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I'm looking for some disco style samples to use in complextro, drumstep, etc. Mainly looking for parts to use as hooks, female vox, etc. I never really listened to the genre so it's hard for me to just go "listen to some random disco tracks for parts i like" because I wouldn't know where to start. Also, say i have a sample thats in d# minor, is it possible to transpose this to for example, g minor? How can i keep the sample chops staying full and clear in the mix, especially if they have kicks/snares in some parts. So far only excessive sidechaining seems to work but I think theres more I could be doing.

Sorry to not be very helpful but...

Maybe you should start listening to the genre though?

Most of my disco collection was built up from going to a second hand record store and listening to loads of their stuff at random or by looking for specific labels I like. It was cheap too. Loads of nice tunes aren't even rare.

I mean think about becoming a hip hop producer back in the day. You had to educate yourself on the sort of music you were going to sample rather than being spoonfed on the internet.

Fair enough, but is there a specific style of disco to look for? I'm looking for samples to use similar to ones that are used throughout this.

https://soundcloud.com/freakyloops/fa01 ... ample-pack

Of course I could just buy the pack but that's not the point.

Hmm well to me that sounds more like just that genre of music with some vocoder parts chucked on.

Yea man. Disco albums are a dollar a piece at my favorite shop. I do all my crate digging with intuition. For me there is magic to randomly picking a vinyl from a dusty stack. I'm glad I can't listen to them TBH (I spend enough time in record stores as it is!).

But you know the thing is, once you get deep into sampling from analog sources you can always find some great stuff to use on almost any vinyl, cassette, VHS...whatever : )
A lot of the choice samples get reused straight up or sculpted into things completely different. And the stuff that I'm buying purely to look for samples. I sell it back to them a couple months later. I always loose money, but it's cheaper...and easier than keeping thousands of vinyls laying around.

It can be as easy or complicated as you want it to. Easy: get one of those 99 dollar USB turntables. Not Quite as Easy, But Still Really Fuckin' Easy: buy a turntable and phono amp.

http://www.loopmasters.com/product/details/1183
http://www.loopmasters.com/product/details/1534
http://www.loopmasters.com/product/details/1724

Pretty much premade disco style loops.

Dankstep wrote:Fair enough, but is there a specific style of disco to look for? I'm looking for samples to use similar to ones that are used throughout this.

https://soundcloud.com/freakyloops/fa01 ... ample-pack

Of course I could just buy the pack but that's not the point.

That sounds nothing like Disco. I think you are just looking for sample packs of the genre that you want to produce.

fragments wrote:Yea man. Disco albums are a dollar a piece at my favorite shop. I do all my crate digging with intuition. For me there is magic to randomly picking a vinyl from a dusty stack. I'm glad I can't listen to them TBH (I spend enough time in record stores as it is!).

But you know the thing is, once you get deep into sampling from analog sources you can always find some great stuff to use on almost any vinyl, cassette, VHS...whatever : )
A lot of the choice samples get reused straight up or sculpted into things completely different. And the stuff that I'm buying purely to look for samples. I sell it back to them a couple months later. I always loose money, but it's cheaper...and easier than keeping thousands of vinyls laying around.

It can be as easy or complicated as you want it to. Easy: get one of those 99 dollar USB turntables. Not Quite as Easy, But Still Really Fuckin' Easy: buy a turntable and phono amp.

I think that we are well beyond the point where most people will source their own samples. It seems that a lot of people just want the pre-made sample packs these days, IMO. Not everyone though obviously.

Sample packs for getting an actual "I'm sampling disco" sound in my eyes doesn't work. For me the 70s and 80s stuff just have their own sounds that I don't think are often recreated now let alone in packs

Plus we got to get the vernacular straight. I was going to start talking about some awesome Disco labels like Salsoul and Prelude but I realized that is not what the OP is talking about.

wolf89 wrote:Sample packs for getting an actual "I'm sampling disco" sound in my eyes doesn't work. For me the 70s and 80s stuff just have their own sounds that I don't think are often recreated now let alone in packs

Exactly. Tye orignal source is...for various reasons...is the only thing that will really have "that vibe" w/o a lot of effort on a sound designer's part.

mks wrote:Plus we got to get the vernacular straight. I was going to start talking about some awesome Disco labels like Salsoul and Prelude but I realized that is not what the OP is talking about.

I am a bit of a sucker for a fair amount of Solar Records in the right era for summer vibes tunes

i got your sample source right here!!!

in addition to sampling disco records, some vengeance packs have short slap bass synth stab and vocal samples that are easy to add to your productions and would probably sound exactly what you want in a staccatao-y 100 bpm tune or something like a-trak's tunes

Dankstep wrote:
https://soundcloud.com/freakyloops/fa01 ... ample-pack

And that would be the worst thing i've heard so far this month.

Can we not infect disco with hi-fivin' no-sleeves fratboy modulated basses and distorted square-wave risers? please?

OTOH, there's plenty of disco-friendly samples in most house packs. You want drums that sound LIVE, not huge, but with a solid low end.

(or just sample the intro of "rock with you")

Thanks guys some good tips, but what about my transposing question. is it possible to transpose something in d# minor to g minor for example.
and hell ya rock with you is a good track, gladkill has a dope song with samples from it.

u can use audacity to transpose if you want. Not sure how reliable it is.

Dankstep wrote:Thanks guys some good tips, but what about my transposing question. is it possible to transpose something in d# minor to g minor for example.
and hell ya rock with you is a good track, gladkill has a dope song with samples from it.

It's possible, you may get artifacts depending on what you use. Personally I like that imperfect sound from transposing samples.

Just one big facepalm....


OK - I understand that there are those of us who are crusty, old relics who actually find value in doing our own crate digging ... sometimes spending ages to find that random (yet killer) snare drum no one has used yet.

I understand that Youtube is now part of the sampling culture. But - seriously - even if you don't have decks, or if you do - but are too broke to buy records... SURELY you can do your own Youtube digging? It might take some time - but perhaps you could use the time effectively and at least learn a LITTLE about the records you are looking to rip off?

Mad EP wrote:Just one big facepalm....


OK - I understand that there are those of us who are crusty, old relics who actually find value in doing our own crate digging ... sometimes spending ages to find that random (yet killer) snare drum no one has used yet.

I understand that Youtube is now part of the sampling culture. But - seriously - even if you don't have decks, or if you do - but are too broke to buy records... SURELY you can do your own Youtube digging? It might take some time - but perhaps you could use the time effectively and at least learn a LITTLE about the records you are looking to rip off?

I'm not even personally critical, but sampling something I have no passion for feels like it's putting a wedge between me and my music?

I get it, it's a sound design element and tbh, you don't have to love disco to love disco influenced music. But what I tend to sample is mostly black metal, something I have a history with. It's not even conscious, it just happens. I look everywhere for samples, but it's the black metal ones that end up inspiring me.