The morals of sampling

[-[2]DAY_-]

I miss hip hop being about the samples. The 808/synth lines are boring as shit to me.

[Laika]

I always thought the line between "moral" and "immoral" sampling was obvious?

You'd think, but then you look at the amount of people supporting Girl Talk..

True.

Also I've never listened to this guy but according to a friend of mine the artist Pretty Lights uses only recognizable samples to create his music?
Supposedly he doesn't sell his music (for obvious reasons). I think that is alright because it seems to be more of a tribute to his musical influences.

Still not 100% sure on who this guy is, can anyone confirm?

Pretty Lights uses samples, synthesizers, and records himself playing instruments. He released his music completely free as an experiment which ended up skyrocketing him to selling out huge venues and headlining big festivals in a couple years. Everyone also is making Daft Punk out to be like they owe it all to samples when they too use a lot of synthesizers (mostly analog) and instruments (mostly guitars). DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing" is made from 100% samples and is one of the best albums I have ever heard.

[djdeadb3ats]

I dont even get how these people get a lot of dubstep bass samples like skrillexs, iv tried it but theres always drums or something else going on in the back round

[GothamHero]

Cheers for the thread alterations Wub and Ledge, and great links Wub. I agree with the presenter in the second one, giving credit and/or paying the original producer is fair game, but if you do neither of these, then it should be looked into. Like he said, it's only logical.

I haven't seen the Beastie Boys in ages too (':

I'll be making a response to 2Day's posts soon. I'm not even against sampling, I don't think there is a practical way of producing Disco without samples. I personally don't have a recording studio or orchestra at hand :c

I dont even get how these people get a lot of dubstep bass samples like skrillexs, iv tried it but theres always drums or something else going on in the back round

Careful EQ'ing, filtering, volume automation.

[leeany]

I think sampling is okay as long as you clearly made the sample into something of your own. I personally don't like sampling stuff from any of the genre's I work in, so I wouldn't samples something from another dubstep, dnb or hiphop track

[wub]

I wouldn't samples something from another dubstep, dnb or hiphop track

Agreed. Nothing wrong than musical tsecni.

[GothamHero]

Speaking of Homework, a previously unreleased track from the Homework era entitled "Drive" is being released next month on the Soma 20 year anniversary compilation.

[hifi]

i don't think sampling is that bad unless you have gotten too far with it. which that limit of "going to far" is different for everyone i guess .

[jrisreal]

I miss hip hop being about the samples. The 808/synth lines are boring as shit to me.

+2

[Ldizzy]

morals : none. as long as you dont brag about the stuff u did not make happen in ur tune.

risks/legal : a lot if ur trying to break thru commercially...

but yeah, morally, nothing bad in sampling if u stop thinking like a 20th century capitalistic-individualistic-private-property-materialistic-thinking tnuc. good music is beautiful.

[dubbyconqueror]

Produce something a fraction as innovative as this, then you can talk down on sampling. Personally, I think that doing something really original with samples takes in some ways, more skill as a producer than writing something yourself. Not one way or the other, both of course take a great deal of talent, but people underestimate how difficult it is to be able to just hear music and just pick out bits of unrelated music that work together in a new context.
Sorry to revive this thread, just wanted to throw that out there.

[Jacob15728]

Produce something a fraction as innovative as this, then you can talk down on sampling. Personally, I think that doing something really original with samples takes in some ways, more skill as a producer than writing something yourself. Not one way or the other, both of course take a great deal of talent, but people underestimate how difficult it is to be able to just hear music and just pick out bits of unrelated music that work together in a new context.
Sorry to revive this thread, just wanted to throw that out there.

You're right, but it's also important to note the distinction between using interesting samples in an artistic way, and throwing together a bunch of loops and presets because you're lazy/don't know how to make your own sounds. It makes a big difference.

[slothrop]

You're right, but it's also important to note the distinction between using interesting samples in an artistic way, and throwing together a bunch of loops and presets because you're lazy/don't know how to make your own sounds. It makes a big difference.

Yeah, but it's also pretty much self-selecting - if you just bang a load of loops together or nick a Skrillex bassline and stick it over your own predictable halfstep beat, you might come up with something that sounds a bit slicker than if you'd tried to write your own stuff and done it badly, but it's extremely unlikely to actually be interesting enough to get noticed in a big way.

As far as I'm concerned, the only really 'moral' thing is honesty, and even then I don't think you need to go around wearing a T-shirt listing your sample sources or something so much as not blatantly lying and claiming you wrote stuff you didn't. If you use a particularly blatant sample you might call it a refix rather than a sample, but I don't really care because it's normally obvious from the tune. Pretty much every 'rule' about what's okay to sample has obvious exceptions - plenty of great hip hop uses extended riffs rather than single hits, and hardcore / early jungle was full of people lifting breaks and mentasms from each other rather than going back to the original sample sources or synths.

[pete_bubonic]

Sample whatever you want! it's open season, permanently. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have all time classic albums like Liquid Swords by GZA, Dead Ringer by RJD2, Homework/Discovery by Daft Punk or Endtroducing (as mentioned) by Dj Shadow.

And who honestly cares about whether you put 'your own stamp' on it. If it's banger it's a banger. if it's shit, you'll end up taking extra flak. Only other producers get up in arms about lazy sampling or sample spotting in the first place. Every single tune I have ever had released has had pretty heavy sampling in it and still get props for that

[paradigm_x]

Amon Tobin

100% synth tracks are, generally, shite. FACT.

[sargentpilcher]

Sampling is perfectly fine. Even the beatles did it!

The song "Because" has moonlight sonata playing backwards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWlLPJG9Cvg

[masterchief]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnGiuHONvF8
so would tracks like this be deemed as too much or what?

[Undrig]

Depends on the context. It's not different than anything else. Saying someone who uses sampling to creative effect isn't a real _____ is like saying someone who makes collage art isn't expressing themselves properly. Silly stuff. Just make tunes.

[Undrig]

Amon Tobin

100% synth tracks are, generally, shite. FACT.

Yeah, and can you (or anyone else here) match what he does with samplers?

[masterchief]

does anyone know which parts of this are samples? if any? not talking about the drums http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BFC5pE3P_c