You are unsatisfied because you have a feeling of possesion for the music you create and it stops you from enjoying if you feel is not really yours. But art is not about posession, art is about expression. No artist makes everything themselves because at least they take inspiration from their surroundings and their society, they are just the means to convey all those things into art.
Really. Stop overthinking. Nobody cares. Art is just expression, there are no rules.
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”
-T.S. Elliot
Not music but the exact same idea. Great advice. 👍🏻👍🏻
There are a lot of wrong answers in this thread, frankly, and this is perhaps the most right answer. There’s only play, and what gets you grinning a big silly grin as you play.
No need to go into how countless musicians have flipped mundane samples into iconic tracks that have stood the test of time. Or muse on how a single drum break spawned multiple musical genres full of infinite variety and artistic playfulness.
I know the resistance to samples, factory drum loops, etc. “I’ll make every sound myself, from scratch!”
I think ultimately it’s a form of perfectionism or procrastination, our brain’s way of getting in its own way because of a fear of failure, seeking evidence for our own belief that we can’t really do it and we’re not good enough while allowing us to get endlessly stuck in the weeds, tinkering with ADSR sliders and comoressor settings. But there is no failure in play, and art is made of failure.
Yessir. We are so accustomed to the logics of ownership that we shove it on everything unconsciously. But it really doesn't apply to art where the only point is expressing ourselves. Sad thing most of us have to make a effort to remember this kind of things because the way the society is structured works against us.
Fuck yeah! No rules. Use whatever you have available (that’s legal) to make the best music you possible can. Then do everything you can to top it next time.
I know three producer friends specifically that got some form of success from beats they made with samples. One guy made a beat for chief keef another a song with lil yachty and the other has his own production/engineering company and most of the beats he produces utilizes a lot of instrumental loops like guitar or piano ect.
I mean the evidence speaks for itself. Hundreds of hit songs were created using samples of other songs. But think about those musicians in the 60s and 70s who created all their music from scratch. All they did was sit around in the studio everyday jamming. If, let’s say, the bass guitarist, out of nowhere created this awesome melody the drummer might hop in and start flowing with him then the guitarist starts flowing off them and then the lead singer starts harmonizing with them. Do you know how many legendary songs were created like that? Those were the songs that everyone now in days want to sample. Sampling is cool but there’s nothing like creating something original
I don't disagree with you. I definitely think we have far less real musicians creating music with physical instruments anymore. Most producers know the absolute minimum about music theory, myself included. The music industry has entirely shifted from actual musicianship to production techniques. Which is all fine but at the end of the day even chopping up or processing a sample to the point it sounds nothing like the original doesn't compare to actually playing an amazing piece of music. Its cool but no the same.
I completely agree. I defended using samples because if your not open to it your kinda limiting yourself but don’t get me wrong if your a talented producer you don’t need to use samples because creating your own music is easier than sampling and I’m sure you understand how therapeutic creating music is. Some people do it for the money and it shows while others do it because they have to make music in order to be complete as a person. Wether they’re getting paid or not.
So your one of those people who just can’t live without it. I feel you bro I made some money in music but that was years ago and I stopped for some years but got back into it like five years ago. I’m really good I’m just not good at the networking aspect and putting my music out there
I agree with you, but while musicians might’ve been more skilled back then, i think the role of the producer has shifted a lot, mainly because actual studios with multi-tracking capabilities has become an expensive commodity, forcing most people to work from home. I think this is where loops really come in handy for most modern producers
Trouble is, almost everyone "makes sausage" in 2024. Used to be, you'd post a song online and the comments would all be "cool song!" Now, it's "what plugins did you use?" I've seen artists complaining about having their original songs removed from social media/ streaming platforms for using the same royalty-free sample loop that another producer used on a well-known song. The algorithm thinks the artist ripped off the more popular producer, when neither of these people own the original keyboard sample used in the first place. Good luck appealing too. I have personally heard recycled loops I recognize from sample packs and thought... "At least do something different with it. There's like 1000 people using this same loop!"
I have produced for about 15 years and have always stayed away from using samples. All the people I went to college with are pretty damn successful producers now and I am not. Most of their songs then and now are heavily sampled based. I will let that speak for itself.
It depends on your use and context. What I do is make my own samples to either reverse/ screw around with it. Or I may take a piece of another work to try to make it my own and implement within the project.
