Thank god this video is finally done - I've spent the last 5 days editing and putting this all together! 😅 What do you make of the whole situation? (REMEMBER: we're here to discuss the track similarities, not personally attack NotLö) 📢 Soundgym ► soundgym.co/?aff=9058
Watched it and loved especially Benn Jordan’s take of robbing yourself of that joy and instead creating anxiety. I appreciate the nuance take & video! Im more then ok with people using samples; especially to learn from, i also think it’s cool how people can make music in areas that they aren’t so good at; like I’m pretty ok with the music side of things but suck at drums; so drum samples have been amazing - vice verse when someone is new to theory! What I very much dislike about this situation is the submitting it to labels with something that isn’t really your work, failing to take accountability & then mentioning it’s hard being a women (yet so many of us wouldn’t think to do this). I’ve got so many thoughts about this. I think if you are booking yourself as a professional, teaching people production, submitting to labels I do think you should personally hold yourself to a higher standard then that of beginner.
I think using loops can be a great tool sparingly, but if your whole track is a bunch of loops coming from the same source material, how fun is that? Where is your creativity?
Your attention to quantify this situation from different points of views with that chill PS4 Home Screen music is very much appreciated and respected 🙏🏿
750 tracks released so far this year. 750. So, here is how I deal with making my samples unique: I have a dedicated chain in my mixer that I work into. That is also how I have released 750 tracks so far this year. I use Loopmasters and I generally just run with a combo of free files and my library. I have logs. No one using those samples will have anywhere near the same output as I do. I'm confident. -switchMark
@@SwiftDreamer maybe there is no creativity because some thing called money was of interest and it somehow became more important than music over the course of the history?..
As a hip hop producer, sampling is something I experience a lot. I’m always leery to use melody loops without much variation as I want my product to sound different than someone else’s. However, to outright say “sampling bad, make your own stuff” is just not true. From the amazing sampling skills of J dilla, 9th wonder, and the Alchemist, to simple flips like the Cymatics loop from Miss the Rage, I think too nitty gritty ruins some of the fun of it. There is no way J Cole is going to make a whole soul album just to chop it up for his actual album to claim he made it by himself. Make stuff to make stuff, but be honest where you got it from. Push yourself creatively, but have fun as well.
This. I think a lot of the mess that we seem to experience with sampling could be avoided with producers at every level just being honest. Reaching out to a producer or creator and asking if I can sample something of theirs has been nerve wracking, but it saves a lot of heart ache and guilt later on. I haven't gotten into anything particularly complicated, but I have written an apology letter...😬😓 Doing things right the first time is way more fun and exciting.
One of my favorite artists who I follow on Instagram simply just posted a video of someone grabbing a sample and then destroying it in a grain delay with automated parameters and whatnot and the entire video took about 10 seconds to end. I think that justifies stealing any piece of audio you want if you can turn it into completely new audio. And there's a nostalgia factor that no one seems to be aware of. Randomly throwing a nostalgic sample into your track for a few seconds or some random nostalgic sound can create awe in the listener. Hearing sampling used this way for the first time is still a memory that I associate with stopping listening to normal music and trying to find the most trippy experimental stuff possible. I think just use sound however you want.
@@narvi5779Shaperbox has been amazing for chopping up samples. I've been having a blast with it, fun way to make samples totally unrecognizable. I still won't use copyrighted samples though.
@Obsessive Audio I think at a certain point it's impossible to tell if something is sampled or not. Using grain delay alone is enough to make a sample unrecognizable. I feel like just using delay with wet 100 would be enough to confuse an AI lmao.
When it comes to the royalty-free samples and loops I have, I generally tend to exclusively use one-shots, or percussion loops that can just sit in the background of the mix as extra ear candy. I try to write the chords and melodies myself, despite being poor in music theory lol
Same criteria. One shots, percussion loops (usually tops, I don't like kick drums in my drum loop samples), and the occasional VERY changed vocal sample/chop.
A lot of legendary musicians never had formal theory training, and just because someone went to a conservatory, it doesn’t mean that their music will be memorable.
No music theory experience my friend? Well, let me introduce you to our Lord and Savior... SCALER 2. Scaler 2 is literally the "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A and Start" of music production. Look into it.
everyone is coping, you need to know music theory, there will be many times you can hear what you need to write next in the progression but can't because you have no idea what the chord is and bruteforcing it is incredibly time consuming to the point you will get sick of the track.
As a pro producer, I think using samples and splice packs in your production is valid. These packs provide unique sounds that can spark ideas, and can be manipulated, chopped, transposed, to blend seamlessly with your own style and vision of a song. In fact, lots of big producers use splice. However, it is important to note that using multiple samples from a single pack to recreate the pack's demo is not the wise approach. As with any tool or technique, it is not the tool itself that causes issues, but rather how it is used.
I agree. It's also a good way to learn how to make sounds. I've been inspired to create things from loops that I just wasn't getting with say a particular one. It's also a good way to lean into HOW to arrange a song, how should my stuff sound. Any system will be abused. Nothing is purely original and lot of people have made a ton of money of other people's money songs and in the end get praised for it. Depends on how popular the thief is. I see it sort of like going to the grocery for a steak. Sure I can raise a cow, butcher it, process it and eventually get a steak out of it but is it worth it? Sometimes, but not always. They are time constraints to life and some people aren't even looking to make a buck but a fun beat.
I also think using samples is valid for inspiration. But when you alter them in some way by chopping, stretching, reversing or putting on some effects at least you put your own touch on them. Or use a sample, build a track around it and them remove the sample and you have your own track inspired by a sample. From an artistic perspective I always want to make some change the samples i use except for drum samples. I think the biggest problem here is also that NotLö has done this several times in a systematic way. Could be money or could be because of a dream of standing on stage and wanting to do it without having to pay her dues. It takes some time to learn to produce quality music.
I’m glad there’s a thread her of people with a decent IQ. It’s ironic how people try to be “a better producer than you” by wearing different hats that have nothing to do with producing. Maybe you are a better sound designer, or a better musician, but you’re not a better producer than anybody if your beats still sound like crap.
The spirit of Hip Hop is needed in this analysis. The art of sampling is to create something new from what already is. Unfortunately for NotLo they got caught in that space between stealing and transforming.
NotLo used the samples in the Lego set to build the track shown in the instructions. While this is possible, the whole point is to use the samples in your own creation. Benn said it right - while the song was created, the feeling of creation wasn't there. Building something from instructions is cool and the result is pleasing, but nothing beats the feeling of making something your own.
And you’re supposed to use legos from different sets to make your own unique constructions. True artistry comes from seeing beyond the bounds of the set provided and knowing which parts of different collections work well together.
Well this is my story: fell in love with French House in the late 90s/early 00s, loved the Daft Punk flipping samples technique. But I did not want to use others material. So I write my loops, sample and flip'em. If I hear - say - an old Disco brass+drum fill i'd like to use in a track of mine, I just try my best to recreate something very similar but not quite the same, neither in melody nor sound. I end up learning a lot in music production of genres that are not my own, learn a lot in sound design, and most of all I can make any micro adjustments to the very source of my sample if I need to. Time consuming? oh yes. Quite technical? mostly yes. Incredibly satisfying? hell yes.
This is something I've given thought to in a similar way. Daft Punk's sampling endeavors also ran into the issue of cultural theft/appropriation from funk and disco pioneered or performed by Black American musicians; so writing an original piece of music in those styles and bouncing it to audio to then manipulate it in a French house track would be challenging, but rewarding.
@@nospacesWFT By this metric, how is imitating a style for your own gain any less appropriative than sampling it? Seems more a glorification of intellectual property laws than any sort of real stance on justice.
It's a fun approach and I've been doing it with a lot of flavorful Playbox sequences I created. But resampling self-made material does not possess the same magic that flipping beloved tracks does. It just feels like a capitulation to the money machine. Everything is a remix and sampling should be available to all, not just the label-backed rich.
This. One of the best ways to do it is listen to something you enjoy and then try to recreate it with different sounds, or tweak it slightly. Don't just 1:1
Another reminder that copyright infringement is different from plagiarism! Licensing can be complicated, and it's important to discuss the nuances with creators of all media
I'd add to this that there is a very big difference between royalty-free and copyright-free, but many people conflate the two concepts and treat royalty-free as if it means copyright-free.
@@boimesa8190 "could u explain the difference [between royalty-free and copyright-free]?" - Sure. I'll speak specifically with regard to U.S. copyright law, but I believe copyright laws are very similar worldwide. Under copyright law, if you want to use part of a copyrighted work (for example, a sample from a song), then you must pay a royalty (a per-use fee) to whomever owns the copyright to that work. If you're performing live, that means paying a fee for each performance. If you created a track and you're selling it, that means paying a fee for each sale. If you created a track and it's broadcast via radio or streaming, that means paying a fee each time it's broadcast/streamed. Royalty-free means a licensed piece of work (for example, a sample) can be used without paying those royalty fees. You still need to obtain a license from the copyright owner and all other copyright protections remain in place unless otherwise stated in the license. Copyright-free means a work is not protected by copyright, so from a copyright perspective, everyone is free to use it without restriction (though other intellectual property laws may apply, such as trademark rights if two people/companies use the same audio/image as their branding).
This coming out right before Scaring the Hoes is great because that album serves as a tremendous example of how samples can be used in an incredibly creative way totally counter to the whole NotLö issue.
I once found a synth patch called ‘Zombie Hyperdrive’ in an arturia preset pack. I fell in love with it and wrote an entire song around it. I was half way through the song when I learned that I was basically remaking a song called red eyes. I ended up contacting the original artist and releasing it as a cover, with his permission.
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 I had never heard Red Eyes at the time, but it was based around the same synth arp, so it was far too close to call it a different song. It was only really the bass line and guitar solo that was different. It’s now a note-for-note cover. It’s on the music platforms as OverClone, Red Eyes.
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 the rest of the songs are all very unlike RedEyes. They’re all early 2000s original metal songs. It’s my old band from when I was a teenager. No vocals though and pretty crap really. I’m just pleased to have it immortalized on the streaming platforms.
Sampling vs using loops and whether they are creative or not will be argued until the end of time. I think Sampling is very underrated, though I'm inspired by Dilla. I think Sampling has gotten lazier, and loops are used as a crutch too much, but I have hope someone new will come soon that will push the envelope again and inspire the new generation to be different
yeaaa there’s so many talented producers out there that are inspired by dilla, madlib. But god damn is there sooo many of them. Not to mention a lot of it overlaps each other. There are ones who are really furthering that tho (mike, cities aviv, knxwledge, earl sweatshirt) i feel intentions have a lot to do with it u can’t package something like donuts in a nutshell really
It really aint lazy nowadays. And since you said you were inspired by dilla, the following producers in the modern day use sampling very well, to make the sample; their own: Madlib Clams casino Kenny beats Jpegmafia (yes, he self produces) Christo whitearmor Scrim (from $uicideboy$)
Music is there to be copied and remixed. It was copied and remixed by everyone for all of human history till licensing and publishing added money and lawyers to the bargain. However, this seems that NotLo went out of their way to try and recreate the demo track, missing the entire point of the creative process, and was in a web driven desire to "create more content" rather than express anything.
I was struck by Benn's story of how he made a demo to be included in FL Studio and someone uploaded it apparently as an attempt to pass it off as their own work and get some clicks and likes, which is a bit... sad. What seems to have happened to some extent with NotLo is that her recreations of demo tracks accidentally became popular, so people thought she was more talented than she actually is. Assuming she didn't set out the whole thing as a big scam from the word go, I can sort of imagine how one popular (if creatively bankrupt) upload of a remake led to another. If the public or a record label says "Have you got any more tracks like that?" and no one had noticed the lack of originality in the first upload, it must be quite difficult to admit that "Yes, I have others, but I copied them too."
