Are you sampling the music you love?

[cartesia]

I had somewhat of a personal revelation the other day.. it might seem stupid.. it kinda does to me..

I was like "Why aren't I sampling the music I love"? People didn't sample jazz cos it was jazz.. they sampled it cos they loved it.. then they built on that..

Me.. I dont love jazz! I love hiphop. techno, etc.. I'm sure plenty of u guys here are like that too! Some people genuinely do like jazz, thats cool too (or classical, or 80s pop, or samba, whatever)

Sure some things, like individual instrument sounds, will still alwayhs be useful of jazz records for me...

We're not people who are trying to sound 'exactly like mister X' (posers/copiers).. but alot of us seem to be trying to produce a certain style that already exists.. And I think all the musicians who I respect the most ARENT doing this!

I think people try to sound the same as what they love.. but I realise.. I should be trying to improve upon what I love... if I wanna hear that sound I love, I already can.. press play and there it is!.. I think instead I've gotta be pushing things in my direction, making my mark..

So.. I'm thinking to myself... perhaps instead of try to make the sound that you love.. take the sound that you love, and do something with it.. after all.. that is one facet of sampling.. retaining some, even a tiny bit of the original character, but bringing forth something new from it.

I think another aspect of this that is coming to me is that people each have a different sound inside them.. we like sounds that are similar to ours.. but a style that exists already is not our style, cos theres always something we would change about it, even just something small..

I guess this carries on a bit from that vid that was posted here yeterday bout that guy givin his talk on copying.. kinda off on a tangent but yeah

maybe you can find inspiration in the music you love, rather than the foundations of the music you love.. and use the music you love to bring out the music trapped in your mind/soul..

Not saying this is for everyone.. just somethin that vibes with me..

[springwater]

im going to be reading this twice, nice post.

[SLEEPS NUMB]

Thats why i sample music i love like psychedelic rock, bubblegum pop,new age, space rock,ambient,highlife,afro,krautrock, progressive,folk , more so then jazz, but at the same time plenty of producers can turn dollar bin records of anything into gold without necessarily being in love with the original tracks. So i think thats what makes making music beautiful we can take any route we desire cause only we control our creativity and the final outcome. So in conclusion do what you gotta do to in order to achieve what your looking for out of this creative outlet.

[Headphones]

If you're not going to be releasing your music for profit, why shouldn't you crate dig or sample your iPod? Yeah, some lawyer might sue you for the artist they represent, but if you're using your imagination with effects, chops, and your production skills, you can just have fun with it and probably nobody will know what you sampled, unless you're being so lazy everybody knows what the song is. I love lots of styles of music, so I plan to sample as much as I can with the samplers I'm picking up. I'm not too worried about releasing anything, because my studio isn't ready to record jack just yet. I'm just learning my gear as it is. Making money from it is the least of my worries. (Finding a job to buy more gear is though)

But Sleeps Numb said it best word for word.

[SLEEPS NUMB]

nice post headphones

[Sinapse]

I'm pretty open minded bout music, that's what I love bout digging is it opens you up to all sorts of shit you woulda never heard anyway. that is one of the little gifts it gives back imo...

that said I do a mixture of both, I sample from a lot of records I love but at I also love finding that hot lil loop buried in an awful record. really it comes down to how patient I'm feelign with my digging, I gotta be really into it to sit thru shitty fucking records but it's a great feeling when you get a banger out of it

[djmellow]

what cartesia said is very apt. i've been feeling that way recently, i love music of many styles, but what is the music I will make! everyone wants their music to be unique but we can't help but pull from everything we've heard. just listening to the music people post on this wonderful forum gives me immense insight into the sounds i really dig, such as lofi hip-hop. in a way it's like painting, when you're a beginner you basically try and copy your favorite artists, it doesn't take long to realize you can't duplicate what they do, but in the process you find out what your personal touches are and these things are unique to YOU!

[Dr Van Nostrand]

there isn't a particular genre contains all music i love, but there's a quality that can be found (to me) within pretty much any combination of melody and rhythm, and thats what i'm lookin for, that certain quality, sometimes its an entire song, sometimes its a little tiny ass section at the end of the second chorus of a song.......sometimes i can here it in a song that i could play at another time and its totally "inappropriate" and i don't feel it as much........its funny because its the same quality i was syked on when i was in middle school playin guitar, lovin some silly punk rock, and trashin rap, there was a quality in certain songs that just developed my musical tastes over time, constantly lookin tryin to find songs and bands that had the sound i dug, and after a while i was starting to enjoy some hip hop and had friends put me onto some ill shit, and after a while when i finally had a grasp on how alot of my favorite tracks were really produced, and that it was all sampled, i started collecting records and searchin for sounds, and i realized its just a natural extension of what i was lookin for in my youth, a certain quality in the music that just excites me, tryin to find new shit all the time, and i keep realizing that i find that quality in more and more different types of music, i can find it in serious free jazz, crazy avant psych rock stuff, goofy eastern euro 70s pop, or on the b side of the curtis mayfield album (i hope nobodies arguing that), as well as a ton of other places. its no particular sound, speed, rhythm, instrumentation, or style, but just a quality in the music, must be because it was written, arranged, and/or played by musicians that are lookin for the same thing i am, i've spent a long time deciding on what i like in music, and i still don't know exactly what it is, but i keep finding out that i can find it in more places than i ever thought, and i love that i am in total control of my musical intake, there are so many records out there that i can collect for the rest of my life and keep findin fresh shit that i dig, i'm lovin every second of this shit

