How To Sample And Chop In FL Studio (step by step, with demos)

HERE'S A STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIAL FOR SAMPLING AND CHOPPING IN FL STUDIO, WITH DEMOS AT EVERY STEP!

What is sampling? Sampling is taking a piece of audio (a melody, a vocal, a drum break) and turning it into something new in your own beat. Chopping is the main way to do it: you cut the sample into small pieces and play them back in a new order.

In this tutorial we'll take one 4 bar loop, chop it into 8 pieces, rearrange them, flip them, and put drums under it. You can hear the result after every step, so you know exactly what each move does.

Step 1: Pick your sample:

Good samples for chopping have clear notes or chords that change every beat or two, and not too much going on at once. Melodic loops, soul and jazz records, and single instruments (piano, guitar, strings) all chop well.

For this tutorial I'm using Links 94 D Min from our free Golden Melody Pack, so you can download the same loop and follow along. Here are the first 4 bars, the part we'll chop:

Can you sample songs in FL Studio?

Yes, the steps are exactly the same for any audio file. But if you sample a song you don't own, you need permission (a sample clearance) before you release your beat. That's why a lot of producers chop royalty free loops instead. Everything in our packs is 100% royalty free, so there's no need to get the samples cleared, pay royalties, or credit us.

Step 2: Get the sample into FL Studio and match the tempo:

Find the sample in FL Studio's Browser (or in Finder or File Explorer) and drag it in. You have two options:

• Into the Playlist: it becomes an audio clip. Best for slicing and moving pieces around on the timeline.
• Into the Channel rack: it becomes a Sampler channel. Best when you want to play it from the piano roll.

Then match the tempo. The easiest way is to set your project tempo to the sample's BPM (this loop is 94 BPM, it's in the file name). If your beat is at a different tempo, open the audio clip's menu (the small icon at the top left of the clip) and choose Fit to tempo. On a Sampler channel, right-click the TIME knob in the Time stretching section and choose Project tempo.

🔥 Pro Tip: chop at the sample's original tempo first. Stretching it before you chop can blur the start of each note, and clean starts make clean chops.

Step 3: Chop the sample:

There are 2 main ways to chop in FL Studio: in the Playlist, or with Slicex. Both are below.

1. Chop it in the Playlist:

This is the fastest way to see what you're doing. Drag the sample into the Playlist, then cut it into pieces. You can do it 2 ways:

• The Slice tool (shortcut C): click and drag down through the clip wherever you want a cut. The cut lands on the grid, so set the snap to 1 beat for clean chops, or hold Alt to cut anywhere.
• Auto chop: click the small icon at the top left of the clip, then Chop > Time based, and pick Chop in bars, Chop in beats or Chop in half beats. FL Studio cuts the whole clip in one click.

Our 4 bar loop is 16 beats long, so I cut it into 2 chops every bar (8 chops, 2 beats each). That's Track 1 in the screenshot below: the same sound as before, just cut up.

2. Chop it with Slicex:

Add Slicex to the Channel rack (ADD > Slicex) and drag your sample from the Browser onto it. Slicex cuts the sample at every hit automatically (it found 40 slices in this loop), and gives every slice its own key, shown in pink at the bottom. So you can play your chops from a MIDI keyboard, or draw them in one piano roll in any order you like, like on an MPC.

🔥 Pro Tip: too many slices? Slicex works best on loops with clear hits. For long, smooth chords, chopping on the beat in the Playlist is usually cleaner.

Step 4: Rearrange the chops:

This is where the sample turns into your beat. On Track 2 in the Playlist screenshot above, I copied the chops into a new order (select a chop, then hold Shift and drag it to copy it):

Chop 1, chop 1 again, chop 3, chop 4, chop 5, chop 6, chop 2, then a quadruple chop at the end.

The quadruple chop is the first half beat of chop 8, played 4 times in a row. Slice a short piece off the start of the chop, then press Ctrl+B (Cmd+B on a Mac) 3 times to duplicate it to the right. The stutter tells the listener the loop is about to start again. It sounds like this:

Same notes, same sound, but a new melody. Playing chop 1 twice gives the start of the loop more weight, and the quadruple chop pulls you back to the top.

Step 5: Flip it:

A flip is anything that changes the sound of your chops, so the sample sounds like yours. Two easy ones:

• Pitch it down. Open the clip's channel settings and turn the PITCH knob down 2 half steps (with Slicex, move the notes down in the piano roll). This makes the chops lower and slower, which gives them a darker, dustier feel.
• Reverse a chop. Reversing one or two chops adds a swell that pulls into the next note. On a Sampler channel, turn on Reverse under Precomputed effects (you can see it in the Sampler screenshot in step 2). Here's more on how to reverse samples in FL Studio.

Here's the same pattern pitched down 2 half steps, with chop 6 reversed:

Step 6: Add drums:

Now put drums under it. Chopped samples sit great over boom bap drums, so this is the classic pattern from our boom bap drum patterns post, at 94 BPM:

Cut some low end out of the sample with an EQ so it doesn't fight the kick, and keep the drums a little louder than the sample. For more on balancing it all, see our guide on how to mix beats.

Tips for better chops:

Cut right before the note:

Start every chop right at the start of a note or chord. If a chop starts halfway through a note, you'll hear a click or a weird cut. If you hear clicks, add a tiny fade in and fade out to each chop.

Use fewer chops than you think:

The best flips often use 3 or 4 chops, repeated in a catchy order. Start simple, then add more only if the loop needs it.

Leave space for the vocal:

If the beat is for a rapper or a singer, keep the busy chops for the intro and the hook, and use a simpler pattern in the verse.

Download The Free Loop:

The Golden Melody Pack is a free melody pack with 31 high quality melody loops, including Links 94 D Min from this tutorial. All samples are in WAV format, come with stems and MIDI, and are 100% royalty free. The pack is 952MB.

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CONCLUSION:

Sampling in FL Studio comes down to a few simple moves: get the sample in, match the tempo, chop it, and play the chops back in a new order. Once you can do that, every loop, record or vocal you hear becomes something you can flip into your own beat.

To summarize, here's how to sample in FL Studio:

1. Pick a sample with clear notes or chords
2. Drag it into the Playlist or Channel rack
3. Match the tempo to your project
4. Chop it in the Playlist or with Slicex
5. Rearrange, flip and add drums

Thanks for reading and happy producing!

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Written by Luke Alderson