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S1E17 – Using Cut Itself While Sampling

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In this episode, you will learn about a technique called Cut Itself.

It’s a very powerful tool that is used in many areas of music production from sampling, to achieving a cleaner mix, to replicating a realistic sound to your music.

In short, you have cut, and cut by (your cut group.)

If your cut is the same number as your cut group, whenever a sound plays, then plays again, it will immediately stop playing the first time the sound played, and start from the beginning of the new sound, giving a nice clean sound to your mixes.

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S1E17 – Using Cut Itself While Sampling

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you could be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production, they'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, hey, what's everybody?
  10. Welcome to episode number 17. We're gonna take a little bit of a different approach
  11. in this episode. We're actually going to talk about a little audio example and a
  12. technique which is called cut.
  13. Okay, so you have cut and cut by, and this is what you call like your you know cut
  14. groups. This is what samplers use to get that nice clean cut in between slices, as
  15. well as in terms of you know, your sounds.
  16. So let's talk about like an 808, for example.
  17. You want to enable cut. and in FL Studio, they make it really simple.
  18. If you right click on a sound within the step sequencer, you're gonna see an option
  19. called cut itself, okay? And this is just a quick way to enable this so that the
  20. sound cuts itself. So what that means is when you play the sound, it immediately
  21. stops the initial sound that you played, and the new sound that you play will
  22. continue. Okay, so it just cleanly cuts it and it starts the new sound and it sounds
  23. nice and clean. So this is even you know, in like real life, if someone's playing
  24. like the drums or whatever and they play like that kick drum, and if it has you know
  25. a little bit of a tail, as soon as they play that kick again, again it just kind of
  26. resets. And this is the same thing in digital audio now, except in terms of a
  27. technique, it's really important for that low end.
  28. You really want your low end, you know, like your kicks, to sound really tight and
  29. really clean. And if your kick overlaps, it sounds absolutely horrible.
  30. Okay. So I'm gonna first start with an 808, okay?
  31. So hopefully you guys are on, you know, like in like your car where you have, you
  32. know, you know, some bass going on or like some headphones, just so you can hear
  33. these audio examples a little bit better.
  34. once we get into the slices, I recorded a little loop, made some slices, brought
  35. them into the FPC. So let's first start with the 808, okay.
  36. So right now I have you know, I've just dragged in this 808, and it does not have
  37. cut itself enabled. So in other words, when I play the sound, and if I play another
  38. note or whatever, it's gonna overlap and we're gonna get this horrible wobble sound.
  39. But we want that nice clean sound.
  40. So here we go. Okay, you can hear that that wobble, especially when we go a little
  41. bit lower. Okay, so you do not want your 808 to sound like
  42. this. So the simplest way in FL Studio is literally just to right-click on a sound
  43. and click cut itself. So now what you've done is whenever the sound plays again, the
  44. old sound is immediately gonna stop, the new sound is going to continue.
  45. For example, so nice and
  46. clean, right? Again, hopefully you're on some kind of like speakers or you know
  47. headphones where you can kind of hear like that 808.
  48. So there you go, super nice and clean.
  49. Now, if you want to fine-tune this, for example, if you want this 808 to cut another
  50. sound and get more creative like that.
  51. if you actually left click on the sound, the channel sampler is gonna open, you're
  52. gonna have to click the wrench, and then in the middle left, you're gonna see
  53. something called group, and you're gonna see cut and then buy.
  54. Okay, so this is called you know, like your cut groups.
  55. So your cut that number, that is the number where you're gonna be cutting the group,
  56. okay? So you can be selecting it to cut itself.
  57. So, in other words, if it's on one and then one, that means that the cut one is
  58. going to cut whatever's on the buy one.