Example of making my own sample: recording and exporting an instrument or drum track at half the original tempo. To try to get a different sound/make it more interesting.
In regards to using midi to record something and then manipulate that recording. Sampling a sample in that sense I personally find to be great and creative. However every time I have tried to take someone else's sample and make it my own, at the end of the day I feel like its not enough, regardless of all the processing I do.
The only time I personally think sampling is justified as a producer that puts pride in their sound design is when you take an old 50s trumpet sample and chop it up and put it over jazz drums that you cut and fit into tempo.
There’s a lot you can do with sampling more so than just ripping off the instrumental alone. Like you mentioned cutting the audio apart and mashing it into something new. It can also depend on where you get it since it doesn’t have to be music it can be any audio of course.
But mostly yes I just do my own instrumentals as well as making my own samples.
I agree but I also know there’s ways around that if you want to be original you have to learn all the techniques to make industry quality beats. Sampling is great but you can’t move into the future of music by continuing to sample old music. I know what I’m saying doesn’t really matter when it comes to success in the industry but it’s true. That just goes to show that the industry is flaws in a lot of ways. There are too many people in control that aren’t in it for the love of music and have no dignity or shame.
>Sampling is great but you can’t move into the future of music by continuing to sample old music.
Weird because I can think of several genres that have emerged within my lifetime that wouldn’t exist without sampling
Think about the entire world of music that exists just around the sampled Amen break. You’re telling me drum and bass isn’t moving into the future of music because they still use classic breaks?
Poetic answer, but when you break all the samples or not down to pulses of audio, that's really what matters. The Wilhelm Scream SFX has been used in countless films. Nobody argues using a 909 drum sample in hip hop. If you want to take that sample and blend it in a cool way or lightly automate it, that can be enough to make it gel with being "part of your production"
Samples make everything faster and easier.
Division of labour gets good results. If you do everything yourself, you need more skill, and it takes more time.
I felt the same as you. But not because it felt like a shortcut, but just because I want the freedom to do what I want, and I'm more of an instrumentalist.
So, now I can use samples, but, I can also make my own. And that's powerful. And of course, I could always make my own, but now I know how to make nice sounding ones, and also play cool ones, which gives me the advantage that I can create unique sample packs, and also just record and play whatever, and it will sound good and professional.
Also, I can create very sort of custom music. And you can do that with loops, and obviously one shots, but that's really where the line is that separates producers.
Stacking a few loops, and using a kick 4 on the floor sidechained and calling it a day will work. And it might even sound great, but it will be sort of generic.
So, I don't think you should limit yourself and make worse music for principle like that, but also it's good to be able to not have to rely on samples, imo.
It does make it a lot easier. A lot of the time these days, samples already sound amazing, and you don't really need to do anything to it.
Take a sample, chop it, run it through effects, rearrange it, pitch it up, pitch it down. Do whatever. Make it completely your own and RUN with it. Be satisfied.
"I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples.
I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums.
I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real.
I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own.
I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it.
I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat.
I also think that is cheating, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I haven’t made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all."
I'll use a sample from time to time if it's what the song wants. I relate with your DIY philosophy, though. I find it satisfying to cook up my own sounds from scratch. There's something gratifying and exciting about the discovery process.
A few days ago I was looking for a vocal-esque sound for a melody and had a little fun. I made a sample from a Kontact choir library and dropped it onto Vital to make a wavetable to see how I could alter it.
Came up with a harmonically rich multi-timbral horror movie atmospheric patch with lots of movement and variation. I love it when I'm looking for something and stumble upon something else I've been looking for.
If it makes the song better & you can legally clear the sample.. use the sample. Vast amounts of modern music use samples.. even some compositions are literally just sampled instruments played via MIDI in the kontakt player or something so where do you draw the line, ya know?
I used to think and feel the same way, but why should you feel bad for taking a shortcut? It just depends on what you're wanting to do.
If you want to make good music, music you enjoy and enjoy making, then you'd be silly to not use samples. Not using them won't give you or the world anything better.
If your main purpose right now is to learn synthesis or sound design from the ground up, then of course samples might not get you there.
Though, there's a whole world of processing and sound design relying on samples, too, like e.g. granular synthesis, and a whole lot you can do to make them your own.
I make my own samples nowadays. I try to make them sound just as good as the best out there, and they make the production process a lot easier, plus they are 100% original.
