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In Music , sampling is the act of taking a portion, or '''sample''', of one Sound Recording and reusing it as an Instrument or element of a new recording. This is typically done with a Sampler , which can be a piece of hardware or a Computer Program on a digital computer. Sampling is also possible with Tape Loop s or with Vinyl Record s on a Phonograph . Often "samples" consist of one part of a song, such as a Break , used in another, for instance the use of the drum introduction from Led Zeppelin 's " When The Levee Breaks " in songs by the Beastie Boys , Dr. Dre , Eminem , Mike Oldfield and Erasure , and the guitar riffs from Foreigner 's " Hot Blooded " in Tone-Loc 's " Funky Cold Medina ". "Samples" in this sense occur often in Industrial , often using spoken words from movies and TV shows, as well as Electronic Music (which developed out of '' Musique Concrète '', based almost entirely on samples and sample-like parts), Hip Hop , developed from DJs repeating the breaks from songs (Schloss 2004, p.36), and Contemporary R&B , but are becoming more common in other music as well, such as by Slipknot 's sample player Craig Jones . SAMPLERS See Also: Sampler (musical instrument) LEGAL ISSUES Sampling has been an area of contention from a legal perspective. Early sampling artists simply used portions of other artists' recordings, without permission; once rap and other music incorporating samples began to make significant money the original artists began to take legal action, claiming Copyright infringement. Some sampling artists fought back, claiming their samples were Fair Use (a legal doctrine in the USA that is not universal). Early cases Though sampling existing (copyrighted) recordings using manipulation with tape recorders goes back at least as far as 1961, when James Tenney created Collage #1 ("Blue Suede") from samples of Elvis Presley 's recording of the song " Blue Suede Shoes " sampling did not take off in popular music until the early eighties when pioneering Hip Hop producers, such as Marley Marl , started to produce Rap records using sampled Break s rather than drum machines or live studio bands, which had until then been the norm. Early examples of this practice include the West Street Mob 's - Break Dance (Electric Boogie) (1983) (which used the "Apache" break by the Incredible Bongo Bong Band), Brother D and the Collective Effort's "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" (1984) (which sampled the beat and bass line from Cheryl Lynn 's 1981 hit "Got to be Real") and UTFO's "Roxanne Roxanne" (1984). Bill Holt's Dreamies (1974)is often cited as one of the earliest examples of sampling in popular music. Another early example of sampling was Big Audio Dynamite and their 1985 album This Is B.A.D. and the single E=MC2 which Mick Jones (the bands main creative force, formerly of The Clash ) sampled snippets of audio from various films including works by Nicolas Roeg which make up the Roeg homage E=MC2 . One of the first major legal cases regarding sampling was with UK dance act M/A/R/R/S "Pump Up the Volume". As the record reached the UK top ten, producers Stock Aitken Waterman obtained an injunction against the record due to the unauthorized use of a sample from their hit single "Roadblock". The dispute was settled out of court, with the injunction being lifted in return for an undertaking that overseas releases would not contain the "Roadblock" sample, and the disc went on to top the UK singles chart. Ironically, the sample in question had been so distorted as to be virtually unrecognisable, and SAW didn't realize their record had been used until they heard co-producer Dave Dorrell mention it in a radio interview. 2 Live Crew , a hip-hop group not unfamiliar with controversy, was often in the spotlight for their ‘obscene’ and sexually explicit lyrics. They sparked many debates about censorship in the music industry. However, it was their 1989 album ''As Clean as They Wanna Be'' (a re-tooling of ''As Nasty As They Wanna Be'') that began the prolonged legal debate over sampling. The album contained a track entitled “Pretty Woman,” based off of the well known Roy Orbison song of the same name. 2 Live Crew’s version sampled the guitar, bass, and drums from the original, without permission. While the opening lines are the same, the two songs split ways immediately following.http://kembrew.com/documents/mcleod-freedomofexpression3.pdf For example:
In addition to this, while the music is identifiable as the Orbison song, there were changes implemented by the group. The new version contained interposed scraper notes, overlays of solos in different keys, and an altered drum beat.http://www.benedict.com/Audio/Crew/Crew.aspx The group was sued by the song’s copyright owners Acuff-Rose. The company claimed that 2 Live Crew’s unauthorized use of the samples devalued the original, and was thus a case of copyright infringement. The group claimed they were protected under the fair use doctrine. The case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music came to the Supreme Court in 1994. In reviewing the case, the Supreme Court didn’t consider previous ruling in which any commercial use (and economic gain) was considered copyright infringement. Instead they re-evaluated the original frame of copyright as set forth in the Constitution. The opinion that resulted from Emerson v. Davies played a major role in the decision.http://kembrew.com/documents/mcleod-freedomofexpression3.pdf
Perhaps what played a larger role was the result from the Folsom v. Marsh case:
The court ruled that any financial gain 2 Live Crew received from their version did not infringe upon Acuff-Rose because the two songs were targeted at very different audiences. 2 Live Crew’s use of copyrighted material was protected under the fair use doctrine, as a parody, even though it was released commercially.http://kembrew.com/documents/mcleod-freedomofexpression3.pdf 1990s In the early 1990s, Vanilla Ice came under criticism for the unauthorised use of a sample from the Queen / David Bowie hit " Under Pressure ". Vanilla Ice's case rested on the addition of one Grace Note not present in the original. No lawsuit was filed, but it is conjectured that Vanilla Ice agreed to pay Queen and Bowie if they agreed not to sue. More dramatically, Biz Markie 's album ''I Need a Haircut'' was withdrawn in 1992 following a US federal court ruling ('' Grand Upright Music, Ltd. V. Warner Brothers Records, Inc. '') that his use of a sample from Gilbert O'Sullivan 's "'' Alone Again (Naturally) ''" was wilful infringement. This case had a powerful effect on the record industry, with record companies becoming very much concerned with the legalities of sampling, and demanding that artists make full declarations of all samples used in their work. On the other hand, the ruling also made it more attractive to artists and record labels to allow others to sample their work, knowing that they would be paid—often handsomely—for their contribution. A notable case in the early 1990s involved the dispute between the group Negativland and Casey Kasem over the band's use of unaired vocal snippets from Kasem's radio program America's Top 40 on the Negativland single " U2 ". Cases have still emerged since then involving uncleared samples. In the late 1990s, The Verve was forced to pay 100% of their royalties from their hit " Bitter Sweet Symphony " for the use of an unlicensed sample from an orchestral cover version of The Rolling Stones ' hit "The Last Time". The Rolling Stones' catalogue is one of the most litigiously protected in the world of popular music—to some extent the case mirrored the legal difficulties encountered by Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine when they quoted from the song " Ruby Tuesday " in their song "After the Watershed" some years earlier. In both cases, the issue at stake was not the use of the recording, but the use of the song itself—the section from "The Last Time" used by the Verve was not even part of the original composition, but because it derived from a cover version of it, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were still entitled to royalties and credit on the derivative work. This illustrates an important legal point: even if a sample is used legally, it may open the artist up to other problems. 2000 In the summer of 2001, Mariah Carey released her first single from ''Glitter'' entitled "Loverboy" which featured a sample of " Firecracker " by Yellow Magic Orchestra , no less than a month afterwards, Jennifer Lopez released " I'm Real " with the same "Firecracker" sample, Mariah quickly discarded it and replaced it with "Candy" by Cameo . The controversy here is that it is rumoured that Tommy Matolla, Carey's ex-husband, gave specific instruction to Lopez's producer to make the two songs as identical as possible. No one is sure if this is true, or why, possibly after Carey's departure from Columbia to Virgin, but only the parties involved know for sure. In 2001, Armen Boladian and his company Bridgeport Music Inc. filed over 500 copyright infringement suits against 800 artists using samples from George Clinton 's catalogue. Public Enemy recorded a track entitled "Psycho of Greed" (2002) for their album '' Revolverlution '' that contained a continuous looping sample from The Beatles ' track " Tomorrow Never Knows ". However, the clearance fee demanded by Capitol Records and the surviving Beatles was so high that the group decided to pull the track from the album. Danger Mouse with the release of '' The Grey Album '' in 2004, which is a remix of The Beatles ' '' 'White Album' '' and rapper Jay-Z 's '' The Black Album '' has been embroiled in a similar situation with the Record Label EMI issuing Cease And Desist orders over uncleared Beatles samples. On March 19 , 2006 , a judge ordered that sales of The Notorious B.I.G. 's album '' Ready To Die '' be halted because the title track sampled a 1992 song by the Ohio Players , "Singing in the Morning", without permission. Legal issues in practice The most recent significant copyright case involving sampling held that even sampling ''three notes'' could constitute copyright infringement. '' Bridgeport Music Inc. V. Dimension Films '', 410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005). This case was roundly criticised by many in the music industry, including the RIAA . There has been a second important US case on music sampling involving the and Kanye West held that their use of the phrases "like that" and "straight like that" which had been used on an earlier hip-hop track by another artist was not infringing use. The New Orleans based company, Cash Money Records and former rapper Juvenile were taken to court by local performer DJ Jubilee (signed to Take Fo' Record Label) for using chants from his song titled ''Back That Ass Up''. Both artist had used the same chant in each song, but Juvenile won the case because of the title's name change to ''Back That Azz Up'', which sold 2 million copies. Because of the name change, Jubilee lacked evidence that Juvenile had stolen from him, and Jubilee could not earn Juvenile's income from his song. Today, most mainstream acts obtain prior authorisation to use samples, a process known as "clearing" (gaining permission to use the sample and, usually, paying an up-front fee and/or a cut of the royalties to the original artist). Independent bands, lacking the funds and legal assistance to clear samples, are at a disadvantage. Recently, a movement—started mainly by Lawrence Lessig — of Free Culture has prompted many audio works to be licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows for legal sampling of the work provided the resulting work(s) are licensed under the same terms. PRODUCERS ON SAMPLING