  59. So, for example, let's go to our slices now, okay?
  60. So, I just have these slices and they sound like this.
  61. But you can hear the overlapping, right?
  62. So, like that sounds that sounds horrible, right?
  63. so this is where people who like to sample a lot, they can use this technique of cut
  64. and cut by to select certain slices that they want to immediately stop for a
  65. creative edge. many times, you know, I'll have pretty much all my slices, you know,
  66. cutting. but if you want to be creative, for example, if you want to have that one
  67. sound play as the other sounds are playing as well, then you gotta make sure that in
  68. your buy, so in your group, your cut by that that's just not like the same number,
  69. okay. So the cut that number is what is going to trigger the cut by.
  70. Okay, so it's gonna stop playing the cut by.
  71. and I'm saying cut by because in the FPC in the top right, you're gonna see that
  72. there's cut and then cut by. In the channel sampler, again, that's just in the step
  73. sequencer. If you select a sound on the the left, there's group, and then you're
  74. gonna see cut and then buy. Okay, so again, this is just what you call a cut group,
  75. and it allows you to get a nice clean sound.
  76. So here's like you know, just some of like the slices again.
  77. So I made us I made a loop, I chopped it up into four slices, and then I drag them
  78. into the FPC. Right? So it's like
  79. there's no you can't really hear it.
  80. It just kind of sounds all meshed together, all overlapped.
  81. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is on the first slice here, this right here.
  82. What I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna put it to cut two, okay?
  83. And then I'm gonna put it cut by two.
  84. What that means is cut two is actually going to immediately stop whatever is on cut
  85. by two. It's a little bit of a confusing concept., but you can get really creative
  86. with what you want to do here But for the most part, you are gonna have cut and cut
  87. by the same number, and I'm gonna be doing that for all four pads so I can get a
  88. nice clean sound. So our first slice, if I play it, okay, so it sounds nice and
  89. clean. I can play it over and over again, and it sounds again nice and clean.
  90. Okay, if we go to this slice, it's not going to stop this sound.
  91. In other words, if I play it fast, you're gonna hear it overlaps and it sounds
  92. weird. Okay, so right now I'm on the
  93. FPC. I've clicked on the actual pad, in the top right, you're gonna see cut.
  94. You just gotta make sure cut and cut by is on the same number.
  95. So, in other words, the sound before stops and the new sound immediately starts.
  96. Let's try it again. So
  97. nice and clean, right? So, right now I have all the slices on cut two by two, which
  98. means that whenever any of the slices play, since they're on cut two, it's going to
  99. immediately stop whatever is on cut by two.
  100. So, whatever's in that cut group.
  101. So, just as in a little example for you, I have added in a little drum loop, and
  102. then I just added in some MIDI notes for these slices and just created just a little
  103. bit of a melody, and this is gonna give you that really nice, you know, sliced kind
  104. of clean kind of sound. Now, you know, nothing here is mixed, nothing here is
  105. processed. I may give you a little example with some reverb, for example, and maybe
  106. some delay or some wideness or whatever, just to kind of spice it up a little bit.
  107. But this is just what it sounds like, okay.
  108. So we have our slices, sounds really, really clean.
  109. Okay, so I'm just gonna put this to an insert.
  110. Let's just add some reverb onto it.
  111. I'll just put some EQ on here and like some some compression just to spice it up a
  112. little bit. Okay, so that was some EQ.
  113. Just gonna load up a compressor plug-in.
  114. Just gonna get a little glitch there for a sec.
  115. Okay, so here we
  116. go.
  117. Okay, so you know, with my effects off and
  118. on.
  119. Okay, maybe some more
  120. reverb. Some
  121. wideness. A little bit of
  122. distortion. Okay,
  123. so now what I'm gonna do is on my actual slices, I'm going to select my cut by group
  124. to you know a group which isn't the same cut.
  125. Okay, so again, when you have cut that number, that is what's going to actually cut
  126. whatever cut by number is. Okay, so if your cut's two and your cut by is two, that
  127. means that whenever that sound plays and then it plays again, it's gonna immediately
  128. cut off the sound before, whether that be the same slice or a different slice, if
  129. it's on the same group. Okay, so let's listen to these slices with the drum loop
  130. with it not being on you know the same cut groups.
