what about BEING sampled?

[Cold Truth]

well, i was just in the "hiring musicicans to replay sequences" forum, and i guess the question was referring to replaying a sample.... i listened to the tracks on that "prince of thieves" section of soundclick, and heard the originals and was disapointed by the blatant jacking of most of them. i was going to go from sampling and keyboard to just digging and sampling, then i got my motif rack and i am changing up my whole approach now..... i am going to focus almost exclusively on original compositions, and for say, guitar parts, have friends transpose those melodies to a live guitar........... just a thought i thought i'd share. do any of you ever do this? with your own work, not a sample, mind you. i figure, why not be the guy who GETS sampled for a change?

*disclaimer- this in no way is designed to start another "sampling=real hip hop,keyboards are not" type argument. once again, if you plan on getting into that, THEN DONT RESPOND.

 

[afriquedeluxe]

man when i went on dat price of thieves site, i 2 was gutted by dis jackin of whole trcks n in sum cases lyrics. man i kno i may sound dumb but i used 2 think dat trck by dre 'aint nuttin but a g thang' was his own composition, damnn.

any way most of my work is sample free, all da stuff is either from synth or live instruments i borow from sum guys. at times i hav to sample tho when i cant get a certain instrument i want , say a violin or sumtin.

 

[DJ Excellence]

Well a lot of material , on the prince of thieves page has been replayed by live musicians... (for example the sample that was used for Gangstaar's Full Clip)

I have nothing against this approach , the only thing is that it's really expensive to hire musicians ....... I sometimes try to reproduce sequences with a keyboard or guitar but most of the time It's just for fun and I don't use these in my beats...

PEACE,

PHIL

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Man the only way to avoid dissapointment by finding out that a hit wasn't original but a jacked sample is 1 get some musical grounding in chords etc.....and start making your own melodies and copyright them......if you have any old school aunts or uncles say from the 70's or eighties I bet you if they listened to music they could probably pick out lots of samples and interpolations that cats used in hit songs and tell you who it was......

 

[Copenhagen]

I too was dissapointed 4-5 years ago...then suddenly a new world opened and I found out how naive I had been and how so many artists just plain robbed old tracks. Especially, I have been very disappointd with Dre. I think I still lack to find one hit of his' that's not just a loop of some shit. This actually made me think the other way than you Truth. I thought, if everybody does it and it seems the way to be, why should I spend more time on my beats playing everything from scratch is that's the widely accepted way of doing it.

 

[joblack00]

The whole jackin beats things is kinda discouraging. I can't bring myself to finding something and just taking it all and looping it. I do get disapointed when I hear someone completely jacked. But I mean what the f*** we arent musicians. Half of us can't play or read a note of music. This isn't like Jazz when if you couldnt play you weren't hip. We are in a different era.

And to be honest there is nothing wrong with sampling but if you are a mainstream nigga you got the tools/gear to sample and do completely original work. I have done alot of original melodies and throw sampled vocals over it. I don't sing or have the money to bring a platnum r&b chick in to drop a quick 8 but I try to find a balance.

Music I hear from different genre's speak to me and when I hear a note speaks to me I bet there might be plenty out there who this note might speak to. Right now it's just my boys which is fine with me. But I bet that's how producers feel.

I almost cursed Alchemist out loud when I figured out exactly how he made the Worst Comes to Worst beat. but after hearing the original and loving it and hearing how he did it I liked what he did with it. It prob didn't take that much work. But it might have. I think of all the records and samples I pull but not sure how to use them or they are flawed in some way and when I get the perfect one I get an adrenaline rush or make something I liked.
Or even all the music I force myself to be open to just to find a simple instrument like a horn or violin.

But anyways what goes wrong with sampling is how you use it. Like how Nelly did Bustin Loose. I hate that stupid song. So my only rule with sampling is if you gone do it add your own flavor and just be ill with it. Sampling for me is like saying to an artist "yo whatever you felt when you composed or made that I felt" "so here is my response back to you" and that comes when I add my own flavor to it.

So far I haven't straight up jacked something and not done some extra or different with it.

I mean what do you expect from these producers. Most barely finished (except for the Neptunes who I hear don't sample) high school never learned how to play an instrument in their life all they have is a vision and a great ear for music or decent which is becoming the producing standard.

Sampling is like painting pictures. You got some who are really good and others trying to master the craft and those who shouldnt even be in the game or have a canvas to paint.

okay stupid question time what the hell is a synth? I see that word used so freely on this site I am confused.

 

[DJ Hoppa]

i like to sample, sometimes even an entire loop....but then I personally play bass lines, add percussion from my drummer's various intruments, and do a lot of live instrumentation on my own, as well as even using a synth line now and then....i dont think artists' hits are now "not hits" just because they were sampled....thats the art of digging, right? To me, if you throw your twist on it, it isn't stealing...more like paying respect, and taking something that's old and making it fresh again....oh well, just my 3 cents....