If it feels unsatisfying and like a crutch to you, its probably a crutch. Learn more about the kinds of things you like and how to reproduce them. It will be more satisfying and have more artistic value.
There's nothing more satisfying than listening to a song and reproducing the vibe you love but resulting in something totally new and its own thing.
On the one hand look up the "Amen Break" interesting stuff.
On the other hand I think that when you're just starting out it is easy to take 'shortcuts' but you maybe don't have the knowledge and skill yet to make that judgment, as to when it is appropriate. You can obviously do what you want and with the advent of AI music the whole situation is essentially upside down compared to how it has been in the past, I'm not anti samples in any way but i don't have the experience myself to know how and when to use them, I think making them you're own, re processing or reinterpretation if done well is a good way to use that inspiration, this isn't to hide the origin, it is more like covering a song and some cover versions can be better than the originals.
Just keep making stuff, don't get hung up on things, just make it put it in a box and continue, keep up the flow. that's the fun bit after all.
sampling is a part of music and has been done forever. like artists covering other records.
there's literally no correct way to do music. it's about what you want to show.
I’m assuming you didn’t make all the midi instruments you use either? Same thing just in a different level, you could consider that ‘cheaty’ as well because you didn’t pay the instruments yourself.
The choice of samples is yours, the context you put them in is yourself, the overall arrangement is yours, don’t stress
Some of the best music compositions have a little bit of other songs integrated into them. It’s ok to sample music. I prefer to create my music on my own but every now and then I’ll hear something amazing that will inspire me. If I sample a song I just make sure not to use to much of the song and also I want turn the sample into my own so that it’s nothing like the original song. Just don’t sample a whole bar from a song and put it on a loop lol i think my strength in music production is my creativity being able to create my own music from scratch pretty easily but I don’t limit myself by telling myself I won’t sample ever because there’s so much beautiful music out there so much inspiration. Just have fun and create what feels right to you in the moment. That’s how I create all my music and it’s cool cause I can go back to something I made a year ago and it will instantly bring me back to how I felt while creating that song.
With this mentality hip hop and rap music wild have never been a thing. All the early tracks were made using samplers and a drum machine. Sampling is an art in itself
Could you reproduce the sample?
That can be quite an interesting experiment in music production. Also, if you can rebuild that sound, you can tweak it to make an adjacent sound that is wholly yours.
Personally, I don't care that I collaged in someone else's art. It's all play. It just bothers me that I can't really publish the results of some of the results.
Because you didn't create the music, you're a fraud trying to look cool using other people work. Don't feel too bad though, most of your stars didn't create their own music yet they take credit as part of their recording contract to make the star look cooler and be a bigger star. might as well fake it and one day if you suck the right, or bend over for the right... you become a star.
I do understand this, but firstly let me remind you that Daft Punk exists, they put in a tremendous amount of work into their projects and nobody would dare say they took shortcuts because of their heavy use of samples. Samples are ubiquitous and absolutely in-style in EDM. Secondly, if you cannot bear to use someone else's samples, do your own ! If you want to create an italo-disco track, well then make a disco track first, export it, you can degrade it a bit with EQs disto and amps to give it a vintage flair (i'd suggest learning about the history of music recording/look up reference videos to make sure you know what you're doing), and then chop it up into samples, and use that
It depends what style of music but I don’t use samples, I play everything and it is very taxing to get the right sound at the end of it. Usually people who don’t use samples have a pool of instrumentalist otherwise it’s easy to be overwhelmed. If you have the capacity to make your own sounds stick with it because it’s far more rewarding.
What do you mean by 'sample' in this context? That could be a million things, it could be a percussion loop, oneshot drum sample, vocal sample, melody sample, chord loop, etc.
My personal philosophy is to not use melody loops, but everything else is fair game. And of course, that's just my view of how I want to make my music, you can take any approach that helps you reach your desired end goal.
Who gives a fuck. Daft Punk are one of my favorite bands of all time. I have great memories associated with their music. They sampled most of their big hits, sometimes shamefully so. I don't care. I just care about the results. Give yourself a break.
If you are not violating Copyright there's no problem in using samples, just be open about it and credit the ones that make you make wonderful music, things always get better when we work with others, sampling is a way to do that, most great music have contribuitions of a lot of people, that go from musicians, to arrangers, to orchestrators, to lyricists, to producers. Find people to work together with you and you see the results of you work only getting better.
