Overcoming the fear of...SAMPLING!

Ive got some diy to do and havent given myself the time. I really need to get on it.

  On 7/28/2015 at 8:13 PM, Psychotronic said:

 

  On 7/28/2015 at 8:07 PM, drillkicker said:

Build your own hardware synths.

 

 

I'm actually working on that.

 

peep01.png

 

i used an arduino

bringing this topic back to life;

in the last 6 / 7 months i started considering sampling my own tracks, also because I have got an Octatrack for playing live.

so I basically prepared some short loops of elements (let's say kick melodies and so on), loaded them and mangled till you can barely recognize the original sound.

i still wouldn't see myself doing it with other people's work but i might give it a try.

i must say it's a lot of fun, especially when u stuck with new / fresh ideas, loading an entire track or section into a sampler might be refreshing , inspiring and might even lead you to a richer / more musical result than the beginning sketch / idea.

i also suggest (i am sure you already know this to nausea) to experiment with reaktor samplers and granular samplers / synthesis.

i've attended a sound design course and actually i am thinking about building my own sampler within reaktor 6

i might sound a bit too overwhelmed now by the whole thing but really guys i am happy i am overcoming the mental block i had about sampling.

last but not least, i must admit i am not 300% fulfilled by the sampling algorythms we have now, especially in kontakt 5.

but maybe i should have a look into Melodyne for more advanced techniques for stretching audio?

anyone here using it?

As long as you can't trace the end result back to its origin I don't see any harm in doing it. For instance, in my signature you'll find a track called "Slow Pan from Left to Right" and at 0:58 there's a weird tremolo-like string playing. I'm pretty sure if the person who made the original tune listened to my track he wouldn't recognize the sample at all. Just fuck it up and make it your own.

It's often surprising how little you need to do to a sample before it's unrecognizable. As long as it lacks famously distinctive elements (e.g. James Brown grunting or amen snares) it's often a simple matter of sufficient rearranging, a.k.a. flipping, and not using too much of the original. A chord here and a kick there.

Also I think one thing samplers really excel at is capturing the meta- or "between" elements. For example, breaks aren't just a bunch of drum samples, they have interesting micro-timings in them, room reverb, little details between each drum hit that are suprisingly un-drum-like. That stuff is hard to synthesize and can be the source of some nice ideas.

  On 3/10/2016 at 3:49 PM, sweepstakes said:

It's often surprising how little you need to do to a sample before it's unrecognizable. As long as it lacks famously distinctive elements (e.g. James Brown grunting or amen snares) it's often a simple matter of sufficient rearranging, a.k.a. flipping, and not using too much of the original. A chord here and a kick there.

 

Also I think one thing samplers really excel at is capturing the meta- or "between" elements. For example, breaks aren't just a bunch of drum samples, they have interesting micro-timings in them, room reverb, little details between each drum hit that are suprisingly un-drum-like. That stuff is hard to synthesize and can be the source of some nice ideas.

The little ambient details are hugely important

And not even just ghost notes

But the "breathing" of the room and the compression

And everything else

You know what's awesome? Sampling something, then after a while when you listen to your track and have no idea what led to that awesome sound. I love not being able to recognize or remember the stuff I sample.

everyone samples... it's like picking your nose... or someone else's nose??

  On 3/11/2016 at 2:46 AM, yek said:

everyone samples... it's like picking your nose... or someone else's nose??

lol

  On 3/10/2016 at 3:49 PM, sweepstakes said:

Also I think one thing samplers really excel at is capturing the meta- or "between" elements. For example, breaks aren't just a bunch of drum samples, they have interesting micro-timings in them, room reverb, little details between each drum hit that are suprisingly un-drum-like. That stuff is hard to synthesize and can be the source of some nice ideas.

Great post, this. Live versions are really fun to sample because the different 'verbs and the ambience and stuff make it even harder to spot the source of the sample, plus you can find really nice wee loops that aren't in the original track where the band stretch out and do fancy drum breaks and stuff.

wouldn't it be fun to make something like 'watmm's sampling/resampling' contest where we'd all have one and the same track as a starting point for sampling and the only rule would be to make a track by using only those samples, without synthesizers, including granular synths? but any effect is aloud.

