Sampling within music is taking a piece of an already made song and reusing that piece in a newly produced song. That piece that may be reused may be the beat of an older song or a song lyric. There are many ways one may venture into the art of sampling. When it comes to sampling, manipulating and recontextualizing the borrowed piece of a song is usually involved. The methods and techniques of sampling include looping, chopping, layering, reversing, splicing, and others.

 

Methods and Techniques

Looping

The repetition of a musical element, phrase, or section.

Chopping

Cutting a musical phrase into smaller pieces and rearranging those pieces into a different order.

Splicing

Cutting tape or film into smaller pieces and rearranging those pieces into a different order; the same as chopping, but with tape/film.

Layering

Combining multiple samples and playing them at the same time. Helps give a harmonious and rich effect.

Reversing

Just like the name suggests, reversing is flipping or reversing an audio sample.

Pitch Shift

Modifying the pitch of a musical element while maintaining the element’s tempo.

Changing Tempo

Speeding up or slowing down the tempo of a sample while also changing its pitch in the process.

Time Stretching

Changing the tempo of a sample while maintaining its pitch.

Equalizing

Manipulating the different frequencies of an audio sample. Equalizing can help achieve effects such a brightness, fullness, clarity, warmth, and etc.

 

Sampling Approaches

There are at three ways to go about with obtaining a sample within music. However, the sampling approach that a majority of people are most familiar with is the practice of taking a piece from an already made song and reusing it.

Before you decide how you’re going to get your sample, you will first need to get a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation (an audio editing program that comes with numerous plugins that allow a person to edit and create audio/music in many different ways. Here’s a link of beginner friendly DAWs.)) or a sampler.  A sampler is a machine that records, stores, and plays back recordings as samples. Most samplers come with knobs and pads and/or keys that allow a person to play the samples as an instrument and edit the samples. Here’s a link of beginner friendly samplers.

The next thing to do in the sampling process is to find and obtain your sample. In addition to sampling an already existing song recording, one can also create their own samples to use in their new songs. Creating ones own sample can be simply done with an audio interface and a microphone in addition to a sampler. A recording device can also be used in place of an audio interface and a microphone. Once one has recorded their own desired sound, they can upload the recording to a DAW or sampler.

After uploading and storing your sample, you edit and manipulate it as you see fit. As discussed above, there are many techniques and methods in sampling one can use to manipulate and sculpt their sample. From there, you choose the direction you want to take with the sample and how you want to make music with it. Please watch the video below for an additional tutorial on sampling.