Sampling
Related: 1980-1990 sampling - music technology - disco samples in house - synthesizer - montage - scratching (as analog sampling) - tape-editing
Postwar pop culture is predicated on technology, and its use in mass production and consumption. Today's music technology inevitably favors unlimited mass reproduction, which is one of the reasons why the music industry, using the weapon of copyright, is always fighting a rearguard battle against its free availability. Just think of those "Home Taping Is Killing Music" stickers, the restrictive prices placed on every new Playback/Record facility (the twin tape deck, the DAT), the legal battles between samplers and copyright holders. --Jon Savage, The Village Voice Summer 1993 "Rock & Roll Quarterly" insert
There are obviously ethical considerations here --it's easy to understand James Brown's outrage as his uncredited beats and screams underpin much of today's black music-- but at its best, today's new digital, or integrated analog and digital, technology can encourage a free interplay of ideas, a real exchange of information. Most recording studios in the U.S. and Europe will have a sampler and a rack of CDs: a basic electronic library of Kraftwerk, James Brown, Led Zeppelin --today's Sound Bank. --Jon Savage, The Village Voice Summer 1993 "Rock & Roll Quarterly" insert
Definition
In music, sampling refers to the act of taking a portion of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument in a new recording. This is done with a sampler, which can either be a piece of hardware, or a computer program on a computer. Similar to sampling is the technique of creating loops of magnetic tape with a reel to reel tape machine.Often "samples" consist of one part of a song used in another, for instance the use of the drumline from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" in songs by the Beastie Boys, Mike Oldfield and Erasure. "Samples" in this sense occur often in hip hop and R&B, but are becoming more common in other music, as well. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_sampling
See also:
Musique concrete - Early tape based "sampling"
Plunderphonics - in which samples are the sole source of sound for new compositions
Sampling and synthesizer
A sampling machine is one kind of synthesizer. It starts with a binary digital recording of an existing sound, which is then replayed at a range of pitches. This is called a sampler.
Sampling can also be used in combination with other synthesizer effects. Some popular software synthesizers take a sampled sound and process it with software-based filters, reverbs, ring modulators and the like.
Sampling started out as the purview of academic researchers with access to mainframe computers. The appearance of the Fairlight CMI in 1979, the first well-known digital instrument capable of sampling, started a revolution. The Fairlight was used on scores of popular recordings by artists such as Peter Gabriel and Art of Noise. The costly, complex and rare Fairlight (and an equally costly competitor, the New England Digital Synclavier) caused California company E-Mu to introduce their Emulator in 1981, a lower-cost sampling keyboard which could save sound recordings to floppy disk.
The costly, complex and rare Fairlight (and an equally costly competitor, the New England Digital Synclavier) caused California company E-Mu to introduce their Emulator in 1981, a lower-cost sampling keyboard which could save sound recordings to floppy disk. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer [Jul 2004]
Todd Terry
Todd Terry introduced sampling in house music. [...]Scratching
Rap is where you first heard it [sampling] --Grandmaster Flash's 1981 "Wheels of Steel," which scratched together Queen, Blondie, the Sugarhill Gang, the Furious Five, Sequence, and Spoonie Gee --but what is sampling if not digitized scratching? If rap is more an American phenomenon, techno is where it all comes together in Europe as producers and musicians engage in a dialogue of dazzling speed. --Jon Savage, The Village Voice Summer 1993 "Rock & Roll Quarterly" insert
CDs
-
Sampled (2000)- Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
1. Troubled So Hard-Vera Hall 2. Take Yo' Praise-Camille Yarbrough 3. It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me-Barry White 4. I Got The..-Labi Siffre 5. Old Cape Cod-Patti Page 6. The Magic Number-Bob Dorough 7. Woman Of The Ghetto-Marlena Shaw 8. Think (About It)-Lyn Collins 9. Funky Drummer-James Brown 10. Who Is He And What Is He To You?-Creative Source 11. Chase The Devil-Max Romeo And The Upsetters 12. Why?-Carly Simon 13. Superfreak-Rick James 14. I'm Coming Out-Diana Ross 15. Good Times-Chic 16. Rose Royce-Is It Love You're After? 17. Musique-Keep On Jumpin' 18. I Can't Go For That-Hall & Oates 19. Buddy X-Neneh Cherry 20. Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime-The Korgis 21. Love Is You-Carol Williams 22. Fate-Chaka Khan 23. Let Me Down Easy-Rare Pleasure 24. Soup For One-Chic 25. Reach Up-Toney Lee 26. Expansions-Lonnie Liston Smith 27. Celebration Suite-Airto 28. The Beat Goes On-Buddy Rich 29. Sliced Tomatoes-Just Brothers 30. Bring Down The Birds-Herbie Hancock 31. Soul Bossa Nova (Original Mix)-Quincy Jones 32. Sway-Rosemary Clooney 33. Ain't There Something Money Can't Buy-Young Holt Unlimited 34. Grandma's Hand's-Bill Withers 35. Hercules-Aaron Neville 36. Ike's Rap II-Isaac Hayes 37. Be Thankful For What You've Got-William De Vaughn 38. Cantaloupe Island-Herbie Hancock 39. Is It Because I'm Black-Sly Johnson 40. Stratus-Billy Cobham