  On 3/11/2016 at 6:06 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

 

  On 3/11/2016 at 2:46 AM, yek said:

everyone samples... it's like picking your nose... or someone else's nose??

 

lol

you can pick your nose use samples, you can use your friends, but you should never, ever pick use your friends nose samples

nice idea!

  On 3/10/2016 at 11:58 PM, Squee said:

You know what's awesome? Sampling something, then after a while when you listen to your track and have no idea what led to that awesome sound. I love not being able to recognize or remember the stuff I sample.

I have a witch-house track I made sampling the song "Love Delicatassen" by the Presidents of the USA and pitching it way down and adding a fuckton of reverb... It took me quite a while after going back to remember what the sample was and to this day, I have no idea how the fuck I came up with the idea to use that particular sample (I havent actively put anything by the POTUS on since grade school), and the song I made from it kinda creeps me out.

  On 3/11/2016 at 7:59 PM, xox said:

wouldn't it be fun to make something like 'watmm's sampling/resampling' contest where we'd all have one and the same track as a starting point for sampling and the only rule would be to make a track by using only those samples, without synthesizers, including granular synths? but any effect is aloud.

 

I'd be game for this!

i used to worry about it then i went through the catalog of entries for AFX on whosampledwho (I'm talking about him sampling people, not people sampling him) and now I'm totally OK with it. He's my artistic moral compass :) He has also talked about obsessively searching new music for new sounds, and just collecting samples. I think it's pretty OK and not something to worry about. Even if it's way out it front, as long as you're open about it, right?

I also get the sense that the younger you are, the more cool you are with it. When I first heard that washed out song that is the theme song for portlandia, and the song he used for it, i thought it would end washed out's career, but i guess it was totally fine. i think at live shows his band basically plays that song and he sings over it. heh.

  On 3/11/2016 at 7:59 PM, xox said:

wouldn't it be fun to make something like 'watmm's sampling/resampling' contest where we'd all have one and the same track as a starting point for sampling and the only rule would be to make a track by using only those samples, without synthesizers, including granular synths? but any effect is aloud.

There used to be a monthly thing like this on em411 called a "mixit". For a week or so, anyone could contribute samples. Then at the end of the week, a final sample pack was released. Then participants could use those samples however they wanted to come up with a track submission. The only rule was that those samples were the only allowed sound source.

It was great, there was some stunningly good stuff. I only participated in a couple of them but many people said they learned a ton from doing them. Naturally, Neil Scrivin (Meatbingo) killed it every time he participated. He's a sampling master. I was pretty stoked when he used one of my samples.

  On 3/12/2016 at 3:14 AM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 3/11/2016 at 7:59 PM, xox said:

wouldn't it be fun to make something like 'watmm's sampling/resampling' contest where we'd all have one and the same track as a starting point for sampling and the only rule would be to make a track by using only those samples, without synthesizers, including granular synths? but any effect is aloud.

There used to be a monthly thing like this on em411 called a "mixit". For a week or so, anyone could contribute samples. Then at the end of the week, a final sample pack was released. Then participants could use those samples however they wanted to come up with a track submission. The only rule was that those samples were the only allowed sound source.

 

It was great, there was some stunningly good stuff. I only participated in a couple of them but many people said they learned a ton from doing them. Naturally, Neil Scrivin (Meatbingo) killed it every time he participated. He's a sampling master. I was pretty stoked when he used one of my samples.

 

\ well why couldn't we then, right?

Regarding sample mastery and the likes of Meatbingo, maybe cause i don't listen to that kind of music on daily basis nor do i use samples in my music but i only like VHS Head, his music and using of samples makes sense to me, i can feel it and understand it. Music of Meatbingo most of the time goes nowhere imo, 74 samples and different events per sec for what could have been better said with 1-2 samples, with so many references on pop culture and humas per sec and music ends up being cold as ice, well to me at least.

I'm more for qualitiy than quantity...and emptions. For example i like how 2814 used vocal samples in the track below, especialy the lowered in pitch one (uwwwooouuu), i find it soooo emotional and isn't that what matters the most?

