Who samples vinyl?

If you sample vinyl can you give a run down of how you do it, please?
Do you use flex and a trig? Do you manually record? Etc…

I have lots of old vinyl and plan on recording some of it soon. Any work flow ideas would be useful!

I record the vinyl to my Zoom H4n portable recorder, then transfer the files to a computer, connect the OT to it and transfer the files to the OT.

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Thanks, that’s doable for me.
Do you edit for tempo on the computer?

Anybody do it all in the box?

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No, I just throw them in the OT as they are and edit them there.

Nice to know.

I just sample vinyl directly to the OT. Could you tell me (in a nutshell) if I would benefit from using this device. Just speed/efficiency or what.??

I just sample vinyl directly to the OT. Could you tell me (in a nutshell) if I would benefit from using this device. Just speed/efficiency or what.??[/quote]

Probably no benefit. I did it because all the vinyl samples I have in my OT at the moment were recorded before I actually got my OT.

It was fast though, just turn the device on, press record, start the turntable, then press stop, then choose the next record and repeat the process. Then I named the samples in the computer, which would probably have been quite slow with the OT.

Obviously, I could have used a computer to record too which would have been even faster, but I don’t own a soundcard.

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I record some vinyl now and then, usually old test records, sound effects and bird sound recordings. I record a whole side to the computer, cut it up into smaller chunks and save it as a sample library for later use.

I start a project on the octatrack and load samples from on of those libraries into the sample lists. I edit, chop and set tempo info inside the octatrack to taste.

Haven’t sampled from vinyl, but have sampled loops directly from tape and CD. The easiest way to do this is to tap in the tempo on the OT and then trigger the recording for the length you need.

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thanks everybody. and if anyone else wants to add, i’d love to read about how you/what you sample.

I have a lot of obscure sound source records. I tend avoid pop/disco/dance etc… unless it was given to me. I have things like spoken word star wars or Bruce Lee ‘Boss’ dialogue. also I tend to pick up records heavy in one or two instruments only (ever heard of Adamo, he loves guitar only tracks). I have quite a few anime records and have gotten into a Japanese folk style called enka. Today i had a major score! My school was throwing out all these English lesson boxed sets from the 40s through the 60s. I made my wife pick me up because I wasn’t planning on walking home with 7 boxed vinyl sets, lol.

i have rhythm stuff that I want to keep in time (especially for slicing) but i also have sonic test records that I can use as single cycle wave sources.

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Usually do it manually with track+AB/CD. Sometimes I’ll tempo match, other times no.

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Yeah all the time for drums, percussion etc. Just enable quick rec mode in prefs and adjust the mixer settings. Then hit rec to start and again to stop. Normalize/slice/fun

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I’ve done alot of sampling with a friend who will play youtube or some other turntable emulators on iOS on the fly. I’ve also recorded some bpm relevant tracks using tap tempo. The trick is to get your levels correct. Check your input LEDs to make sure they aren’t going red from the input signal being too loud.

I use the CUE as the record source. Thru machine for each input. Enable CUE for my source. I then know the blinking led is my source. This might not be the best method but I found it works best for me for now. Set Function + Trigs on my record tracks. Track + YES will trigger record triggers on that track.

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I use a DAW. Set everything up, hit Record, play at least parts of a record if not the whole thing. That way I have all the raw material I want, easy to prepare and name everything, and can re-visit later if I want.

I tried a turntable+preamp direct to OT once, and it was awkward. I’d rather have more thorough control when collecting from vinyl.

sometimes i’ll use a bunch of flex machines with short record times and place the (one shot) record trig of each track on different steps (it can be helpful to have recordings overlap) to roughly pre chop, then move the start and end points around, adjust attack decay, etc if need be, place playback trigs and resample all of those to 1 new file.

i find it faster to get separated samples than say slicing a big chunk of audio, slice locking and locking attack and release.

it can be helpful to have to sequencer running while you listen so you can see and then roughly figure out where you might want to place your record trigs. sometimes i’ll have a “sketch” pattern and place the trigs as i’m listening then go back and put them in record tracks. then you start the record over, and once it gets to the right point, arm your tracks, hit play and it’ll grab the spots you marked.

or you can run the record through a delay without the direct signal and listen to the dry version on another track or turn direct up on the mixer page. once you figure out the timing difference you can record the delayed version after you hear what you want dry. time travel! :slight_smile: it can at least help from missing the start of a sample. you could use the freeze function to grab and hold sounds before you actually sample them too…

tbh, i do a lot of manual sampling too though because it’s easy. :slight_smile:

Yeah all that sounds way to complicated for me.
I just find the part I want to sample, set audio levels on OT, play the record, and press record, then edit sample to taste.
I also go thru an old sonic maximiser to add lost top end and a crappy tube comp/limiter.
The results sound great IMO.
Mainly old drum loops, then I spend some time getting the BPM perfect.

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thanks everyone.

I have lots of styles to try! yay.

These days I’ve been getting away from my roots; a turntable and a sampler!

I have accumulated synths, drum machines, etc… which is nice and all but I play around and never really make tracks like I used to. So< I’m planning on selling some synths and getting back to my roots.

You know I’ve been thinking; with a good sampler some effects and the internet, I don’t even need synths anymore. There is SOOOOOO much material on the webz and if you have a turntable and a good record shop nearby it’s game over.

yeah, doing it the old school way here too… Record directly into OT, then slice and dice!

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Polyphony and pitch restrictions - The elefant in the room?

I sample directly from vinyl all the time. I use flex machines and will just do it manually no trigs or anything. I typically let the whole record play and when I find a song I like I record to one of the flex tracks and start p locking the start point. A lot of times that works on its own. Sometimes i trim some of the fat so that the start points are more specific and then sometimes I slice the whole thing.

I usually record straight to my 4 track when I find something I like so I rarely even have to save em to static machines.

I personally think using using another device or computer is unnecessary but I’m also one who likes to work really fast because I feel like i lose some of the magic the longer I sit with things

:person_in_lotus_position:t4:‍♂

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