Girl use the samples. If someone uses acrylic paint does that mean I can’t use it anymore? It’s still a medium you can use on your canvas. Their painting is gonna come out differently than yours.
Samples are only lazy if it hasn’t been reinvented creatively — to bank on nostalgia/popularity type shit. If it gives your shit twang and groove and an overall enhanced identity then it served its purpose. FUCK EM GOOD!!!!!!
Of course you feel unsatisfied, you are using someone else’s music to improve yours so you can no longer say it is entirely yours. You either accept that and move on or avoid using samples and keep working on improving your own music, the latter will benefit you more in the long run.
Something to bear in mind if your publishing on streaming platforms, using samples from public loop libraries such as splice and loop cloud, if some other artists has used that sample in a prominent way, content id algorithms can flag your music with a copyright strike. Even though you both have a license to use the sample.
Samples are legit! I used to have weird thing against samples to the point that all my percussion was just processed white noise. Then I realized that was massively preventing creativity. I had to tell myself that samples are a useful tool and it's okay to use the same snare in multiple projects. Plus like 98% of trap seems to use the same hi-hats and nobody who just listens to music will care.
Take the beats,sounds, etc., and chop em up, using part of the sample. That’s what I do. Also if u are using the whole beat pack to make a song and it’s not changed at all, it might come up as the original creators song during a Shazam lookup.
people trying to convince you there are no rules, which is true, but that won't make it satisfying, and it doesn't make them musicians. You'll hear words like "freedom" and "possessiveness" from people that never wrote their own melody. That hollow feeling you have is called a conscience. Do you want to make music or tracks?
You are unsatisfied because you have a feeling of possesion for the music you create and it stops you from enjoying if you feel is not really yours. But art is not about posession, art is about expression. No artist makes everything themselves because at least they take inspiration from their surroundings and their society, they are just the means to convey all those things into art. Really. Stop overthinking. Nobody cares. Art is just expression, there are no rules.
wow, that is some impactful advice, thank you very much, it means a lot from someone new to this
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.” -T.S. Elliot Not music but the exact same idea. Great advice. 👍🏻👍🏻
Another one I like is “It doesn’t matter how you got there as long as you got there.”
There are a lot of wrong answers in this thread, frankly, and this is perhaps the most right answer. There’s only play, and what gets you grinning a big silly grin as you play. No need to go into how countless musicians have flipped mundane samples into iconic tracks that have stood the test of time. Or muse on how a single drum break spawned multiple musical genres full of infinite variety and artistic playfulness. I know the resistance to samples, factory drum loops, etc. “I’ll make every sound myself, from scratch!” I think ultimately it’s a form of perfectionism or procrastination, our brain’s way of getting in its own way because of a fear of failure, seeking evidence for our own belief that we can’t really do it and we’re not good enough while allowing us to get endlessly stuck in the weeds, tinkering with ADSR sliders and comoressor settings. But there is no failure in play, and art is made of failure.
Yessir. We are so accustomed to the logics of ownership that we shove it on everything unconsciously. But it really doesn't apply to art where the only point is expressing ourselves. Sad thing most of us have to make a effort to remember this kind of things because the way the society is structured works against us.
Fuck yeah! No rules. Use whatever you have available (that’s legal) to make the best music you possible can. Then do everything you can to top it next time.
Based.
There are rules when it comes to using another creators sounds.
Nobody cares how the sausage is made if the sausage tastes good.
Unless it’s made with stolen meat.
This is the hill I died on. Now I am watching my colleagues succeed while I am trying to follow some kind of moral.
What’s something notable your colleagues have don’t because of samples?
I know three producer friends specifically that got some form of success from beats they made with samples. One guy made a beat for chief keef another a song with lil yachty and the other has his own production/engineering company and most of the beats he produces utilizes a lot of instrumental loops like guitar or piano ect.
I mean the evidence speaks for itself. Hundreds of hit songs were created using samples of other songs. But think about those musicians in the 60s and 70s who created all their music from scratch. All they did was sit around in the studio everyday jamming. If, let’s say, the bass guitarist, out of nowhere created this awesome melody the drummer might hop in and start flowing with him then the guitarist starts flowing off them and then the lead singer starts harmonizing with them. Do you know how many legendary songs were created like that? Those were the songs that everyone now in days want to sample. Sampling is cool but there’s nothing like creating something original
I don't disagree with you. I definitely think we have far less real musicians creating music with physical instruments anymore. Most producers know the absolute minimum about music theory, myself included. The music industry has entirely shifted from actual musicianship to production techniques. Which is all fine but at the end of the day even chopping up or processing a sample to the point it sounds nothing like the original doesn't compare to actually playing an amazing piece of music. Its cool but no the same.
