Thoughts on sampling

WestAve

New member
This is my first official post on the site. I've been a lurker for a couple of weeks, but it now seems like a good time to get active. I'm a graduate student doing research on music technology, and have recently started looking at the practice of sampling for a paper. I'm especially curious about the "authenticity" of sampled beats and resulting compositions. So I was hoping to get some input in this forum with a few questions.

1. What is sampling to you? Beyond "taking a music piece or sound and using it in a beat/song", what do you consider sampling to be? New creative outlet? Interpolating music? Stealing music?

2. Does the equipment you use ultimately affect the final product? Is the choice of one software or hardware over an other affect the quality of beats that you make?

3. Do you consider sampled music to be as authentic as original music? Are producers who sample on the same level as composers and musicians?

I'm hoping to get a sense of what people think, so this isn't meant to start a flame war. I've already looked around the forum and have seen similar comments in threads, so it made sense to have a dedicated discussion.
 
1. The reason I started making beats. Listening to sample-based producers such as the Heatmakerz and Kanye West inspired me. It is a creative outlet in uh way. As far as chopping, I don't think it's stealing. I think sampling is misunderstood and underrated.

2. Like all types of music, equipment does affect the quality. Whether it's hardware or software doesn't matter. It's uh pretty broad question.. If you're talkin about samplin', the quality of the sample of course affects the quality of the final product. Low/Average quality MP3's, cassettes, etc.

3. To uh degree, yeah. Most people who sample started cause they couldn't/can't play an instrument. Idk, I feel like today you can't "make it" just sampling, you have to add some kind of composition to it. But you can't forget the ppl who started off composing, and then decided to add sampling to their arsenal. There's also ppl who have no music theory, but can play by ear.
 
1. The reason I started making beats. Listening to sample-based producers such as the Heatmakerz and Kanye West inspired me. It is a creative outlet in uh way. As far as chopping, I don't think it's stealing. I think sampling is misunderstood and underrated.

Thanks for the reply,

How do you think sampling could be better understood or appreciated?
 
2. some samplers are 8, 12, 16, or 24-bit so it does make a difference
3. not better or worse; just different
 
1. Sampling is the primary method of musical composition in hip hop culture.

2. If anything it may initially have an impact on your method of beatmaking and therefore your thinking process and school of thought. But once you've already developed your way of thinking when making beats, then your results will generally be consistent regardless of the machine or software used.

3. It's hard for people outside of hip hop culture to understand sampling because they naturally try to judge it based on the criteria of western culture and western music theory. Sampling is an entirely new species of music making invented by a culture entirely different from mainstream western culture. If you judge a traditional classical musician based on hip hop criteria, he'd be corny compared to a Premier or a Marley Marl.

Basically, to understand sampling, one must understand hip hop, because the practice of sampling is just one manifestation of the bigger hip hop movement.
 
1. Sampling to me is just another form of composition. I use samples the same way I would use a keyboard patch. Of course there are different techniques involved just like every other kind of music involves different techniques.

2. Very little. I have used all kinds of hardware and software the final product will sound slightly different based on the gear but other than that its just same shit different toilet

3. Depends on the person. Some people don't know a damn thing about music or have the ear for it and sample and some understand its another form of composition and use it as such.
 
1) It's a form of expression. I actually wrote a paper on this, and I likened it to quoting in a text book. Authors quote others in their field constantly in order to make their point better understood, and as long as credit is given, it's fair game (and usually free). Unfortunately, in our climate, giving credit can be dangerous. So as a beatmaker, I think as long you respect the artist you're sampling and understand the music it's fair game. We live in a society today where all forms of media/art are essentially mish-mashes of others' work. TV shows, movies, modern art, they all take a little snippet here and there and form something new out of it...kinda like a beatmaker.

2) As long as your equipment isn't introducing unwanted noise/disallowing you to do really important tasks for sampling then no. There's always a workaround, it really just comes down to comfort and workflow. There are definitely limitations if you have bad monitors (me) or a cruddy sampler etc. but you can make it work you your advantage/own sound.

3) I think it is as authentic to an extent. I don't think MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" is. To the second point, that's a much tougher question to answer. Most anyone can get a sampler, find a loop, and lay some stock drums over top. On a very basic level, you can make a beat, but I think most people around here would be able to sniff something like that out as novice. The problem is that since you're using something that's actually a piece of music with chords and song structure etc., it's easy to sound "low level" decent, unlike if you pick up a guitar with no experience. If you pick up a guitar with no experience you're going to sound like absolute garbage. Does someone like Fly Lo or 9th Wonder (back in the day) have an incredible ear and brain to rework stuff they've done, hell yeah. But I don't know if beatmakers are comparable to musicians/composers, they're just two very different ways of making music.
 
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