Sampling is great when you do it correctly. It is the process of taking an existing sound of any description and making it into something new or incorporating it into your music.
Song made with samples
I wanted to take a bit more of a look into sampling.
The first thing I have done to do this make a song where I went and collected samples from various locations. I searched around on the internet and found some soviet post punk music and samples which I acquired a few samples from, those being the guitar and some of the atmospheric noises.
For the drums I once again searched for drum noises I liked and I wanted to go with a more acoustic route as far as drums were concerned for this project. I looked in sample packs and even clipped parts of YouTube videos to do this. And bass was a recording of my own bass.
I am also going to record a video detailing everything in the project once the song is completed – this will be going on my EP.
How I sample
When sampling is concerned, I like to change how the samples sound using lots of different processes. My favourites are pitching them up and down and reversing them because you can create some really interesting effects with these processes, as well as using modulated reverb.
I also like to find lesser known samples. I can listen to certain songs and hear where some of the samples came from and I would not like someone to listen to my music and do that so I try to find more obscure samples and sample packs as well as sampling out of YouTube videos and songs.
Splice is a very popular sampling tool for producers and I do have a membership. Splice can be very useful however I feel like a lot of these sample markets and sample companies have very generic sounding samples is the best way I can put it. The worst thing I think is to have your music sound generic, hence why I tend to not use splice for a lot of my samples, however it does have its uses like instrument samples and cinematic effects.
I am going to try sampling some parts of a record soon and I will document that on here.
Sampling vinyl
Sampling vinyl is a relatively easy process to do.
The first step is to choose what you actually want to sample. Vinyl records, especially old ones, have great textures and sounds which are very hard to reproduce digitally with a vst because they just have a certain feel to them.
Once you have chosen the section you want to sample, you want to connect your interface up to your turntable and hit record on your daw and this will record any output coming out of the turntable. Add a little processing and trim your sample and you have just sampled a vinyl record – very exciting.