From Hrvatski Sent Wed, Jun 9th 1999, 18:07
From Hrvatski Sent Wed, Jun 9th 1999, 18:07
>why sample someone else's break? why not do it yourself or synthesize
>it? hrvatski was commenting that he has a live drummer record tracks,
>which is excellent...
well...
>as someone who creates music myself...i hate sampling...i feel no sense
>of accomplishment by stealing someone elses beat or sound and inserting
>it into my own work. i even have problems with taking someone else's
>sound and mutilating it beyond recognition...it's still not my sound...
Curious what you use specifically to make music then. You buy a Nord or a
DX7 or ANY synth for that matter and there it is, full of sounds, presets,
patches, etc... You just plug it in & hit a key, instant sound. You can of
course, modify patches or start w/a clean slate but then all you're doing
is creating slight variations on the sound-creation engine in the synth &
it's architecture. You buy a sampler, it's EMPTY save for a few tones
(Sachiko M, a contemporary of Ikeda, et.al, plays a sampler with just the
256-value tones that come stock with it), you have no choice but to create
yr own sound library from scratch. Whether you sample sound FX, concrete,
or Led Zep is up to you. Even complex academic object-oriented & granular
synth techniques offer trademark, classifiable sounds. Sampling makes way
for complex sounds which otherwise would be unattainable via traditional
synthesis methods. I'm a little more irked at trademark manufacturer sound
sets (nord, Oberheim, etc...) then frequently re-occurring samples, besides
one of the few things I like about sample based music is recognizing the
sources, whether the pleasure I derive from it is more of a pat on the back
than anything else...
>and i've noticed that some of the best (imho) music being created today
>has a similiar approach...panasonic, ryoji ikeda, oval, etc...
Out of those three, Oval samples EVERYTHING and Ryoji samples very
frequently ('1000 fragments?'). Albeit, they're taking the samples and
recontextualizing them to the point of unrecognizability, kudos for that &
to John Oswald/Negativland/Coldcut et.al for coming up w/that angle...
Yeah, panasonic do use an mpc live, but it's just for tones & organisation,
everything else is still their own boxes.
>i guess what it comes down i'm expressing my dislike for using other
>peoples breaks and sounds because you don't know how to get that sound,
>or because it's the easiest way of achieving that sound...
Hmm... yes, it's a VERY easy way to get a particular sound; record it, use
it. That shouldn't be viewed as a trite approach, seeing the cultural
tabboos associated with it (fat royalty checks to JB, possible jail time to
the producer), perhaps the opposite; sort of dangerous & rather punk. Don't
get me wrong, un-creative sampling SUCKS, just like un-creative guitar
playing or uncreative synthesis. Now there are far greater sampling faux
pas that take place i.e. sampling contemporary artists like Autechre
because you really can't figure out wot they're doing, that's completely
insensitive (If you don't understand what Autechre are doing sound-wise,
don't try to make Autechre-sounding tracks). But sampling soul tracks from
1969 and processing them often beyond recognition, that should be OK, in
fact that should be encouraged. If I could create breaks somehow (I've
played w/like 39 drummers over the last 10 years, all of which understand
the Milford Graves/Sunny Murray school of free-improvisation well but fall
short of the sort of Zigaboo/Idris/Purdie/Cobham groove that fuels
breakbeat music) I would, but you can't recreate the feel of the amen, you
just can't. You can say that the 303 is just filtered sine/square waves
with envelope modulation, but can't really put your finger on why exactly
that sound works. I mean w/breaks yr dealing with 1/1000's of a second
timing differences, the chances of nailing the feel of something like amen
are akin to getting struck by lightning, not to mention the late sixties
hyper-compressed room-sound of the recording. -Våt
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