Sampling In Music:
The Sampler
As An Instrument
Introduction
Although not highly regarded in certain circles, music sampling and sampler instruments have been instrumental (no pun intended) in shaping the sound of music in the modern age. So much so that it would be near impossible to walk into a recording studio and not see some sort of sampler instrument, be it a hardware instrument or a software instrument, in this modern-day and age. In addition to this, the "art of sampling" (taking snippets of older music and re-using it to make a new and different song) has had a significant hand in shaping modern pop music as well as other genres of music.
This article will give a brief synopsis on sampling and sampler instruments in an attempt to give the reader a better understanding of the importance of sampling and sampler instruments in modern recorded music.
What is Sampling?
Sampling in the simplest sense refers to the taking of a previously recorded piece of audio or composition and re-using it to create a new and different piece of music.
Musicians have been sampling or “referencing” each other’s work long before audio recording was invented. Although this type of sampling could be considered plagiarism, when done tastefully it could be considered a sign of respect or reverence for the original creator. A good example of early “sampling” before the sampler can be exemplified by jazz musicians in the early 20th century who often “sampled” little bits of melodies, hooks, licks or progressions from the compositions of their peers and incorporated them into their own live performances.
Image: Louis Armstrong
Like the jazz musicians that sampled to show reverence for those that came before them, certain genres of music sample hooks, licks or progressions from pre-existing music to create new music of their own. This is a common technique employed by hip-hop producers, involves a certain amount of skill and can be considered an art form in itself. This method of music creation has been adopted by other genres of music over the years, becoming especially common within pop music and even some genres of electronic dance music. However, in many cases, the casual or younger music listener is usually unaware that they are listening to music that contains samples of older or other people’s music.
Image: Pioneering Hip-Hop
Music Producer "Rza"
What Is a Sampler Instrument?
A sampler is an electronic or digital musical instrument, in some ways similar to a synthesizer. However, instead of creating new sounds through waveform generating oscillators, samplers playback pre-recorded sounds of instruments, voices or any other sound loaded into them.
In the case of digital samplers, audio is converted to digital information in the form of binary code that can be controlled via a MIDI controller. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) allows controller instruments to send instructions to one another while also translating data between the computer and the musician playing the MIDI instrument, translating code into more easily understandable musical values such as pitch, velocity and note length, these values are displayed on-screen as MIDI notation. MIDI notation can be modified, edited and manipulated in various ways after recording. Digitized sounds are usually stored on a hard drive or hard disk.
Image: Midi Notation illustrating pitch, note length and velocity
Music producers in the modern age use sampler instruments to playback pre-recorded audio snippets of traditional instruments such as harps, pianos and drums via some type of controller, usually in the form of a keyboard or sometimes drum pads. However, sampler instruments can also be used to play (or trigger) any piece of audio (or samples) loaded into them, which is something that was done by hip-hop producers when they started sampling older records to make new music or beats they would then rap over.
Image: Emu "SP1200" Drum Pad Style Digital Sampler Instrument (Left)
&
Emu "Emax" Keyboard Style Digital Sampler Instrument (Right)
A Brief History
Early music “sampling” was made possible due to the creation and proliferation of the tape recorder in the early 1940s. Early sampling pioneers such as Egyptian-born musician Halim-El-Dabh and French-born Pierre Schafer used tape recorders to make audio recordings which they then altered by looping, pitching up, slowing down and speeding up.
These early stages of "sampling" were highly experimental and often used non-musical pieces of audio, such as recordings of train yards, industrial sites, and even a religious ceremony used by El Dabh. The name given to these experimental audio recordings was "Electroacoustic Tape Music" or "Musique Concrete" as it's more commonly known today. This term ("Musique Concrete") was coined by Schafer, who seems to get more credit for pioneering sampling, even though Halim El Dabh’s audio manipulations predated Schafer’s by 4 years.
Image: Pierre Schaffer (Left)
&
Halim El-Dabh (Right)
These initial experiments in sound manipulation set the stage for what would come and the creation of the sampler instrument can be credited to both El-Dabh and Schaffer, although perhaps to varying degrees.
Before digital samplers, musicians used tape replay keyboards, which stored recordings on analogue tape. The Mellotron is a well-known model used by several groups in the late 1960s and the 1970s, but such systems were expensive and heavy due to the multiple tape mechanisms involved.
Image: "The Mellotron" Tape Replay Keyboard.
The creation of the digital sampler made sampling a lot easier. The first commercially available sampler was the Computer Music Melodian by Harry Mendell. This sampler worked by storing pre-recorded sounds as binary code and playing them back.
The first polyphonic digital sampler was the Fairlight CMI. Akai pioneered many processing techniques, such as crossfade looping and "time stretch" to shorten or lengthen samples without affecting pitch and vice versa.
Image: "Fairlight CMI" Digital Sampler Keyboard.
Modern-day digital recording studios use sampling in some way or another, whether it’s simple playback or complex virtual computer software and hardware that emulates keyboards or synthesizers of old. Digital and virtual sampler instruments can be used in ways that would have required many hours when done with analogue tape, making the sampler a powerful and essential musical tool for any musician.
Image: Logic Pro Xs EXS24 Virtual Sampler Instrument
Why the Sampler is Important and Useful
A sampler is a useful tool that gives a musician almost unlimited access to instrument sounds, without having to own the (often very expensive) physical instrument itself, thereby making music creation cheaper and easier than before.
In addition to this, the creation of the digital sampler allowed for more accurate and even “perfect” musical compositions and performances, made possible through MIDI editing features such as “quantize” for off-time playing and “swing” for drum sections lacking groove.
Sampler instruments also allow for more creativity by allowing the user to control various aspects of the sound such as pitch, resonance, filter cutoff and much, much more. These features are especially useful for producers of electronic music genres as well as sound designers.
While sampler instruments and the art of sampling are more welcome and readily used in certain types of music than others, the instrument and sampling as a technique seem to be finding a place in an ever-increasing number of music genres. Music communities that previously shunned the sampler as a viable music creation tool are starting to see the sampler (and by default, sampling) as a useful tool to be used in the music creation process. The reason for this change of heart is mostly because sampling and digital technologies have come a long way in recent years, making it possible to execute convincing instrument articulations that were not possible with the same technologies just a few years ago. This fact is most evident in the movie industry, where an ever-increasing number of orchestral film scores are made up (at least in part) of virtual instruments and sampled sounds, with the film composer Hans Zimmer being a prime example of this.
Conclusion
As digital and sampling technologies improve and the gap between sample quality and musicianship closes, we will likely see even more virtually composed pieces of music being used in film music. If the technology ever gets to a point where a music expert can no longer tell the difference between a real and virtual orchestra (and it likely will) then perhaps we will start to see entirely virtual orchestral music for sale. This notion warrants some thought and emphasizes how important it is for modern musicians to be able to utilize modern music technologies even if it’s at the most basic level.
*If you would like to know more about Sampling and how it has changed music, you can watch this TEDTalk by multi-Grammy award-winning music producer Mark Ronson
*If you would like to know more about the history and legal/creative complexities surrounding sampling you can watch this PBS Documentary :
