From david turgeon Sent Fri, Jun 18th 1999, 16:16
> when i take a sample of a kick drum, work it over > in sound forge for an hour, repeat with a snare, > hihat, etc, and load them all into my sampler, and > sequence my own beat with these samples? or even > stickier, if i take someone elses drum beat, recycle > it, extract individual hits, fuck wtith them in > sound forge, dsps filters etc, then load this kit > into my sampler to make new beats with? eh? is there > beef with this application of the sampler? although i'm certainly not against sample-based music, i should say that my problem with sampling, from a compositional point of view, is that long samples need to be completely twisted & distorted & enveloped & what have you if you want them to lose their underlying structure & personality. sampling a high-hat, you don't get the whole song that comes with it, but sampling a melody, or a complete beat, is making matters easy, at least in most cases. creative use of "long sampling" is still enjoyable, but it can get dangerously flat & uninspired. i know, i know. you can be uninspired even with your own hand-built tube amp synth & custom effect box. which is probably why the whole debate comes down mostly as preference: i.e. what would you rather hear? sampler? keyboard? drum machine? guitar, bass & drums? french horn? piano & sax? koto? make your own mind & have a blast. i have a personal preference for the more bare-bones electronic machine approach, but it doesn't mean i can't enjoy an amon tobin album, even though it's essentially 100% samples. -- david turgeon at http://www.notype.com