MAN!!!!
Cheers! Thanks for watching, I hope it helped 👍🏻
Wow - I didn’t know you could group the slices, that’s very helpful!
Hands down the best chopping tutorial I've ever seen. Screw that Pope Francis dude.
Haha. Thanks a lot Sam. TBH, I didn't think anyone would watch this at all. Thanks for checking it out and for your kind words man. J 👍🏻
What a superbly explained video. I really enjoyed this and learned a lot. Thanks for taking the time...I will listen to your tracks.
Thanks a lot, thank you for checking it out (and the tracks). Cheers ✌🏻
Best video I've ever seen, but we all need another one.
"How to turn any drums breaks in a jungle break".
It will be the consecration for me
Thanks a lot! I hope it helped. 'How to turn any drum break into a Jungle Break' is something I would definitely invest in 👍🏻, but unfortunately, a lot of breaks don't really work for Jungle DnB / faster tempos. I will be doing a new Mac based, Ableton 10 chopping tutorial soon. Cheers! J
@@CrazyLohan Thats wicked news, defo keepin an eye out for that!
Straight up the best breaks tutorial on youtube.
Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for checking the vid. Cheers.
Jason Scarecrow as a follow up: I’ve had some trouble distinguishing and cutting ghost hits of the snare. Any tips for this?
@@MikeHancho663 Hey Julian, chopping the ghost snares / grace notes can be difficult, especially on some breaks. What break are you having issues with btw? (I personally found some problems getting the ghost snares right in a lot of 'Pretty Purdie' breaks, as they're drowned with reverb and played quite loose, always hard to get them to sit right when I'm reprogramming). I would say try to tweak the start point of the sample after you've chopped it / when programming, it can take a while to get it right tbh. This is also why I try to set the tempo in Ableton to match the break (unwarped / left at its natural tempo / pitch), so you get a MIDI file that matches the exact timing of each slice / warp marker you've put in. Also, try to chop the ghost / grace notes a little earlier, leaving a tiny space before the main transient, that sometimes helps I find, because a lot of drum breaks will have a little groove in the shuffle / ghost snares, this helps keep it a little natural (again, this is just the way I do it, there are no rules). Let me know what break you're working on, i am quite intrigued now. Cheers. J
Lovin this mate! I always throw my break into the sampler and get the whole ”now I have to eq and compress the entire break”- dilemma. This eradicate that problem. Cheers
Wicked. Cheers man. There are loads of different ways of doing it tbh, I much prefer the painful, bang your head against the wall way, haha. Ableton 11 soon, shit, I'm going to have to upgrade again 🙃👍🏻
SliceX inside fl studio 20 is way faster the same work flow and you are able to apply declick-in and declick-out one each sample if needed. Great tutorial bro
What a fantastic tutorial, that was very clear and helpful. Cheers Jason!
Thank you very much, I hope it helped, even a little. Much appreciated man :). Cheers. J
Not a lot of dnb tuts out here! Thanks for taking the time to do this :)
Thanks for watching. I hope it helped. Cheers! ✌🏻
thanks, man! have loved jungle for a while so i'm excited to start making my own beats. would be good to see more tutorials from you :)
Thanks a lot man! I am working on a few more. Thanks for checking the vid. Happy break chopping! >>>> :)
powerful....you gave me a whole new perspective. THANK YOU
Thanks a lot man. I hope it helped 👍🏻
Such a good choppage tutorial. That's my weekend over with then. Rrrrr roll the beats
Cheers James! Thanks for watching. I hope it helped. Wheel and come again please please please ;)
Rather than looking for a 0 point on both stereo outputs, you can just put a fade at the begining and end. That should start and end the samples at a 0 point and stop any clipping. Thanks for the help on chopping breaks, slicing to midi makes it so much easier!