  On 3/12/2016 at 2:57 PM, xox said:

 

  On 3/12/2016 at 3:14 AM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 3/11/2016 at 7:59 PM, xox said:

wouldn't it be fun to make something like 'watmm's sampling/resampling' contest where we'd all have one and the same track as a starting point for sampling and the only rule would be to make a track by using only those samples, without synthesizers, including granular synths? but any effect is aloud.

There used to be a monthly thing like this on em411 called a "mixit". For a week or so, anyone could contribute samples. Then at the end of the week, a final sample pack was released. Then participants could use those samples however they wanted to come up with a track submission. The only rule was that those samples were the only allowed sound source.

 

It was great, there was some stunningly good stuff. I only participated in a couple of them but many people said they learned a ton from doing them. Naturally, Neil Scrivin (Meatbingo) killed it every time he participated. He's a sampling master. I was pretty stoked when he used one of my samples.

 

 

 

\ well why couldn't we then, right?

 

Regarding sample mastery and the likes of Meatbingo, maybe cause i don't listen to that kind of music on daily basis nor do i use samples in my music but i only like VHS Head, his music and using of samples makes sense to me, i can feel it and understand it. Music of Meatbingo most of the time goes nowhere imo, 74 samples and different events per sec for what could have been better said with 1-2 samples, with so many references on pop culture and humas per sec and music ends up being cold as ice, well to me at least.

I'm more for qualitiy than quantity...and emptions. For example i like how 2814 used vocal samples in the track below, especialy the lowered in pitch one (uwwwooouuu), i find it soooo emotional and isn't that what matters the most?

 

I would love to start it up again!

As far as Meatbingo, his more recent stuff is probably more hectic and ostentatiously 80s, but his Mixit submissions were a bit more restrained and focused, and definitely NOT lacking in emotion.

Also I might just be biased but I think the density of samples he uses is just part of his aesthetic, and really works in service with the emotions I see him and VHS Head as trying to convey, specifically, the chaos and anxiety of modern data-driven life, where there is just so much shit going on and we're struggling to find meaning and transcendence, or even simply -patterns- in the ocean of information we're inundated with on the web. Their musical process (or at least VHS Head's, Meatbingo's a little more secretive) is a good reflection of that, at least.

Emotional content is very subjective, though. For example, no offense, but I'm not getting anything out of that 2814 track :P

where one could listen to those Mixit tracks?

I don't think they're up anywhere online anymore. I may have them on a hard drive.

would u mind sharing them?

btw, i am diggin Meatbingo and VHS Head releases rn, fucking "EUREKA" moment.

lovely stuff

found this

nice octa user

reviving this old thread for those interested;

first of all I started sampling in my music, being it music from my friends, not caring about 'clearing' samples as well as other artists' music (but decided not to release those ones)

i am not sure how the clearance process works tbh, any of you aware of it?

let's say I sample a synth-line from Stranger Things or some electro-acustic sounds from a Ligeti piece, how should I proceed in case I want to release my own tracks legally?

  On 4/13/2018 at 11:00 AM, hawaii said:

reviving this old thread for those interested;

first of all I started sampling in my music, being it music from my friends, not caring about 'clearing' samples as well as other artists' music (but decided not to release those ones)

 

i am not sure how the clearance process works tbh, any of you aware of it?

let's say I sample a synth-line from Stranger Things or some electro-acustic sounds from a Ligeti piece, how should I proceed in case I want to release my own tracks legally?

Back in the late 2000s when I was working at a record store one of our semi-regulars and a good friend of the owner was involved with the sample clearing process for major labels.  He was one of about half a dozen contractors that were brought in regularly because he had a savant-level ability to identify samples by ear, so when a label had an album full of uncleared samples and the producer didn't remember where they came from (which apparently happened often enough that about half a dozen people made decent livings being on call to identify them, although I suspect he did other work too) he would listen to the track and identify all the samples for them so they could get clearance.

My understanding is on that level, unless it's a recognizable sample from a major artist, nobody actually worries about it and just leaves it for the label to sort out.

That doesn't really help, though.