As someone who is absolutely in love with the Oldschool Boom-Bap style I completely agree that the artist needs to personalize the samples they use. A lot of Boom-Bap is Mostly if not all sampled, while still being completely different from the original songs. Songs like Shook Ones pt II (Mobb Deep), NY State of Mind (Nas), and Mathamatics (Mos Def) all sound so different from the songs that they were sampled from. Sampling isnt just an easy way out, sometimes its a key part of the style, just make sure the song still ends up being a new vision entirely rather than just the same song with only a small set of changes
This is something worth being aware of for content creators too. On my main channel I had to take down a bunch of my videos including a specific music track, because while that track was offered for anyone to use freely - it turned out the person who created the track had apparently sampled another track without getting proper permission and they were coming after UA-cam channels using the song as a result. I exclusively use tracks from the official UA-cam audio library now just to play it safe.
I really appreciate this video- I just want to point out that it's very funny that Jon is talking about not being allowed to use loops, but uses a stock image that is completely unedited (aside from cropping) for one of the tracks showcased on his website; I know because I used a slight edit of the exact same free image for an album cover years ago, and have likewise seen it used in other places. Most humorously, by my college's brightspace where they used a crop of it for a course banner.
I just found your channel recently and I have to say it's truly a real gem. You're the reason I didn't give up on music and found my way of music making. Can't thank you enough!
My basic rule is don’t use loops, unless I chop it up *drastically* Originally, back in college, I didn’t like sampling at all, thought it was cheating outright and avoided it. Years later, I learned about sound design and found the transformation of sounds really creative. My compromise now, is just to only use *some* one shots, and process them into my new creation. Loops make me uneasy, but I’ll still chop one up for occasional effect. Keeping that creative-journey intact is most fulfilling to me, and using one-shots ALONGSIDE original synthesis is nice balance.
Seems to me that the really succesful musicians don't get hung up on ideas of purity. They copy, steal, borrow and always have done. Used to be copying chord sequences. There's only 12 notes, theres' nothing that hasn't been done.
At the end of the day, it's art. If you have fun while doing it, feel like you are following your purpose and passion and feel satisfied with what you do, you're golden! I used to feel like I have to completely change a loop and then I let that go. If I like a loop the way it is I'll use it as is. Like he said in the video, as a loop creator, he doesn't care if you modify it or not. Just make music, do what makes you happy. Edit: I'm as stated above only talking about using loops and in no way condoning stealing songs or demo songs ;)
@Derrik C honestly don't care as long as she credits and pays the artists for the samples she used, music making is for the music maker to enjoy however they want
Exactly bro. If I'm ever in need of some quick inspiration I'll go to Splice or Looperman, and sometimes I'll chop it, flip it, reverse it, pitch it, bop it, or whatever, but other times I find it perfect as is. This whole thing mindset that you HAVE TO alter the loop somehow to feel like a true artist is just silly to me. But to each their own
Address what? If the sample pack gives you the right to use the samples any way you see fit even in your own commercial music then they have no recourse. If these sample pack providers started tightening up their limitations on what you can do with their samples their business would suffer in all likelihood.
@@frankfrank7921 Nobody cares that she used the samples. The sample packs come with a demo song to display the pack. The packs state you cannot use the demo song commercially at all. At least four of her songs were literally the demo songs with minor additions.
@@ThenVersusNow_ Well, that's very different. The video touches upon that but is also all over the place. Obviously if she exceeded her rights with the samples then she should be drawn and quartered.
I always think about this and how it affects the music panorama in general, since i began music production i decided to stick to a couple of very strict rules to try to keep my content as original as possible, one of those is NOT USING MIDI PACKS (specially that one appearing on my UA-cam ads every five seconds), i avoid "pre-made" melodies, melodic samples, recorded instruments, i just use percussion loops, kick samples, hi-hats, noises and mostly "atonal" stuff, then i process them a lot to make them fit into my projects also some synth presets, that i try to modify to make them fit into whatever i'm doing. Probably NotLö is being pressed to put out music at a very constant rate or maybe is just another victim of laziness... i think we will never know.
This aligns to how I approach this. I find that I use more little percussive things to add texture under the other parts that I am playing and creating myself. I may also just listen to the various parts and try to emulate the style, but not copy, if that makes sense. You can learn a lot about groove by dissecting some of these loops. Honestly I pay for Splice and hardly ever use it.
same, i use one shot drums and would prefer them being unprocessed, i also use raw instruments (not with granular effects or anything at all really). no drum loops no midi shet no presets from synths even. i am not convinced that using these doesn't affect the originality of the music. plus who the hell thinks like: i want to make music and then doesnt make the melody nor the rhythm not the sounds... i guess i got a little bit too excited edit: ok they just said that in the call lol. but i guess now i know who would do something like that, someone who thought: i wanna make MONEY*(and fame and all that stuff) and starts copying things from anywhere.
Notlo in My opinion literally just copied the demo track did some minor changes and called it her own and that's just lazy and no I have no respect for her for doing that. I make My own stuff but I also sample but usually the sample is short and used as a stab sound to make a new melody out of it. I like to take something and be inspired to build a track around it and basically the track only exists because I built it around a sample I was inspired by.
@@yousifal-dailami8687 Most musicians, when they want to make music, don't make the sounds themselves on account of most musicians playing acoustic instruments that have a set sound. I do sometimes use synth presets, although I usually tweak them a bit. I mean, why waste time making a sound from the ground up, when there's a preset that's like, 90% of the way there already?
Some collages are artful, some are not. The power in art is the act of doing something. I like what y’all said about robbing themselves of the creative process, outputting a product to be consumed rather than an artifact of actual experience. I could care less about the legalities, I’m sad for them cause they missed out on being creative
That's a really weird take unless you are a millionaire who can afford do live for your creativity. The music industry is exactly that, a standardized industry in a capitalist economy and in that environment the "creative process" is already completely undermined by profit incentives. If you take your art seriously, then you should start by thinking about how your artistic integrity is compromised by your own commodification of your "art".
@@Bestmann3n hahaha I’m poor af but I’m still creative everyday. Art is a practice. You can in fact be creative and reap its benefits without being in any ”industry”. If you take a moment and realize the act of making art is all that matters. Not the outcome.
@@Bestmann3nThat is why most musicians worth their salt have some kind of day job to provide them financial stability and the freedom to do whatever music they want.
@@LesterBrunt Unfortunately it's not that simple. Work uses up our best hours and energy. After a full day of working, there isn't enough energy left to think properly about music, so one tends to follow the path of least resistance - do what's familiar, comfortable, copy what others are doing and so on. To properly develop as a thinking musician and to make something truly new and original sustained focus thinking hard about difficult problems is necessary. But this is not sustainable for anyone who is working full time. So one might cut down working hours to be able to put more effort into music, but then usually there's hope that if you work hard enough at some point your music might make up the difference, but once you're thinking like that you're back to compromising your thought process. To truly think freely you need a rich reliable patron(like a parent or spouse or institution if you are a gifted musician) who unconditionally support yous, that or a fat inheritance - so that you don't have to work. Basically we all need an Engels.
I think the most rewarding thing is to use samples in a creative way. Getting inspired by it, using it, but in a way, either through processing/changing or implementing them into your song in a way that no one would ever recognize it is there. That is something I love to achieve with samples and love when artists achieve that in a way I am totally surprised. Mainly, samples are often a very good starting point, from where you can get inspiration, but then go along to find your own voice within it, change, re-arrange and produce it so it fits your own unique style and is no longer recognizable as a sample. I produced songs where samples were a starting point, but in the end, the final product had nothing to do with either the melody or the sound of the sample. It doesn't matter, how you get inspired to be creative, but in fact, that you get inspired at all. Daft Punk made some amazing songs with samples (of course not from splice, but from old records), by putting their own spin on them, taking those original ideas and turning them into something entirely their own. But then again, that is a very different thing from just releasing the demo track of the sample with some of your own ear candy and vocals.
Exactly I'll use a sample because its sparks off a creative idea. I made a dope track recently using a preset melody off of a VST sythersizor, it's a very long evolving 10 second loop and sounds great so I just kept that exactly as it is and built My track around it and it sounds great.
@@HOLLASOUNDS Like Andrew Scheps always says: It doesn't matter, HOW you arrive at your destination, but THAT you arrive at all. In the end, it is important, that you don't blatantly steal 1:1, but actually create something entirely new and original with it. And tbh, I often enjoy listening to songs with the sample in its original form but having a complete different song built on it.
@@lazerboomerangWhile the sound is actually being generated from a VST sythersizor preset, I used it like a uncut sample I actually bounced out the audio. When it comes to actually sampling some one elses music I often dont chop it up very much, often I just loop 3 bars and play the last loop out to the 4th bar and that's it.
Thanks for putting such good hard work into making important questions and dialogue happen! i'm a longtime singer/guitar guy who has jumped into dawless production the past few years, and i feel like i'm really truly still just entranced with the novelty of the electro playing experience.... i've made my own stuff but i'm using one-shots that somebody else made, loops that someone else created, and bass and leads using some of my own sound design, but also some synth presets that someone else designed! Basically, the entire thing almost is stolen from the beginning, right down to those ubiquitous beloved Roland drum sounds.... i even love using the stock patterns that come with all the groups available in Native Instruments expansions, and just fooling around with the stuff already on there for a while! IT's so much fun, and i didn't even have to delay my gratification for endless hours while i created drumsynth sounds from init waveforms, sound designed everything from scratch, etc etc before i could even begin Note One of a jam! 🤷♂️ i guess i'm trying to say that from a traditional musician and instrumentalist's perspective, the entirety of modern mass consumer music-making is based on stealing - or more accurately borrowing - other people's sounds and having a lot of fun with them! i say borrowing, because hopefully you're giving something back to the musical community at large by showcasing your fun and maybe encouraging others to have some as well 🥳.... Money seems to be the main sticking point for most people in these matters; did someone get paid off of someone else's material? Did original creator get compensated properly? Who's making what dough where, and when? 🧐 This is pretty much, as usual, the exact opposite of having fun, where basically everyone has no fun because everyone has to figure out who's making what money.... And music, and music appreciation, gets lost in the shuffle of the rush towards the chunk of change.... And this obsessive focus with remuneration is not going to shift any time soon, so unfortunately there will be a difficult road ahead in convincing people that the music ITself is honestly the most important thing, and who did what with which is just not really very meaningful in the great, cosmic scheme of things 🙄🤷♂️ Just my two cents.... Thanks again for encouraging meaningful dialogue in our world 🙏🌌
The scary part is that sometimes a sample pack can *_itself_* be partly comprised of loops outright stolen from some random, obscure artist's song. So, if you utilize the pack, while you might be in perfect compliance with the loop company's terms of use, you might still be vulnerable to some original artist coming out of the woodwork to sue you if your song becomes huge. Didn't Vengeance have a sample pack that turned out to be problematic in this way, years ago?
Think of all the kick and snare samples on the sample packs by now. It must be millions of each. Nobody every created all those themselves. My guess is that a significant percentage of drum hits on sample packs were taken from a previous sample pack and altered slightly. Or not even altered, in some cases. They probably all trace back to a handfull of samples from the 1980s!
I bought my first sampler in 1993. It could hold 15.625 seconds of 12 bit samples. I only used it to sample 'found sounds'. I still don’t like using a commercial loop. I want to create. I have drum machines. I have synths. I want to make my own music. I sometimes like to sample and chop up things or reverse things and see what happens, but it needs to be overlaid with my own sounds. I don't mind people using sampled sounds. The Orb are one of my all time favourite acts, and they are primarily based on samples, but not commercially available samples.