[formal]

I sample new music I like... I sample old music I like. I don't think people can tell the difference. Sometimes I make my own sounds. There's no point about getting all selective on sample material. And there's no reason to hate. People love original fresh new things, but they also love things they can relate to. It's all about the balance, feng shui, yin yang.. blah blah...

On a side note, I do sample music from certain genres to give my songs a specific style, but I think that goes along with being a producer. A producer of any medium will pick the best "parts/roles" for the part to make their piece of art compelling to the audience. It's just the difference between being the master of the craft and following in the wake.

[dollarllama d]

like i was sayin yesterday all sounds is borrowed unless u actually mic up some noises and make custom sounds then u can coin that as ur sound 100 %. but i definitely agree with what ur sayin. its cool to sample anything if u can really tweak it out and add ur signature to it. well i remember years ago i would sample alot of 90's r&b but it wasnt considered old school. so i would just keep those to myself because cats used to be strict on what u could sample. now its finally ok to sample that 90's r&b stuff so i been doing more of that lately.

i think its ok to be influenced by ppl but not copyin to exactness.

[dollarllama d]

Thats why i sample music i love like psychedelic rock, bubblegum pop,new age, space rock,ambient,highlife,afro,krautrock, progressive,folk , more so then jazz, but at the same time plenty of producers can turn dollar bin records of anything into gold without necessarily being in love with the original tracks. So i think thats what makes making music beautiful we can take any route we desire cause only we control our creativity and the final outcome. So in conclusion do what you gotta do to in order to achieve what your looking for out of this creative outlet.

on point w/ that. puttin limits on what u sample or even worryin about should i sample this limits the creativity. it boils down to what feels right wheter if its samplin bangin on pots and pans.

[Unfolding]

I sample new music I like... I sample old music I like. I don't think people can tell the difference. Sometimes I make my own sounds. There's no point about getting all selective on sample material. And there's no reason to hate. People love original fresh new things, but they also love things they can relate to. It's all about the balance, feng shui, yin yang.. blah blah...

On a side note, I do sample music from certain genres to give my songs a specific style, but I think that goes along with being a producer. A producer of any medium will pick the best "parts/roles" for the part to make their piece of art compelling to the audience. It's just the difference between being the master of the craft and following in the wake.

2nd. All that DiBias/Dollarllama's said is true too.

However odd this may sound, but what about sampling music you DON'T like? I mean that in a non-ironic sense, like some "I like that rap music but don't like soul music but need soul to make rap beats" shit. It seems counter intuitive & against common sense, but the fact we're having this conversation suggests that its out there & happening.

[Sinapse]

However odd this may sound, but what about sampling music you DON'T like? I mean that in a non-ironic sense, like some "I like that rap music but don't like soul music but need soul to make rap beats" shit. It seems counter intuitive & against common sense, but the fact we're having this conversation suggests that its out there & happening.

We are just sampling sounds...there are plenty of dope sounds in lousy music...all you really need is a couple of notes that are tweaked the right way, the original song could be one of your favorites or something you hate, you just gotta be open minded and listen for the sounds and how they would fit into a beat...but that's just me. Peace SP fam outta here for the rest of the week to get some sun in Florida..fuck this winter!

[Rabot]

Honestly, I sample both. I made that song I posted yestrday with a song I REALLLY like, and I usually jam out to random stuff that I don't actually care, but find sample whorty on the radio. I usually just scan for channel, if something sounds good then I'll sample it.

I've never sample something I HATE tho.

[cartesia]

However odd this may sound, but what about sampling music you DON'T like? I mean that in a non-ironic sense, like some "I like that rap music but don't like soul music but need soul to make rap beats" shit. It seems counter intuitive & against common sense, but the fact we're having this conversation suggests that its out there & happening.

Yeah man, like I said.. If you need a certain type of sound... obviously you get that where you can get it..

But like others have said here, there is no reason to only sample from certain sources because they are 'original' recordings, or old funk records, or whatever..

Plenty of people don't think like that, but for me I was just thinking about making music the same way the music I love was made.. which is a good enough idea to have.. nothing wrong with doing this at all if u like that..

But for me.. that's been a real pain.. now that I have switched to thinking about what I could do with the music I love.. instead of how can I make the sound like the music I love.. Everything in my mind has become more fun, and more of an exploration of my own interpretation of things..