Where do you find old school disco/soul/funk samples?

Elektron Gear
#1

Hello there! :wave::wave::wave:

I’m new here. About one year ago, I entered the og Digitakt in the Elektron workflow, and it has totally changed my musical life for good. I’ve started making electronic music inspired by Nicolas Jaar, Thom Yorke, Weval, Nicola Cruz, Ricardo Villalobos, and Flying Lotus—just to name a few names :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I’ve wanted to know where to recover vintage vinyl tunes of disco/soul/funk music.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the space and money to buy vintage records :sweat_smile:

Hope you’ve had a great day till now!

Cheers,
Hans

1 Like
#2

Tracklib - if you want legal, cheap, easy way to find real records you can sample, license, and release with zero hassle.

I wish their catalogue included all the records on earth and that they all had multitracks… one can only dream :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes
#3

Welcome to Elektronauts!

Great inspiration choices.

2 Likes
#4

https://rhythm-lab.com/breakbeats/

^^ this is awesome!!

9 Likes
#5

Thank you!

1 Like
#6

From one Hans to another: the usual streaming services, Bandcamp, YouTube… Of course, if you’re planning to release your music, you should either make sure that your samples are cleared or can’t be recognised. Based on your question and your choice of inspirations, I’d say you should be fine either way.

3 Likes
#7

I get my disco from F9-Audio.com and it’s all cleared.

Big fish audio also makes good loop libraries that are cleared.

https://www.bigfishaudio.com/

Zero G is also good.

I can’t wait to buy this blue note records inspired library

2 Likes
#8

Till know, thank you all for the links and references :pray::pray::pray:

I will look at them ASAP!

1 Like
#9

The dollar bin

2 Likes
#10

It can be hard getting records for reasonable money these days - unless you’re lucky enough to live in a big city and have somewhere like The Thing near you where you can get super cheap and interesting stuff - and yeah, they’re a pain in the ass in terms of storage.

But I do feel like I prefer working with samples that have a meaning for me or a story behind them, I sometimes find it hard to connect with stuff from splice or whatever, even if technically it might be exactly what I’m looking for.

This is far more what I like about sampling from vinyl than anything intrinsic to the format, there’s always a story or a time or place reflected in there.

But the same thing can apply to flacs or YouTube or even library or splice stuff, it just takes a bit more attention to connect with stuff in that context, especially when flicking through hundreds of samples looking for something good. There’s definitely a skill to getting past options paralysis and actually tuning in enough to identify samples that will work for you.

8 Likes
#11

Find a record store that has a listening station and dig and just archive it through whatever streaming service you use. Find a way to buy or download the songs you like later.

I haven’t really sampled other peoples music in a while but I will say the majority of my life i did and there’s nothing that compares to sampling actual records. There’s a texture there that can’t be replicated

I also think digging is an art form and practice in itself. It’s deeply meditative in my opinion and there’s nothing like going through a record store and following your intuition. There’s magic n there!

3 Likes
#12

@benway really good points to reflect about the matter!

#13

@oldbills good idea to search a store where I can dig in records and sample them on location. Only thing I have to see if the store owners let me do that - here in Italy they can be picky or block this kind of acts (even if you ask before).

But I will try this option :smiley:

#14

They meant to dig and archive them (bookmark it somehow on your phone like finding it on discogs or Spotify or YouTube) not to sample them at the store itself :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
#15

YouTube and a lesser known relic of a bygone era…the blogosphere. Though most of it is now derelict and in a ruinous state, a few blogs still exist in a persistent state with active RARe files.

1 Like
#16

finding them doesn’t seem as much of a problem as actually using them

i am really afraid of using samples in my songs because of risks of copyright strikes

2 Likes
#17

@Phillip oh now I’ve understood :joy: Last night I was till late jamming and the result is that your brain is smashed 🫠

1 Like
#18

@mindexpansionpuzzles finding songs or rar’s on blog’s reminds me the time when I was using mp3 players and downloading entire discographies on emule :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

A blast from the past could be a good idea :slight_smile:

1 Like
#19

@JohnDaker i get your point.

Personally I’m afraid too.

But in my case I’m searching little bits of the songs like drum breaks, earcandy, backing vocals, effect tails ecc…

My idea is to process them in Amon Tobin style (a simple sound design reference :joy:) to make them non recognizable :smiley:

2 Likes
#20

There are some super high quality drum breaks floating around out there, eg Luke Vibert’s ‘Lockdown Breaks’. Chop and layer if you’re worried about cøpyr1ght.

If you’re processing snippets of samples, vinyl or not won’t really be noticeable. Rip from somewhere or buy a high quality download. I usually start with a YouTube rip and replace with a better version later if I think it’ll make a difference.

Otherwise for full vinyl authenticity on less processed samples, grab a cheap turntable and get into buying and selling on Discogs. But only if that authenticity matters to you… The listener likely won’t notice the difference from a vinyl rip vs a high quality digital file + subtle vinyl emulation

2 Likes