Separating the Wheat from the Chaff(Sampling)

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Where to start?

I’m not long got into the Sampling world being just a keyboardist for decades. I see so many sites like Splice etc which they say have a traffic of 5 million going through their doors looing for samples. Nice but i’m not a Producer just a hobbyist so overkill i think. Then i see records that are the most sampled records of all time. (as in top 100 sampled records of all time). Great but id rather have anonymous not familiar. So that cuts it down further,. Still of course gazillions to choose from. I see job lots of 100 albums for peanuts on ebay. I dont want to become a hoarder and end up with a garage full of vinyl. So where to start? I have a limited sample library. Mostly drum breaks, one shots. Instruments stabs and loops etc. But where to find the gems? Or do you make the samples into gold yourself? As in mangling in the Octatrack. Do you start then with just a beat or sound you like that jasts for a bar or two and go from their. Then You-tube looks like a good place to head. Obviously bit rate, compression will not be the best. But its a start. And its free as long as you remix it enough or just say who sampled who sort of thing by giving credit otohe original artist(which i probably would do). I cant see the point in paying for fantastic samples where i am right now. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

Ediit. Genres im looking into is Hip Hop and Electronica. Although Experimental is appealing too.

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Octatrack. But what Sample?
#2

just use the amen break, anything under 100kb file size is best.

i find it so weird that people use that splice website.

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#3

Yes i was wondering if they really have 5 million users. I mean great samples and all but polished to the nth degree and expensive.

#4

Sampling is exciting because you can come at it from any approach you like. What types of samples are you looking for, and what types of music do you want to make? A hip hop artist is probably going to be looking for a different type of sample than someone making drone or noise music. Depends on what you will be manipulating your samples with too. I like layering long environments into my music, but that’s not something I can do on the DT for instance.

Splice and sample packs seems great for producers and composers who don’t have the time to be sourcing samples and don’t much care about the source either. It’s an easy way to stay sounding “current” too I suppose. I’ve tried it out and it’s not for me, I found there’s no pleasure in using a sound I have no attachment to.

I have the most fun making my own samples.

I record myself playing instruments. I take walks around my neighborhood and bring a microphone. I rip A Capella from youtube or give my friends some beer and ask them to sing. Sampling presets on synthesizers or even synth demos can be fun when I have little to no energy. If I need one-shots I’ll record my self banging on some stuff and layer it with a synth or different sample if I need to.

Sampling from my favorite music is fun too, it can almost be like exposing yourself to a song for the first time again.

So I’d think about where you want to end up, and what would be an exciting place to start from. Maybe a little zoom recorder would open up some possibilities.
Sampling is the way.

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#5

Some good sounds here:

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#6

The wheat from the Chaff haha! :slight_smile:

#7

yes, I was being silly.
Yet, there are some cool sounds in that video.
That is what I like about sampling, just approaching sounds for sounds sake.

#8

:arrow_up: This.

Nothing against Splice etc, although I don’t use it I can see the appeal of a easily browsable database of samples, but it bores me personally.

I prefer to sample say a drum machine or one of my old tracks, a bassline or synth etc. chop it up, fx, run it out into something else then back into the OT, this is where the fun in sampling is had IMHO.

I find it extremely dull how some people work, download a nice rhodes progression from Splice, add a bit of reverb do some minor slice and add a break beat, it kind of reminds me of preset patterns on home keyboards for the 21st century.

Also on OT with enough determination you can literally make any sound into most other kinds of sound, for example a guitar into a kick, a piano into a pad, a harmonica into a hihat etc.

I also think curation is key, huge libraries are something I avoid, and keeping samples organised is essential, I regularly purge dead wood, and prefer in most cases to use bespoke samples each time.

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#9

I do sample some vinyl. I usually pick random stuff I’ve not heard of before–I don’t usually go looking for a particular song to sample. Anyway, point being, you don’t have to keep the vinyl after you record it. I sell mine back to the local shops and get new stuff. I’ve got a small amount I keep for nostalgia.

With your sample packs and subscription services I’ll use some of that too, but I end up altering that stuff pretty heavily most of the time. Loops or one shots.

For drum one shots I got the Samples From Mars entire collection for like $5 a year or two ago. Then I also have some Gold Baby packs. Between those I’m sorted. And YouTube is fine I think, I sample from there too. Not always great quality but mixed in with other sounds from other sources it all just becomes part of the texture of the tune.

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#10

Also I’ll think nothing of spending several hours getting a sound or sample right, if needs be.

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#11

I think im on the right track then. Just work on a found sample and make it your own. Ive seen some great Jazz tracks with that dusty vinyl crackle. People seem to give them away these days. I can see two camps. Is music that crap that people just go to Splice and add a bit of reverb? How can you get any satisfaction from that?

