What is sampling about?

YKBN

New member
This day I've tried to make my first sample beat, and I searched some other beats to inspire myself. After few hours, I'm shocked, many, many popular beats are just copied loops with other drums (yeah, I know, some effects are put on it). I always thought that producers are chopping small part and put some effects that make this part sounds different. Later, they're combining it with others. Yeah, sometimes they do that, but many of them just cutting few bars, loop it and... voila!
Look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7vFHT9HARY

It's exactly the same loop like Kendrick's "BDKMV". Is the producer of this can say "yeah, it's my beat?".
 
Well yes you are looking into what is the basics of sampling, but you dont have to stop at just looping a few seconds because that isnt very rewarding (at least to me).

You can filter out the low's and add your own bassline, sample a horn for a changeup in the verse, maybe some strings to go with the chorus. The limits of blending are few and what sounds good sounds good.


Pete's Jazz - Pete Rock | WhoSampled

If you look into this track by pete rock he didnt just loop a 2 bar sample, he made them all fit together into a complete piece, and thats why i think petestrumentals is the best sample-based album. (+ he made it with a 10s machine + a rack sampler)


conclusion: sampling can be just looping 2 bars and putting drums on it, but it doesnt have to be.
 
it's easy to say that when you have already heard the final version of the second beat "kendrick's beat" ,, but it's about the creativity.. I'm pretty sure if you had never heard of the kendrick beat, you would have not think that this loop could have been sampled...

It's only after you hear the flip that you realize it could have been flipped. unless you create the beat

meaning, it's not what you do, but how you do it and if you are the first to do it.

yes a lot of sample, are just loops from other songs, but not everyone who hears an original song, thinks to themselves,, hmm I can make another complete beat with just those 2 seconds.

that is what I love about sampling,, the creativity that goes into it... making something completely new from a small portion of something old.


An also since I am a Hip Hop head, I am actually happy that he sampled that because 1. I would probably not listen to the original since it's not my style of music ..but that loop is good by itself ! 2 . I get to find new music by finding what producers sample, like this group.
 
The trick Is just using your ears and knowing how loop, chop, and cut/arranging samples as well as knowing the bars/finding out the tempo that way your creativity can go in any direction. Its no rules to sampling. Flip a sample more than once just keep going in.
 
Yea I find sampling one of the most difficult things to do in production it truly is a art in itself before I started producing I watched a couple YouTube videos and said that looks so easy lol yea anyone can loop a shitty section in a song but to find that 20 30 seconds of greatness....not so easy
 
Sampling is an art man, there are tons of examples of producers creating something amazing out of something far from the result. Not to talk about drum game, that is also an art itself. Not any producer can take the loop from BDKMV and make it as dope is at was done!
 
I hear a lot of people complaining about how easy it is to do (Not directed at OP, meant in general). Sh!t if it's so easy, why ain't they famous yet?!

Echoing thought above. Finding that right loop is an art in itself. So is chopping. So is composing.
 
Man, it really all just depends. Music IS about taste, first & foremost. A producer can call whatever he makes HIS beat but what it really comes down to is what you are proud enough of to put your name on. Also, WhoSampled is the best resource for understanding how a sample can be used. Look at unorthodox producers like El-P & see how they slip samples into songs in unique & creative ways.
 
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