anyone else feel guilty about using samples?

[justin3am]

Perhaps my perspective is out of context but I create royalty free samples for others to use from sounds that I have made from scratch (either recordings I have done or through synthesis). Personally I create samples specifically to help people along the creation process. I feel that not every one is a drummer, a guitar player, a keyboardist, a vocalist or even a programmer and for this people will look for inspiration or a place to start. I for one feel honored if someone gets use out of my samples and welcome their use for any reason a person may see fit.

Sampling copyrighted material has always been a tough one for me. Having started out making drum and bass, I of coarse started out using the Amen and Funky Drummer breaks but due to the fact that I had access to some really nice recording gear I started creating my own breaks. No matter how much I destroyed the amen break I never felt as proud of the work I did with it as I did when I used my own samples but I know that if I didn't have that I wouldn't know how to do what I can do today. I can honestly say I've never profited from sampling copyrighted material. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the likes of SquarePusher and Venetian Snares, they make art from the breaks they use. If it weren't for the likes of them I wouldn't be making the music I make but I'm not claiming to speak for them. As a personal prefence I do not sample copyrighted material.

On the topic of royalty free samples. They are designed to be inspiring but as one gains experience you may find that they provide less and less inspiration at which point the people with the skills and the means will be driven to inspire themselves. Others may just find more inspiring samples. To me it's all good as long as you're doing what you love and you are not taking advantage of someone without their knowledge.

3am

[Atomsplitter]

Perhaps my perspective is out of context but I create royalty free samples for others to use from sounds that I have made from scratch (either recordings I have done or through synthesis). Personally I create samples specifically to help people along the creation process. I feel that not every one is a drummer, a guitar player, a keyboardist, a vocalist or even a programmer and for this people will look for inspiration or a place to start. I for one feel honored if someone gets use out of my samples and welcome their use for any reason a person may see fit.

Yeah great point, not everyone has access to instruments or the skills needed to use them so thats another great reason why they are good to have.

[stk]

On the topic of "illegal" samples, I say to hell with it.

If you can get away with "stealing" a break or whatever from somewhere, either a) you're not popular enough to get caught, or b) you've mucked up said "stolen" audio enough that it's unrecognisable.

Either way you're fine. I see no moral problems with it - as artists, we are all thieves, building on a grand tradition of thievery.
Some (most?) of the great revolutions in (modern) music have relied on "stolen" audio. Lighten up.

--

Myself, I don't use precanned loops, but I occasionally pinch a jazz snippet from here and there. Good luck spotting them though.
And of course I've been guilty of having a little harmless flirtation with the 'ol amen now and then.

sk

[Teksonik]

Samples......no guilt. Loops are another matter. Never confuse the two.

[musikmachine]

Do you mean loops?I bought a sample cd and i've never been comfortable with the idea of using the loops,i'd been waiting to get a sampler so i can chop them up and create my own.I used one in a track i'm working on at the minute and it fits so well,it's perfect.I've put a lot into it and it will be large project..anyway you know what,i paid for the license to use the samples so i'm damn well gonna!

[Juke]

Do any pop/rock stars feel guilty about hiring session musicians? Until they do I wont lose sleep over using samples or loops.

[shamann]

I think the ship sailed on authenticity in recorded music a long, long time ago. It's all up for grabs at this point.

But ask yourself why you want to make music. If you just want to be able to make something that you can present as competent to others, then have fun with Apple Loops. String them together in a way that interests you, and play it back to your friends and say "Look I made this and it doesn't sound like crap."

If you want to make your own music, then you'll learn that even with samples involved, it will take a bit more effort than just stringing together some well-polished loops. I don't love using loops that were made to be re-used by others, mostly because they omit all the extra sounds and noises you get from taking a section from a completed mix. I've done a few remixes, and prefer chopping up the final mix over using individual stems. You find a lot more accidental sounds to exploit that way.

But then I don't use samples as a substitute, rather I take them as a challenge and start by trying to figure out what I can make out of them.

[Braindrop]

Assuming you're talking about loops, I decided a while back to just not use them. I think they're great for someone who is a new hobbyist to making music on their computer, but as someone else mentioned above, it's very difficult to take someone seriously if all they use is pre-canned loops.

[Meloday]

Samples......no guilt. Loops are another matter. Never confuse the two.

very true.....

except for basslines, i'm all sample based. with a little creativity, when using samples as source material to further deconstruct, you're guaranteed to have wholly original sounds....unlike using sine, triangle, square etc....

not that there is anything wrong with traditional synthesis....you can be musical with any medium...for me though, traditioanl synthesis just doesn't do it for me...

[Meloday]

i won't take you seriously, but you'll find plenty of others wanting affirmation to encourage you. it's like any other cult

[Hitch]

Don't feel guilty about using samples - as long as they're legal.

As a complete (and skint) beginner, I've found loops very useful; they've helped me to learn the basics of DAWS, audio editors and beatslicers because they provide raw material for me to work on. After a while, I started to experiment with drum one-shots and loaded them into a freeware drum machine and started to make my own crappy beats - these are always dreadful compared to a professional loop but they're more fun to make and it's far more satisfying. Most of my raw material has come from Computer Music and Future Music magazines. When money allows, I'll probably buy a few sample CDs for drum hits.

Until I can afford a "proper" sampler and drum machine (and until I can understand how the hell to use multis and soundfonts), I'll continue to experiment with plug-ins and the like, slowly improving my technique and expanding my ideas. I've no intention of making a career in music, so I'm not above chopping a sample from a song and playing with it. No one will hear it so there's no harm done. It's also fun to take a drum loop and note where the hits fall and then try to emulate that in MIDI. (I love using one-shots in MIDI drum files too - instant pseudo-preofessionalism!) I also use MIDI files with soft synths because I'm musically illiterate, though often I use just a part of the file or rearrange it.

But I still get lazy and use loops - though nowadays I'm more likely to eventually replace the loop with a drum track of my own. My music still sounds crap but it's increasingly my crap. A personal point about inspiration - I'm far more likely to strangle new sounds and tunes out of my PC if I don't feel guilty about the samples or sounds I'm using because they're non-copyright and/or paid for: because I own them it frees my imagination.

To stop rambling - use whatever you want to, but keep it legal, and don't be afraid to try new things. It wasn't long ago that I finally took the plunge and pressed the "snap" function in my DAW. "Ah," I said. "So that's what it's for..."

[spirulence]

I have a more lawless sort of view on samples. I think if the original sample is unrecognizable or buried so far under tons of other layers, I feel no guilt about using it. That said I've done this twice, and only on projects of my own.

[thecontrolcentre]

I'm happy to sample just about anything. I always process my sounds until they're pretty much unrecognisable anyway (unless it's a mashup, of course ).

I certainly have no guilt about it ...

[Polite Company]

Samples......no guilt. Loops are another matter. Never confuse the two.

That's what I was going to say as well, I do a lot of tracking (i.e. using a tracker) so with I use samples pretty much exclusively but as far as loops go I only use ones that I make myself, which in turn are often made of one shot samples.

I also think stk is right one about illegal samples, if you can tear up a sample so that no one can tell what it is no harm done. This opinion is held up by the that Beck and the Beastie Boys have both won lawsuits against them because the samples they used were ruled unrecognizable.

[androidlove]

i won't take you seriously, but you'll find plenty of others wanting affirmation to encourage you. it's like any other cult

yay! i got an eye roll! if yer gonna use loops , yer not a musician or even a composer. yer a hobbyist.