  131. So now what's gonna happen is these slices are gonna overlap, it's gonna sound not
  132. clean, it's gonna sound absolutely horrible.
  133. So let's check it out, okay. Okay, so you can hear it's
  134. overlapping. I know it soundss an annonoyyinging, but I just want to stress it',
  135. okay?. It doesn't sound professional
  136. So again, what I'm gonna do is each slice.
  137. I'm just gonna go in this case cut two by two.
  138. Now we're gonna get that nice clean slice in between each sound, make it sound nice
  139. and tight, okay. And you know, those effects help it
  140. just kind of blend, like the reverb, the wideness, and my EQ compression just
  141. subtly. Okay, so I just made that loop really really quickly.
  142. I dragged it into slice six, and then you know that sliced it.
  143. I actually put it into dull slicing, it made the actual slices a bit longer.
  144. when they're longer, sometimes it gives you a little bit more creativity to allow
  145. that slice to play out a little bit longer, and then I dragged it into the FPC, and
  146. then I just made the same cut numbers, so cut and then cut by.
  147. I made that this those are the same numbers for each pad.
  148. So you actually have to click on each pad, and then in the top right of the FPC,
  149. you'll see that you have you know your cut and then cut by.
  150. the same thing in that in the actual step sequencer.
  151. If you click on a sound, if you click the wrench, you'll see that there is a group
  152. and then cut, and you can do the same thing, it doesn't have to be in the FPC.
  153. I just use the FPC as an example right here.
  154. So, one more time, let me play this 808 for you.
  155. I'm going to play it with and without the cut group.
  156. So, right now it's with it. Sounds nice and
  157. clean.
  158. Okay, so each sound, even up
  159. higher, really clean, right?
  160. Now I'm going to remove this, and we're gonna get a horrible wobble
  161. sound. Now, this is what you do not want your mixes to sound like, and it's just a
  162. matter of right clicking on that sound, going cut itself, and what it's gonna do is
  163. if you click on the sound, go to the wrench, go to group, you're gonna see cut and
  164. buy. Just make sure that cut is on the same number as your buy.
  165. So your buy is like your group, and when you play a sound, you're good to go.
  166. This is also a really powerful tool for if you're using like percussion elements.
  167. Sometimes you can get a really cool sound out of it.
  168. So instead of allowing like that symbol or like that tambourine or little shakers to
  169. fully play out, you can actually set it up so that you have you know, let's say four
  170. or five different percussion sounds, and you could be using these to cut each other.
  171. So whether again it's all in the same cut and cut group, or you can maybe just
  172. select it so that only certain sounds kind of cut each other off.
  173. Many times in sampling, you know, for like their main melody, they'll have it so
  174. that it's these nice clean slices, but then they might have that one sound, for
  175. example, like a voice or something, and it you know, it plays a little bit longer
  176. and you want to over top. So when that voice slice, when you play that, you gotta
  177. make sure that that's you know it's just not on the same cut, okay.
  178. So it really you may not even want to have a cut or a cut group at all for it.
  179. okay. So that's this you know, this episode.
  180. I took a little bit of a different approach.
  181. I wanted to talk about cut itself.
  182. It's a really really powerful tool.
  183. Hopefully, my example kind of cleared up for you.
  184. Okay, so the biggest one really was the bass line, the 808.
  185. Okay. If you have wobble in your low end, your beats are gonna sound horrible.
  186. You always want that nice clean, tight sound.
  187. Now, this isn't just with 808s, okay?
  188. It's also with like let's say a bass line, and many times with your bass line, let's
  189. say you're using like a VST, many times you want to like enable a mono.
  190. Okay, so sometimes a VST has mono, or if it doesn't, if you actually click on the
  191. sound and like kind of go like the wrench, you'll be able to you know enable mono on
  192. that sound. And what mono does is it just allows only one note to be played at a
  193. time. So and then in addition, you sometimes you can even get like slide and stuff.
  194. But if you don't want the slide, again, it you're only allowed to play one note at a
  195. time, therefore getting that nice clean sound, especially even like with like a kick
  196. drum. Sometimes when you have a kick drum that has a long tail, you could use this
  197. technique to help clean up your mix and get you know nice, tight sounding low end,
  198. and then again, you know, for creative purposes, you can use it on like percussion
  199. and you know the sky's the limit.
  200. Okay. So hopefully that you know inspired you, gave you a little bit of a you know
  201. new perspective on being creative.
  202. just a heads up. I'm still working on this 10 steps to become an FL Studio Pro.
  203. Now that I got my you know, nice camera, nice microphone.
  204. things seem to be going pretty good.
  205. You know, the actual image quality seems pretty good and everything.
  206. After I'm done recording, I play it back.
  207. Everything seems good. So I'm gonna be editing here pretty soon.
  208. I'm almost done with the course.
  209. So I'm doing a lot of drawing, a lot of teaching, and then we actually go into FL
  210. Studio and we discuss it further.
  211. So again, we kind of do like the actual academic side of it.
  212. So, for example, if we talk about like digital audio or something, I'm gonna explain
  213. you know what digital audio is, do some drawing, break it down for you, and then we
  214. actually go into FL Studio and actually you know talk about it.
  215. for example, like like the mixer, or we talk about mastering, you know.
  216. So in the mastering stage, I'd be talking to you about like loudness and and how you
  217. know where mastering has come over the years.
  218. So again, we kind of do paper and pen kind of example, but it's digital.
  219. You know, you're you're able to see me.
  220. I'm able to draw on the screen.
  221. I talk to you about it, and then we actually go into FL Studio.
  222. I talk to you about like my mastering chain.
  223. and and that's later on into the course.
  224. You know, I walk you through you know, all these fundamental steps to become better
  225. at FL Studio. The course isn't yet released, it will be released here soon.
  226. I will keep you guys updated on the podcast here, but I've been kind of keeping you
  227. guys updated for a while now. again, if you just tuned in just lately to this
  228. podcast, I actually finished recording this course, but the audio screwed up, you
  229. know. So the thing is like when you record a course, you know, what I'll do is I'll
  230. usually do like a test run. Or you know, I'll just do like one or two test videos.
  231. And when I did my test videos, it was fine.
  232. You know, everything was good, the image was good, the audio seemed good.
  233. and then I recorded the whole course, and then when I went to go edit, I discovered
  234. that the audio, for whatever reason, it was like distorted and it sounded horrible.
  235. So I ventured out to purchase like new equipment in a sense of like a new
  236. microphone, a better camera just for autofocus and stuff, and I'm now set up, things
  237. are going good. The course is gonna be called 10 steps to become an FL Studio Pro.
  238. In the meanwhile, you guys can join the membership.
  239. It's only $10 a month, and you guys get access to all of my courses.
  240. I currently have 18 courses, you know, covering everything from like EQ,
  241. compression, mixing, mastering, making the beat, you know, just a lot of different
  242. concepts to becoming a producer.
  243. Okay. So, what I'm trying to say is if you sign up to the membership, you guys will
  244. get this course when it comes out.
  245. That's just the benefit of being a member.
  246. So, hopefully, you guys like this episode.
  247. Let me know if if you guys liked it.
  248. I can do more audio examples in the future, and I'll talk to you guys in the next
  249. episode. Thanks for checking out the episode.
  250. If you had any questions, visit it's gratuitous.com/slash podcast, select an
  251. episode, and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  252. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  253. gear, read my books, or are interested in lessons, visit the link it'sgratuitous.com
  254. slash learning.. That page will redirect you to more info and resources
  255. I hope the best with your productions.
  256. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next
  257. episode.
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