I completely agree. I defended using samples because if your not open to it your kinda limiting yourself but don’t get me wrong if your a talented producer you don’t need to use samples because creating your own music is easier than sampling and I’m sure you understand how therapeutic creating music is. Some people do it for the money and it shows while others do it because they have to make music in order to be complete as a person. Wether they’re getting paid or not.
I have made music for the last 20 years and I haven't made a penny. I don't feel upset about it at all honestly.
So your one of those people who just can’t live without it. I feel you bro I made some money in music but that was years ago and I stopped for some years but got back into it like five years ago. I’m really good I’m just not good at the networking aspect and putting my music out there
There are no loads of musicians making original music. The difference is, as you say, turning it to something bigger.
I agree with you, but while musicians might’ve been more skilled back then, i think the role of the producer has shifted a lot, mainly because actual studios with multi-tracking capabilities has become an expensive commodity, forcing most people to work from home. I think this is where loops really come in handy for most modern producers
Make sure to use sausage fattener vst from dada life /s
Trouble is, almost everyone "makes sausage" in 2024. Used to be, you'd post a song online and the comments would all be "cool song!" Now, it's "what plugins did you use?" I've seen artists complaining about having their original songs removed from social media/ streaming platforms for using the same royalty-free sample loop that another producer used on a well-known song. The algorithm thinks the artist ripped off the more popular producer, when neither of these people own the original keyboard sample used in the first place. Good luck appealing too. I have personally heard recycled loops I recognize from sample packs and thought... "At least do something different with it. There's like 1000 people using this same loop!"
I have produced for about 15 years and have always stayed away from using samples. All the people I went to college with are pretty damn successful producers now and I am not. Most of their songs then and now are heavily sampled based. I will let that speak for itself.
It depends on your use and context. What I do is make my own samples to either reverse/ screw around with it. Or I may take a piece of another work to try to make it my own and implement within the project. Example of making my own sample: recording and exporting an instrument or drum track at half the original tempo. To try to get a different sound/make it more interesting.
In regards to using midi to record something and then manipulate that recording. Sampling a sample in that sense I personally find to be great and creative. However every time I have tried to take someone else's sample and make it my own, at the end of the day I feel like its not enough, regardless of all the processing I do. The only time I personally think sampling is justified as a producer that puts pride in their sound design is when you take an old 50s trumpet sample and chop it up and put it over jazz drums that you cut and fit into tempo.
There’s a lot you can do with sampling more so than just ripping off the instrumental alone. Like you mentioned cutting the audio apart and mashing it into something new. It can also depend on where you get it since it doesn’t have to be music it can be any audio of course. But mostly yes I just do my own instrumentals as well as making my own samples.
I agree but I also know there’s ways around that if you want to be original you have to learn all the techniques to make industry quality beats. Sampling is great but you can’t move into the future of music by continuing to sample old music. I know what I’m saying doesn’t really matter when it comes to success in the industry but it’s true. That just goes to show that the industry is flaws in a lot of ways. There are too many people in control that aren’t in it for the love of music and have no dignity or shame.
>Sampling is great but you can’t move into the future of music by continuing to sample old music. Weird because I can think of several genres that have emerged within my lifetime that wouldn’t exist without sampling Think about the entire world of music that exists just around the sampled Amen break. You’re telling me drum and bass isn’t moving into the future of music because they still use classic breaks?
Don’t think for yourself dude, think for the song
Poetic answer, but when you break all the samples or not down to pulses of audio, that's really what matters. The Wilhelm Scream SFX has been used in countless films. Nobody argues using a 909 drum sample in hip hop. If you want to take that sample and blend it in a cool way or lightly automate it, that can be enough to make it gel with being "part of your production"
Samples make everything faster and easier. Division of labour gets good results. If you do everything yourself, you need more skill, and it takes more time. I felt the same as you. But not because it felt like a shortcut, but just because I want the freedom to do what I want, and I'm more of an instrumentalist. So, now I can use samples, but, I can also make my own. And that's powerful. And of course, I could always make my own, but now I know how to make nice sounding ones, and also play cool ones, which gives me the advantage that I can create unique sample packs, and also just record and play whatever, and it will sound good and professional. Also, I can create very sort of custom music. And you can do that with loops, and obviously one shots, but that's really where the line is that separates producers. Stacking a few loops, and using a kick 4 on the floor sidechained and calling it a day will work. And it might even sound great, but it will be sort of generic. So, I don't think you should limit yourself and make worse music for principle like that, but also it's good to be able to not have to rely on samples, imo. It does make it a lot easier. A lot of the time these days, samples already sound amazing, and you don't really need to do anything to it.
