Something I don't get with sampling.

S

SweHockey

New member
I don't get sampling. Why would you want to sample, let's say, a piano loop to smaller pieces?

Why would you want to have just those exact tones chopped up, and not the whole intstrument? Ins't what you're looking for to create that piano, with all individual tones?

Even worse, why would you like to sample a complete song to small bits that you can play on a keyboard. What do you use it for?

Please someone explain sampling to me. I just never get it.
 
the simplest answer - you chop a sample to smaller pieces to reorganize them in the beat and get the different melody etc.
 
Thanks! Do you have a not so simple answer too maybe? :) Or a good video or something that explains it more deeply.
 
But it's simple - every producer samples to get the different effect. Some of them make big, few-bar chops to sample f.e. the whole melody and add drums and bassline to it. Some of them cut it into tiny pieces, to get only the exact short sound or to rearrange the melody from it, to make it different to the original. Just check the Flip This section, there are a lot of examples how people use samples in various ways. Sampling is like cooking - you ca use the same ingredients, but the outcome is always different. If you want a quick example, you can check my topic in the Flip This section: https://www.futureproducers.com/for...p/flip-rare-polish-pop-song-1981-flip-419012/ . You can check the original song and the beat made with few chops from it.
 
Last edited:
Thank you. "Flip this" helped me see how it's used a bit more.

But could you give me an example from a really famous song where you can here something that's sampled, and of also the original song from which they took the sample? (just like Flip this, but with a well known song).
 
Super-obvious example:



sampled as-is into:



Not very creative usage of the sample there, but hey, it's a huge hit & easy to hear how they used it.
 
If you listen to hip-hop, you know the critical role it played in the genre's development. He's a general sample:


But keep in mind cats like Primo, Dilla, and Kayne are really good of just taking very small parts of a song to make a beat. Also, in the case of hip-hop it was created when school music programs were being cut, so they used what they had--they're moms and pops records.
 
Thank you. It's starting to fall in place for me how samples are being used in songs. I guess sampling is very common in hip-hop music (true?). But do they use a lot of samples in house music or other dance music as well? Do you have any examples in those genres?

And an other question: How do people do when they create sample instruments? From where do they get the sounds, like if they want to create a whole piano from a piano sound they really like. I know I've done that once but then I had a bunch of wave-files with only one note of the piano in different pitches. Does some like sample one note from a song and create whole instruments? Is that even possible, or do you have to record the instrument one note at a time in a few different pitches?

---------- Post added 10-15-2012 at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-13-2012 at 09:37 AM ----------

Anyone?
 
Last edited:
There's a lot of piano vst's that emulate a lot of different piano sounds in all notes, I think that there's no need to do that by yourself
 
Last edited:
SweHockey said:
Thank you. It's starting to fall in place for me how samples are being used in songs. I guess sampling is very common in hip-hop music (true?). But do they use a lot of samples in house music or other dance music as well? Do you have any examples in those genres?

And an other question: How do people do when they create sample instruments? From where do they get the sounds, like if they want to create a whole piano from a piano sound they really like. I know I've done that once but then I had a bunch of wave-files with only one note of the piano in different pitches. Does some like sample one note from a song and create whole instruments? Is that even possible, or do you have to record the instrument one note at a time in a few different pitches?

---------- Post added 10-15-2012 at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-13-2012 at 09:37 AM ----------

Anyone?
Click to expand...

You're referring to a multi-sampled instrument, where someone has recorder every note of an instrument at different velocities and put them into a computer program which allows you to play the samples as an instrument without having the real instrument.

The reason people use samples is obvious - creative and practical.
 
SweHockey said:
Does some like sample one note from a song and create whole instruments? Is that even possible, or do you have to record the instrument one note at a time in a few different pitches?
Click to expand...

Possible, but not very practical since it won't sound that good when you go, say, more than an octave (if even that) away from the original pitch. "Sounds good" in the sense of sounding like a real instrument; there's still a lot of artistic usage to be explored with these methods. In other words, try stuff out and see how it sounds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top