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#12

lots of old dance 12" records have tracks that are like sparse percussion tracks, or just vocals and synths, or maybe just the bassline…I like to sample stuff like that and cut it up

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#13

Yes listening to some Miles Davis and the sparseness wherein its just one instrument taking the lead at a time would make for great samples. What about this 100 most sampled list or whatever? There quite a few of these lists on the net. Why did they get sampled more than others?

#14

I used Splice for a bit but I found my self just scrolling through thousands of snare hits instead of just writing music so I cancelled my subscription pretty quick. It’s nice for some bread and butter sounds, especially since in my area of the world record stores are still closed so it would be hard for me to get a nice jazzy chord sample without having someone else do the work for me.

Every now and again I’d download a more polished samples and just run it through a granular synth, but I realized I have the tools and the skills to make those kinds of samples myself (and it’s kind of fun mixing and mastering a 2 bar loop really well just to then misuse it after) so the wow factor kinda ended fast.

I wouldn’t be too worried about using a sample from the 100 most sampled list, there is a reason why those samples are used so much. No one is going to be like “o the amen break is in this track I’ve heard that 1 billion times I don’t care anymore.” I used to give small talks about the art of sampling and the origin of samples and you would be amazed at the amount of people who are very tuned in to the music underground who have no idea that a part of their favorite song is an overused sample. You could argue the most used sample in the world is the 909 open hat, but that doesn’t stop nearly every track in existence from using it on the same 3, 7, 11, 15th steps in a track. If you are using the samples well, it is not the signifier of your track.

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#15

Thanks for that. I agree as well that once the novelty of an instant chord or loop wears off as in Splice you move onto your own stuff. I was just wondering what in particular people liked about these overused samples? I get the Amen Break its just out there. But are the samples better(as in phonically) or just easiest to fit in a mix say?

#16

Watching documentaries about the origins of house, techno, hip-hop, etc. the artists who pioneered these samples just took whatever records their parents listened to and misused them since gear is expensive and the records were free. The samples then gained credibility through their use on the early work of the genre and it became one big feedback loop. There really is no reason the bongo line in Apache is used more than some unknown record from the 70s bongo line, its just that Apache was the record someone had on hand when they wanted bongos, and good bongos can be expensive!

Its really fun to dig for records at local record stores finding sample gems that were not available/were not in the collections of those who made samples cliches, but its also nice just to have the groundwork of knowing that the Lyn Collin’s Think break will just work in a track if you want energy in a sparse section. If you want to dive deep into sampling, there is a balance to be found between the classic samples and stuff you dig up, but its just up to you to decide what that balance is.

Like I bet if these genres were started by white suburban kids instead of Black city kids, we would hear a lot more Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Frank Sinatra samples than James brown or Marivn Gaye.

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#17

That’s one nice thing about multi-channel audio interfaces - later you can take, say, just the snare track and chop it up. Or if you multitracked your modular, there’s years of sample fodder right there. Lots of noodles online too. Me, nowadays I chop my old stems, but recently found these sample chains (Morphagene Reels) on freesound.org.

I don’t bother searching/buying samples nowadays unless:

  • Loops have their BPM in the file name or folder.
  • Pitched samples have their key in the file name or folder.
  • Multi-sampled instruments (‘keygroups’) don’t have sustaining loops. Most don’t nowadays; easy!

Sure, I have a tuner and can find the tempo, but I don’t bother digging anymore, just like I don’t bother with deep-dive synth menus or synths that require a software editor.

The above is ignored if they sound really good. :slight_smile: Otherwise it saves time, since too much of my life is spent in Sound Forge.

#18

Ah that all makes sense. I used to be a record shop owner in the early 80’s. It was nearly all vinyl and CD’s were just taking off. I never gave it a thought that those very records i was selling would be the ones i’m interested in. Especially the Easy Listening Section. The irony of all this Records were quite a luxury back then. Albums about £8. Nowadays its like 100 for £8 lol. But the ones that got used the most were moms and dads. Fascinating to read this bit of history!

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#19

Go check “Hiphop Evolution” on Netflix, you’ll understand everything about this.

The “Too long, didn’t watch” version:

DJs back then mixed funk and disco records, and they noticed that peeps were going mad during the drumbreaks. To extend these frenzy moments, they started to create tricks like playing the same funk record on both turntables… this way, you could cue the break from one record while the break from the other was playing: endless break!

Fastforward some years: the young peeps that watched these parties from their windows (or were among the dancers) are now beatmakers, raised on a healthy funky breaks diet. When it was time to lay some drums on their tracks, they used what they knew… plus, for most of them, recording a session drummer was simply out of reach.

But seriously, watch the series or read “Hiphop Family Tree” by Ed Piskor.

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#20

All 16 episodes ? :wink: