Why sample?

[Les Braun]

Hey guys!
Like I wrote a while ago, I'm writing a thesis about sampling.
I want to know your opinions why artists sample! As in, what aesthetic elements come up through sampling. Can you help me out?

[ellaguru]

different reason.
i think that the best hiphop ("classic" hiphop) samples music to celebrate that music.
it's not just to make a cover of that music. in some case it's also to denounce something.
in contemporary music (j cage, kh stockhausen etc) sampling was prefigured by recorders work. the fact to make a collage of different sounds or speeches etc was seen as a continuity with dadaism: the fact to put (or play) a sound from it's original context to another context was a "newness" (sorry for the english). i think stravinsky introduced a "noise" made by a chair in one of his famous opus. see also marcel duchamp provocatory art. in literature an example can be w burroghs wich introduced a technique called "jump cut".
ps
computers, let's talk in skype, so i make your thesis

[cartesia]

few reasons to me:

audio character - dusty vinyl, wonky old vcr, etc.. all give the sound different character.. This gives a whole extra way of pllaying with people's emotions through imagination of scenes/etc.

different method of arrangement - leads to different melodies/rhythms than people would classically think of when playing an instrument - cutting a piano line up into three or four bits, then playing them back in different sample modes - gate, oneshot, perhaps pitching some but then keeping a 'fill' or flourish of notes.. It brings out patterns that perhaps couldn't be played on an instrument, or perhaps nobody would ever have thought to play on an instrument.

hybrid sounds/repurposing sounds - being able to take say, a layer of 2 instruments, then play something with that - gives a whole new kind of instrument/arrangement.. it breaks apart the normal link between an instrument's sound and its instrument type/playing style.
Then also the repurposing - taking an odd sound that perhaps was an accident completely overlooked in the original song, but then turning that into a different element entirely in a new song.

giving instruments new functions/abilities - being able to reverse a note, etc... again breaking the normally unbreakable link between instrument sound/type and play style.

convenience - you don't need to own all the instruments, you can include an entire orchestra on a piece nobody will ever hear, etc...

I'm sure there are more, that's all that has come to mind so far.

[Les Braun]

thank you! very interesting, i think the same, but it's hard for me to put in words. i'll take you up on that offer! do you have facebook or whatsapp, signor trovatore?

[ellaguru]

man i don't have facebook, but i have (had) skype on my old pc; now i got a new one (win7 shit) and i have to re-install the program. my nick name is (with many fantasy!) Illaguru. see you there in some days.
if not, PM are still working...
cheers!

[Dr Van Nostrand]

cartesia's got some great reasons, and ella's got you on the musique concrete background, which should definitely be used in your paper not only for a great page filler, but also because its the standard teaching material for 20th century music and composition in most college settings and is extremely relevant

i've got a reason though that hasn't been shared yet, although it has definitely been talked about by other producers......so people often like to argue that your not playing any instruments, and sometimes they say that they would be more interested if you were playing instruments, but the way i see it, i could never create a lot of the stuff i make by sampling, because i don't have the means of playing all these different instruments and sounds and styles, things like full string backgrounds, vocal cuts, hell even the difference between one drum break and the next. its all unique sounds that you get to work with, and even if i did learn how to play some of these instruments, i'm limited to what i'm capable of playing on that instrument, the specific sound of that one instrument (drum kit, one guitar with one amp, etc), my means of recording it, and, in general, what my ideas are for composing a piece

people (other than us involved) often neglect the idea that the specific timbre of a sound used in a new context is one of the greatest parts of doing this shit, its not about being able to play, its about using and creating with respect to those who came before us, and in my opinion a big part eventually becomes how well you know the music, how to dig, and how to appreciate all kinds of musical history

i also believe that working with samples can aid in learning music in a more traditional sense, ideas of music theory can be used in the process of creating and mixing sounds, and you can also take away a greater understanding of music theory, not to mention the exposure you get to all different genres of music, and how closely it is examined and then deconstructed at certain times to create a sample

[boombapp28]

I look at it like this. This is purely fundamental. Prior to hip-hop production (or any electronic based music for that matter) producers were the guys who rounded up the musicians (i.e. the drummer, bassist, guitars, keyboardist, etc) and worked with the singer/songwriter to help achieve their specific idea or vision of what they want their music to sound like through various studio experiments, etc.

Fast forward to the electronic music age specifically the advent of sampling. Instead of going through the process of hiring individual musicians to play and achieve a sound, producers can sample a source material that they have in mind and through various sampler tricks and manipulations, we can morph and augment the segments to our liking for our work.

Initially, sampling was a result of necessity. Today, I regard it as an art form. As far as sampling goes, when I hear a Madlib or Dilla track and then when I hear the source material, I'm flabbergasted. These guys can take a few minute pieces, things you would never think of chopping up, and they make music that blows peoples minds.

[tape smoke]

sampling to me is capturing energy and recycling it to share, not to sound like an emo futurist yupster,

recording your energy is contributing,

and sampling it is recycling it, I think it would be close darn near impossible to recreate classic hypno recordings without sampling them. It is not unoriginal to reference the contributions as long as you have good intent on re contributing to the records. over and out.

[Teewok]

Sampling comes from poverty. I think in your essay, it's important to talk about history, and what Hip-Hop meant to the impoverished people growing in the late 70's early 80's and how they learned to make something out of nothing.

[Les Braun]

thanks people, it was interesting to hear everybody's opinions.
i finished the thesis with 20 pages(in german) and made a 6 track EP about using sampling as an artform(with vocals)!

[Auqs]

A few days ago I was at university, my professor cited an aphorism of sir Isaac Newton...

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants"

I think this also applies in music, sample based and no-sample based artists, consciously or not.

Good luck with your thesis!

Edit:lol I had not read your last post, congratulations for the thesis

[Rabot]

thanks people, it was interesting to hear everybody's opinions.
i finished the thesis with 20 pages(in german) and made a 6 track EP about using sampling as an artform(with vocals)!

Massive!

[groktopus]

Awesome, lets hear that EP!

[ellaguru]

Awesome, lets hear that EP!

+2

[dStx]

To take the old, and make something entirely new.