Nay, unless they’re made yourself
I have way too much samples (lots of them comes from Komplete) and there’s nothing more boring than scrolling among thousands of them to find the right one. Except maybe taking that one, when you find it, and just using it as it is.
But as DaveMech said, with good creative sampler you can make any sample to be anything. It’s just a sound source. I’ve made drums from pads, leads from drums… it’s incredible what can be done with just DT, to me it was quite a revelation.
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My process sometimes uses sample packs, sometimes I record my own. Sometimes I use preset patches, other times I do the sound design. I do what I want, it’s very liberating. 
Yay, nay - both, depending on mood, time of day, coffee consumed, and a million other arbitrary factors.
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Brb, just gonna buy all vintage drum machines, sample them through high end pre’s and other outboard. Then record to tape and cut the drums back into one shots that I’ll process through vintage samplers that I also just happen to have.
After that I’ll go out and buy every record that contains a classic break and sample that from vinyl.
Then it’s time for the Mellotron and Rhodes(oh shit but there’s a lot of electronic interference in my house). Sample every key and then again with fx.
Ok almost done, final thing I need are vocals. Book every artist that every had a soul, rnb, pop hit and make them sing all the classic lines. Then also book multiple choirs because you never know when you need those angelic voices.
Done. Time to make a loop that I will listen to for hours and then delete
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To be clear I meant curating the packs themselves, not necessarily sampling everything yourself if there is no access to all of those rare instruments. 
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Heheh yeah, just joking. I very much enjoy sampling though. It’s fun and I treat it the same as making presets on synths.
It is also very educational in the sense that it’s good way to learn the quality’s of your pre’s EQ’s and outboard.
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Ill just leave this here again 
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Guess it’s time to build my own ssd with components I made myself
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As I mentioned I’m not talking about one shots.
More melodic loops etc.
Interestingly in the Bohmer masterclass, the first sample he uses is of one of his own songs, pitched and chopped. But then he went on to use other sample packs too. The sense I got was “no rules.” Sample yourself, use packs etc - all gravy. The other one that comes to mind is Disclosure who I noticed referenced extensive use of sample packs in their lockdown streams. Plus Flume and his use of Samplephonics packs.
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I recently made a Sample Pack of the Syntrx II, with a focus on Loops.
It’s convenient to put the sounds of a large piece of gear with no total recall into a small piece of gear with total recall (Digitakt/Octatrack)
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It is very satisfying yes.
I’m using savetube a lot for downloading videos from YouTube and extracting the audio from all kinds of clips and then edit, process and feed those to the OT.
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Speaking of sample packs, here’s a good thread to sample noise, pop’s and clicks😅
Ya’ll will be able to get my broken heat sample pack for 10 euro soon
+1 My first sampler was an sk-1 and nothing since has come close to its immediate fun factor. For me samples are kind of like sushi, fun to make and eat as soon as possible but go off quickly otherwise you just end up with a freezer full of reduced to clear Aldi blobs.
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Lots of music that i love was built upon and around samples from “packs” and for the longest time i didnt even realize that. Discovering that didnt make me sad, but instead even more excited about learning new techniques and ways of making things work.
So i would say: if you stop yourself from using a sound that you think will sound cool in your own context because more than one person has access to it - thats just dumb.
I think its a great skill to make a sample hit just right in a track.
Also want to mention that hearing familiar samples is comforting in a way.
I’ve got Gigabytes of samples that i’ve ripped or created myself and many times more of other people’s samples. I don’t see any problem with packs in all honesty, although copyright lawyers may disagree .
Some of my favourite tracks have been created from samples, some found sounds and some reused.
The comment that suggested it wasn’t ok to use packs yet said it was ok to use the samples provided with the daw or piece of gear is laughable too as it’s pretty much the same thing.
Unless you’re building your own sounds from scratch with init patches, or a synth with no patch/preset memory then you’re using somebody else’s work.
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My personal issue with loop/clip/beat libraries is that they tend to be rather huge, they come with loads of terms and conditions, they most often require some kind of processing to make them agreeable, and they are not always up to my taste. Plus, they do cost a considerable amount of money. That’s why I just write my own song parts.
Nevertheless, those clips can be a great source of inspiration or timesaver/quick-fix for when you’re stuck in the songwriting process. Same goes for MIDI clip libraries btw.
As for not using any one-shot libraries, I’d rather not be as extreme. That would forbid me from using Korg Kronos or any sample-based synths for that matter.
I have nothing against sample packs broadly but they’re not for me personally… for the most part. I guess I’ve never found much use for commercial packs. In a pack of 1000 samples there might be 3 or 4 that grab me in some way yet they’re usually samples I could easily make myself and I enjoy sampling. That being said I’ve traded homemade packs with friends plenty over the years and have had a fair bit of inspiration and utility from those.
Again, to each their own. I certainly see the appeal for some people. I’m not trying to produce unit shifters or MainStage edm bangers or whatever (again, to each their own) and making samples is a big part of the reason I use them at all.
For sure. The approach I take is to randomly pick a few for whatever part I’m using samples for (9/10 times, it’s drums of some sort). I rarely use melodic samples so this approach works quite well, but my sample collection is also pretty heavily curated and highly organized. I will happily delete samples or folders out of packs if I don’t like those particular ones. I imagine if one’s samples aren’t organized or if the collection is massive it might not work.
My main problem with samples at this point is that I know that some of my samples aren’t cleared and will never be cleared, which makes me hesitant to use them in certain contexts.
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Yes I use sample packs. I don’t really deal with option paralysis because I use an AI sample browser and just punch in searches for what I need. So I don’t let the theme of the pack influence me at all. I know what I want to make already and am just looking for specific sounds to get me there.