Taking a sample and making your own music around it is perfectly fine however doing what Notlo did is just lazy and basically cheap and gets no respect from Me and I see her as a rip off because thats what she did. Akai demo songs are dope maby I should just take those stem them out, put them in My DAW do a little rearrangement add some basic effects and there thats My next 5 albums finished lol. I would never do that or never use something like Niko midi cord pack because it undermines My own original created music because everything I put out even if its 100% My own will be believed to be made by someone else. I have made very nice piano melodys of My own for decades and if was to now to use Niko midi cord pack then everyone would think all My own piano melodys was created by Niko or I was heavily influenced by Niko and I dont like that. I'd have to point out "This was My own created melody nothing to do with Niko" Then someone will says "Yer but you can only make melodys like that because your copying Niko" I wouldn't even have Nikos midi pack on My computer for that reason.
To be honest that is just another reminder to always find niche libraries, or to mangle samples a lot to turn them into something you wanted first instead of them inspiring a track. Maybe it'll make it lose some magic, but if going against the current is safer and very doable (and much more fun) then so be it :)
@AlgoCompSynth by znmeb no no, to be honest i think i used a ton of sampled that are still recognizable but that no one uses/makes a copyright with. Things like freesound, zero g, akai's, etc... just the old CD ROM's that a lot of underground and media composers used from the 1990's to 2010's, less now. This is my niche, the point of finding one is that it's now very unlikely i'll encounter copyright issues with it. I still cut things though. But i disagree with that "you can create anything just do it," i have a very limited view on aspects of a sound compared to the sound designers making them, so it's more inspiration.
My 2 cents: For one of my albums, I used the ejay sample packs, which are older than most people here. I only got one fingerprint warning and it was solved in a few hours without any negative repercussions. Zero regrets. Sampling can be theft or art, it's up to you as the artist. If you, as an artist, can sleep well at night then it's all good.
I was mad at the beginning (being i had watched this in real-time) how this video started, BUT after watching, i thoroughly enjoyed this take. I want to add that the deeper issues are how she gained a following of 13k, releases on pretty big labels in the dubstep sphere, had some big producers come to shield, and were getting good bookings really showed the darker side of the industry pushing specific individuals while walking over talented individuals.
Exactly my thought. I buy sample packs (ghost syndicate being one of them) and never has it crossed my mind to do what she did. Here I am, an independent producer trying to get booked, play shows, gain a following, etc, and there are people doing this instead of making original music. I suppose this story makes me want to shift my production techniques a bit but it doesn't change my goal of making my tunes sound unique
@@fishcakes5626I slaved for years, thought that having a hit was the reason I was born...I found the industry isn't interested in good music. It's who you know, not what you play. So don't play their game. If you love music, just make the music you love, the music you've always wanted to hear, own it and be proud. Play it loud, & give it to your friends. It's honestly a better way
@@msmith323 Thanks for the insight! I try to keep this in mind when I create music; Bottom line is it’s an art form for me. With that said, if people like my art and will pay to see it live I’ll definitely not shy away from the opportunity to turn a profit
Thank you - great "discussion" - my view is this - composers and song writers have a toolkit - chord progressions, arpeggios, key changes etc etc and the more you know the easier it is to take these and make them your own - Moonlight sonata - "simple" arpeggios (if these did not exist most Genesis keyboard playing on theior first few albums would be silent!) - Bowie vs Marc Bolan - "we both stole from Chuck Berry" ... with more musical knowledge (in the past 10 years of playing with Ableton) than when I started listening 60+ years ago I can say that very little in the world is new - McCartney based his (imho) worst songs on music hall and Springo based B to Run on a Beatles song and S & Garfunkle used old folk songs - Bob D*lan would not know an original tune if he fell over it (imho) - Bad Boy by BI and bro' is based (bar 1 note) on a folk song - so while I think the lady in question was VERY cheeky, very few, if any, music writers throughout time can claim to be totally original.
The art of sampling is a nuanced form of expression and genre where often the creativity is in how little a sample can be altered to create a new sound. That's not what happened in this case haha! Great video, thanks for sharing the story
You are slowly but surely becoming one of my favourite UA-camr. Your videos are thoughtful, interesting, bring a new light on things debated time and time again, witty and funny but most of all: so well prepared! Few UA-camrs actually script their videos, so their it becomes a mess of edited chops that I can tolerate only up to a point. It happens to everyone to mess up here and there, but having whole sentences made up of edited parts is excrutiatingly annoying. I know that you spend a lot of time preparing your videos and put a lot of thought into them. I sure hope you can continue to do so because I am staying tuned.
Thanks for the video. Don't overthink it - if collecting samles creates great music, listeners don't care and no one should spam them. As you said - you create samples to be used. Your last guest talks about making music as an artist - its about making what You want and what you makes you - and an ordnance - happy about.
I think "sampling" in hip hop and "sampling" in other genres versus "samples = Loops" are all nuanced things. Great topic. I didn't know these nuances cause a major wall in conversations between producers in different communities. I learned a lot
What sucks is when an artist on a label uses loops or sample packs the label then goes after everyone that might has used that same loop/sample pack and copyright claims it....even though its royalty free. It creates a HUGE problem for everyone especially on youtube (and im assuming streaming services too). I used loops in my production infancy but will not touch them now because of all the DMCA claims on my videos. Id sometimes have 5 labels trying to claim my song at the same time causing my videos to be put in UA-cam purgatory until all the appeals were done.
Excellent video, I'm a Music Producer and for years out of laziness I often used melody loops and even though I made changes the few times I used them, inside I always felt bad until I decided not to use them anymore and I started to reevaluate that thought, I realized that the use of loops makes learning not happen and the evolution that should exist does not happen, not to mention that even though it is supposed to be free, at some point there will be a copyright process, often even in the field. harmonico or a phrase used identical to an already released track, here in Brazil, even with strict laws, there is no point in monitoring and banning this practice and now with some music distributors trying to ban songs that are used, another problem has arisen, which is AI, each time more generating immature children in music production, today I understand that when there is a love for music, there has to be time to dedicate to studying the harmonic field, developing knowledge with notes and scales and no matter how easy it is, the best thing is to create something that records your musical feeling and brings authenticity. We need to put a brake on this practice of loops without melodic modification and these AI that creates entire melody with voice and instruments and producers only sign if they want merit in something they didn't develop.
Never heard of her, but for so many demos to be used in her catalog, I'd be interested in learning how long she's been producing. Seems like she got big enough to have tour dates as a beginner producer. What I took from the version of the story from here, NotLo "sampling" was like putting a 500 piece puzzle of The Mona Lisa together and then framing it, then charging folks to view it at a gallery!
@@movement6514 I remember the case study by this feminist student who thought the EDM community oppressed women. She found out that just because she's a woman she immediately got booked to massive shows and events to play the Billboard top 100 and was shocked. It was the funniest thing.
@@Arcessitor women that can actually produce and show that off in a video/stream w/o male help are ultra rare but I hope it will happen. This industry needs to be less superficial
Shes fairly well known in the underground/Experimental bass scene flew onto my Rader with a song called Catnip 2 years odd ago. ( a longtime fave) Pretty much song release has been on well established labels with international Reach ( I'm From Perth,Australia ) her newest release have been inconsistent lackin "flow" the is in her older tunes. This is likely due to said sampling.. odds are she will iced out of the scene. as the Genre Is based around wacky exciting sounds and carving out a unique space and burnt on of my fave tunes to DJ, the real outrage here.
People nowadays refer to sampling as taking a sample from a sample pack and using it as it is in their own music. Older generations of producers know that sampling is in fact taking a piece of music or a tiny bit of information from a song or some sample pack and twisting it or warping it until it fits your own song or idea. J Dilla was a fan of this, Liam Howlett from Prodigy based his whole sound on that technique, Daft Punk, Burial, Noisia did it in their first album Split the Atom, i also remember watching a doc about Pink Floyd where they talk about taking some cash register sounds and making their track "money". Sample packs today are specifically made for genres, which leads to lack of creativity, downloading an "Insert genre here" sample pack and using the projects or the wav loops from that pack. That will produce a generation of uncreative individuals (already has) and will boost up the noise in the industry. As a result from that we have a lottery where some people that cut thru that noise and some people don't. Many of the makers of sample packs are producers that just didn't made in the industry and they started to make samples as a way to survive and make some money. Whos to say that if the guy that did the original sample pack couldn't have a successful music career if he just released them as songs. We owe a lot to the makers of sample packs, half of the electronic scene wouldn't be alive if Vengeance didn't exist. The way to solve this is just by opening our eyes a bit and giving credit where credit is due. I love a good sample pack, but if i need to copy paste it in whole and write my name on it then i would rather stop "making music". And remember, the guys that make the sample packs are the guys making the scene and what is popular at the moment.
This. I was always a bit speechless when some people asked in forums or social media groups thinks like "where do i find samples to make music/ to sound like artist x", sometimes i asked how long they tried to find them/how long they "make music" wich was always a few days to a couple of weeks. for them making electronic music consists of using samples that sound like someone else to recreate that sound and thats it. like playing with Lego, sometimes even rmisinterprete that as "being inspired" by the artist they copy. explaining carefully, that finding their personal sound which can take "a bit longer" than a few weeks, researching sounds etc is a (if not the) main part in creating music, sometimes resulted in a bold reply along the line of that they do not which to get further with producing music than this.
Genre-ification is one of the suspects for the murder of music. Steady on, I don’t actually mean music is dead, I believe there are more talented and certainly more skilful musicians making music now than ever before. The thing is, most people don’t care. A bit of aural wallpaper here, a teenybopper choon there (these things have always been around), the inexorable rise of retro and nostalgia music and that’s yer lot. For most people. Especially young people who used to define their identity through music, and I don’t mean accessorise. That still happens. But shoving everything into genres, as you need to do for the algorithms, squashes anything new or truly creative in the playlist of Jack or Jill Gooner, the people who in previous generations ‘consumed’ music. But they had to hear or find the music themselves. And it was called listening, not consuming.
@@ZombieflesheaterZFE I wonder sometimes if people like that think that all music is made that way, like the samples just naturally exist or something and all the big producers just get the best loop packs…. The same “why do we need farmers if food comes from the store?” type of mindset 🥴😅
Me personally, I have steered away from using melodic samples and have mostly stuck to one shot samples for things like drums, as that is mostly what I use from my sample library. With one shots, whether it be melodic or percussive, you still have to do something with it to make it your own, similar to presets in synths. I stay away from any kind of chord or melodic sample pack as for me, I enjoy the process of writing my own chords and melodies. I'm currently studying audio production in uni, and I've seen some other people who just whip up tracks by throwing together loops in garageband and making a tune in a few minutes. I could never see myself doing that and claiming it as my own when I've done little to no work.
You hit the nail on the head and that's why people like Me and you are not making a living off of are music because We care to much about are own sound and respect are selfs to much to ever undermine our creativity however some people are here for that quick money. Matlo basically see a quick money making scheme by ripping off of demo tracks from sample packs, I could just rip off Akai demo tracks and I'd have over 100 tracks ready to upload by tomorrow. To Me that sort of behaviour is similar to a prostitute dignity and self respect sold out for cash.
I feel you on the last part, after making a lot of beats I can easily whip something fire up from scratch in 10 or 15 minutes. With more time I can make something even better. All it takes it practice and many producers are lazy, or just trying to make a bunch of beats for profit
Your videos are always incredibly calm and peaceful, something unique that I don't see a lot of music based channels doing; keep it up, I'm always here for it
I can't imagine not altering any samples I didn't make myself. Using DAW makes it so easy to create, so I am focused on making my own original content. Videos like this are important for the music community to call out plagiarism.
I'm really glad that this video came across my feed today. As an aspiring electronic music producer, I've asked myself these very questions nearly every day that I practice. I think, for the most part, that how I felt was sort of validated by your thorough analysis. I'd like to thank you for producing such a well-written commentary on something that is such a pressing matter. I find there are days where I worry that, if I try too hard that I'll burn out and this passion of mine will fade; I think Mr. Meyer raised some incredibly thoughtful points on the matter. Doing research, experimenting and learning are all things that I've already been doing, and it feels so great to hear it from someone who's so versed in the industry.
