![]() But the technique of repurposing existing recordings as we recognise it today comes down from New York’s hip‑hop pioneers and Jamaican dub DJs, who looped and scratched drum breaks manually on turntables while MCs rapped over the top. The Musique Concrète movement was the first to use pre‑recorded sounds as compositional sources, and John Cage even experimented with a pair of turntables as far back as the 1930s. But any genre of music can benefit from the idea, whether it’s used to generate ideas and interesting loops or layers, or to extract a kit of individual hits. Drum & bass typically uses acoustic drum breaks, cut up (and sped up) and reprogrammed into a new drum track. ![]() In hip‑hop this technique is routinely used to generate the key hook or seed for a beat. By chopping I specifically mean sampling an extended musical or rhythmic phrase and slicing it into sections, then re‑sequencing and reworking the parts to make something new. Sample chopping remains a core compositional tool in modern music production, especially hip‑hop and the various flavours of breakbeat music that have evolved from jungle. There’s never been a better time to get hands‑on with sliced samples. ![]() Photo: Simon SherbourneĬhopped‑up loops are at the heart of many genres of music. Akai MPC, Native Instruments Maschine and Ableton Push.
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