By all means, there is no right way to do it, if it sounds good.... >>>>. You are very welcome. Happy chopping! J
@@CrazyLohan agreed man, methods make the music
Hello mate just found your channel and this breaks video is fantastic, never considered the implications of stereo breaks. that tip with utility is spot on. Cant wait to finish work and have a mad break chop up on Ableton. Big ups Scarecrow
Big up Douglas, I hope it helped. Cheers.
Ahh hello mate! It's been a long time, if you're checking this I hope you're well x
this is parful cheers mate
I've watched a lot of tutorials this one hit home.
Cheers! Thanks a lot for watching, I hope it helped.
man such a good video. big up!
in live 9 too: 1. load drumrack / 2. put same drumbreak in each pad / 3. in each pad editing drumbreak file in simpler put slice in start and end from sound yout select / 4. repeat last step in each pad (kicks, snares, hats) / 5. put rec and made your own drums...
this is great 👍
Thanks! ✌🏻
Nice one ... made a lot of sense and given me a new spin on how to process / chop a break
Cheers man! Thank you for watching and I hope it helped. 👍🏻
stellar tutorial and skills, man!
Thanks man, cheers for watching it, I hope it helped.
It's actually the best tutorial
Thank you very much for watching, nice one.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video dude!
You're welcome man. I hope it helped :). Cheers!
Thanks a lot for this, mate! Super helpful and already using it as part of my workflow! :)
Nice one man! I hope it helped. Cheers! :)
Very nice, I'm glad that I watched it. Can't wait to improve my jungle.
Happy chopping! Cheers.
Bangin' tutorial man, appreciate it
Thanks man ✌🏻
Brilliant tutorial mate - would have liked to see you maybe make a couple more variations and talk a bit more about the musical theory behind the break in relation to jungle/dnb but in terms of explaining process and method this is very helpful, thanks!
Hey Jacob, thanks a lot. I will be posting up some more in depth vids covering different techniques soon (sped up vs individually chopped samples etc, each has its own merit). Regarding the musical theory side of things, you could get REALLY into that side of things, i.e. tuning drums, what hand is paying what etc, but I prefer to just go with what sounds good, i will try to include some theory in the next vid though (from what little understanding I have of it, haha :)...). Cheers! J
Great tutorial, just what I was looking for.
Cheers! I hope it helped :).
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge .
No problem at all :). I hope it helped. Cheers!
Really helpful tutorial, well explained. Thanks! 🙏
How does your process differ if the break is faster than the tempo you want to use it at? Do you use ping pong looping to extend the tails of your chops to fill the gaps when slowing the tempo?
Also, are you Lohan from Search and Destroy?
Really great tutorial. Thanks.
Thank you. I will be doing some more Mac based ones soon. Cheers! J
This was great! Looking forward to more wisdom.
Big up Tom, you know I'm a massive fan of your stuff (and I'm humbled that you'd watch this and even more so if it has helped in any way tbh). I'll be posting more up soon. Cheers! J
best part is at 27:58 when he reveals that he does have obs installed lol
Haha! You have a good eye mate ;). TBH, I installed that just before filming this, didn't have time to get it all sorted and learn it (plus i didn't have an adequate mic). Thanks for watching 👍🏻
@@CrazyLohan all jokes aside this tutorial was absolutely fantastic, you are a skilled producer and even more importantly a skilled teacher. i spent 6 hours just practicing chopping breaks after watching yesterday, thanks for posting it
@@ugent_ Haha! Nice one Evan, thanks a lot. I'm glad it helped :). I'm going to get my arse in gear and do some more tuts soon (maybe using OBS lol ;)...). Happy chopping! Cheers. J
sound is great
Cheers Paul 👍🏻
super useful tho im stuck wondering more about the oldschool techniques youre talking about, like pitch shifting the whole sample, and it seems like they liked to use breaks more as-is or maybe would chop a few hits together, or to 1/8ths or 1/16ths. idk any suggestions for more of that 1992/93 sound? thx for making this
Hey Josh, thanks a lot man, I hope it helped. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing the old school way of doing things, some breaks sound much better sped up tbh, and a lot more 'Jungly'. I guess it was the limited technology back then, it was so much harder to chop each individual hit and pitch it etc (limited sample time/memory on earlier samplers etc). Also, it was all so new, so it all sounded great, plus, the tempo of tracks back in the early Hardcore / Jungle days were much slower than modern day DnB, so each break wasn't sped up THAT much. From what I know, you used to pitch up the break to the tempo of the track you were working on (anything between 140-165bpm, depending on the era), then a few people used to chop the main sections (8ths and 4ths, Kick & hat, then Snare, hats and ghost notes/rolls/shuffles..... you can hear it in the way early Jungle was programmed, but again, there weren't many rules, which is what was the beauty of it all, I guess, just whatever worked and sounded good).
I'll be doing a couple more tuts soon, I'll go through a few sped up breaks. Thanks again for checking it out, much appreciated. Happy programming man! :)
Check out Bizzy B’s channel. He gives a good insight into 93 style jungle chopping
Ths for the tuto, for the project too. I am from the old school too. S950, S3000XL AKAI & ATARI.
When's for the V2 ? :)
Thanks for checking the vid. Ahhhhh, a fellow old school Akai data wheel twiddler :). I used to get serious RSI from that back in the day, haha. I've been a bit manic with other stuff since lockdown over here, but I'll be doing V2 and a few other new tuts in Dec / Jan. Cheers! 👍🏻
in Logic you don't necessarily have to be limited to only processing the entire break you can use the exs24 as multiple output and send Kicks, snares etc. to different outputs and then process them individually like you are doing in Ableton
Hey, thanks a lot for checking out the vid. I used to rock Logic, and I'll be honest, I do miss EX24 (not many software samplers are as easy to use or can do what EXS can do, but Ableton is a little more open ended). I get that you can route multiple outs in EXS now, but I like the way Ableton does it automatically, plus it gives you individual envelope control over each sample / slice etc (but I do miss Logic....). Cheers! J
learned a lot from this thanks a lot mate
You are welcome man. I hope it helped 👍🏻
If you use the multi out option on exs24 you can bus each individual sample on the mixer or just some of them, you said you couldn’t , just letting you know you can! Super helpful video though thank you!
Hey man, thanks for checking the vid. Yeah, I understand you can route multiple outputs in EXS24, but you have to do it manually, right? Just that, when you've got say, 70 or so slices etc, it can be a bit long, Ableton does it automatically, and gives you individual envelope control etc and a mixer channel for each slice (don't get me wrong, I really miss Logic and EXS, goddamn I spent so many hours on EXS bloody 24 man :)...), I just find Ableton a bit quicker with workflow etc, each to their own, no one way is better than the other. Cheers! J
Great tut, thank you!
You are welcome man, thank you for watching. I hope it helped ✌🏻
Where can i find Bluewater breaks/ the football break ? Really great tutorial man ! :D
Thanks a lot Jaime, much appreciated. I hope it helped. The link for the Bluewater site and the main break are in the description, but if you search for 'omfg breaks' on DOA forum, you'll find them all, well, most of them (kinda like Pokemon, innit? ;)....). Cheers!
Amazingly generous work here! Looking forward to thr Mac version but this was very helpful. Ive just started trying my hand at chopping breaks in Reaper but this is making me want to, ahem, >>find
Thank you for your kind words. Ableton is awesome for speedy workflow etc, once you get the hang of it (like everything I guess...). I have heard a lot of good things about Reaper, will be checking it out soon. Hope this helped, happy break chopping! Cheers, J
So good. Thanks a ton!
You're welcome man, I hope it helped.
Thanks mate! You've made my day!
Thanks man! this comment has made my day. Cheers! J
Hi, really good video. I am doing it the same way but didn't think about taking just one of the stereotracks instead of merging, also I never grouped the same hits for further processing. Did you know that simpler also allows to play the sample as long as the note is held? So you can move your chopped bits around but if you dont find a good one fast enough you can just lengthen the midi note (like you said in the old days but having more or less both in one). I would be really interested in a tutorial how you process the groups. Stopped dnb ages ago in favour of tech house but always having choped processed funkloops inside I am now going back making some oldschool dnb when it just went from jngle to dnb. Any good recommendations on saturation / distortion to not having to buy an old cr1604 for driving the 808's?