That's my same though about this situation. If you're going to use loops from sample packs, why not just take different loops from different sample packs and come up with something different and, maybe, original? I feel like it's next level lazyness
@@dynamicphase8239 true but she did exactly what non musicians do. Which is make very small tweaks to the original sound and then put it in their videos and legally speaking the license allows for that.
If your samples come from sample/MIDI packs or a curated database, you're not an artist! The process of "digging in the crates" is a skill in and of its self. You're listening to something that was never intended to be sampled, finding a moment in that song that inspires you, and then finding the right moment(s) in that song that will work for how you plan to use it. You then have to chop them just right (without stemming software), which often requires slicing before and/or after each measure to create the moment that's not otherwise a perfect loop. I guess the easiest way to say it is that the difficulty involved in finding a sample and cutting is everything. Cheating isn't okay
I released a song last year with one free loop from landr samples through oneRPM, and after the initial revision, my track upload was cancelled because another artist had used that same exact loop on a song he released previously, so yes, there's issues like these when using royalty free loops. They either have to be taken out completely (which in this case I did) or modify it altogether to not land a copyright strike.
Pro tip : When im done with a beat, I always upload to soundcloud, private. Bc it acts as a soft Copyright test. I used a sample from Splice not too long ago, and someone else had used it and uploaded to all platforms. By uploading to soundcloud first, i avoided a headache. Love.
As a Native Instruments user I would rarely use melodic loops, though I have once or twice on ipad Garage band when messing about. I'm much rather record my guitar or play a vst and just use a few vocal samples if I dont have a singer available. I totally get why Hip hop & Rap do this though and If you re-contextualize it is not straight stealing :)
Such a tricky thing though isn't it - for those who can't play melodic instruments (ie: a drummer making a track or something) it becomes so messy to consider loops these days because of all the content ID systems out there and the definitions of what makes music legally 'similar' with melody and such being an integral part of the majority of the definition of a creative work!
Well-rounded and interesting thoughts - I recognize this is a super nuanced and complex issue, especially since so many artists enjoy hearing their work sampled (at least either when it's credited and/or creatively changed - creating a sort of musical conversation/collaboration). My initial impulse is that ethical issues arise when the used loop/sample is not either a part of some larger structure or is clearly distinct from the original without requiring a concentrated A/B test, which is obviously a very subjective position. For this case, I think I'd personally have a hard time distinguishing that they were two different songs if I heard them casually, five minutes apart. To me, that is not enough change to not credit the source within the title.
Big Fish are selling sample pack that cannot be used in any commercial music! That's right. For hobbyists only?!?! I'm lucky I spotted it in the nick of time. It's called Primal Drums, currently half price. I'm talking about ALL the samples in the pack, not just the demo. Read their licenses on the details page. The tiny print is different occasionally. And there's no warning.
an thats coz their job is to exploit people who want to be paid at least something to be better of the time they invested into learning how to make music. copyright through the corporate lense is bullshit!
Magix does that too. Their sample&loop packs for Music Maker DAW and Music Maker Jam app are not free but they are all for non-commercial use only, and that is hidden deep in the muds of their "license agreement". Actually, I wouldn't notice this myself until it was pointed out on a forum. As a hobbyist I … sort of don't care, but as a creating unit that has the ambition to be able to call my creations my own, I ditched it altogether.
That's why you always have to read the license in detail (and always ask questions that are not answered in the license and save the answers in writing). One big issue is that "royalty-free" doesn't mean what many people think it means. Many people think it means literally use the samples however you want, including making a song from them and then selling that song to another artist who will sell it as their own. People often conflate royalty-free with copyright-free, but the two are very different concepts.
"Getting caught sampling is where the line should be drawn IMO. The goal and real fun should be to flip the sample as much as possible. Love that it was recommended at the end. Great video 🔥
The thing is when talking about copyright/stealing is that one really needs to separate the legal aspect of copyright and the artistic aspect. A lot of people confuse these two things yet they are very separate in nature. A legal fight is completely different battleground to discussing that artistic integrity of someone who has stolen/copied/sampled/covered or even just 'inspired by'. And even then, both are subjected to their own respective opinions. I think more than anything its just important to discuss these things, not to find an answer (because it's almost impossible) but to make people aware that there are different perspectives. Also point out when an artist has sampled as to give respect to the original and also pointing out the the 'sampler' has not made this as an original creative piece. Then it's up to people to decide for themselves whether they support that artist, because everyone has there own individual limits/boundaries. For example those 'boomer' rock fans you mentioned in the vid have a hard limit to copying (which i ofc find silly as nothing is original). Hell if someone samples an 80s track, adds some tape distortion, effects and stuff I would count that as a new piece whilst being a homage to the original. Myself, personally would not support the artist mentioned in this because it really goes past the rather forgiving line I have regarding sampling.
I’ve talked about this with all of my music friends at this point. In a perfect world, people would use samples as a catalyst to create their own things. I can’t really knock anyone because I don’t know what you’re hearing in your creative mind. Everybody’s creativity deserves some space to be heard or shared. My conflict is that I definitely feel a way about the cut and paste situation, or people using exact samples to re-create a track that was made to be “Sampled” I find it difficult to have an issue with that, and at the same time, say that everybody’s level creativity has a space. Up until recently, I didn’t want to use any sample that would be recognized by Shazam, but let that go because I trust my creative ear to steer me in the right direction. It’s a gray area unfortunately, but I just focus on staying true to what I hear in my soul. Besides create and share with others, that’s all one can do.
As some people have said already, what NotLo and others have done just using whole loops or tracks without much alteration simply deprives them of the rewards of learning to make music. This is a symptom of our current culture, where instant gratification is an option in every facet of our existence. People doing things simply for recognition miss out on learning and creating for the sake of it, that kind of zen feeling of getting totally absorbed and lost in a subject. Back to sampling...as i bask in nostalgia and the glory of De La Soul's catalog being available on streaming, it's definitely not a requirement to make a sample unrecognizable to make something new out of it. Dilla's chop on Stakes is High's main loop is fairly straightforward, but all of the programming, arrangement and songwriting were strong enough to make it an iconic classic. Of course, it's hard to compare to now, where so much more effort was required then to even find and filter a good section to loop. No keyword genre or bpm tags in a database to just search and instantly pull up.
They dont care about the music they found a way to make cash and a following bringing those demo songs to a wider audience most of whom would have no idea, its cheap nasty and Notlo will never be respected by Me ever. She could come up with some incredible music all her own original creations but I'll aways think "ahh Notlo the rip off artist copy past girl whore".
I agree with everything you said, just wanted to add on to the last part there - I believe the beat tags/key tags etc are a cheat code, but If you treat websites like tracklib as you going to a record store and just spinning what catches your eye - the feeling of digging feels the same. I tend to listen to tracklib records from all over the world for hours digging for nice loops. Cheers mate!
@@s.j.warden801 Yeah, I can totally see what you are saying. I'm not even against the ease of use of new technology if it helps creative workflow. I really like what Tracklib is doing, and that's a brilliant way to explore new music.
it's not a symptom of instant gratification, it's a symptom of the fact that we live in a capitalist economy. Nobody under capitalism is able to do anything just for the sake of creativity, except people born into money.
My rule of thumb is just using one shots and not loops. As a minimal deep house producer I'd only use top loops as a background top end filling, even rearranging and processing them a lot
Yeah, one thing I learned from Jungle production is the best way to use loops is to actually use only percussion ones to fill in the background or if it's a drum loop it's best to chop them off and rearrange, especially since the sudden cuts help give a hectic and chaotic break. People also love doing that with glitch vocals
I like using the analogy of writing a book. You borrow preexisting words when you write. You don't invent all new words. That's borrowing samples. But using loops is like borrowing pre-made sentences, lumping them together and saying you wrote a book. No that does not fly
@@JohnJohnCrusher in that case Dancehall and Reggaeton are academic papers cause they keep citing the very same sources every single time (and by cite I mean use a combination of the same 8 dembow loops they've used for decades now) I'm not joking btw
All those things are used for inspiration. I hate starting from scratch. I'm always looking for something inspirational. Pretending someone isn’t an artist because they used some loops is ridiculous. They determined the speed to use it at, which sounds to layer on top, added their own drums, and mixed the beat down. They maje the loop their own in that way. That is artistry. It's a different canvas, but it's still musicianship.
"go out there and make something awesome." Thanks dude I needed to hear this. It's all upstairs bouncing around between my ears. I think it always has. Here's to putting the pieces together to be able to put pieces out to the world. Many thanks for the video and your soul.
I personally use loops and samples as place holders, and if I do use samples, I at least make it unrecognizable. I find it way more rewarding to fully make my own music. It's not the same when you have your own melodies stuck in your head than when it was written by someone else. I think music making is a very personal thing, you put a little bit of your "soul" into it. It takes basically 0 talent to kit bash a sample pack to make a semi-decent track in 10 minutes. Being a producer is trendy now, and like everything else, people will try to take the easy way, and I think that ruins the experience for everyone, especially if your entire track is made out of virtual riot presets. I don't think you should be making music if you're only in it because its trendy, or for fortune and glory. That's why we have a lot of shallow music out there and it's kind of sad. I think producers should always try to do better, challenge yourself. You'll never learn if you just take the easy way.
I avoid mostly as well.. because tbh.. 90% of samplepacks are compltee GARBAGE nowdays... so much trash samplepacks out there because of democratization of music production. the less u use the more control you have over the sound... it's pretty hard to make something out of a loop, so it wouldnt start sounding really repetitive fast. i mostly use only samples for stuff wich is not achievable with synths, like real world instruments , jazzy stuff, u know all the warm fuzzy stuff in deep house
I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat. I also think that is cheating, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I haven’t made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all.
This is the same discussion as with using presets without changing a single thing. Some huge artists within the techno genre did this many times, but only us producers care about those things. In the end, it’s about how you use presets/samples and what you create around these ideas. I use a lot of samples, but change and resample them until you can’t recognise the originals anymore. Use others ideas and change them to your fitting. Don’t steal, get inspired. Much love Cameron, really love your content and talks. Super refreshing to hear some insights from other artists. Keep it up!
Thank you Venus Theory for another great video! Interesting questions posed here. I wonder if it comes down to a couple of separate but related questions? 1. Copyright infringement (legal issue) and 2. Aesthetic Choice (taste issue) - Issue 1, Copyright Infringement, can be resolved by negotiation between two parties or eventually get decided in court. If the use is deemed to be infringement, case settled, so to speak. BUT the issue is between the 2 parties involved, not for the rest of us to decide from the sidelines. We can express our opinions, but they don't really factor in to the resolution of the conflict. - Issue 2, Aesthetic Choice, is really a matter of opinion. Is the Andy Warhol Soup Can painting art? We may say yes or no, but in the end that's an opinion, not a legal decision. If an artist chooses materials and then changes them only minimally when creating the finished work, is that a work of art? IMO, this comes down to the intent of the artist and the artist decides whether it is or not. If the party who legally owns the materials used disagrees, we go back to Issue 1. For the rest of us, our opinions and discussions about that intent and the related decisions of that artist are interesting but in the end are just opinions. That's my two cents (and probably priced about right). Thank you Cam for this thought provoking video and all the fantastic insights and info you share on Venus Theory!
Using largely unedited samples from packs to construct entire songs is super lame and contributes to the homogenisation of music. Using samples within YOUR music is absolutely fine. Using samples creatively is also fine (hello, DJ Shadow). It's a fine line in a way, but I feel it's one that should be very easy to distinguish as a creator of music.
I haven't listened to all NotLo examples being claimed, just the one at the beginning of the video, but going by my gut feeling and that example alone, it seems to me not a case of theft or even plagiarism, but a case of bankrupt creativity. The artist takes one sample from a sample pack and does the bare minimum or most obvious thing with it, no wonder it's going to sound similar to a demo for that sample.