TYPES OF SAMPLES Once recorded, samples can be edited, played back, or looped (i.e. played back continuously). Types of samples include: Loops The drums and percussion parts of many modern recordings are really a variety of short samples of beats strung together. Many libraries of such beats exist and are licensed so that the user incorporating the samples can distribute their recording without paying royalties. Such libraries can be loaded into samplers. Though percussion is a typical application of looping, many kinds of samples can be looped. A piece of music may have an Ostinato which is created by sampling a phrase played on any kind of instrument. There is software which specializes in creating loops. Samples of musical instruments. Whereas loops are usually a phrase played on a musical instrument, this type of sample is usually a single note. Music Workstation s and samplers use samples of musical instruments as the basis of their own sounds, and are capable of playing a sample back at any pitch. Many modern Synthesizer s and Drum Machine s also use samples as the basis of their sounds. (See Sample-based Synthesis for more information.) Most such samples are created in professional recording studios using world-class instruments played by accomplished musicians. These are usually developed by the manufacturer of the instrument or by a subcontractor who specializes in creating such samples. There are businesses and individuals who create libraries of samples of musical instruments. Of course, a sampler allows anyone to create such samples. Possibly the earliest equipment used to sample recorded instrument sounds are the Chamberlin , which was developed in the 1940s, and its more well-known cousin, the Mellotron , marketed in England in the 1960s. Both are Tape Replay Keyboards , in which each key pressed triggers a prerecorded tape loop of a single note. Musicians can reproduce the same samples of break beats like the "Amen" Break which was composed, produced and mastered by the Winston Brothers in 1960s. Producers in the early 90's have used the whole 5.66 second sample; but music workstations like the Korg Electribe Series (EM-1, ES-1; EMX-1 and the ESX-1) have used the "Amen" kick, hi hat and snare in their sound wave libraries for free use. Companies like Korg have managed to use these samples for pitch, attack and decay and DSP effects to each drum part. Most sample sets consist of multiple samples at different pitches. These are combined into Keymap s, that associate each sample with a particular pitch or pitch range. Often, these sample maps may have different layers as well, so that different velocities can trigger a different sample. Samples used in musical instruments sometimes have a looped component. An instrument with indefinite sustain, such as a pipe organ, does not need to be represented by a very long sample because the sustained portion of the timbre is looped. The sampler (or other sample playback instrument) plays the attack and decay portion of the sample followed by the looped sustain portion for as long as the note is held, then plays the release portion of the sample. A common standard format for generating such sample sets is the Soundfont protocol. Resampled layers of sounds generated by a music workstation. To conserve Polyphony , a workstation may allow the user to sample a layer of sounds (piano, strings, and voices, for example) so they can be played together as one sound instead of three. This leaves more of the instruments' resources available to generate additional sounds. Samples of recordings. There are several genres of music in which it is commonplace for an artist to sample a phrase of a well-known recording and use it as an element in a new composition. Two well-known examples include the sample of Rick James ' " Super Freak " in MC Hammer 's " U Can't Touch This " and the sample of Queen / David Bowie 's " Under Pressure " in Vanilla Ice 's "Ice Ice Baby". Samples of spoken word Usually taken from movies, television, or other non-musical media, often used for humorous or atmospheric effect. For example, Goa trance often employs samples of people talking about drugs, spirituality, or Science Fiction themes. Industrial is known for samples from horror/sci-fi movies, news broadcasts, propaganda reels, and speeches by political figures (the band Ministry is notorious for sampling both the younger and elder George Bush). The band Negativland samples from practically every form of popular media, ranging from infomercials to children's records. A good example of this is "Civil War" by Guns N'Roses on their album Use Your Illusion II . Unconventional sounds These are not musical in the conventional sense - that is, neither percussive nor melodic - but which are musically useful for their interesting timbres or emotional associations, in the spirit of Musique Concrete . Some common examples include sirens and klaxons, locomotive whistles, gunshots, natural sounds such as whale song, and cooing babies. It is common in theatrical Sound Design to use this type of sampling to store sound effects that can then be triggered from a musical keyboard or other software. This is very useful for high precision or nonlinear requirements. SEE ALSO
Sampling in other contexts
EXTERNAL LINKS Free sample resources
Look up who sampled who
The external links section in the SOURCE
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