Sampling Drums AND melody for a song?

tgod

legend
Whatsup guys, so I just wanted to get an opinion.

I often will sample a melody that I find online and alter it a bit, add my own drums, etc, to create a beat.
:)
I found a really great drum pattern that I sampled, but I also sampled this great sound for the melody that fits perfectly with the drums. Now, I didn't just copy and past the two and put them together to make a song, I did edit them and add my own touches, but would you guys really consider this "my beat" anymore? I am getting fairly good and want to start putting my own stuff out soon, but I feel like I didn't actually "produce" alot of this beat, even though it fits together well and sounds great. I did add more synth sounds and other things to make the beat more complex and more "mine" but what do you guys think? Should producers at least be creating the drum pattern or melody on their own? Or do you think it is acceptable to have a melody and drum pattern both sampled?

:)
 
How much of the melody? How much of the drums? How many "touches" did you add? If it is basically a loop of a beat from a song, and another section from that same song, then yes, they go together because they are supposed to be together. But sampling can be very creative, depending on how it's done. There's no charted set of rules of "how much" of this and that, but there is a continuum of creativity from "pretty much none" (think P-Diddy/Puff-Daddy wholesale beat-jacking) to "very creative use of individual samples, and sometimes loops" (think any of the great sample-based producers of the past-- Dre, DJ Premier, RZA, Q-Tip, or any of your favorite modern beat-makers that are doing more than just looping other people's ish).

It might be better to compose parts yourself, or to try "mash-ups" or other techniques to create something unique, but without hearing exactly what you're doing (as in-- an example of the source sample, and then what you did with it), it's impossible to speculate accurately in an Internet forum.

So the initial answer-- "It Depends" -- is quite apropos.

GJ
 
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