I don't know the details of the case or how many "reconstructions" she uploaded, but the thing I don't really understand is why someone would try and pass it off as their own work. I'd be far too embarrassed to send it to a record label if I knew that it was so unoriginal. I can imagine a label asking "Have you got any more tracks?" but I'd say "Yes, but it's mostly just remixes of construction kits". I guess she got caught up in narcissistic loop due to the record label interest and thought "I'll tell them later" or "Maybe no one will ever find out". Either that or she's one of those younger people that thinks that "creativity" means copying someone else's homework and pretending that you didn't. (We live in a culture where - thanks to things like memes and reposts - intellectual property and creativity has been eroded. Many young people don't see it as "wrong" to repost someone else's photos, words, or music, without giving credit. Many seem to delight in getting popular on the back of someone else's work.)
I think that there is a artistic difference between using things that are meant to be samples- like royalty free samples, and sampling existing music or audio and recontexualizing it. Royalty free loops are normally not modified when used in songs and are often used just to finish a project quickly. I think that kind of feels artistically lazy. Taking audio that was not intended for music production- whether another song, audio from another source or foley and using that as a sample in your own music while recontextualizing it I think is a different art because it takes talent to both find those samples and see how they can fit in your vision of the song. Its one thing to go to splice and type in 130 bpm guitar loops in A and another to crate dig and find a cool sound in an old recording and then pitch it and edit it yourself into a track. No one would say that Fatboy Slim or Burial where ripping off the artists they sampled from- or being lazy in their sampling. The sampling in those artists work is the art itself.
why does this apply to music but not, for example, to games and films using stock sounds? just like that "metal pipe falling" sfx. was playing some Burnout Paradise and noticed it in there too, *seems fishy* but seriously, if its royalty free, and it was used unchanged -- well, youve raised awareness, some people will stop listening to creators' songs, are we done after?
So, since the beginning of this year, I’ve been on a bit of a vocal kick. Trying to make as many sounds out of my vocals. And on this journey, it has been very interesting learning how to make percussion out of my vocals, bass sounds out of my vocals, trumpet sounds out of my vocals. For me sampling is not just the process of taking a sound, but learning how to manipulate the sound and creating your own sound out of it. I always run back to the same sample from a friend of mine, and I always create a new song out of that WhatsApp message that he has sent me. And all the songs I create are completely different from each other. It’s less about the sound source for me, it’s more, so what does that sound source inspiring me, and can I create something different. I always give accreditation to the artist that I sample from, because that’s where I got the inspiration from, without that artist, I wouldn’t have this song. And yet I’ve been leaning more away from using samples to other people have created, and just recording my own iPhone record.inns of sounds, I find in the environment, usually for atmospheric stuff, but sometimes I’m able to find a sweet environment where I could create some unique sounds that are more melodic. So If you were a sampler, your joy isn’t sampling. But your joy is also in creating new, sounds that you have never experienced before from the environment that preexisted your sampling. So, definitely take the plunge challenge yourself see how you can create those new sounds from recordings of your own. And if you find a recording of somebody else’s, definitely try to challenge yourself to see how you can make it uniquely different.
Pro tip : When im done with a beat, I always upload to soundcloud, private. Bc it acts as a soft Copyright test. I used a sample from Splice not too long ago, and someone else had used it and uploaded to all platforms. By uploading to soundcloud first, i noticed this and avoided a headache. Love.
honestly as someone still only like less than 2 years producing, a few years rapping, i use a lot of splice loops for melodies. but i deff pitch change, chop/flip, stretch, & leave exactly the same, all in one song sometimes. & i make alll my drum patterns from scratch, write my own lyrics, process & think of creative ideas to still add some difference to the "loop"/song so it doesnt sound like others using it. now i mix & master it all too, edit my own videos. definitely dont think loops make a creative lazy. just how you go about it. sometimes they are just so fire you like em how they are & its a "fuck it, time to deal with it when the time comes"
It's a good jumping off point. DAWs are intimidating and if you want to see it as training wheels, ok sure. At the end of the day if it helped you progress, make something that made you smile or show your friend, taught you something about composition or key or anything it seems a valid tool. I think it all depends on what your intent is with it. If you set out to blatently lift something for a quick buck well, it will likely show. If you did it to make something YOU liked then that will likely show through as a better finished piece. Maybe. Fuck it.
As a complete beginner I find some samplepacks to be helpful. I mean starting out, it can be daunting to navigate through all the different VSTs and figure out what you need to make your own unique sounds. It can also be expensive when starting out. I also don't have the required skill yet to do all of the editing. I want to learn though, but that is something that needs to be done step by step. For me it is also just a hobby, I do not aspire to become a professional musician.
Me too man. I love producing but its just a hobby and I dont plan to release any tracks. At most I'd like to have a collection of my own tracks that I can roll out in a DJ set, but even DJing is just a hobby for me.
Don't let these scaremongering people put you off...you bought a sample pack...use it...there's nothing wrong...majority of people listen to music to enjoy it not to analyse all the nitty gritty stuff
Thanks. I had never heard of "bass music" until you mentioned it. I had to pause the video to look it up. Hmmm....I kinda like some treble, in fact, the entire sonic range in music, myself.
It's a blanket term for songs that are a mix of trap, dubstep, Halftime dnb and experimental , very focused on the low end and sounding amazing on a subwoofer
A work around I’ve been doing recently is using MIDI packs for melody/bass, choosing a sound or designing one. Then rendering that, chopping it and running it through fx chains to create my own samples. This will give you more unique sounds that aren’t exactly samples but not exactly designed from scratch either.
I think there's an unfortunate downside with using samples but I think that's also due to how terribly in demand music is these days. I feel we have a massive pressure to complete the music as fast as we can. In my case as a film/media composer I've come across many situations where I have to produce a track in 1-2 days whether is replicating an original track to make a sound alike or making a beat in the same style as another type of track. In the end I don't feel like I've made anything that I really care to share publicly as I don't want to be one of those guys labeled as a copycat. I do my best to insert as much originality to make it as different as I can but that little bit that is the same or similar keeps me away from feeling good about a project even if it's for parody purposes. That said when I do resort to using samples I feel sometimes that I can only stick with samples because the samples all sound good together and anything that I make on my own will be inferior to it. It's a double edged sword, and you feel extremely dependent on it. Just random thoughts but I can see the positives and extreme negatives on it... Great video man!
Sampling is an art, and like any artform, it can be done brilliantly or poorly. Producers like Prince Paul, The Dust Brothers, Cut Chemist, Bob Power, The Bomb Squad, Dr Dre, etc. are masters. Uploading a barely modified version of a sample pack is the 90s hip hop equivalent of when Diddy did Karaoke over a Police song. It may be legal but it's weak. It's a shame that the art of sampling existing music has become so complicated, prohibitively expensive and basically a boondoggle for lawyers, because the golden age of Hip Hop could've been even better if not for that fateful lawsuit involving Biz Markie which had a major chilling affect on the creativity of producers back in the day. The laws surrounding this need to be revisited and treated more like when an artist wants to cover another artist's song. Compulsory License law is the way forward.
I've released 2 albums. Literally 50% of the sounds within are barely modified samples and loops. But in my case, I don't feel bad or dread the day I'm "found out" because there's nothing to find out. I TELL people where I get all my loops from. I actually list them in the credits of every track, and even my UA-cam artist profile & Spotify profile explicitly state the groups & sites I get loops and samples from. I'm not pretending I created them, and in fact whenever one of my friends says, "Hey man, your music is pretty cool" my immediate response is always "it's not really my music, they're samples, I just mixed it". I guess what I'm saying is: I totally get why someone uses loops, but I absolutely DON'T understand why someone wouldn't admit to have done so. If anything, I ENJOY the reactions of people when that lightbulb goes off on their head and they think, "oh my god I could make cool music too". I can only hope I've inspired someone somewhere to make music. The fact that NotLo used samples doesn't bother me, it just makes me confused why they didn't admit it up front. I feel like 99% of people listening to music don't even flinch at the concept of using sample packs intended to make music to...make music with. They just say, "Yeah, that's what they're for". Nobody is listening to Daft Punk and thinking "wow, they sure play a lot of instruments really well for two people". Nobody is stomping their way up to a DJ booth to admonish the DJ of playing other people's tracks. Just be upfront about your sources and I don't see an issue.
Nah man, you cant release two albums because you just mixed them. I wasn’t gonna disagree until you expressed that backwards train of thought. Whatever though, do you.
as long as you change it up it should be fair game. it's like buying a used car, previous owner might not have seen it's true potential so the new owner souped it up a bit.
Many people condemn the use of samples, but they overlook how the industry works today. You have to deliver quickly and the people who use samples do exactly what the samples were created for in the end. Of course I'm only referring to samples for which you have a license. Service providers like Cymatics and so on don't exist for nothing. They can also be used 1 to 1. For example : 1000 people have a license and the owner of the rights is the first person to release/register a song with this sample. Whoever comes first paints first, so to speak. The license also states that you can register yourself as the author. In my opinion, the people who are in such situations are just angry that they didn't do it themselves. They had the opportunity but producer xyz used it. Don't hate the player hate the game if you want.
Using loops and sample packs as a creative starting point is one thing, but what I don't understand is how someone could literally recreate the demo track of a pack and then release it with a straight face as if they just did something creative. When I was first learning how to produce, I would sometimes put loops together to get an understanding of the DAW and arrangement. But those practice sessions were not released as original music (not released at all obvi lol). It's less that it's lazy and more that it comes off as disingenuous and people tend to like musicians (or any creative) to be authentic and ripping off a "royalty free" demo track just shows your audience you were not who you said you were.
Agree, I think the issue may be more about duplicating a song/arrangement (caveat, I haven't heard full tracks side by side), but the sampling aspect being mixed in and muddies what is really more about duplicating an arrangement.
Really interesting video, so much more thought provoking than "just another gear demo"... Musicians have always borrowed from each other, but I guess the thing about loops and samples is that detecting their use can be automated. To me, as long as everything is properly attributed and (where necessary) paid for, I don't see the problem.
Bands like Igorrr could use a thousand samples in one song and you wouldn't even know because of how meticulous the arrangements are. It sounds like Igorrr, not whoever they might have sampled. Same goes for Skrillex.
Never heard of Igorrr, but I am a Skrillex fan and can tell you that he’s very skilled when it comes to manipulating and mixing audio (obviously). But I can argue that a large majority of his sounds are self-created. The vocal chops, for example, are from artists who go into his studio and record a phrase. He’s also a sound designer and knows how to diligently use wavetables and LFOs to craft most of his sound selection.
This is a great video and I feel it's going to be a timeless one, which will apply to countless situations in the future. It’s wild that what was the fear in the 2000s of desktop producers, has now become far more likely, thanks to Premade Sampling Loops leaving the niche and turning into a commercialized consumer oriented industry.
Minor detail but when you say at 4:25 "invert the phase" from my understanding this should be called "inverting the polarity". Phase is a measure of degrees and not all frequencies are at the same phase as the same time. But inverting the polarity means that all frequencies have the opposite phase at the same time, which gives you that effect. I know some people use these terms interchangeably, however, they are different even though certainly related things.
