This is an overview on audio sampling, addressing aesthetics, techniques, and motivations for sampling audio.

1. Audio Sampling:
Applications and Technique
by
Brijawi
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

2. Agenda
- What is sampling?
- Composition application
- Sampling aesthetics
- Techniques
- Synthesis and Effect Generation
- Discussion
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

3. What is Sampling?
“In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion (sample) of one sound recording
and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece”
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

4. Composition Application
Inspirational (“I like that sound”)
Remix
 Official (Commissioned, Fan engagement)
 Bootleg (solitary, mashup)
Intentional
 Subversive: sampling as a statement
 Reverent: sample source has meaning
 Stylistic: the sample or technique is a part of the genre vocabulary
Utility
 Need a sound and don’t have resources for creating recording
 Have source but want to work with it inside the sampler or daw
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

5. Sampling Aesthetics
Sampling Usage
Candid: Sample is used “as is” with little perceived treatment
Example: Loop repeated, with subtle treatment to fit the song
Divergent: Sample has been noticeably altered from the original
Example: Loop source rearranged in smaller fragments, different tempo, effects
Original: The Winstons “Amen Brother”
Candid: Mantronix “Beat Master” (also NWA “Straight Out of Compton”)
Divergent: Shy FX/UK Apache “Original Nuttah”)
Note: Even with candid sample usage, several techniques are often utilized on the sample to fit the composition
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

6. Sampling Aesthetics
Sample Source
 Digging
 Sample Library
 Field recording
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

7. Sampling Aesthetics
Why Important?
 Uniqueness: Use a sound in a way nobody else has
 Practicality: Don’t have resources to replicate
 Context: the sample source has meaning
 Character: source adds texture to song [some producers add dirt (vinyl
noise, saturation)]
Sample Integration
 How much and what part of the source to use?
 To what extent shall the original qualities remain intact?
 (Groove, stereo imaging, eq)
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

8. Techniques
Phrase Sampling
Play back a recorded sound source. Common functions of samplers:
 Sample trigger: set where the sample will begin.
 Fade in/out of start/end points
 Filter: adjust the tone/timber of the sample. Make it brighter or duller
 Transposition: change the pitch, keep the tempo; create pitch bends
 Time stretch: change the tempo, keep the pitch
 Pan: Left/Right/Center
 Velocity: sample loudness
 Reverse: play back the sound backwards
 LFO: automate the filter, velocity, etc.
 Polyphony
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

9. Techniques
Additional processing and effects
 Reverb, delay, compression, bit crushing, saturation, eq
 Create unrealistic sequences (stutters, pairings)
 Layering
 Parallel harmony
 Resampling
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

10. Techniques
Sample Playback and Performance
 Trigger plays sample from start to end, regardless of hold
 Sample plays for as long as trigger is activated
 Choke group: sample plays until choke or end point; whichever comes first (ohh
affected by chh)
 Chop sample into smaller pieces and assign to midi notes
 Multi-sample: samples mapped across midi note range to create realistic
replication of sound
 Quantization
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

11. Synthesis and Effect Generation
Synthesis
Sample-based/Rompler
 Often to recreate realistic replication of actual instrument (piano)
 Several recordings of instrument, such one for every five tone steps
Wavetable
 Periodic reproduction of single-cycle waveforms
 Wavetable includes more than fundamental frequencies
Granular
 Grain: tiny snippet of sound
 Graintable: sequence of grains
Effects
- Convolution Reverb
 Recorded sample of an acoustic space or reverb unit (Impulse Response)
- Vocoder
 Not exclusive to sampling
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques

12. Discussion
Why are certain sounds popular?
Semiotics of sound
Audio Sampling: Applications and Techniques © 2016 Brian Wishka