Hey Jens, thanks for checking the vid. I'm intending to do some more tuts soon, finally got my set up sorted. I'll check some of your music out, cheers! For distortion on 808's etc, i usually use Camelphat/crusher, Trash 2, there's a plugin i got recently called Front DAW, which is nice and a bit more subtle (good for use on all tracks tbh). But the best and probably most old school way would be to run them / overdrive them through a mixing desk (most cats use Soundcraft or older Mackies to get that jungle flavour), whack the gain right up, let it red light, and bring the fader down on that channel..... that's my favourite tbh. Thanks again! Cheers. J
great video! thanks for the help. anyone know a way to slice to new midi track in intro?
Thanks for checking the vid man, I hope it helped. If you're using intro, I think the only way to slice to MIDI is by loading the sample into a Simpler instrument, turn off the warping and loop options and select 'slice' mode. It will add slices / markers which you can change and add your own. Once you're happy with them, right click / control click and select 'Slice To New MIDI Track', that should create a new sampler / drum rack with the slices you've made. Let me know if that works. From my understanding, that's the closest way to process and chop up breaks / samples like this in Ableton's Intro version. Happy chopping. Cheers! J
listened to your tunes and would really like a tutorial from you on bass and then mixing that in with breaks, that'd be sick, this video was perfect.
Also do you have a SoundCloud?
Hey, thank you very much for watching. I'm intending to do a few more tuts soon, will do my best :). Yes, my Soundcloud is: soundcloud.com/scarecrowlives ... some new bits on there now (have been focussing on Dubstep recently, got to get it out, innit?). Big up!
Great video, I use renoise for chopping up breaks but it's interesting to see the ableton workflow :)
Thanks a lot! I've heard a lot of good things about renoise, have been meaning to check it out for a while tbh, just that whole paradigm shift to another DAW can be a little jarring at first, it's kind of like Octamed, isn't it? Cheers!
how is it possible to playback the part of the sample fast like that also scrolling while playing?
Thanks man 🙏
Great tutorial, thanks man.
Thank you very much. I hope it has helped (even a little, that's the whole point, I guess). Cheers for watching, there will be another break tut coming soon. Peace :)
great video, very helpful thanks
Thanks a lot. I'm glad it helped. Cheers.
hey i doubt you are still replying on here, but did you ever make a mac tutorial/is it really that different on here?
many thanks
Hey, hope you're good. I have been working on a Mac specific video, then I realised it's been 4 years since I posted this vid, eeeesh, time flies aye? I will post one (or more) up soon, but yes, it's exactly the same on a Mac, exactly the same, only difference is the keyboard / shortcut functions (control, alt & command on a Mac work slightly differently than alt & command do on a PC, but it's essentially the same). Thanks for checking the vid, I'll try to post some more stuff soon. Cheers 👍🏻
ok this seems like a very stupid question but how do they do the thing in the clip view where they audition certain parts of the sample really quickly over and over again, like what they were doing with the ghost snare
Hey man, thanks for checking the vid. If you turn the global quantisation at the top left from 1 Bar to none, then when you're viewing the sample/audio in clip view, hover the mouse on the lower half of the audio (the cursor should turn from a magnifying glass to a speaker icon), if you click and hold (or click real fast) you should be able to audition the same way as in the vid (holding the mouse button down and scrolling/scrubbing through is probably better tbh). You can then zoom right in and double click to add the warp marker where you want it. Hope that helps man, cheers ✌🏻
@@CrazyLohan now that is an ableton tip that i have never heard anywhere before now, thanks for sharing the krabby patty secret formula my dude
Hey man the sample I've used has quite a lot of swing to it, meaning it's impossible to line the whole sample up on the beat as to line one kick up moves another off if you get me 😂.