I learned this lesson a long time ago, in like 2018. I had just started making music and had bought a generic Cymatics house sample pack. I really liked a couple of the loops in it (not a full demo track but still similar in concept) It was basically just a house piano loop, a guitar loop, and I think some vocals. I lazily put them together and made the full song in a few hours. When I tried to upload it to soundcloud it gave me a copyright notice telling me I wasn't going to be allowed to post it because it was somebody else's song. I went to look into the song and sure enough, it was the same loops I had used, and it sounded extremely similar. I was still mad because I had purchased these loops and therefore the rights to use them, but since somebody else had used them in their song, the autodetection system told me I was violating their copyright. I never released the song and from what I remember was pretty mad about it. Now I look back and laugh, because its not only pretty funny, but its a great lesson to learn, and to be honest was probably a catalyst for a lot of growth in sound design I wouldn't have otherwise had. If I use loops now they're 99% of the time drum loops, and I make it a point to try and change them up in some way. Samples/loops aren't bad, but there's a huge negative side to them that you aren't told when you're in the checkout page, paying for them. I learned way more about music and sound design for free watching artists I enjoyed livestreams/videos.
Its also weird because it seems like context comes into play at times. The Sonic Frontiers game has a dubstep soundtrack that pretty heavily utilizes Ace Aura bass samples(from the Chime/Ace Aura Disciple sample pack) to a point that anyone who's heard one or two songs of his will automatically know that those are his samples. This is especially the case since a lot of the bass loops used were originally from Ace Aura's old/new songs. But in this case it feels more like an easter egg than an insult because the song is just meant to support gameplay rather than be the selling point.
I been caught sampling once. When I was five. I enjoy sampling. It's just as simple as that. Well, it's just a simple fact. When I want something, man, I don't wanna pay for it. I walk right through the DAW, and I walk right through the DAW. Hey alright? Break it by! It's mine....... well, no it's not mine all mine, but you can still sample it, too. Probably better than me.
I’ve just watched this again a year later and it seems even more meaningful this time. I’ve started browsing through Splice occasionally and even a drum app but only for inspiration, in a similar way to which you might get inspiration from a song (dare I say it these days!). For someone approaching their 60’s making electronic music as a hobby but also for releasing, some of the info you present in this video comes as quite a shock, thinking that the sample packs are fair game for song writing and releasing! Loving your videos of recent years, fascinating topics, please keep them coming dude! 😊
just like i did with djing in the 90s i locked myself in a room for years until i could understand the full process then realized everyone else is just using loops and tempo syncs and arent going through all the growing pains of finishing an original song or dj set..even if no one likes it its more rewarding knowing you did it. ive never been noticed as a producer and barely eeked by as a dj i dont even know how to promote myself or even where to submit music to get people to listen to it but i still keep going because of how it makes ME feel. after years of listening to my own projects loop over and over i think i tapped into possibly what jazz musicians feel....where my music only appeals to other people who are bored listening to the same thing for hours
I would imagine this also happens with some of the presets in VSTs like Falcon expansions where one single keypress and you are listening to a looped combination composition of drums, pads and sequencers. Then the first person to publish a song based on the presets gets the ID that everyone gets a warning about using the same preset.
I can't recall the case name, but I know there was at least one instance where someone got sued, and it came down to the fact that both songs used the same preset on a Nord synth.
Go back in time before the internet. The Roland D-50/Korg M1 & Wavestation we prime examples of “dang Enya used THAT sound too?” This isn’t new but a bigger deal since we’re now swimming in a bazillion loops. 😊
I like this video. Music should be sharing. One person can take a loop and create something amazing. It’s about making it unique enough to call it your own. Anyways, very entertaining video.
But that's not what happened here. Iterating upon a loop is fine but she took the full songs and made very minor changes, keeping the form completely intact.
@@middaymeds Perhaps I should of been more specific. When I meant when I said unique was to make major changes to the loop. What she did was take the samples with very minor changes. I do agree with you on that.
Like Weaver pointed out, Notlo apologizing for using samples in her apology glosses over the problem with her tracks: she basically modified stems of a finished track someone else made and called it her own with no credit. It gives using samples and loops a really bad name
@@SwiftDreamer maybe, just maybe, there is a problem with someone hoarding rights to the samples?.. and most "royalty free" licenses have clauses that disallow you from crediting the sample pack in the track metadata
There are many layers to this subject. 1 - Finding and chopping samples on your own, and then trying to build a song around it, can give a lot more work than making the sounds yourself. A lot more. Most times I do it because I prefer the sound of real instruments, etc. 2- Simply getting packs with made samples and drum loops has nothing to do with normal sampling, that is like a whole distinct genre. Real "normal" sampling is about taking a piece of a song and mixing with other elements (which can be painful), creating something unique. 3 - Not sampling is not the same as knowing how to play instruments. Since we all can play virtual instruments. 4 - It all comes down to what transformation you made. You can be a "real musician" and also copy what others are playing. Sample no sample, no big difference. 5 - etc, etc... 6 - Shame on those simply play loops and claim to be "sampling", and shame on those that diss on sampling as "stealing". A real "sampler" takes a piece of crap music and turns into a beautiful creation. Thats art. Musical art is not just "playing instruments".
There's so much great music out there that's only possible because of sampling, such as Madeon’s amazing Pop Culture mashup, entire genres such as vaporwave, plunderphonics, and more recently dariacore; as well as countless bootleg remixes, flips and edits which are a staple in eletronic music and live DJ sets. Not to mention hip hop, of course. It sucks that copyright laws recently seem to be more effective at stifling creativity than at protecting artists. I hate to imagine a world where none of the above could exist.
I use loops and samples for 2 things: (A) shortcuts - when I'm stuck and have no idea how to make a piece of music work, and (B) inspiration - when I deconstruct an existing sample using my own instruments in order to find out how the groove is made. In most cases though I recreate the sample, and toss away the original in favor of my own recreated version, which I can then slice and dice or edit midi notes. Like anything, it's a tool, and getting creative with samples means working with it - molding it to fit the vision you have for your song. Sometimes that means using it as is.
Not using them at all is how you really learn and can be truly proud of your work. If you find a sample you like, learn how to recreate it or even improve it.
My 2 cents: For one of my albums, I used the ejay sample packs, which are older than most people here. I only got one fingerprint warning and it was solved in a few hours without any negative repercussions. Zero regrets. Sampling can be theft or art, it's up to you as the artist. If you, as an artist, can sleep well at night then it's all good.
@@raindogred that's really a blanket statement if you generalize it like that. If I take a demo track for a sample pack, only adding minor differences and variations, and taking credit for the whole thing is not right. But do you also think using snare hits, foley perc or FX one shots makes someone not an artist? Does the same go for someone taking a loop and chopping it into something completely different? It's more nuanced than what you are implying.
In the demoscene this is called Timbalanding because Timbaland using a loop from one of the sceners' songs without paying royalties blew up to a small scandal. It's definitely a cultural thing because the scene has spirit.
This leads into the behemoth of an issue on intellectual property and the internet's disruption of our conventions and laws. Ofc goes way beyond music. I received a takedown from the management of a very popular artist. They claimed I stole part of the song. At first I thought it was a sample loop overlap of some kind, or a mistake. But it turned out that both of us had used the same VSTi PRESET. Not a sample, but an arpeggiated synth sound from a virtual instrument. The instrument wasn't one of the most popular tools, I didn't think anything of it at the time. Until then, I never worried about presets. In this case, there was no way I could afford to even defend myself, so I removed the song. I teach music production at a university, and even the Logic Pro handbook (published by apple), teaches using apple loops in Chapter 1. It's the foundation of the rest of the book, which to me is absolutely backwards, but at the same time, it's the easiest way to tach someone the technical aspects of a DAW as quickly as possible. Music production doesn't require any musical skills, and I'm fine this (I am a musician), in fact I like the barriers to entry being very low for art. But as long as we are teaching people to sample from the start, it's only going to get worse. What's really strange is that when music is an industry, there will be people seeking profit, people seeking attention and popularity, and also true artists who want to feel the joy of making things. In some ways I think the businessification of music, or the commodification of the final product, is one of the worst things to happen to the art. And yet, I make a living making music. Isn't it absurd that you can own a melody? but not a rhythm?
This, 100 percent. IP laws are broken, especially with streaming services having sided with major labels to punish independent creators, which money-wise makes sense (befriend the one that will bring millions of viewers to your ads at the cost of the one who has a much smaller pull). What is extra awful about it is that these same services have the implied ethos of being a home for independent musicians, and their friends. It just feels really toxic and frankly often exploitative. Sadly I don't have a good suggestion on how to fix copyright/IP law, because I think artists do need protection - but it should be protection more for the artists and not big studios, in my ideal dream land.
This has happened repeatedly to synth reviewers on UA-cam, such as Starsky Carr. He fell foul of copyright bots which misidentified simple sounds he played on classic synthesisers, such as low-to-high filter sweeps, as infringements on the work of Chemical Brothers and Depth Charge. I don't know how things worked out with Depth Charge or whether it was even possible to contact J Saul Kane, but to their credit the Chemical Brothers did help to get the accusation removed.
@@glyndwr15 It's not really relevant, it could have happened with anyone. It was Lady Gaga's management. I don't remember the name of the song, I had never heard it before. I think it was a preset from the TAL Uno-60. This was over 10 years ago, I imagine the problem is 10x worse now.
@@bricelory9534 IP goes way beyond music and art of course. This whole idea of owning a line of code is only precedented to less than 50 years. The thing I remind my students is that the recording arts are young, less than 100 years old if you're talking about duplication of a listening medium. The idea of owning music a a publication is older, several hundred years, but even that is very little time if you consider how long humans have been making music. How old is general plagiarism? We take it for granted that we are in the "entertainment era" of music. Consumer capitalism requires us to think about music as a product or service, and therefore ownership applies. It's kind of wacky if you think of the thousands of years humans used music for spirituality and prayer. IMO, all roads leads to eventually needing to overhaul what it legally means to own music or an idea. Most people don't want to do this, because the laws we have work better than nothing, and open this can of worms could lead to questions of what it means to own anything. Personally I think it's weird that you can own, buy , and sell a piece of the earth...but I'm probably on the fringes for that one!
5:58 haven't watched this to the end, but just want to say: if nulling is the litmus test for whether a track or song is original then oh boy, oh boy do I have some original bangers coming up 🎵 _friller_ _frill_ _of_ _bike_ _and_ _no_ _one's_ _gonna_ _save_ _you_ _from_ _this_ _yeast_ _about_ _to_ _hike_ 🎵
Does all of this apply to drum loops? I've been experimenting with some breaks for a jungle-like sound in the percussion. usually, I split it all up and rearrange the drums, but at the start of the track I like to let the loop play out for a bar or two because it gives context/prepares the ears for the contrast. Is this something I should be worried about doing if I plan to publish my music? Also, in the case in the video, I think there's not really that big of an ethical issue in stealing, or at least it's a gray area, but what I would think is akin to what is discussed around 13:00, but a little bit beyond. I would want people to hear *myself* in the music, and creating something that sounds super similar to something else, even if 100% ethical, moral, legal, whatever, would disappoint me. Maybe it wouldn't disappoint my wallet though lol
I think there is a world of difference between using a sample as-is and flipping, or cutting up a drum sample to build your own kit for the drum machine. Having said that, using a sample as is on purpose as a quote is art in itself (Dua Lipa sampling the super memorable trumpet sample from "Your Woman", for example). What's frustrating is that so much turns on the creator's intention. And what's frustrating for creators is that the work is judged on the listener's inferences about your intention. Top it off with the fact that Copyright law in this area is a confused jumble of contradictory holdings that create no clear rule at all, and it makes a space with very little clarity. For me, if I think the creator was trying to say something new, I'm good. The tracks you played at the top sounded too similar for my taste--but again, that's me as a listener making an inference about the creator from the sounds. Whether that is stealing or not is a legal, technical morass--I gave up trying to understand the rules when I tried to square Vanilla Ice winning against Queen for copying "Under Pressure"--because he added one (one!) extra hi-hat to the loop--but "Blurred lines" sounds too generally similar to "Got to give it up". How the hell is anyone supposed to know what is ok for copyright? In any event, good topic!