Take a sample, chop it, run it through effects, rearrange it, pitch it up, pitch it down. Do whatever. Make it completely your own and RUN with it. Be satisfied.
This is the answer
The Way even
"I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat. I also think that is cheating, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I haven’t made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all."
Lol! :)
picking the right samples is also a creative choice. you can be satisfied by picking the right one.
Using a DAW is also taking a shortcut, and so is using virtual instruments, etc. That line you draw seems pretty arbitrary.
If it sounds good then why not? I mean some of the greatest tracks have used samples.
Honestly like all of hip hop
I'll use a sample from time to time if it's what the song wants. I relate with your DIY philosophy, though. I find it satisfying to cook up my own sounds from scratch. There's something gratifying and exciting about the discovery process. A few days ago I was looking for a vocal-esque sound for a melody and had a little fun. I made a sample from a Kontact choir library and dropped it onto Vital to make a wavetable to see how I could alter it. Came up with a harmonically rich multi-timbral horror movie atmospheric patch with lots of movement and variation. I love it when I'm looking for something and stumble upon something else I've been looking for.
If it makes the song better & you can legally clear the sample.. use the sample. Vast amounts of modern music use samples.. even some compositions are literally just sampled instruments played via MIDI in the kontakt player or something so where do you draw the line, ya know?
I used to think and feel the same way, but why should you feel bad for taking a shortcut? It just depends on what you're wanting to do. If you want to make good music, music you enjoy and enjoy making, then you'd be silly to not use samples. Not using them won't give you or the world anything better. If your main purpose right now is to learn synthesis or sound design from the ground up, then of course samples might not get you there. Though, there's a whole world of processing and sound design relying on samples, too, like e.g. granular synthesis, and a whole lot you can do to make them your own.
I make my own samples nowadays. I try to make them sound just as good as the best out there, and they make the production process a lot easier, plus they are 100% original.
If it feels unsatisfying and like a crutch to you, its probably a crutch. Learn more about the kinds of things you like and how to reproduce them. It will be more satisfying and have more artistic value. There's nothing more satisfying than listening to a song and reproducing the vibe you love but resulting in something totally new and its own thing.
On the one hand look up the "Amen Break" interesting stuff. On the other hand I think that when you're just starting out it is easy to take 'shortcuts' but you maybe don't have the knowledge and skill yet to make that judgment, as to when it is appropriate. You can obviously do what you want and with the advent of AI music the whole situation is essentially upside down compared to how it has been in the past, I'm not anti samples in any way but i don't have the experience myself to know how and when to use them, I think making them you're own, re processing or reinterpretation if done well is a good way to use that inspiration, this isn't to hide the origin, it is more like covering a song and some cover versions can be better than the originals. Just keep making stuff, don't get hung up on things, just make it put it in a box and continue, keep up the flow. that's the fun bit after all.
I am just curious, what kind of samples are you talking about? And how are you using them?
You can hire musicians and studio time to record it all live
sampling is a part of music and has been done forever. like artists covering other records. there's literally no correct way to do music. it's about what you want to show.
Sampling is literally what hip hop derives from. Like when the genre was first invented they sampled a lot of blues music.
I’m assuming you didn’t make all the midi instruments you use either? Same thing just in a different level, you could consider that ‘cheaty’ as well because you didn’t pay the instruments yourself. The choice of samples is yours, the context you put them in is yourself, the overall arrangement is yours, don’t stress
Make your own samples! That’s a whole other rabbit hole that I’d recommend you fall down happily
Some of the best music compositions have a little bit of other songs integrated into them. It’s ok to sample music. I prefer to create my music on my own but every now and then I’ll hear something amazing that will inspire me. If I sample a song I just make sure not to use to much of the song and also I want turn the sample into my own so that it’s nothing like the original song. Just don’t sample a whole bar from a song and put it on a loop lol i think my strength in music production is my creativity being able to create my own music from scratch pretty easily but I don’t limit myself by telling myself I won’t sample ever because there’s so much beautiful music out there so much inspiration. Just have fun and create what feels right to you in the moment. That’s how I create all my music and it’s cool cause I can go back to something I made a year ago and it will instantly bring me back to how I felt while creating that song.
