The Blog · Release
404 FOUND: a free online sample chopper that finds the loops for you
Drop any record into your browser. 404 FOUND finds the loops, ranks them, detects the BPM and key, chops on the grid, and loads sixteen pads. No download, no account, and nothing you load ever leaves your device.
By Ty McDuffey · The Duff Radio Dispatch
Digging is the best part of making beats and the slowest part of making beats. You know the loop is in there somewhere. Finding it means scrubbing a waveform, guessing at the downbeat, nudging the grid, and doing it again on the next record. We built the machine that does the boring half.
How to chop samples online, without a DAW
Open the sampler in any browser, on a laptop or a phone. Drag in an mp3, wav, or m4a. That is the entire setup. There is no plugin to install, no DAW to open, and no account to create.
From there, 404 FOUND analyzes the whole file and does four things at once: it finds the sections that loop cleanly, ranks them by how usable they actually are, detects the BPM and the key, and cuts everything on the grid. Sixteen pads light up. You tap one and it plays in time.
It finds the loops. It does not just slice at even intervals.
This is the part that makes it different from most auto-choppers. The usual approach is to divide a file into equal pieces and hand you the results, which is fine if the record was made to a click and useless if it was not. Chopping a record by even division gives you a pile of slices that mostly start in the wrong place.
404 FOUND is beat aware. It follows the drummer's drift instead of assuming a rigid tempo, which is what makes it work on soul records, live bands, and anything cut before quantizing existed. Then it ranks what it found, so the first pad is the best loop in the record rather than the first four bars of it.
Is 404 FOUND a Koala Sampler alternative?
Different jobs, and worth being honest about it. Koala is an excellent mobile sampler and the standard on a phone. If you want to record the world through your mic and build a track from scratch, use Koala.
404 FOUND is for the other problem: you already have a record and you want the loop out of it. It runs in a browser, so it works on a desktop, a laptop, a Chromebook, or a phone without an app store, and there is nothing to install on any of them. If you came here searching for a Koala alternative for PC or a browser sampler, that gap is the one this fills.
Is it a free Serato Sample alternative?
Partly. Serato Sample is a paid plugin that lives inside your DAW and does more than we do, including stem separation. If you need stems and DAW integration, buy it.
What 404 FOUND does that a plugin cannot is start working before your session does. No DAW open, no plugin scan, no license manager. You hear a record, you drop it in, and thirty seconds later you know whether there is a beat in there. It is the tool for the decision, not for the arrangement. Once the idea earns a full session, you export the stems and take them into Logic, FL Studio, or Ableton.
404 FOUND compared to the other ways to chop
| 404 FOUND | Sampler plugins | Mobile sampler apps | Basic online choppers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Install | None. Open a URL | DAW + plugin install | App store download | None |
| Finds the loops | Yes, ranked by usability | Auto-slices at fixed points | You chop by hand | You chop by hand |
| BPM & key | Detected automatically | Usually yes | Varies | Rarely |
| Follows tempo drift | Yes | Varies | No | No |
| Audio leaves device | Never | No | No | Often uploads |
| Cost | Free. $29 for export | Paid up front | Paid up front | Free |
Does my audio get uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs on your own device, in the browser. There is no server that receives your files, no account, and no sign in. That matters for unreleased material and for anyone who is careful about where their stems end up. It also means the tool keeps working the day we stop paying a hosting bill.
What is free, and what does the $29 unlock?
The instrument is free. Load records, find loops, chop them, play the pads, build the idea, as long and as often as you want. Nothing expires and nothing is watermarked.
The $29 key unlocks export: WAV stems and .zip packs, the files you carry into your DAW. It is a one time payment, not a subscription, and one key covers three devices. You only pay at the point where the tool has already done the work for you.
Which files can I chop?
mp3, wav, and m4a. Drop them onto the screen or tap to browse.
Why a radio station built a sampler
Because we needed it. Duff Radio has spent five years in rooms with Kansas City producers, and the same forty minutes disappears in every session, every time, to the same task. 404 FOUND started as an internal tool. It got used every day, which is the only real signal that a thing is worth releasing.