The copyright laws are confusing enough, but at least there has been some clarity in recent years about what is actually legal or illegal, and how the licensing works. Things get much murkier when there's no obvious infringement of copyright law (sample packs are specifically meant to be used for making music after all) but the public decides "You weren't creative enough with the samples" or "You didn't work hard enough like a real artist does". It's a murky old business.
So what's the point of using free loops if using them is considered plagiarism ? Creating your own loops seems like the best idea and avoid all free loops that everyone is modifying and using in multiple different tracks by different artists.
Agreed. Is it plagiarism for me to steal an a major chord, or remix a 145 progression? Everything borrows from something else. I did not invent the C minor chord does that mean I can't use it
My favorite bit was when I got a copyright tick on my channel because some band used the same free sample (from an Electronic Musician Magazine CD!) that I used. So many holes in the systems we use to make music. Video creators hit this too--if you use a free sample from Pexels, etc. and a filmmaker uses it in a major release, then someone like Sony issues a takedown notice, or you get your video blocked. Lame.
and, to put a finer point on it, perhaps this is just highlighting the limits of creativity using samples. Maybe it's time for us to step back from the practice in recorded music. The saturation of similar sounds makes it tough for even experts to differentiate them, and the areas of dance, hip hop, film trailers, and film music in general are so uniform today that it actually pulls one out of the situation psychologically while you are dancing or trying to watch a show...
This is why it's best to sample from individual stems and modify them. I am in the process of producing a trip hop thing under my sigaretto brand and I dread the thought of not making something unique.
Hello! In music production, I have always used samples mainly for drums or certain sound effects. I prefer to shape and create my own sounds, and this has taught me a lot about sound design. I really enjoy this channel; I always find useful perspectives or ideas that I can apply.
Thank god this video is finally done - I've spent the last 5 days editing and putting this all together! 😅 What do you make of the whole situation?
(REMEMBER: we're here to discuss the track similarities, not personally attack NotLö)
📢 Soundgym ► soundgym.co/?aff=9058
Watched it and loved especially Benn Jordan’s take of robbing yourself of that joy and instead creating anxiety. I appreciate the nuance take & video!
Im more then ok with people using samples; especially to learn from, i also think it’s cool how people can make music in areas that they aren’t so good at; like I’m pretty ok with the music side of things but suck at drums; so drum samples have been amazing - vice verse when someone is new to theory!
What I very much dislike about this situation is the submitting it to labels with something that isn’t really your work, failing to take accountability & then mentioning it’s hard being a women (yet so many of us wouldn’t think to do this). I’ve got so many thoughts about this.
I think if you are booking yourself as a professional, teaching people production, submitting to labels I do think you should personally hold yourself to a higher standard then that of beginner.
I think using loops can be a great tool sparingly, but if your whole track is a bunch of loops coming from the same source material, how fun is that? Where is your creativity?
Your attention to quantify this situation from different points of views with that chill PS4 Home Screen music is very much appreciated and respected 🙏🏿
750 tracks released so far this year. 750. So, here is how I deal with making my samples unique: I have a dedicated chain in my mixer that I work into. That is also how I have released 750 tracks so far this year. I use Loopmasters and I generally just run with a combo of free files and my library. I have logs. No one using those samples will have anywhere near the same output as I do. I'm confident. -switchMark
@@SwiftDreamer maybe there is no creativity because some thing called money was of interest and it somehow became more important than music over the course of the history?..
As a hip hop producer, sampling is something I experience a lot. I’m always leery to use melody loops without much variation as I want my product to sound different than someone else’s. However, to outright say “sampling bad, make your own stuff” is just not true. From the amazing sampling skills of J dilla, 9th wonder, and the Alchemist, to simple flips like the Cymatics loop from Miss the Rage, I think too nitty gritty ruins some of the fun of it. There is no way J Cole is going to make a whole soul album just to chop it up for his actual album to claim he made it by himself. Make stuff to make stuff, but be honest where you got it from. Push yourself creatively, but have fun as well.
This. I think a lot of the mess that we seem to experience with sampling could be avoided with producers at every level just being honest. Reaching out to a producer or creator and asking if I can sample something of theirs has been nerve wracking, but it saves a lot of heart ache and guilt later on. I haven't gotten into anything particularly complicated, but I have written an apology letter...😬😓 Doing things right the first time is way more fun and exciting.
One of my favorite artists who I follow on Instagram simply just posted a video of someone grabbing a sample and then destroying it in a grain delay with automated parameters and whatnot and the entire video took about 10 seconds to end. I think that justifies stealing any piece of audio you want if you can turn it into completely new audio. And there's a nostalgia factor that no one seems to be aware of. Randomly throwing a nostalgic sample into your track for a few seconds or some random nostalgic sound can create awe in the listener. Hearing sampling used this way for the first time is still a memory that I associate with stopping listening to normal music and trying to find the most trippy experimental stuff possible. I think just use sound however you want.
@@narvi5779Shaperbox has been amazing for chopping up samples. I've been having a blast with it, fun way to make samples totally unrecognizable. I still won't use copyrighted samples though.
@Obsessive Audio I think at a certain point it's impossible to tell if something is sampled or not. Using grain delay alone is enough to make a sample unrecognizable. I feel like just using delay with wet 100 would be enough to confuse an AI lmao.
Don’t miss Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Avalanches
When it comes to the royalty-free samples and loops I have, I generally tend to exclusively use one-shots, or percussion loops that can just sit in the background of the mix as extra ear candy.
I try to write the chords and melodies myself, despite being poor in music theory lol
Same criteria. One shots, percussion loops (usually tops, I don't like kick drums in my drum loop samples), and the occasional VERY changed vocal sample/chop.
A lot of legendary musicians never had formal theory training, and just because someone went to a conservatory, it doesn’t mean that their music will be memorable.
No music theory experience my friend? Well, let me introduce you to our Lord and Savior... SCALER 2.
Scaler 2 is literally the "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A and Start" of music production.
Look into it.
You are not poor in music theory just trust your feelings! You got this! Trust!
everyone is coping, you need to know music theory, there will be many times you can hear what you need to write next in the progression but can't because you have no idea what the chord is and bruteforcing it is incredibly time consuming to the point you will get sick of the track.
As a pro producer, I think using samples and splice packs in your production is valid. These packs provide unique sounds that can spark ideas, and can be manipulated, chopped, transposed, to blend seamlessly with your own style and vision of a song. In fact, lots of big producers use splice. However, it is important to note that using multiple samples from a single pack to recreate the pack's demo is not the wise approach. As with any tool or technique, it is not the tool itself that causes issues, but rather how it is used.
Literally the only sensible take in the comments.
FULLY AGRREE
I agree. It's also a good way to learn how to make sounds. I've been inspired to create things from loops that I just wasn't getting with say a particular one. It's also a good way to lean into HOW to arrange a song, how should my stuff sound. Any system will be abused. Nothing is purely original and lot of people have made a ton of money of other people's money songs and in the end get praised for it. Depends on how popular the thief is.
I see it sort of like going to the grocery for a steak. Sure I can raise a cow, butcher it, process it and eventually get a steak out of it but is it worth it? Sometimes, but not always. They are time constraints to life and some people aren't even looking to make a buck but a fun beat.
I also think using samples is valid for inspiration. But when you alter them in some way by chopping, stretching, reversing or putting on some effects at least you put your own touch on them. Or use a sample, build a track around it and them remove the sample and you have your own track inspired by a sample. From an artistic perspective I always want to make some change the samples i use except for drum samples.
I think the biggest problem here is also that NotLö has done this several times in a systematic way. Could be money or could be because of a dream of standing on stage and wanting to do it without having to pay her dues. It takes some time to learn to produce quality music.
I’m glad there’s a thread her of people with a decent IQ. It’s ironic how people try to be “a better producer than you” by wearing different hats that have nothing to do with producing. Maybe you are a better sound designer, or a better musician, but you’re not a better producer than anybody if your beats still sound like crap.
The spirit of Hip Hop is needed in this analysis. The art of sampling is to create something new from what already is. Unfortunately for NotLo they got caught in that space between stealing and transforming.
The main melody in A$AP Rocky's "Praise Da Lord" is a default Logic midi loop called "Andean Stroll Panpipe 02." They didn't change it at all. 😂
And there are a lot more like that. I used to have a list of "famous" Apple loops. Rihanna, Usher, etc.
Idk why... But that makes me love that song even more now 😂
@@kingofdjembe Yea, I'm pretty sure the entire Fort Minor album is made of untouched apple loops
@@rakohus no wonder it's so wack
@@kingofdjembe wasn't rihanna's "umbrella"'s drums just like a garage band drum loop
NotLo used the samples in the Lego set to build the track shown in the instructions. While this is possible, the whole point is to use the samples in your own creation. Benn said it right - while the song was created, the feeling of creation wasn't there. Building something from instructions is cool and the result is pleasing, but nothing beats the feeling of making something your own.
I don’t the she built anything. She literally took the demo track and released it.
And you’re supposed to use legos from different sets to make your own unique constructions. True artistry comes from seeing beyond the bounds of the set provided and knowing which parts of different collections work well together.
I myself hate using loops, because of the reason you mentioned. It lacks the joy of creating something of yourself.
It's like doing a paint-by-numbers, then trying to sell it to other as an original piece.
well said
Well this is my story: fell in love with French House in the late 90s/early 00s, loved the Daft Punk flipping samples technique. But I did not want to use others material. So I write my loops, sample and flip'em. If I hear - say - an old Disco brass+drum fill i'd like to use in a track of mine, I just try my best to recreate something very similar but not quite the same, neither in melody nor sound. I end up learning a lot in music production of genres that are not my own, learn a lot in sound design, and most of all I can make any micro adjustments to the very source of my sample if I need to. Time consuming? oh yes. Quite technical? mostly yes. Incredibly satisfying? hell yes.
Wait..how do you do the d.p. sample flipping technique ? Is there a video ?
This is something I've given thought to in a similar way. Daft Punk's sampling endeavors also ran into the issue of cultural theft/appropriation from funk and disco pioneered or performed by Black American musicians; so writing an original piece of music in those styles and bouncing it to audio to then manipulate it in a French house track would be challenging, but rewarding.
@@nospacesWFT By this metric, how is imitating a style for your own gain any less appropriative than sampling it? Seems more a glorification of intellectual property laws than any sort of real stance on justice.
It's a fun approach and I've been doing it with a lot of flavorful Playbox sequences I created. But resampling self-made material does not possess the same magic that flipping beloved tracks does. It just feels like a capitulation to the money machine.
Everything is a remix and sampling should be available to all, not just the label-backed rich.
This. One of the best ways to do it is listen to something you enjoy and then try to recreate it with different sounds, or tweak it slightly. Don't just 1:1
Another reminder that copyright infringement is different from plagiarism! Licensing can be complicated, and it's important to discuss the nuances with creators of all media
I'd add to this that there is a very big difference between royalty-free and copyright-free, but many people conflate the two concepts and treat royalty-free as if it means copyright-free.
Yea the word plagiarism is a good one for this situation
@@nomore6167 could u explain the difference?
What would you say are the main differences?
@@boimesa8190 "could u explain the difference [between royalty-free and copyright-free]?" - Sure. I'll speak specifically with regard to U.S. copyright law, but I believe copyright laws are very similar worldwide. Under copyright law, if you want to use part of a copyrighted work (for example, a sample from a song), then you must pay a royalty (a per-use fee) to whomever owns the copyright to that work. If you're performing live, that means paying a fee for each performance. If you created a track and you're selling it, that means paying a fee for each sale. If you created a track and it's broadcast via radio or streaming, that means paying a fee each time it's broadcast/streamed. Royalty-free means a licensed piece of work (for example, a sample) can be used without paying those royalty fees. You still need to obtain a license from the copyright owner and all other copyright protections remain in place unless otherwise stated in the license. Copyright-free means a work is not protected by copyright, so from a copyright perspective, everyone is free to use it without restriction (though other intellectual property laws may apply, such as trademark rights if two people/companies use the same audio/image as their branding).