Thought I'd just trooper on but it's completely messed up the sampling when converting it to midi.
How would I get around this? Would I need to warp on the transient markers I've put in to fix the hits onto the grid or is that gunna completely mess it up.
Would it be better to just start with another sample?
Regardless massively appreciate the tutorial 👌
Is there a way to save the midi notes? Or lay out the slices to use in other tracks? Because I can't imagine chopping manually and "slice to new midi track" with every new track
what is the shortcut you use to loop and search for the transient?
THANKS SCARCRAWEo!
You are welcome AnxiousCowboy, thank you for checking out the vid, I hope it helped. Cheers! J
Really interesting. thanks. How do you trigger the break to play from the transient when you're adding warp markers to the audio clip.
Or was it just with the mouse?
Hi Will, thanks a lot, hope it helped. I'm just auditioning each warp marker /slice manually with the mouse. I think there is a way you can trigger each sample/slice from the warp marker / transient point (but as far as i'm aware, you can only do it in arrangement view, doesn't work in clip view).
If you go to clip edit view in the arrange page, hold option/alt (on a Mac, ctrl on a PC) and you can then scroll through / select your transients / warp markers by holding option and pressing the left or right arrow keys. To audition each sample from that warp marker, select warp marker (as before), then hold option and press space / play (ctrl & play on a PC), you can then go through and audition each warp marker holding option and pressing the arrow keys and space bar as you go.
Hope that helps. Cheers!
(Also, just to add, trying this out, when you do the above, it does also snap to the closest recommended warp marker (even if you haven't technically added a yellow warp marker there, so you'll have to add your own and delete the recommended warp markers / transient points that Ableton adds). Cheers! I learnt something there too... ;)....)
+Jason Scarecrow Amazing, thanks man. yeah there's so. many wicked little shortcuts on ableton. Only know a handful of what I should.
Excuse me dear sir , what are the grey notes in the midi clip , thanks
Hi there, the greyed out notes in the MIDI clip are muted notes (press 0 to mute / unmute). I copy and paste parts of the rhythm I am using and mute them, so they are readily available for edits etc, bit of a bad habit as it can get quite messy, but handy having various different shuffles and sections of the break available straight away, Cheers!
@@CrazyLohan thank you alot :)
Safe man rate the video. Dunno if this is a dead question but is there a way to side chain the kicks and snares using this method ?
Cheers man! Hope it helped. There's no such thing as a dead or stupid question man :). Yes, you can side chain anything to anything in Ableton. The way I've done this, split the breaks to separate slices in the Drum Rack / Sampler and grouped them... you can then add an Ableton compressor to any other track and select any of the slices / kicks / snares from the chopped break to be the trigger for that sidechain compressor.
Add a compressor to the destination track / track to be sidechained, click the down arrow on the top left to expand it, click 'Sidechain', and select the 'Audio From' drop down menu to choose the channel / group you want to affect the destination / ducked sidechain channel. Where I've grouped the kicks and snares separately, you can either just select the group / all kicks / snares to affect to destination compressor, or select the drum rack / MIDI channel that the break is on, then in the box below that, you can specify what drum hit / kick / snare you want to be the side chain trigger.... Ableton makes it very easy (although it will give you 'post mixer, 'pre fx' & 'post fx' options, I usually go with post....).
Then, adjust the ratio (I usually go for at least 3:1 - 4:1, to make sure it affects it) then adjust the threshold & attack /release to get the desired effect.
Hope that helps man, any questions, post em up. Cheers! J
Hey Nice tut. Just a quick question, how do you turn the cursor into the speaker icon to play the wave in the audio editor view?
