3.2.10 - Sampling and Looping

Warm-Up (15 min)

POTD

QOTD:
Do you have a favorite producer (the person who makes the beats, or makes the album, for the songs you listen to)? Think about a song that you like by them, what do you guess the tempo is? How do you think they made the beat? Include a photo of the producer on you blog.

VOTD:

Post on your blog a synonym and example sentence for each of the following words:

sample: A small piece of a larger thing.

playhead: The red line in our timeline.

split: To divide. In Garageband we can split audio using our playhead.

snap-to: Automatically aligns things to a larger system.

break: A point in a song when many of the instruments stop playing leaving only the drums. Also called a drum break.

Part 1: Sampling Brief History (15min)

Videos

GMF

BIz Mark v. Alone Again

Under Pressure

Part 3 - Making your own Samples (70 min)

I'll do one, we'll do one, you'll do one. The following was adapted from: http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/build_your_own_garageband_loops_any_music_file

Setting Up Garageband

1. open garageband
2. choose a loops file, name it “the breaks”, save to your desktop, leave the tempo, time and key signatures alone for now.
3. in garageband, go to “control”, turn off “snap-to grid” (it will be unchecked if it is off)
   
   Getting a Break
4. Log onto the teacher server using your name and password.
5. Choose a break from the teacher server (mjacobs > public > ultimate breaks and beats > click once and press the spacebar to preview)
6. drag that break to your desktop
7. drag that beat from the desktop to your garageband timeline
8. listen to the song for the drum break.
   Trimming the Sample
9. Line up the playhead with the beginning of the break. You should see a little black blob indicating the bass drum. Zoom in to get your playhead as close as possible to the left of the drum (the closer we can get the more exact our loop will be).
10. Go to “edit” > “split” to make your first incision. You should now have two pieces of audio, click on the audio piece on the left (before the drum break) and press delete.
11. Move your remaining audio to the beginning of your timeline.
12. listen again to your break. we are going to count to 8 beats for this drum break. Right before the 9th beat press the spacebar to pause. Zoom-in and get your playhead as close to the 9th beat as possible (again, you will see a black blob indicating the bass drum). Go to edit > split to create your second incision.
13. Again, you should now have 2 sections of audio. Click on the right hand one and delete it.
    
    Fine Tuning
14. We now have a 8 beat drum loop. It may not be exact but we are about to fix that.
15. Go back to “control” and turn on your snap to grid
16. Go to your project controls and turn on the cycle function
17. Set your cycle region to 2 measures.
18. Go to your LCD controls. Choose the project view.
19. Slide your tempo bar to fit your 8 beat loop to the 2 measure cycle region. Get your beat as close as possible WITHOUT GOING UNDER 2 MEASURES. (HINT: Impeach the president is 95 bpm)
20. Move your playhead to the beginning of the 3rd measure.
21. Click on your audio clip and split (edit > split). A little nub of audio should pop up at the end.
22. Delete the nub! Press play to hear your drum break!
    Saving
23. You are ready to make this into a break that you or your classmates can use.
24. With your drum break selected, go to Edit > “Add to Loop Library”
25. Name your loop “YOUR NAME _ SONG NAME”
26. If you have trimmed this perfectly, you will be able to add it as a “Loop”.
27. Choose any other descriptive tags and press “Create”
    
    Turning in
28. You can find this loop in the following folder: User > Library > Apple Loops > User Loops > SingleFiles
29. Find your loop and drop it in your student server for safe keeping
30. Also drop one of your loops in the Teacher Server Folder: Student Loops