Sampling (music)

In the 1940s, the French composer Pierre Schaeffer developed musique concrète, an experimental form of music created by recording sounds to tape, splicing them, and manipulating them to create sound collages. He used sounds from the human body, locomotives, and kitchen utensils. The method also involved tape loops, splicing lengths of tape end to end so a sound could be played indefinitely. Schaeffer developed the Phonogene, which played loops at 12 different pitches triggered by a keyboard. Jamaican immigrants introduced the techniques to American hip-hop in the 1970s. == Techniques and tools ==

Samplers The Guardian described the Chamberlin as the first sampler, developed by the American engineer Harry Chamberlin in the 1940s. The Chamberlin used a keyboard to trigger a series of tape decks, each containing eight seconds of sound. Similar technology was popularised in the 60s with the Mellotron. In 1969, the English engineer Peter Zinovieff developed the first digital sampler, the EMS Musys. The term sample was coined by Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel to describe a feature of their Fairlight CMI synthesizer, launched in 1979. While developing the Fairlight, Vogel recorded around a second of piano performance from a radio broadcast and discovered that he could imitate a piano by playing the recording back at different pitches. The result better resembled a real piano than sounds generated by synthesizers. Compared to later samplers, the Fairlight was limited; it allowed control over pitch and envelope, and could only record a few seconds of sound. However, the sampling function became its most popular feature. Though the concept of reusing recordings in other recordings was not new, the Fairlight's design and built-in sequencer simplified the process. Drum machines such as the Oberheim DMX and Linn LM-1 incorporated samples of drum kits and percussion rather than generating sounds from circuits. Early samplers could store samples of only a few seconds in length, but this increased with improved memory. In 1988, Akai released the first MPC sampler, which allowed users to assign samples to pads and trigger them independently, similarly to playing a keyboard or drum kit. It was followed by competing samplers from companies including Korg, Roland and Casio. Today, most samples are recorded and edited using digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Pro Tools and Ableton Live. As technology has improved, the possibilities for manipulation have grown. In the 2000s, Apple introduced "Jam Pack" sample libraries for its DAW GarageBand. In the 2010s, producers began releasing sample packs on online platforms such as Splice. The Kingsway Music Library, created in 2015 by the American producer Frank Dukes, has been used by artists including Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. In 2020, the US Library of Congress created an open-source web application that allows users to sample its library of copyright-free audio. Interpolation Instead of sampling, artists may recreate a recording, a process known as interpolation. == Impact ==

Sampling has influenced many genres of music, The Guardian journalist David McNamee likened its importance in these genres to the importance of the guitar in rock. Sampling is a fundamental element of remix culture. Early works Using the Fairlight, the "first truly world-changing sampler", the English producer Trevor Horn became the "key architect" in incorporating sampling into pop music in the 1980s. Their album Technodelic (1981) is an early example of an album consisting mostly of samples. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981) by David Byrne and Brian Eno is another important early work of sampling, incorporating samples of sources including Arabic singers, radio DJs and an exorcist. Musicians had used similar techniques before, but, according to the Guardian writer Dave Simpson, sampling had never before been used "to such cataclysmic effect". Eno felt the album's innovation was to make samples "the lead vocal". Big Audio Dynamite pioneered sampling in rock and pop with their 1985 album This Is Big Audio Dynamite. Hip-hop 's 1996 album Endtroducing is cited as the first created entirely from samples.|alt=Sampling is one of the foundations of hip-hop, which emerged in the 1980s. Hip-hop sampling has been likened to the origins of blues and rock, which were created by repurposing existing music. In 1986, the tracks "South Bronx", "Eric B. is President" and "It's a Demo" sampled the funk and soul tracks of James Brown, particularly a drum break from "Funky Drummer" (1970), helping popularize the technique. as the first album created entirely from samples. The E-mu SP-1200, released in 1987, had a ten-second sample length and a distinctive "gritty" sound, and was used extensively by East Coast producers during the golden age of hip-hop of the late 1980s and early 90s. Common samples Commonly sampled elements include strings, basslines, drum loops, vocal hooks or entire bars of music, especially from soul records. Samples may be layered, equalized, sped up or slowed down, repitched, looped or otherwise manipulated. and the drum intro from Led Zeppelin's 1971 song "When the Levee Breaks", played by John Bonham and sampled by artists including the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Eminem and Massive Attack. In 2014, the Smithsonian cited the most sampled track as "Change the Beat" (1982) by Fab Five Freddy. According to WhoSampled, a user-edited website that catalogs samples, James Brown is sampled in more than 3,000 tracks, more than any other artist. In 2011, The Independent named Loleatta Holloway, whose vocals were sampled in house and dance tracks such as "Ride on Time" (1989) by Black Box, as the most sampled female singer. The orchestra hit, widely used in hip-hop, originated as a sound on the Fairlight, sampled from Stravinsky's 1910 orchestral work Firebird Suite. MusicRadar cited the Zero-G Datafiles sample libraries as an influence on 90s dance music, becoming the "de facto source of breakbeats, bass and vocal samples". == Legal and ethical issues ==

