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Looper's Delight
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At 04:09 PM 8/27/98 -0400, Edward_Chang@mail.amsinc.com wrote: > > >>From Thomas: >>>I think there is a distinction because audio-samples are the product >ITSELF. If you sample 5 seconds from a CD you taken the WHOLE product. >There is no distintion between your cd and your initial recording of the >cd(the sample). You can`t compare that to cutting out a piece of a poster >because a poster is not "viewed" the same way as a 5 minute song. A corner >of a a Picasso painting doesn`t do the same for the whole >"collage-painting" that , say , a Steve Gadd-groove does for a song. Even >if you sample someting which is NOT a part of a groove it`s still more >than >a small part of the whole.<< > > >Now that's an interesting element I hadn't thought of... For my own work >and other peoples' work I listen to, the sample is rarely looped and >expanded to base a whole composition on, that is, a groove or extended >background soundscape. Usually it's literally a "corner" of the whole >piece. A five second sample lasts 5 seconds and that's it, usually for >me, >so I hadn't thought about the loop aspect. Maybe an additional >distinction >that must be taken into account is the actual USAGE of the sample. >Waitaminnit - that sounds pretty obvious....back to work! You could just as well take a sample that only existed as a single 5 second event in the original piece and then loop it in your own. By repetition you can give something a character it didn't have before, and use that as a base for recontextualizing the sample in a new piece. So it all gets more and more complicated....that's what happens when you start trying to draw a line somewhere in a completely subjective arena and try to decide what's right and what's wrong! the line gets moved around a lot. As far as sampling a whole groove goes, I think something like a James Brown groove is a monumental piece of popular culture. For many people, those sounds and that groove have been an ever-present part of our environment for most of our lives. If you wanted to make an artistic interpretaion or comment on that cultural event, I think that quoting that groove would be a completely valid thing to do. Many listeners would have an immediate connection to that, which you could then use as a basis for your own statement. To me this is just another form of borrowing of ideas from one song to use in another that is very deeply ingrained in western pop and folk music. All of the music I listen to, from early blues and jazz to the latest drum and bass, does this constantly. Sampling just gives a new way to do it, and huge numbers of musicians have found it a completely natural and obvious thing to do in creating new music. The wealth of resulting music speaks for itself, in my opinion. The only people who seem to have a problem with it are those more interested in commerce and improving their revenue streams than they are in art and expression, those insecure enough about their musical proficiency to feel somehow threatened by it, or those cloaking their negative opinions about dance music and hip-hop in attacks on the techniques used. Once upon a time, I was totally against the whole practice of sampling, considering it a complete abomination. (as some of you are expressing.) Since that time, I've heard a lot of great sample based music, and had a lot of other arguments presented to me, causing me to honestly rethink tbe whole thing and reevaluate why I had the opinions I did, and bringing me to an obviously different conclusion. I couldn't find any solid, supportable arguments to prop up my old anti-sampling tirades. I imagine that in 20 years, this whole debate will seem just as absurd as the old debates over Miles' introduction of loud electric instruments in jazz does now, or the use of saxophones in classical music, or Jimi's approach to electric guitar, or Charlie Parker's approach to jazz. To me it's absurd even now, since I went through it all 10 years ago, but I'm guessing these things take some time to reach all the hinterlands. It is kinda suprising to find it here on a list entirely devoted sampling oriented techniques, though. kim ________________________________________________________ Kim Flint, MTS 408-752-9284 Chromatic Research kflint@chromatic.com http://www.chromatic.com