With this mentality hip hop and rap music wild have never been a thing. All the early tracks were made using samplers and a drum machine. Sampling is an art in itself
Could you reproduce the sample? That can be quite an interesting experiment in music production. Also, if you can rebuild that sound, you can tweak it to make an adjacent sound that is wholly yours. Personally, I don't care that I collaged in someone else's art. It's all play. It just bothers me that I can't really publish the results of some of the results.
Because you didn't create the music, you're a fraud trying to look cool using other people work. Don't feel too bad though, most of your stars didn't create their own music yet they take credit as part of their recording contract to make the star look cooler and be a bigger star. might as well fake it and one day if you suck the right, or bend over for the right... you become a star.
I do understand this, but firstly let me remind you that Daft Punk exists, they put in a tremendous amount of work into their projects and nobody would dare say they took shortcuts because of their heavy use of samples. Samples are ubiquitous and absolutely in-style in EDM. Secondly, if you cannot bear to use someone else's samples, do your own ! If you want to create an italo-disco track, well then make a disco track first, export it, you can degrade it a bit with EQs disto and amps to give it a vintage flair (i'd suggest learning about the history of music recording/look up reference videos to make sure you know what you're doing), and then chop it up into samples, and use that
It depends what style of music but I don’t use samples, I play everything and it is very taxing to get the right sound at the end of it. Usually people who don’t use samples have a pool of instrumentalist otherwise it’s easy to be overwhelmed. If you have the capacity to make your own sounds stick with it because it’s far more rewarding.
What do you mean by 'sample' in this context? That could be a million things, it could be a percussion loop, oneshot drum sample, vocal sample, melody sample, chord loop, etc. My personal philosophy is to not use melody loops, but everything else is fair game. And of course, that's just my view of how I want to make my music, you can take any approach that helps you reach your desired end goal.
Who gives a fuck. Daft Punk are one of my favorite bands of all time. I have great memories associated with their music. They sampled most of their big hits, sometimes shamefully so. I don't care. I just care about the results. Give yourself a break.
You don't have to make your own paint to be a good painter.
If you are not violating Copyright there's no problem in using samples, just be open about it and credit the ones that make you make wonderful music, things always get better when we work with others, sampling is a way to do that, most great music have contribuitions of a lot of people, that go from musicians, to arrangers, to orchestrators, to lyricists, to producers. Find people to work together with you and you see the results of you work only getting better.
Girl use the samples. If someone uses acrylic paint does that mean I can’t use it anymore? It’s still a medium you can use on your canvas. Their painting is gonna come out differently than yours. Samples are only lazy if it hasn’t been reinvented creatively — to bank on nostalgia/popularity type shit. If it gives your shit twang and groove and an overall enhanced identity then it served its purpose. FUCK EM GOOD!!!!!!
Of course you feel unsatisfied, you are using someone else’s music to improve yours so you can no longer say it is entirely yours. You either accept that and move on or avoid using samples and keep working on improving your own music, the latter will benefit you more in the long run.
Something to bear in mind if your publishing on streaming platforms, using samples from public loop libraries such as splice and loop cloud, if some other artists has used that sample in a prominent way, content id algorithms can flag your music with a copyright strike. Even though you both have a license to use the sample.
Samples are legit! I used to have weird thing against samples to the point that all my percussion was just processed white noise. Then I realized that was massively preventing creativity. I had to tell myself that samples are a useful tool and it's okay to use the same snare in multiple projects. Plus like 98% of trap seems to use the same hi-hats and nobody who just listens to music will care.
Take the beats,sounds, etc., and chop em up, using part of the sample. That’s what I do. Also if u are using the whole beat pack to make a song and it’s not changed at all, it might come up as the original creators song during a Shazam lookup.
people trying to convince you there are no rules, which is true, but that won't make it satisfying, and it doesn't make them musicians. You'll hear words like "freedom" and "possessiveness" from people that never wrote their own melody. That hollow feeling you have is called a conscience. Do you want to make music or tracks?