A Brief History Of Sampling
What is Sampling?
Sampling is the act of reusing parts of pre-existing recordings in music to create (and/or edit) something new.
History
Digital Sampling has been around since the 1960's, whereas beforehand musicians used tape reply keyboards which stored recordings on analog tape. Originally the Mellotron was the popular and most memorable model between the late 1960's and 1970's, the problem was that it was a expensive, heavy hardware due to the multiple tape mechanisms involved. Nonetheless the early tape relay keyboard really took over.
Nowadays, the vast majority of keyboards are based on samples, and whole genre's have blossomed from it.
1940's
Whereas the first introduction of recorded sounds that are anything like what we have today, was the genre known as Musique Moncrete. This genre originated in France and was led by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer.
Within the 1940's Musique Concrete shrugged off the usual musical etiquette and experimented with the new, instead of rehearsing the old. It used the recent commercialised tape recorder to create diverse music from various recordings (such as; instruments, the human voice, even reaching out to explore many sounds from nature and the world).
1948, Pierre Schaeffer's first piece of produced Musique Concrete - made entirely by the sounds of trains.
Even in recent years, Musique Concrete still lives on, is practised, and experimented with in many evolving ways; here is another example of Musique Concrete, created for a Uni project in 2013:
Although slightly creepy sounding, it is definitely a genre to look into.
1960's - 1970's
Fast forward to the 60's & 70's, and sampling is evolving. The first widespread Sampling Synthesizer was Harry Mendell's Computer Music Melodian (USA), which was released in 1976.
The Australian company Fairlight released the C.M.I. (Computer Musical Instruments) in 1979, a Polyphonic Digital Sampling Synthesizer - the first syntheszer that was commercially available. Both samplers of which used Wavetable sample-based synthesis.
The Australian company Fairlight released the C.M.I. (Computer Musical Instruments) in 1979, a Polyphonic Digital Sampling Synthesizer - the first syntheszer that was commercially available. Both samplers of which used Wavetable sample-based synthesis.
Unfortunately at the time, this hardware was only realistically available to established artists and the rich, as it generally costed around $18,000 (in many cases, this amount costed more than a house), which today is equivalent to about $58,000.
The earliest Digital Sampling was done on the EMS Musys System - created by Peter Grogono (software), David Cockerell (hardware & interfacing), and Peter Zinovieff (system design & operation) at their London studio C. in 1969. These ran on two 'mini' computers (Digital Equipment PDD-8's). The EMS equipment was used to control the worlds first digital studio (London, Putney).
More on:
E.M.S Ltd London
The first Digital Sampling was done on the EMS system during 1971 - 1972 for Harrison Birtwistle's "Chonometer" (released in 1975). - Also known as probably one of the most terrifying things I have ever researched and sat through... All 28 minutes.
Regardless, throughout the 1990's Sampling continued to remain at the forefront in Hip Hop, the foreign feel of Samplers had evaporated, it fuelled the brilliant charge of Hip Hop and has become the normal practice of today.
How strange things would be if it never existed...
Helpful Links!
The earliest Digital Sampling was done on the EMS Musys System - created by Peter Grogono (software), David Cockerell (hardware & interfacing), and Peter Zinovieff (system design & operation) at their London studio C. in 1969. These ran on two 'mini' computers (Digital Equipment PDD-8's). The EMS equipment was used to control the worlds first digital studio (London, Putney).
More on:
E.M.S Ltd London
Peter Zinovieff in the studio.
The first Digital Sampling was done on the EMS system during 1971 - 1972 for Harrison Birtwistle's "Chonometer" (released in 1975). - Also known as probably one of the most terrifying things I have ever researched and sat through... All 28 minutes.
1980's
The first PCM ( Pulse-Code Modulation ) Digital Sampler was Toshiba's LMD-649 (1981) by engineer Kenji Murata ( 村田健二 ) for the Japanese electronic music band 'Yellow Magic Orchestra'.
After, the E-mu SP-1200 Percussion Sampler was released in August 1987, starting the fire as it more openly commercialised the use of digital samplers within Hip Hop music.
Eventually as the product itself gained popularity, cheaper and more accessible samplers began to appear in the mid-to-late 1980s.
During the late 1980's the Japanese companyAkai caught onto the success of E-mu's creation and began creating an original method which applied new techniques such as crossfade looping and time stretch.
In 1988, the Akai MPC60 was released.
Thus born the icon of products.
Eventually as the product itself gained popularity, cheaper and more accessible samplers began to appear in the mid-to-late 1980s.
During the late 1980's the Japanese companyAkai caught onto the success of E-mu's creation and began creating an original method which applied new techniques such as crossfade looping and time stretch.
In 1988, the Akai MPC60 was released.
Thus born the icon of products.
It detonated the music industry into a new era of musical production and become the most influential sampler of Hip Hop music.
An icon of samplers,
Akai evolved the product, got it recognised and used across the board more than any other brand.
"Hip Hop was the first genre to explore
the sampler's ability to recycle musical ideas
and put them into entirely new contexts" - Musicradar.com
1990's - Now
With the modern way of creating and mixing both new and old samples (from other artists), the prickly issue of copyright basically stands infront of you and the other artists (including their lawyers) - if you sample another persons work, obvious or otherwise without gaining their permission beforehand (and agreeing on a large cut of the deal) then you will probably be taken down to court. Sometimes people get away with it (subtlety is key), but the more popular the piece the more likely it will be caught out.
A notable high-profile case is when Black Box sampled a Loleatta Holloway
acapella for their international megahit Ride On Time.
A notable high-profile case is when Black Box sampled a Loleatta Holloway
acapella for their international megahit Ride On Time.
Regardless, throughout the 1990's Sampling continued to remain at the forefront in Hip Hop, the foreign feel of Samplers had evaporated, it fuelled the brilliant charge of Hip Hop and has become the normal practice of today.
How strange things would be if it never existed...
A Brief History of Sampling - UniversityObserver
18 Landmark Sampling Moments in Music History
The Sampler - A History In 5 Landmarks
What are the best hardware samplers in the world?
Run through:
write up a short acount about hitory of sampling
what is a sample
def
how they're stored (instrument zones and groups how you might get a sample into a sample
emu first one <<
same price as house -- first sampler, emulator
couple of first sampler ££
what is a sample how you migt get a sample into a sampler
modern samplers, what available
and these are the samplers that are availabvrweigfew today
list
write up about hwat sample libaries are available (orchestral sounds etc)
start collection of samples
collect three different types of samples
drum kit (multi output)
pitched instrument
looped instrument
make them yourself out of the collection
make some midi patches
create apple loops
create some artwork for package
Thanks a lot for sharing us about this update. Hope you will not get tired on making posts as informative as this.
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