May
13
Sampling
May 13, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This lecture was on the history of sampling. Music is less original than we think. There are two kinds of compression. Data compression is making a file smaller. Dynamic range compression is making it louder overall with less variation between the loud and quiet parts. Sampling means grabbing small piece of audio and replaying it somewhere else. The first example of sampling was the mellotron which is a keyboard with a bunch of tape loops on the back. Loops of tape were triggered by keys. The instrument seems really complicated to me. In the 70’s and 80’s, a form of sampling develops using records. You could repurpose records and make them into something new. All music today is based on sampling. Every song I hear, I can always find traces of another song. By the late 1980s, “digital samplers” had become affordable. It had built-in drum sounds, and could record a short patter. But you could also record other things and then manipulate temp and pitch. Watching the man mess with different samples was intriguing. I was amazed at how fast he could put it all together. I felt like I was watching someone play a video-game. I am excited to try to use GarageBand to create a song but I am also nervous. It was daunting to watch him masterfully create a beat by pushing so many buttons. He was able to turn two records into something different. The main theme I gathered today is that sampling fosters creativity.
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