how to cut up real drum hits to make samples properly

[Manicompression]

So Ive been working on these tracks that some buddies and I recorded. I made sure that on the first day we got direct hits with a good 20 seconds of space between the hits of all the elements of the kit. I would like to make a trigger instrument out of the hits. Im in Cubase 5 fwiw. This is hard to describe proper the rest of the way, so bear with me lol.

So now Im making the track look high contrast, like vertically, extremely tall and obvious with the view adjuster thing at the top right of the screen. Its then easy to see where the hits stop and start. But when i zoom in all the way on the first transient area of the hit, the waveforms look all square and im finding it hard to decipher where to make my cuts. I would think within the fraction of a millisecond that Im looking, that even if my cuts were early it should hardly matter. But it does obviously because when i load them up in trigger i get inconsistent timing from hit to hit. Maybe Im starting the cut to early, or maybe Im exporting them incorrectly, maybe they are too long.... I dont know honestly.

Ive used the search and i cant seem to find a "how do chop up samples for dummies thread". So I was hoping anyone that has experience with this could chime in and walk me though it like a slow kid. Thanks in advance.

 

[LoftMusicRob]

A wave file is going to have 4 basic properties: Attack, Sustain, Decay, and Release. Make sure you give the sample the smallest bit of breathing space and don't chop it at the highest peak. Take it back to the left a little bit where the hit opens up. Likewise, don't end the sample too early either. Make sure the sample sounds natural before you bounce it down.

 

[metalmusicproduction]

Are you exporting the individual hits using a time selection? I would try exporting them using a time selection including only the exact area of one sample. As mentioned above try to cut exactly where the hit opens up and try to be consistent as possible on all hits. You might find it useful to chop for example 8 samples of the kick, place them on individual tracks, and export the same time selection for each track. Assuming you were pretty consistent with the start points of the samples it should give you pretty accurate results.

 

[006]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07edDyonSZM&t=1m52s[/ame]

Start @ 1:52

 

[Manicompression]

Are you exporting the individual hits using a time selection? I would try exporting them using a time selection including only the exact area of one sample. As mentioned above try to cut exactly where the hit opens up and try to be consistent as possible on all hits. You might find it useful to chop for example 8 samples of the kick, place them on individual tracks, and export the same time selection for each track. Assuming you were pretty consistent with the start points of the samples it should give you pretty accurate results.

Yeah, Im using the blue time locater thing set to the duration of the hit. But I like the suggestion of lining them up on different tracks to get the opening transient the same. And if they are off I can determine across the board by how much once ive loaded them up which makes the trial and error a little more fruitful.
At Mike, for what ever reason when he zooms into his waveforms all the way its very easy to see when the silence stops and the hit starts, his hit transients have a nice wave quality, where when I look at mine at full zoom they turn into little line fragments and what I think is the start of the hit looks like squares. Do you think there is merit in lining up the hits to be bounced exactly at marker points though, is this potentially more accurate for cubase to read?
Do you guys do a small (like 3 millisecond) fade in and fade out to avoid clicks and pops, I have been, but maybe this is part of my problem?
Also, Are there any merits to exporting as a stereo interleaved over just a mono wav for use in trigger. I feel like alot of slates samples sound better when i use them on a stereo track. Is it just a percieved volume thing that I am liking here or am I correct that they sound proper stereo?