I've been researching this topic around the net and on FP (the threads that I've recently read on this topic on FP below). I'm still not confident on this question on sampling and clearence: At what point does a sample go from being benign to being legally protected? Here's a quick senerio: I understand that if I sample an entire groove, fill, or even one bar of a Clyde Stubblefield drum part - I need to clear it. But if I sample one snare hit of his to use to build a sampled drum kit - its legal? Correct? If this is correct, then how about two snare hits? A snare roll? What's the bottom line on this?
I think there is no issue, but if I would ever have to use samples (I mean, another composer's samples), I would hardly call myself a "producer", I would barely be a beatmaker. Sampling was understandable back in the day, but now? To anyone who does it as a primary practice I would only say: lame. I would rather use some soundfonts or orchestral libraries before taking another person's ideas, mixing them up and putting some drumz to make "a hit". I know my chorus sounds will be less impressive than the one recorded of a 60's black singer, but they will be mine. You know, taking some strings from an old record... they will sound really good, I wan't to sound good by putting in the beat something i composed by myself.
About "ethics", I won't say it is "unethical", I just don't feel it's my creation if I didn't composed more than the bass line, I think it is ok always you are giving credits to the original creator of the sounds you are sampling.
if the snare hit can be identified as coming from a particular source then it is illegal to use it. This, then, is the conundrum: how can I sample something that odes not give away its source? answer you can't: you can apply transformative techniques to the sound to mask or otherwise hide key features, but in the end the guy that mic'd the original part or the guy who played the original part may hear it and say I know that sound, I help to craft that sound and then you are shot through the foot by your own cleverness. Attempting to disguise the sound is taken as an indication in law of knowingly evading your ethical and moral responsibilities as defined in the Berne Convention on Copyright
The point is: all forms of art are somewhat "copies" of something that was made before them, with variations here and there. It happens to music, to paintings, movies...
The point is: all forms of art are somewhat "copies" of something that was made before them, with variations here and there. It happens to music, to paintings, movies...