To legally use a sample, an artist must acquire legal permission from the copyright holder, a potentially lengthy and complex process known as clearance. Sampling without permission can breach the copyright of the original sound recording, of the composition and lyrics, and of the performances, such as a rhythm or guitar riff. The moral rights of the original artist may also be breached if they are not credited or object to the sampling. In some cases, sampling is protected under American fair use laws, The American musician Richard Lewis Spencer, who owned the copyright for the widely sampled Amen break, never received royalties for its use as the statute of limitations for copyright infringement had passed by the time he learnt of the situation. The journalist Simon Reynolds likened it to "the man who goes to the sperm bank and unknowingly sires hundreds of children". The owner of sampled material may not always be traceable, and such knowledge is commonly mislaid through corporate mergers, closures and buyouts. DJ Shadow said that artists tended to either see sampling as a mark of respect and a means to introduce their music to new audiences, or to be protective of their legacy and see no benefit. He described the difficulty of arranging compensation for each artist sampled in a work, and gave the example of two artists both demanding more than 50%, a mathematical impossibility. He instead advocated for a process of clearing samples on a musicological basis by identifying how much of the composition the sample comprises. According to Fact, early hip-hop sampling was governed by "unspoken" rules forbidding the sampling of recent records, reissues, other hip-hop records or non-vinyl sources, among other restrictions. These rules were relaxed as younger producers took over and sampling became ubiquitous. For example, the Los Angeles record label Now-Again Records has cleared songs produced for West and Pusha T in a matter of hours. Lawsuits In 1989, the Turtles sued De La Soul for using an unlicensed sample on their album 3 Feet High and Rising. The Turtles singer, Mark Volman, told the Los Angeles Times: "Sampling is just a longer term for theft. Anybody who can honestly say sampling is some sort of creativity has never done anything creative." The case was settled out of court and set a legal precedent that had a chilling effect on sampling in hip-hop. in 2016 In 1991, the songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan sued the rapper Biz Markie after Markie sampled O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" on the album I Need a Haircut. In Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc, the court ruled that sampling without permission infringed copyright. Instead of asking for royalties, O'Sullivan forced Markie's label, Warner Bros, to recall the album until the song was removed. The journalist Dan Charnas criticized the ruling, saying it was difficult to apply conventional copyright laws to sampling and that the American legal system did not have "the cultural capacity to understand this culture and how kids relate to it". In 2005, the writer Nelson George described it as the "most damaging example of anti-hip-hop vindictiveness", which "sent a chill through the industry that is still felt". Since the O'Sullivan lawsuit, samples on commercial recordings have typically been taken either from obscure recordings or cleared, an often expensive option only available to successful acts. The Washington Post described the modern use of well known samples, such as on records by Kanye West, as an act of conspicuous consumption similar to flaunting cars or jewelry. In the 2005 case Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films, the hip-hop group N.W.A. were successfully sued for their use of a two-second sample of a Funkadelic song in the 1990 track "100 Miles and Runnin'". The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that all samples, no matter how short, required a license. == See also ==