Thanks a lot! TBH, Ableton doesn't really have any tools etc, there's no need really (apart from when you're in MIDI part edit mode, where B toggles between Pencil and cursor). The speaker icon / cursor appears automatically in the audio editor window when you hover your pointer on the lower half of the waveform. it changes from the speaker / scrub icon on the lower half, the standard cursor on the top half of the waveform, then to the loop selector/brace tool when you hover over the loop points / bar, then to zoom at the very top the waveform window, so you can zoom in/out etc. Partly why I love Ableton, theres no need for tools, it changes to whatever you need depending on what section / window you're on. I hope that helps. Cheers!
Jason Scarecrow I love ableton too, it such a great work flow. Thanks for the reply. Hope you do some more tuts cause I really enjoyed this one 👍
thank u brother!
You are welcome man. I hope it helped, even a little. Cheers!
How exactly are you getting granular/ moving the playhead sporadically ?
I was wwondering thee same? I think it is because the grid is set off but not sure...
Hey Anthony.Do you mean while I'm auditioning / checking the transients / warp markers? It's because the main quantise is set to none, you can hover on the lower / bottom half of the waveform and hold the mouse click, it will play / repeat depending on what your quantisation is set to, I mostly set it to none, so it doesn't audition the waveform from the closest 16th / 8th note etc, so I know where the marker should go, PS.... good to record that shit down sometimes, just for fx and that. Hope that helps man. Cheers! J
Anyone know what song the original break is from?
Hey Oliver, thanks for checking the vid. I've had a dig and I believe the original song is 'Mickey And The Soul Generation - Football' (the break is right at the very end of the track), incredibly hard to find a decent, high quality version, apart from the mighty Bluewater's breakbeat collection (or unless you have the vinyl). There's a link to Bluewater's version in the description 😉. Hope that helps man. Cheers! J
After I "Slice to MIDI" and play the newly created MIDI Track, I'm getting clicking sound in between the MIDI notes. If I rearrange the note creating my own break, I don't hear the clicking that much on some of the notes. I am setting the points at the zero point, sometimes slightly ahead as suggested...Any thoughts as to where the click is coming from?
im having the same issue, any tips appreciated
Hey, thanks for checking the vid. Just out of interest, what break are you using? What tempo is the original break compared to what you're working with / programming at? If the break is fast and chopped to a fast tempo (& especially if you slow the arrangement tempo down after this) you could be getting clips from the end of each slice, that can sometimes cause this. As there's a gap in-between the end and start of each sample, which can cause artefacts, as most breaks (most, mind, not all) are sped up from their original tempo so the tails are cut sooner or muted by the next slice, if you are using choke mode etc (which I'll go into on the next vid). Would be good to know the above tbh, it's probably the tails or end of the sample causing this. Let me know what break it is (or send it to me) and i'll check it out further. Cheers, J 👍🏻
@@Krookedskater1001 Cheers for watching, same as I commented above (or below, to modetoo's comment). Let me know what break it is and what tempo you're going from and working with and I'll check it out. Cheers 👍🏻
PS Some breaks are just janky and hard to chop tbh, haha. Again, there are no hard rules set in stone, as long as it sounds good ✌🏻
@@CrazyLohan Thanks for responding. I tried chopping 3 breaks. Amen Brother didn't give me any trouble. I had trouble with "I Got Some" - Billy Gardener (92 BPM) and "Let A Woman Be A Woman" - Dyke & The Blazers (113 BPM). Do you have those? I can sort you out if needed.
I kept all breaks at their original BPM when I made my warp markers, sliced to MIDI, (clicks are there in the original BPM)
then adjusted to BPM to 170.
I made sure to use the Utility, especially for "Let A Woman" because one channel has the drums plus 'jangle' (a la Digital & Spirit - Phantom Force), and the other channel is straight drums.
After messaging you I went to the Abelton site to troubleshoot. One person mentioned adjusting the start/zero point in the Sampler. It cleaned up maybe 2 slices. I'm not familiar with Choke mode, so I don't think I am using it.
If you want some random break chopping - try this th-cam.com/video/ykYLnLL23n0/w-d-xo.html
any chance for the ableton project file so we can take a closer look?
