Using Samples is cheating..

[A-Dreamer]

i believe sampling is the best thing that ever happened to electronic music. it opens up this entirely new, almost infinite new rage of possibility for musical creation. it's the core of evolution, if you think about it. most of anything is the result of bettering past innovation. musically, this form of evolution is debatable, obviously, but if an artist that chooses to sample, if it's a drum kick out of a kit, or an entire loop of another artist's track - and does this creatively, with the established purpose to express himself and his ideas, then why not ?
i mean, just gimmie a loop in ableton, and in 5 minutes, without even thinking about what the hell i'm doing, something new comes out

[gmschroeder]

Everyone who isn't designing and building their own analog or FM synthesizers is sampling - you have a fixed, if very large, set of sounds that you modify, in a limited, if very large, number of ways.
Get over it.

[AK]

i believe sampling is the best thing that ever happened to electronic music. it opens up this entirely new, almost infinite new rage of possibility for musical creation. it's the core of evolution, if you think about it. most of anything is the result of bettering past innovation. musically, this form of evolution is debatable, obviously, but if an artist that chooses to sample, if it's a drum kick out of a kit, or an entire loop of another artist's track - and does this creatively, with the established purpose to express himself and his ideas, then why not ?
i mean, just gimmie a loop in ableton, and in 5 minutes, without even thinking about what the hell i'm doing, something new comes out

That sort of creative sampling is to be encouraged IMO. I'm of the age and belief that sampling also forms an integral part of electronic music. Like I was saying earlier, I think the argument was not against sampling per-say, but rather the people who drag different loops from sample cds onto the arrange page and hit render.

But then nobody has the right to tell anyone else how they can or can't make music anyway, I find the whole argument extremely arrogant and fucking stupid.

[ferdy]

I think that there tons of other artist that dont use there own sample. For instance dave spoon has used the vengence minimal cd for many tracks, Ive heard him say it. he made"at night"with a clip from one of reasons refills. Look at deadmau5 not that I think he's great or anything, but he has his buddy Steve Duda(the other half of BSOD) makes all his samples. Daft punk was completely sampled(like 100% samples). I own plenty of nice drum machines 909s 808s an electron machine drum(there nice to have but not required). But being a producer and Dj I dont think sound design is the hardest part of making a good track. To me the best tracks I know of are because of arrangement. I bet there are some people that say samples and loops are stupid and couldnt even arrange a decent track with loops "HA". It falls into the same category of djs that are viynl junkies saying Its cheating using cds or ableton or serato you know what, let them say that but there the ones that are moving back, not forward. If a sample gos well in your tack use it(but do change it a little, pitch, effects) If you think sampling is cheating no matter what. Then go get your bongo and guitar and record your gay as.s singing cumbia around a campfire and record and sample that.

Trentemoller seemed to use a ton of Vengeance samples when he was doing his minimal techno too, I don't think the gist of the thread has been geared towards one-shot samples, that would be just plain silly, rather leaning towards the 'drag n drop' loop brigade right off a sample cd. Kinda painting by numbers approach to music making.

I have a mixed opinion on this issue. I myself have used a melodic riff loop off a sample CD i bought. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, if you are creative with it. I did not make the track around it, the riff fit the tune well. So why not use it? I mean sample packs are there to be used, you pay decent money for them, so why not?

[Diesse]

less and less people are using hardware lately. Everything is going digital. So, if 10 years ago all producers used Rolands & Minimoogs, now it's the era of the sample CD's. I don't see anything wrong with it. It's hell of a lot cheaper, and offers more possibilities.

[AK]

I have a mixed opinion on this issue. I myself have used a melodic riff loop off a sample CD i bought. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, if you are creative with it. I did not make the track around it, the riff fit the tune well. So why not use it? I mean sample packs are there to be used, you pay decent money for them, so why not?

Mate, don't justify yourself, if you are comfortable with it, that;s all that matters. Don't let anyone push you into a different mindset, either here or anywhere.

I have a fair number of sample cd's - they have drumloops and musical loops in them too. Personally, I think they are sh!t and I might isolate a hit out of a loop and use it for example but i just can't use a loop as it is. Firstly, co's I can always make them better and secondly, co's I want to make my own music, not jigsaw together somebody else's.

That's just my opinion though and just do what you do.

[infernal.techno]

as a beginner producer, i find simply arranging loops and samples to be fun, but i would never try to make money off of something such as strictly sampling other people's work, especially if the end product makes you say "oh cool that was so and so" when really it was me.

i think artists like daft punk miss the point of it all. sure maybe their live show is cool and they have built quite a fanbase, but they seem to be in it for all the wrong reasons...and that's $. one promoter here in Atlanta (who brings everyone from Tiesto to Maetrik) told me that Daft Punk's booking fee is...well...insanely outrageous.

so at that point it's not whether strictly sampling is right or wrong, it's more along the lines of should sampling other people's music catapult you into millionaire status? surely there is no harm in sampling others for the fun and learning aspect of music production, but what about the big guys like Daft Punk? have they gone too far? or what about the stateside people like Girl Talk, who simply arrange tracks to mix right into one another without any sort of real editing? should their booking fees be in the 5 figure area? i know his last album was free, but i see sold-out turned scalping shows for him all the time. why? why is he making this much money off such a little effort to create something?

[trak660]

It's clear that many of you don't understand the art form of sample-based music.

This is a funny thread.

Personally, I think that using sample packs is closer to cheating than sampling from an old disco record. It's too easy to make your own drum samples. Rearranging someone else's work into something new requires talent.

Taking loops from current techno songs is biting, though. Make your own techno.