The power of sampling

dav nagle

The sheer power of sampling. From our home computers we can reach out and grab existing performances from some of the best players in the world and slam them into one of our own tracks. The sampler I use is Kontakt 3. I had many problems as a young rookie trying to get my head around Kontakt but my sheer determination to learn the program has at least got me to a stage where I can use the damn thing. I love it. I recommend to anyone who is an engineer/song writer like myself who is sick of micing stuff up and recording themselves take after to take to have a look around the world of sampling. With BFD 2 and Kontakt and Reason you can create some big (real) sounds so I recommend it to everyone. If anyone would like to contribute their experiences with sampling please go ahead and fill us in with some tips. This is not a discussion for the pro's and cons of sampling, it is a celebration of the art of sampling so please only post positive stuff. On another note I was doing a live engineering set at a mega party on Sat and everyone was running up to me telling me the sound was awesome, so finaly my own friends now realize that I am good, I feel great about it. The band did most of the work as they were a solid funk band with outstanding ability, I merely did my job Peace out my amigos I am going to bed where I belong after recording for the last 10 hours.

BumbleB

Get great at it ,and then wait to be sued .

condra

Isn't it only the people who suck at sampling who get sued?

Anyway I agree, sampling is cool!

I have hundreds of really crappy old records which I sample all the time. Fun and interesting.

Im not a huge fan of Kontakt. I find it fiddley and dark and ugly. Actually, I only use it when I badly need something from the Kontakt library, such as a really good quality cello or whatever.

Usually I use Abletons Simpler/Sampler/Drum Racks/Impulse, or SAMPLETANK for pure rompler goodness!

Oh and Apples DSL thing for the odd soundfont, for good measure.

When I started messing with this music malarky about 3 years ago, I got a cracked copy of Sonar, and the TTS-1 GM rompler was amazing. I would love something like that now to use with live, ie- a middle-weight GM Rompler. Looking into Luxonix Purity possibly.

BumbleB

good point ,timbaland has managed to avoid it for years.

squibs

Isn't it only the people who suck at sampling who get sued?

I guess they either fess up and pay the piper or go to such lengths obscuring the sample that it defeats the purpose of sampling in the first place.

I heard that in the early 90s, James Brown's label had 3 lawyers working full time suing people for unauthorized use of the Funky Drummer sample. It's kind of a pity that sampling these days is often about using a famous track as the bedrock and rapping on top of it. Bye bye to all profits on that release, and whats the point anyway? Then there's the snare sample from the 60s obscure Bengali prog jazz combo which has been pitch shifted and bit reduced (just in case). Again whats the point? Lots of artists go the route of paying to have the sample rerecorded faithful to the original, which works out a lot cheaper.

I really loved the possibilities of sampling before the lawyers got involved. De La Soul's "3 feet high and rising" is a wonderful organic sounding thing, made with primitive technology, but so creative.

dav nagle

I am writing about the use of sample strings and trumpets and the likes. I have not yet got to the point of sampling 'famous' material althoug this is something I would like to try. Sample tank was mentioned by womoma, I admit Kontakt is a bit of a pain so what's sampletank pro's, is it good yeah? I like the samples in Logic but some of the stand alone strings and trumpets don't sound that real from my memory.

dav nagle

There is a Reason 4 bass sample called 'Ampeg Flip Top'. I recommend people try it out. I have been looking for a bass sound that is realistic and this is the best I have found so far and I have been using Reason 4 a long time chicos.

squibs

I think with samples of acoustic instruments, it's just so hard to convey the articulations possible. Look at a guitar - slides, bends, pinch harmonics, palm mutes, fret noise, vibrato. Most or all will be part of a guitar solo. Even if you have all the articulations available across different octaves or patches or using mod wheels, it's going to take so long to program all that stuff, and it still won't sound right.

I appreciate that if you need an orchestra, then a sample library is a must, but even then one real violinist on top makes it sound so much more real. I tend to like samplers more for synthy stuff, f/x, etc. I'm using wusikstation a lot lately which has a nice blend of sampling and synthesis, and it is cheap too.

BumbleB

How many more times can we listen to when the levee breaks ,or the amen break ?.

PaulBrewer

BumbleB wrote: »

How many more times can we listen to when the levee breaks ,or the amen break ?.

When the Kit Kat breaks.... that's the one for me.

cornbb

I've been using Kontakt 2 for years and I'm still discovering new things to do with it. Its an amazing piece of kit alright. The scripting engine alone allows you to do tons of crazy stuff. Beat Machine is also the mutt's nuts. You could produce an entire tune with Kontakt, leaving your DAW to supply the MIDI and nothing else.