Hey Brian, thanks for checking the vid. Sure thing, I'll post a link the the project file in the description in a mo. Only thing is, at the end of the tut, I unwarp the main break sample to show how it sounds pitched up, so the main break doesn't have my warp markers / slice points in it anymore (as i saved it after doing this), but I guess everyone can add theirs and make it their own. I'll give you a shout as soon as I've uploaded it (i'll add some break variations etc also). Cheers! J
@@CrazyLohan big ups brother. I have a way of chopping breaks and arranging etc myself but am excited to learn additional methods. Thanks for this ;)
Here's a tune of mine featuring such style breaks... soundcloud.com/anguishdnb/og-returns-master
I'd love to hear what you think if you have a minute ;) Free download of it on my page (shameless plug)
you can email the project to me at brwdnb@gmail.com, thanks again bruv, respect.
@@CrazyLohan hey brother can i still get that project file? i'm interested in the midi arrangement for the break
Hi Brian, apologies for the late reply, been away for a bit. Here you go: www.dropbox.com/sh/qne9i68c52celpf/AACzVyP9EUMikE_WUJq99WcQa?dl=0 I've updated the video description with the link also. It's real raw, and I've added a few variations and a choked version (which I'll go through on the next tutorial). Hope that helps. Cheers! J
How are you replaying at the clicked point so rapidly?
Hey man, thanks for checking the vid. I turn the main quantise to 'none', so it doesn't snap to the nearest 16th / 8th / bar etc, that way you can keep your finger on the mouse button and scrub through the audio on the bottom half of the waveform, or just click real fast, haha. Cheers!
@@CrazyLohan thanks for getting back to me! is there a shortcut to make the playhead restart when you click? double tapping on a clip makes a warp marker
@@AT-eh2eo Hey man, no probs. Just out of interest, are you on the clip or arrangement view? Arrangement view is much better tbh (has a few extra features that aren't in clip view). You should be able to set the main arrangement quantise to 'none', then when you double click on the audio file and enter the sample editor view on the bottom, you should be able to hover your mouse over the bottom half of the waveform, the pointer will turn into a little speaker, you should be able to click away to audition any point of the sample, even hold the mouse down and scrub through it (it shouldn't add warp markers clicking on this part of the waveform, let me know if it does).
There's another nice feature I found recently that i didn't know about, if you enter any warp marker in the sample, you can select a warp marker (click on it, the vertical line will go orange), if you hold option / ALT (on a Mac, I think it's CTRL on a PC) and press space bar / play, it will play from each slice / warp marker, you can also keep ALT held and press the left and right arrow keys, it will skip to the next / previous transient or warp marker / slice point, so you can audition them accurately (because using the mouse isn't technically accurate, as there's no quantise, and it's not technically playing from the warp marker you put in, just where you're clicking)..... anyways, I'll whack that in the next tutorial. Cheers!
@@CrazyLohan Hey i figured it out!! Thanks a bunch!! i def wanna see that in action! imma try next time im in the lab. I agree with the sentiment about arrangement view. Structuring beats is so much more organized. Im completely spacing on the name of the function, but its on the top right corner of arrangement view, Thats been really helpful for jumping back and forth between patterns im working on across the timeline without needing to do more than click an arrow, id like to try and midi map it so i can just press a button, havent tried yet. Clip view has been super great with randomizing patterns with launch settings if i make half patterns per clip.
@@AT-eh2eo Hey, I hope it helped. You can also toggle between both clip and arrangement view by pressing tab (on both PC and Mac). Happy chopping! J
Terrible tutorial. Clicking around without explaining
Hi Mr Pope. I tried to explain what I was doing in great detail. I assume most people that view this know how to use Ableton Live a little, so I didn't explain every single click that I did, that would take AAAAGES. Anyways, it's my first tut, can only get better right? I hope it helped a little ;). Cheers!
do you need someone to hold your hand for you? how about your mouse?
I thought it was fantastic . This was eye opening
thank you man
You're welcome Jaimie, hope it helped. ✌🏻