Re: (idm) sampling thoughts

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