Boss album this. I worked for Virign UK when this came out, tried to get a local release but it wasn’t happening. Virgin France sent me a box and I sold out in a couple days.
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IMHO diggin’ for vinyl records is fundamental to making Hip Hop beats. You also get to know a lot of really good music by the way.
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True. The law on the other hand is not so in favour of those using music without permission. Not that it matters for just making beats without any intend of publishing.
I dig Spotify, am i a heretic? 
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Agree with that. A turntable + a sampler is all you need to make good beats.
The sonic quality when sampling a record is far better than sampling from youtube or other compressed platform.
Like a friend of me say: shit in, shit out.
Always sample the best quality you can.
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I would say the ‘die-hard-realness’ hierarchy goes like:
- Sample ultra rare private press library-krautrock-fusion-free-jazz 45 that you found for 50cent on a fleemarket
- Sample from regular vinyl record
- Sample from Ultimate Beats & Breaks copy
- Sample from reissue
- Sample CD or any digital source
- Use sample pack
- Sample from Spotify (least credible because Spotify is evil)
- Sample a sample
So sampling a snare drum from a DJ Premier beat using Spotify is the most despicable.
Disclaimer: I’m just joking 
There is no true Hip Hop discussion without discussing realness!
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Forgot them damn VHS coaching vids from the 80s and hipster cassette dark fusion meditation soul on a solo print. 
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Joking to! I Like sampling everything, i confess i sample a lot spotify and youtube because i listen random playlists and discover a lot of good shit. If i could get everything in vinyl of course i would go for it, but digging vinyl is very time and Money consuming…i don’t have enough of both for making music.
I think sampling spotify is lot more fun than using pre made sample loops from splice and cie. It sound Like shit but creative process is interesting.
(Hip hop heads will kill me : i have the mp3 ultimate breaks and beat collection 
)
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A nice tool for creating vintage sampler flavour is the TAL DAC plugin (~£18/€20/$24):
https://tal-software.com/products/tal-dac
It’s the DAC simulation part of the slightly more expensive TAL Sampler. You get it for free if you buy the Sampler plugin. But if you are using another sampler you can process your samples using the DAC plug and get some nice crunchy flavour on them.
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Sad to say it but I think post-Discogs / vinyl revival, (physical) crate digging has largely become a rich man’s game. Classic genres like soul and funk have shot up in price. And the days of grabbing a bunch of promising obscurities without spending a ton of cash are more or less gone… Any record store still in business will know the potential value (to someone in the world) of what they’ve got.
I read just a few days ago that even crate-digger-extraordinares The Avalanches have moved to virtual digging. Some of the soul has been sucked out of the process, but the potential to explore every genre imaginable is vast and wonderful.
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Technics sl 1200/Splice->gemini ds1224->Octatrack for groove->dbx compressor->Ableton
Sometimes I throw distorsion pedals in the mix but generally I don’t because I run the input super hot.
Layer wise it depends. Sometimes I don’t layer at all because see above lol
Sometimes I do with analog synth:I make a kick for example and layer with the sample
Sometimes I separate the drum sound in low/hi or low/mid/hi.
The only constant is the audio path, for the rest it depends on the material and what I’m looking for.
Yep crate digging is expensive. I bought 20€ a record with few tracks to sample just a couple of seconds. It’s very expensive.
If I buy digital tracks, for 20€ I have a lot more materials.
But, I still prefer spend more money in vinyl, and have less material but It’s my material. Sometime rare, sometime common but I paid it and I dig everything in it. I listen and listen again to know every sounds in each records because yeah it’s expensive and worth to know them perfectly.
In opposite, when I buy digital track to sample, it’s just a file on my computer and I don’t have the same motivation to use it. There is something special with vinyl, the object, the jacket, the act to put in on the turntable and scroll thru it with the hand.
So yeah, less is more. I prefer few vinyl and a Digitakt than 500GB library with the last DAW that can do everything.
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MPC 3000 + Goldbaby samples go a long way here.
GB is a step above imo, thanks to Hugo.
Not doing hip hop specifically but love the approach for drums in general.
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True, crate digging is very expensive, now there is e digging but sound is not the same and vinyl is a piece of art
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Back in the day, sample rich sources like some of the better 70s library music (for example) would turn up in bargain bins. These days such things are known quantities, and you have to get really lucky to find anything affordable enough to buy on spec (occasionally thrift stores / yard sales). At least not on a regular basis.
I’ve settled on initial e-digging, then sourcing the vinyl for completed tracks, for release. Some of the vinyl will be good for further sampling, or great listening in their own right. Otherwise, put them back on Discogs. Old skool gathering of promising records based on genre / time period / producer / cover art etc costs a fortune nowadays.
Dont you guys have thriftstores with €0.50 bins of records where you live? I do a lot of youtube digging, but i also still manage to find a lot of 50 cent vinyl treasures hidden between tons of awful schlager/disco records…
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i always hit thrift stores for ten cent records and alllllways hit the dollar bins at record shops. always something of use to be found. you’re only limited by your creativity
I found only shit in 1-2 € bins.
Now I go directly to a hiphop boombap producer that also sell tons of vinyls, he help me to choose some rare piece with good sample in it. I pay 20€ the vinyl but I’m sure of the quality and the vinyls are so clean, they look like new. No buzz or crackle when you listen it. It’s cool.
You can buy him on discogs, he is a really nice guy:
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I think you guys must have better sources than I’ve been finding in the last few years 
. Anything give-away cheap here is basically not worth the bother to me in terms of useful vinyl sounds - It’s the dregs of the dregs after years of dredging. For me there just isn’t enough useful material, short of twisting the experimental shit out of everything… which is fun, absolutely, but at that point why bother with vinyl, really. From there it’s a jump to around €8-10 for illicit Simon & Garfunkel compilations. And onwards.
But great if you’re still managing to find interesting stuff 
. I’m envious. I wonder if it would be worth doing a road trip around small-town thrift stores, where probably there’s a better chance the gems haven’t already been gobbled… Would be fun anyway