Sampling in Studio One: How to Integrate a Record Player into Your Workflow 🎛️

If you're a Studio One user looking to get into sampling, you're in the right place! Recently, I got my hands on an Audio-Technica ATLP 120XBT turntable (shoutout to my friends at Sweetwater 🙌) because Hip-hop has played a huge role in shaping my taste and production style, so diving into the roots of sampling just felt right.

Now, you might be thinking, "Cool, but why do you need a record player? There are tons of samples online." And you'd be absolutely right. But there's something special about physically handling records—dropping the needle, digging through crates, and capturing raw audio. It adds a level of connection to the music that digital samples just can't replicate. That said, I still rely on Studio One for all my chopping, arranging, and production, making my workflow a hybrid of analog and digital. So today, I’m breaking down how to set up a record player in Studio One and flip a sample into a full beat. Let’s get to it! 🎶

Setting Up Your Record Player in Studio One 🎚️

Before we start making music, we need to set up our record player correctly. Most turntables come with a USB connection, which is fine, but I’d argue there’s a better way.

Best Connection Method 🎧

Instead of using USB, I recommend a TS to RCA male cable. This lets you connect your record player’s RCA outputs directly to your audio interface’s line inputs, giving you way more control over the sound.

Here’s my setup:

• Record Player → RCA Outputs

• TS to RCA Cable → Connected to Apollo Interface (Inputs 5 & 6)

Configuring Studio One 🔧

Once your turntable is physically connected, let’s set it up in Studio One:

1. Go to Preferences → Song Setup

2. Navigate to Audio I/O Setup → Input Tab

3. Click Add Stereo → Assign it to the physical inputs you connected your record player to (in my case, 5 & 6)

4. Name it something easy to recognize, like Record Player

5. Create an Audio Track in Studio One and set the input to your new Record Player input

Boom! Now, when you drop the needle on a record, the sound goes straight into Studio One. Time to start sampling! 🎵

Sampling a Record in Studio One 🎤

Now that we have everything set up, let’s grab a record and start flipping it.

Recording the Sample 📀

1. Turn on the record player and unlock the tonearm

2. Find a section of the song you like

3. Hit record in Studio One and drop the needle

After a few bars, I had my sample recorded and ready to chop.

Detecting the Sample’s Tempo ⏳

To work with a sample effectively, we need to detect its tempo. Studio One makes this easy:

1. Right-click the sample → Go to Audio → Detect Tempo

2. Or, if you have my Productivity Macro Toolbar, just click Detect Tempo from the Sample section

If the sample has a fixed tempo, Studio One will display it under File Tempo section of the Inspector Window. If not, it’ll show “Map,” meaning the tempo varies throughout.

Chopping the Sample ✂️

If the tempo is fixed, I could auto-slice the sample using my macro toolbar. But since this one had a variable tempo, I chopped it manually:

1. Zoom into the waveform and adjust the grid to 64th notes for precise cuts

2. Find the exact start and end points of each section

3. Delete any unwanted background noise

Isolating Vocals with Stem Separation 🎙️

My specific sample had some cool vocals, but I didn’t want the instruments behind them. Thankfully, Studio One 7 introduced Stem Separation:

1. Right-click the sample → Go to Audio → Separate Stems

2.  Or, if you have my Productivity Macro Toolbar, just click Separate Stems from the Sample section.

3. Choose which parts to isolate (vocals, drums, instruments, etc.)

I used this to pull the vocal chops cleanly, and now I had exactly what I wanted.

Assigning Chops to Impact XT 🥁

To trigger my chops like an MPC, I sent them to Impact XT:

1. Select all the chopped samples

2. Click Send to New Impact in the Sample Section of the toolbar

3. Assign them to Choke Group 1 so they don’t overlap

Now, I could play my samples on the pads and start building the beat!

Building the Beat 🏗️

Laying Down Drums 🥁

With my chops loaded into Impact XT, I needed some drums. I pulled up another instance of Impact with some classic hip-hop drum samples and laid down a simple groove.

To tighten up the groove:

• Quantized loosely (80% strength, 10-15% swing)

• Added an open hi-hat for extra bounce

Adding Chords 🎹

To add some musicality, I wanted to layer chords under the sample. Studio One’s Chord Detection feature made this easy:

1. Click on the sample

2. From the Events section of the toolbar → Click Extract Chords

3. Drag detected chords into a MIDI track

Because I rearranged the sample chops, I had to play the chords myself, but you could just as easily drag the detected chords from the Chord Track into a MIDI track

Bassline and Processing 🎛️

To round out the beat, I added a bassline using MODO Bass by IK Multimedia. This plugin nails the sound of a real bass guitar.

For processing, I used:

• FabFilter Pro-Q3 to filter out low-end mud

• Valhalla Vintage Verb for space

• RC-20 to bring back the vinyl crackle removed by stem separation

• Murder Melodies for extra texture and movement

Final Touch: Pitching the Sample 📉

The beat was almost there, but I wanted to give it a darker, boom-bap feel. So, I pitched the entire beat down a few semitones, which gave it that classic, gritty texture.

Wrapping Up 🎯

And that’s it! From setting up the turntable to flipping the sample and building the beat, we covered the full sampling process in Studio One. This hybrid workflow lets me blend the warmth of vinyl with the flexibility of a modern DAW. If you’re into sampling, I highly recommend trying it out!

Also, if you want to speed up your workflow in Studio One, don’t forget to grab my FREE Productivity Macro Toolbar. It’s packed with shortcuts that make sampling (and everything else) way faster!🔥

Happy beat-making! 🎶