Your thoughts on Sampling

[Rata-tat-tat]

Hey guys... As many of you may have seen in some of my recent posts... I've been using the Kaossilator/ Ikaossilator and random samples from www.freesounds.com.

Before I got the Kaossilator... I was pretty closed minded about using samples and anything that was processed. I view'd this sort of music as taking the easy road... not taking the time to learn to play an instrument.

After getting the Kaossilator my view has changed (That thing is an instrument in itself)... I now see how much time and effort it takes to put these kind of tracks together+... It has opene'd my eyes to a whole new world of music which I would have never given the time of day otherwise. And I can now sniff out how much "Crap" is really out there!!!

I'm curious to see what you guys think of using samples and electronic sounds... more of an opinion based question. Don't hold back I'm thick skinn'd and I can also play various instruments... I'm not biassed to either one style or the other... just curious!!!

[Oldrottenhead]

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.
Brian Eno

get yer stuff done by any means neccessary sez i.

[Tony W]

I've always considered it a cop-out. I also don't punch in or out because I consider that cheating myself as well. I can still rarely play what I want to in one take, but I'm getting closer all the time.

With that said, I really like my keyboard and all the crazy things I can do with it..... So I cop-out myself a lot.

[Gritter]

if it serves the song in the best way possible then fine.

sampling to music is like a microwave oven to cooking.

[Oldrottenhead]

sampling can take many forms.

i have an old casio sk5 sampler. i would plug my guitar into it pluck a note or strum a chord and you had a new instrument to play on the keyboard with.

i'm not kean tho on the lego block sampling idea, loop samples kinda thing, tho i have used that method to build up a drum track.

 i would love to have an iphone so i could get thumbjam, all the instruments on that are sampled.  but have to be played, or the user has to interact with it, just like the kaosillator.

 i guess it's what you do with the samples and how you interact with them and manipulate them and hopefully put your own personal stamp on them.

[Oldrottenhead]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2aynMMBpo

[64Guitars]

I think sampling is fine to achieve a desired sound that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get, as long as the performance is still your own. For example, I can't play the saxophone and I don't have one but I can play (barely) a keyboard. If my keyboard contains a good saxophone sample (it does) and I use that to enhance one of my recordings, that's fine because I'm still playing the keyboard. But I draw the line at samples of musical phrases played by another musician which anyone can arrange into a complete piece of music. In that case, the arranger needn't play a single note. There's no musical performance except by the musicians that recorded the samples.

For example, take a look at this website:  http://www.soundation.com/

Anyone can create music at that site by simply arranging the provided phrase samples. You don't need any musical training or skill. I created the following recording in a very short time with that site:

Time:

0:00

Volume:

50

0

 Stop   Play   Pause   Vol   Vol   Mute   Repeat   Download

I didn't play a single note! Everything in this recording is a sample from the Soundation website. I merely selected a few samples that I liked and dragged them into the arrangement in the desired order. A child could do it without any musical training.

In my opinion, this is not making music. It's merely editing pre-recorded music performed by someone else.

So the key to sampling is musical performance. Samples are fine if you play them on a musical instrument such as a keyboard or guitar synth. But when the samples become a substitute for playing an instrument, then you become a mere editor/DJ rather than a musician.

[Oldrottenhead]

thats what i was meaning 64 lol.

[phantasm777]

im not against sampling unless its the entire song like cRAP and hip slop do. after all isnt a mellotron the beginnings of this? love mellotrons, love having instrument sounds at your fingers, but never whole songs as samples. that's the rip off.

[Blooby]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2aynMMBpo

I would say this guy was not cheating.

Criminy.