Overcoming the fear of...SAMPLING!

[Guest hawaii]

Good evening folks,
let me say the title is meant to be a bit funny but I really have a problem with sampling sometimes.

I do have a moniker where it's all about sampling but the 'style' of music I released thru this project is not really my thing at the end of the day.
It was meant exactly to approach sampling but at the same time being "masked" behind an anonymous identity.

I don't know how you feel about sampling, if you use samples from other people's music and how you use them.
I sometime sample myself, from old tunes but I really CAN'T think of releasing a track where I sampled someone else's work.
I know it's a mental block and / or limit , whatever.

Is there anybody here who has or had in the past the same problem?
I think if I would start sampling, my music could become more diverse and, maybe, even more "musical" and interesting.

Hopefully this thread doesn't sound too fucked up / stupid

Cheers guys!

[o00o]

All great artists steal just don't get caught

[Squee]

I'm ok with sampling. But make sure no one will be able to identify the sample - at all!

[flacid]

In. Recently bought a sampler and enjoying the process of finding sounds to use (only ball ache is then cutting them up...)

 

I didn't realise that changing the original sample was so important? You hear a lot of unchanged samples in a lot of music popular on here.

 

Edit - Also if you want to sample other peoples stuff just for your own amusement or a new musical direction then just do it. See where it takes you. If it comes to a stage where you can release it properly then maybe consider changing it then but until then just have fun pissing about with sounds.

[poblequadrat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7U_OJF1FaI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awxp7CfGycM

 

lol

also i'm totally ok with sampling. transforming something into something else is a lot of fun, and it's cool to see how different things go together

[poblequadrat]

btw, we could do a watmm compilation of our own gigi masin-sampling tracks

[joshuatxuk]

as a listener I approach sampling as a reflection of music making in general - there are so many aspects and variables to it that's impossible to simply say yay or nay to it (I love sampling in general, I only despise it when it's extremely lazy or lacking in cleverness)

 

I've ranted about it before here and here

[Danny O Flannagin]

Most sampling is fine, you just need your own voice injected into the music. Some may call it appropriation but I call it interpretation. Even classical composers would "quote" other composer's work which was basically sampling before the age of recorded music.

 

That being said, I still would rather create my own samples and pride myself in knowing that songs I make are 99 percent created by me

[Danny O Flannagin]

Example of bad sampling:

Straight loop, some drums. Basically a complete ripoff

 

 

Example of good sampling:

Plays with loop lengths, time. Adds his own voice with synths and layering

 

This song is even better after knowing he sampled from this:

[Guest]

sampling is fun,
just listen to this track that i tossed together in 45 minutes last august using a very famouse, yet very obscurely manipulated, sample in it

https://soundcloud.com/solmarama/twilek-bouncer

[Braintree]

Sampling is probably my favorite thing about making music. I sample from all kinds of stuff: old 50s videos, random things lying around, found sounds. A large chunk of my music has been written with drum kits that I made from the ground up.

 

This track (from a fantastic album) is made from the sounds of food and their containers:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEJz5xUKXZc

[Guest hawaii]

thank you guys!

 

actually, i'm using loads of 'samples', don't get me wrong.

i sample with my field recorder and parts of my old tunes.

 

i'm just a bit blocked when it comes to sample other people's released music.

i dunno. i might start using 'external sources' like movies, video games, soundtracks and then move onto records :D

 

PS: that Oneohtrix Point Never track....pure bliss.

[purlieu]

I sample a lot, but I have a rule of only sampling from music I don't like. I hate listening to a piece of music I like and then thinking "oh yeah it's my track". Just pulls me right out of it. New age stuff is a favourite source. Grabbing little moments of loveliness that deserve better than the track they're part of. Nothing of mine has been released in a run of more than 100 in the last ten years so I don't have much fear of people tracking me down.

[sweepstakes]

The first proper electronic release I really got into on my own terms was Meat Beat Manifesto's "Subliminal Sandwich" and I still feel like it's one of the most masterful works of sampling. There are people who can "flip a loop" better for sure but the way all the samples are mixed and paced, and the way they blend so cohesively with the live instrumentation is unparalleled. It's a world unto itself.

That OPN album is great too. He said he was trying to take the role of an alien archeologist trying to make sense of 20th century cultural detritus. It mostly stays in a kind of aesthetic niche but the way he slices those weird old commercials is really unique and creates these great undescribable textures. Also there are some really beautiful, poignant moments on it - it's as much like Selected Ambient Works 2 as it is like other sample-based music. R Plus Seven was nice but I was hoping he would explore this style a little more. I guess I just feel that way because he really had something to say in this framework.

Also has anyone mentioned J Dilla or Madlib yet? They don't really obscure the samples as much but they sure know how to make them come to life.

[sweepstakes]

Also I think sampling old, crusty stuff is a nice antidote or at least complement to the sort of shiny factory-installed default sounds that come with all these DAWs and which are prevalent in the popular sound packs. It's nice both for the textures and for the stories embedded in the samples.

[logakght]

I used to fucking hate sampling. In fact, I also used to hate using presets. But that actually limited a lot my creative process, since I needed to do everything from sratch, which is quite hard.

 

So yeah, everyone sample shit and use presets. Don't worry, what matter is the music.

[drillkicker]

I've sampled a hell of a lot of music in my shit, and it's a beautiful thing to do IMO, because it reveals frequencies and possibilities in existing music that nobody (maybe not even the creator) could hear before. I've never seen any problem with doing that, and I don't understand why other people do. Generally when I do it I get out of control and change it beyond any possible recognition, but it's nice to keep it musically intact at times; sometimes even the melodic progressions can be repurposed to create something very different.

 

Lately, though, I've found it to be more fun to just sample older things I recorded myself. With all the different old shit I have on my hard drives, there really isn't any need to use other people's tunes, and it's generally more enjoyable to hear my own music get fucked up rather than a tune that I haven't heard from the very beginning of its creation.

 

But it's cool as hell to find new ways to use existing art, and Ferruccio Busoni and the Dadaists believed that that concept will be the foundation of art in the future, when the amount of existing creations outnumbers the potential for original ones.

[b born droid]

I just wrote a song which features a load of samples from the intro to Meat Loaf - You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth. It was fucking great to fuck around with. Final result was barely noticeable.

[fenton]

I made a straight up hip hop sampling IDM tune - being that hip hop was based on sampling whole fucking phrases of other people's music just because it samples IDM doesn't make it any less valid. right?

 

[Psychotronic]

I only use samples other people created, when somebody wants me to remix one of his songs.

 

The problem with samples i normally have is, that they do not sound unique enough or the way i want them to sound. Thats why i create all samples i use myself. Same goes for presets. Same goes for presets. Hell i'm even forced to code my own synths because i'm bored by the stuff thats on the market.

[drillkicker]

Build your own hardware synths.

[Psychotronic]

Build your own hardware synths.

 

 

I'm actually working on that.

 

[drillkicker]

 

Build your own hardware synths.

 

 

I'm actually working on that.

 

peep01.png

 

Nice! I'd try it myself except that I really have no space for any more things of any sort, and I also don't have the electrical knowledge and whatever tools you would need to build the casing. Anyway, please keep us updated on the project, and show us your result!

[Psychotronic]

Anyway, please keep us updated on the project, and show us your result!

Sure, is there a DIY hardware thread anywhere on this board?

[drillkicker]

 

Anyway, please keep us updated on the project, and show us your result!

Sure, is there a DIY hardware thread anywhere on this board?

 

I don't know. If there isn't, you should just make your own.