The amen break is still going strong, people are still finding very cool things to do with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pElVvLto7M

dav nagle

cornbb wrote: »

I've been using Kontakt 2 for years and I'm still discovering new things to do with it. Its an amazing piece of kit alright. The scripting engine alone allows you to do tons of crazy stuff. Beat Machine is also the mutt's nuts. You could produce an entire tune with Kontakt, leaving your DAW to supply the MIDI and nothing else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pElVvLto7M

Absolutely agree, that was my point you can produce a midi ensemble with 1 sampler, its very cool.

Lukasz.

ha,no way that tune from youtube you posted is a squarepusher tune,never thought id see a squarepusher tune on a compilation cd,well ive seen it all now.



as regards sampling,ive been a fan since 2000.so ive been sampling stuff,on and off since then.

its an interesting thing to do,its fascinating,and i find itsan amazing feeling to grab a sample from an old record,on a minor label,a tune that was virtually unheard of...and re work it into something more.something new and vibrant.

i use the Korg ESX sampler and also the Korg kaoss pad 3.
I sample with hardware only(i might,use a computer soon) as i find i like to get "hands on" when sampling.

I like to take samples from old 70's disco tunes and add housey hi hats and snares and kick drums etc etc over the sample to get a nice pattern or "song" going.

Lukasz.

here is a vid posted by a youtube user,who is using an old sampler from the 1980's,i believe its an akai model.
these things had about 2 seconds of internal memory! (crazy eh)

but basically this vid is him implementing an old style of sampling which was popular in the 80's for remixing,daft punk somethimes use this interesting and basic technique.


this is the kind of sound im looking for at the moment with my sampler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIfq7Jd7sik

indough

Lukasz. wrote: »

here is a vid posted by a youtube user,who is using an old sampler from the 1980's,i believe its an akai model.
these things had about 2 seconds of internal memory! (crazy eh)

but basically this vid is him implementing an old style of sampling which was popular in the 80's for remixing,daft punk somethimes use this interesting and basic technique.


this is the kind of sound im looking for at the moment with my sampler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIfq7Jd7sik

i think thats an akai s1000, that model has over 40 seconds stereo sampling
time which is usually more than enough

ive got an s2000 myself which is ok but the small screen can be annoying (looking for an s950 though), also have an mpc 2000xl which i love

my music is completely sample based, i'd say to those worried about losing all profit from the original artists that they should first worry about the music as realistically most of the time noone's going to come looking for you until you're making money off their sample

Lukasz.

hey,akai s2000 sounds good,whats the memory like?
They sure do look the business i have to say.....very old school.


s950,had a look at them on youtube,i see they hae 8 mono outs...
pretty tight.


best of luck with that.

trackmixstudio

I paid £3000 for an akai cd3000 sampler with 8mb of ram and cd rom drive about 12 years ago.
A few months ago I gave it away to a keyboard player because I needed the space in my rack. How's that for depreciation!
On a plus point I had the complete Akai library which I imported into logic's exs24 sampler so I now have every sound imaginable.
Samplers have put most string players out of business and having worked with quite a few over the years, that's no bad thing. Ponsey whinging b@st@rds who were sent to violin lessons as a kid by their rich parents.

What's the difference between a viola player and a 16" pizza?
A 16" pizza can feed a family :-)

To any string players who are offended by this comment,
You should be out trying to get work and not sitting around browsing the internet! :-)

indough

Lukasz. wrote: »

hey,akai s2000 sounds good,whats the memory like?
They sure do look the business i have to say.....very old school.


s950,had a look at them on youtube,i see they hae 8 mono outs...
pretty tight.


best of luck with that.

alright mate, memory on the s2000's expandable to 32 meg (which i've done), same as on the s1000...i never really use more than 15-20 seconds myself

as i said screens a bit too small but it can be hooked up by scsi and edited on the computer monitor, i have the scsi card but problem is i'm now on a laptop with no scsi interface :pac: there's always something though isn't there?

also you can add an 8-out and an internal effects board to the s2000 but i never bothered as i don't really use it that much now that i have the mpc, which i think has the same sampling engine anyway

condra

trackmixstudio wrote: »

Samplers have put most string players out of business and having worked with quite a few over the years, that's no bad thing. Ponsey whinging b@st@rds who were sent to violin lessons as a kid by their rich parents.

What's the difference between a viola player and a 16" pizza?
A 16" pizza can feed a family :-)

To any string players who are offended by this comment,
You should be out trying to get work and not sitting around browsing the internet! :-)

HAAAAAHAHA LMAO

Best post I've read in ages