Hottest Flips: Prog Rock, Rare 70s Soul, Exotica & Meditation

Hottest Flips: Prog Rock, Rare 70s Soul, Exotica & Meditation

In our series 'Hottest Flips,' we break down some of the best recent flips using Tracklib samples. Featuring first-hand production insights by the beatsmiths themselves.

By

Waxpoetics

·

March 10, 2021

NugLife - The Love Dispensary 2

"(...) Not adding drums to keep that smooth style. That’s inspired by the recent calmer production styles of Madlib, The Alchemist, Griselda & Apollo Brown."

—NugLife

L.A. producer NugLife presents the follow-up to 2019’s “The Love Dispensary.*”A track—with a rare sighting of NugLife as a vocalist—about how we’re looking for love in all the wrong places. Luckily, NugLife knows exactly the right places when it comes to looking for samples. That led him to a 70s soul track by an obscure group called Keys. Taken from the catalog of Music Of The Sea, which was previously used in a Tracklib Beat Battle judged by Just Blaze.

“Working with this sample, I wanted to keep a lot of its natural flavor, while still making it my own. I basically resequenced the original sample by chopping it up, choking it up, and rearranging over seven different slivers of the sample into a new loop and intro section. Also not adding drums to keep that smooth style. That’s inspired by the recent calmer production styles of Madlib, The Alchemist, Griselda & Apollo Brown.

I think I found the track while digging through the Newly Added section of Tracklib, if not in the Inspiration section. I’m always keeping tabs on the new uploads every so often, picking up where I last left off on the site. My first reaction was probably something like, ‘Sheesh. This is some undeniable fire, in both its original form and for proper sampling use'.”—NugLife

nuglife

Canto - kinda don’t want u 2 leave

"While the bass was playing, I started making the drums on an iPad. I recorded the drums on the iPad and then sent them to Logic to tie everything together."

—Canto

“kinda don’t want u 2 leave” was the lead single to Canto’s official debut album that just dropped. With usually the MPC Live as his go-to gear, this time the Stockholm producer used Logic Pro to work on a piece of atmospheric, meditative soul by D. Professor.

“For this one, I did not use my MPC. I got it into Logic right away—it was just one of those days. I like to mix it up and not always use the same gear and techniques every day. I just took out the parts of the song that stood out to me and then put them together.

The sample perfectly captured that warm, cozy, nostalgic feeling I was looking for. I messed around with the sample in Logic Pro for a bit. Sometimes to make it easy to find what bass notes to play around, I high cut a song just to hear the bass and that’s how the second part came around. I just loved how that shit sounded. While the bass was playing, I started making the drums on an iPad. I recorded the drums on the iPad and then sent them to Logic to tie everything together.

To add some last touches, I added some brass. Last but not least, I just hit record and played around with my Moog over the song a couple of times to find some nice extra melodies.”—Canto

Young M.A. - Off The Yak (Prod. by U-Dub)

"I liked the dark cinematic feel to [the sample.] I thought the unique analog Arp effect was a good ‘ear candy element’ to punctuate the end of each bar.”

—U-Dub

When Young M.A. asked U-Dub to produce a drill beat, the New York producer headed straight into one of his favorite genres to sample: prog rock. Sampling an eerie interlude taken from a concept album-slash-rock opera which pays homage to Leonardo da Vinci.

"This sample just sounded dark enough to work as a drill beat plus it worked with that tempo. I liked the dark cinematic feel to [the sample.] I thought the unique analog Arp effect was a good ‘ear candy element’ to punctuate the end of each bar. ”—U-Dub

Chris Punsalan - Life

“I reversed some parts and then turned on the ShaperBox during certain parts. I played around with the keys, added some Rhodes, and eventually changed the kicks as I wasn’t feeling those anymore.”

—Chris Punsalan

After receiving numerous questions on how to clear samples, beatmaker and YouTuber Chris Punsalan decided to record a video to share his very first experience in clearing samples. See how he creates a new beat called “Life,” adding an a capella of “Life’s a Bitch” by Nas to his Les Baxter-sampling production.

“I've always wondered how to clear samples, but never tried 'cause it seemed tedious and I wouldn't even know where to begin. Then I found Tracklib, an online record store that has hundreds of original music from an array of genres like jazz, classical, soul, etc. from different time periods. Tracklib is basically sample-flipping heaven!

I reversed some parts and then turned on the ShaperBox during certain parts. I played around with the keys, added some Rhodes, and eventually changed the kicks as I wasn’t feeling those anymore.”—Chris Punsalan

More tracks featured in Chris Punsalan's 'My First Time Clearing A Sample!' video:

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