 

[Cold Truth]

man, you are all missing the question completely. i didnt even finish high school, or go actually, and i cant read a note of music, the same as what you are all describing to me. i was just asking if any of you do that at all or want to. this had nothing to do with samples being good, bad, or anything like that. as far as cope's comment about it being the accepted norm, so why change, why should you spend the time- well, its about you and your own music, period. you do what you are good at- there is no formula or one way to do it, regardless of how much or how little time you put into it. quality is quality.......... it was an idea, a motivation for me personally, and i asked for input, but ya'll missed this one completely....................

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Ok assasin sorry I missed the point...actually I got on point at some point about actually resampling UR own work or original melodies....that's the point righ?hahaha anyhow I resample my own ish....Neptunes not sampling? I don't believe that...but they resample their own ish a lot and dirty it up and filter it to make it sound like they did....now that is some real work...

 

[light]

yah lately ive been learning the piano and guitar. and recorded lots in my beats. i also get friends or people ive met to come in and play some peices. for me its way more satisfying. but i have hella fun sampling to. somtimes i will start with a sample build on that and eventually the sample just dissapears in the mix so i take it out. i didnt play the sample again, i just played along with it.

So yah. i try to focus almost completely on original compositions. but i also love listing to all types of music and sometimes im relaxing smokin and listing, and a peice will come up where my eyes open up wide and i think to myself: i must sample.

 

[MadScientist]

Everything I do is original. I play all my sounds in my beats. So maybe I got a upper hand in that aspect. I play drums and piano/keyboard. I also know how to read music. My next thing is to learn how to play guitar. Because thats the one sound a synth can never duplicate.

 

[K.C]

If you really want to get down to it, EVERYTHING is sampled, chords you play to construct the original melody. how do you think them sounds got on to your keyboard, who sampled that drum kick/snare ect... so in a way we'er all still sampling no matter how you construct your songs. I think the best way to get original is designing your own sounds, why not, if their any good you could sell them to companys/other producers.pace

 

[Cold Truth]

k.c, i know you are new to the sight, and no offese, but........ that's not SAMPLING. that is PLAYING a sampled instrument. i see where you are coming from, however. one thing about sound design- thats a great idea and all but as most of us have jobs and other things in addition to this, the dedicated time it takes to constantly design your own sounds can take up way too much time..... you can be original PLAYING THE INSTRUMENTS from a keyboard the same way you play a "REAL" instrument. i thik a lot of us here spend at least some time creating their own sounds, however. but seriously, thats te most inane technicality when you start saying "in a way, we are all sampling" along the lines of saying "were all related somehow, so my girlfriend is technicalya relative of mine"

 

[K.C]

I wasn't takeing away anything from playing a keyboard using sampled instruments, I my self switch between the two, if i want a cleaner commerical sounding track I'll compose it fully, if i want a raw/underground track I'll stick with sampling, either way im sampling or playing sampled instruments, but the way I fliped it is original, in the end i know my style is unqiue, and different from others and THATS what matters in Hip-Hop.

 

[Beatz 101]

Sometimes i take loops and sometimes sample sounds n' everything. But actually, its all about what you do with it. Some kats just rape the essence of a song and use for a beat. its alright to do that...sometimes. I admit doin that shit a couple months ago when i was just starting to sample. But now i know how to cut and piece together to make loops you probably wouldnt even recognize if u heard the song i sampled from.

Whether ya like or not, sampling is a major part of hiphop. Due to the growing popularity of hip hop music, there are gonna be more people wanting to be producers. So your gonna see more crap, from your samplers to your original composers. You can almost say the same thing to some people who wanna be original composers. If you dont have any kinda piano skills, completely no imagination, and ya dont have any decent equipment to sound good....why the fuck are u doin this? Like as if you bite the essence of each song you sample and just put drums on it. I all comes down to if you got skills or not.

 

[Cold Truth]

man, this had nothing to do with sampling!!!! i just wanted to know if there are others who are taking the same approach as me, and what people thought of that approach........... it has nothing to do with sampling, or "its all about how you use it" it has NOTHING TO DO WITH SAMPLING. are you guys reading my initial post? what are you responding to, exactly? "wether you like it or not, sampling is a part of hip hop" - i never said anything about that!! come on guys.... when you respond, respond in regards to THE ACTUAL QUESTION. that whole topic has been exhausted already. i understand the last two are new to the site and all..... the bottom line is that i dont care what the next man does, i do what i do how i do it because that is my personal prefrence. ah whatever, just close the thread already!

 

[Copenhagen]

I'll humor Truth Told and close the thread.