This coming out right before Scaring the Hoes is great because that album serves as a tremendous example of how samples can be used in an incredibly creative way totally counter to the whole NotLö issue.
MY MILKSHAKE BRINGS ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD
@@ashtmslf2315TENNISU
I once found a synth patch called ‘Zombie Hyperdrive’ in an arturia preset pack.
I fell in love with it and wrote an entire song around it. I was half way through the song when I learned that I was basically remaking a song called red eyes.
I ended up contacting the original artist and releasing it as a cover, with his permission.
how much does it sound like red eyes
@@thedevilsadvocate5210
I had never heard Red Eyes at the time, but it was based around the same synth arp, so it was far too close to call it a different song.
It was only really the bass line and guitar solo that was different.
It’s now a note-for-note cover.
It’s on the music platforms as OverClone, Red Eyes.
@@normannutbar424
What about the rest of your songs? More packs. It all sounds good. I would think a lot of people use samples from packs
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 the rest of the songs are all very unlike RedEyes.
They’re all early 2000s original metal songs. It’s my old band from when I was a teenager. No vocals though and pretty crap really.
I’m just pleased to have it immortalized on the streaming platforms.
Is that the Thomas Azier song ? 😭😭😭@@normannutbar424
Sampling vs using loops and whether they are creative or not will be argued until the end of time. I think Sampling is very underrated, though I'm inspired by Dilla. I think Sampling has gotten lazier, and loops are used as a crutch too much, but I have hope someone new will come soon that will push the envelope again and inspire the new generation to be different
Look up knxwledge some of his stuff is on par with dilla
@@sethsapp-pl3tg I know who Knxwledge is
yeaaa there’s so many talented producers out there that are inspired by dilla, madlib. But god damn is there sooo many of them. Not to mention a lot of it overlaps each other.
There are ones who are really furthering that tho (mike, cities aviv, knxwledge, earl sweatshirt) i feel intentions have a lot to do with it u can’t package something like donuts in a nutshell really
It really aint lazy nowadays. And since you said you were inspired by dilla, the following producers in the modern day use sampling very well, to make the sample; their own:
Madlib
Clams casino
Kenny beats
Jpegmafia (yes, he self produces)
Christo
whitearmor
Scrim (from $uicideboy$)
Can we mention DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Q-Tip De La Soul, etc etc etc please? Dilla came after… way after. Thanks!ˆ
Music is there to be copied and remixed. It was copied and remixed by everyone for all of human history till licensing and publishing added money and lawyers to the bargain. However, this seems that NotLo went out of their way to try and recreate the demo track, missing the entire point of the creative process, and was in a web driven desire to "create more content" rather than express anything.
I was struck by Benn's story of how he made a demo to be included in FL Studio and someone uploaded it apparently as an attempt to pass it off as their own work and get some clicks and likes, which is a bit... sad. What seems to have happened to some extent with NotLo is that her recreations of demo tracks accidentally became popular, so people thought she was more talented than she actually is. Assuming she didn't set out the whole thing as a big scam from the word go, I can sort of imagine how one popular (if creatively bankrupt) upload of a remake led to another. If the public or a record label says "Have you got any more tracks like that?" and no one had noticed the lack of originality in the first upload, it must be quite difficult to admit that "Yes, I have others, but I copied them too."
As someone who is absolutely in love with the Oldschool Boom-Bap style I completely agree that the artist needs to personalize the samples they use. A lot of Boom-Bap is Mostly if not all sampled, while still being completely different from the original songs. Songs like Shook Ones pt II (Mobb Deep), NY State of Mind (Nas), and Mathamatics (Mos Def) all sound so different from the songs that they were sampled from. Sampling isnt just an easy way out, sometimes its a key part of the style, just make sure the song still ends up being a new vision entirely rather than just the same song with only a small set of changes
This is something worth being aware of for content creators too. On my main channel I had to take down a bunch of my videos including a specific music track, because while that track was offered for anyone to use freely - it turned out the person who created the track had apparently sampled another track without getting proper permission and they were coming after UA-cam channels using the song as a result. I exclusively use tracks from the official UA-cam audio library now just to play it safe.
I really appreciate this video- I just want to point out that it's very funny that Jon is talking about not being allowed to use loops, but uses a stock image that is completely unedited (aside from cropping) for one of the tracks showcased on his website; I know because I used a slight edit of the exact same free image for an album cover years ago, and have likewise seen it used in other places. Most humorously, by my college's brightspace where they used a crop of it for a course banner.
I just found your channel recently and I have to say it's truly a real gem. You're the reason I didn't give up on music and found my way of music making. Can't thank you enough!
Ayyyyyyy well thank you! Really glad to hear that, that's exactly what I want. Cheers! ☕
Do you have any links to your music
My basic rule is don’t use loops, unless I chop it up *drastically*
Originally, back in college, I didn’t like sampling at all, thought it was cheating outright and avoided it.
Years later, I learned about sound design and found the transformation of sounds really creative.
My compromise now, is just to only use *some* one shots, and process them into my new creation. Loops make me uneasy, but I’ll still chop one up for occasional effect.
Keeping that creative-journey intact is most fulfilling to me, and using one-shots ALONGSIDE original synthesis is nice balance.
You’re thinking about it too much. Just have fun and enjoy creating music.
Seems to me that the really succesful musicians don't get hung up on ideas of purity. They copy, steal, borrow and always have done. Used to be copying chord sequences. There's only 12 notes, theres' nothing that hasn't been done.
At the end of the day, it's art. If you have fun while doing it, feel like you are following your purpose and passion and feel satisfied with what you do, you're golden! I used to feel like I have to completely change a loop and then I let that go. If I like a loop the way it is I'll use it as is. Like he said in the video, as a loop creator, he doesn't care if you modify it or not. Just make music, do what makes you happy.
Edit: I'm as stated above only talking about using loops and in no way condoning stealing songs or demo songs ;)
Yes judge, I did steal but "at the end of the day" I felt satisfied. You realize they stole the entire demo song, not just a loop?
@Derrik C honestly don't care as long as she credits and pays the artists for the samples she used, music making is for the music maker to enjoy however they want
@@derrikc9961 obviously stealing a song is a whole different thing. I'm talking about using loops, not stealing demo songs.
Exactly bro. If I'm ever in need of some quick inspiration I'll go to Splice or Looperman, and sometimes I'll chop it, flip it, reverse it, pitch it, bop it, or whatever, but other times I find it perfect as is. This whole thing mindset that you HAVE TO alter the loop somehow to feel like a true artist is just silly to me. But to each their own
These problems have been plaguing the music industry since the mid 2000s and I'm glad that more musicians and producers are starting to address it. 💯
Address what? If the sample pack gives you the right to use the samples any way you see fit even in your own commercial music then they have no recourse. If these sample pack providers started tightening up their limitations on what you can do with their samples their business would suffer in all likelihood.
Exacty^ these people releasing the packs are getting paid so it is what it is. If you don’t like the released track then don’t buy and move on Wilma
@@frankfrank7921 Nobody cares that she used the samples. The sample packs come with a demo song to display the pack. The packs state you cannot use the demo song commercially at all. At least four of her songs were literally the demo songs with minor additions.
@@ThenVersusNow_ yeah seems there's alot more at her antics judging by some responses, sad times....
@@ThenVersusNow_ Well, that's very different. The video touches upon that but is also all over the place. Obviously if she exceeded her rights with the samples then she should be drawn and quartered.
I always think about this and how it affects the music panorama in general, since i began music production i decided to stick to a couple of very strict rules to try to keep my content as original as possible, one of those is NOT USING MIDI PACKS (specially that one appearing on my UA-cam ads every five seconds), i avoid "pre-made" melodies, melodic samples, recorded instruments, i just use percussion loops, kick samples, hi-hats, noises and mostly "atonal" stuff, then i process them a lot to make them fit into my projects also some synth presets, that i try to modify to make them fit into whatever i'm doing.
Probably NotLö is being pressed to put out music at a very constant rate or maybe is just another victim of laziness... i think we will never know.
This aligns to how I approach this. I find that I use more little percussive things to add texture under the other parts that I am playing and creating myself. I may also just listen to the various parts and try to emulate the style, but not copy, if that makes sense. You can learn a lot about groove by dissecting some of these loops. Honestly I pay for Splice and hardly ever use it.
same, i use one shot drums and would prefer them being unprocessed, i also use raw instruments (not with granular effects or anything at all really). no drum loops no midi shet no presets from synths even. i am not convinced that using these doesn't affect the originality of the music. plus who the hell thinks like: i want to make music and then doesnt make the melody nor the rhythm not the sounds...
i guess i got a little bit too excited
edit: ok they just said that in the call lol. but i guess now i know who would do something like that, someone who thought: i wanna make MONEY*(and fame and all that stuff) and starts copying things from anywhere.
Notlo in My opinion literally just copied the demo track did some minor changes and called it her own and that's just lazy and no I have no respect for her for doing that. I make My own stuff but I also sample but usually the sample is short and used as a stab sound to make a new melody out of it. I like to take something and be inspired to build a track around it and basically the track only exists because I built it around a sample I was inspired by.
Ill go with the victim.
@@yousifal-dailami8687 Most musicians, when they want to make music, don't make the sounds themselves on account of most musicians playing acoustic instruments that have a set sound. I do sometimes use synth presets, although I usually tweak them a bit. I mean, why waste time making a sound from the ground up, when there's a preset that's like, 90% of the way there already?
Some collages are artful, some are not. The power in art is the act of doing something. I like what y’all said about robbing themselves of the creative process, outputting a product to be consumed rather than an artifact of actual experience. I could care less about the legalities, I’m sad for them cause they missed out on being creative
That's a really weird take unless you are a millionaire who can afford do live for your creativity. The music industry is exactly that, a standardized industry in a capitalist economy and in that environment the "creative process" is already completely undermined by profit incentives. If you take your art seriously, then you should start by thinking about how your artistic integrity is compromised by your own commodification of your "art".
@@Bestmann3n hahaha I’m poor af but I’m still creative everyday. Art is a practice. You can in fact be creative and reap its benefits without being in any ”industry”. If you take a moment and realize the act of making art is all that matters. Not the outcome.
@@Bestmann3nThat is why most musicians worth their salt have some kind of day job to provide them financial stability and the freedom to do whatever music they want.
@@LesterBrunt Unfortunately it's not that simple.
Work uses up our best hours and energy. After a full day of working, there isn't enough energy left to think properly about music, so one tends to follow the path of least resistance - do what's familiar, comfortable, copy what others are doing and so on. To properly develop as a thinking musician and to make something truly new and original sustained focus thinking hard about difficult problems is necessary. But this is not sustainable for anyone who is working full time.
So one might cut down working hours to be able to put more effort into music, but then usually there's hope that if you work hard enough at some point your music might make up the difference, but once you're thinking like that you're back to compromising your thought process.
To truly think freely you need a rich reliable patron(like a parent or spouse or institution if you are a gifted musician) who unconditionally support yous, that or a fat inheritance - so that you don't have to work. Basically we all need an Engels.
I think the most rewarding thing is to use samples in a creative way. Getting inspired by it, using it, but in a way, either through processing/changing or implementing them into your song in a way that no one would ever recognize it is there. That is something I love to achieve with samples and love when artists achieve that in a way I am totally surprised.
Mainly, samples are often a very good starting point, from where you can get inspiration, but then go along to find your own voice within it, change, re-arrange and produce it so it fits your own unique style and is no longer recognizable as a sample. I produced songs where samples were a starting point, but in the end, the final product had nothing to do with either the melody or the sound of the sample. It doesn't matter, how you get inspired to be creative, but in fact, that you get inspired at all.
Daft Punk made some amazing songs with samples (of course not from splice, but from old records), by putting their own spin on them, taking those original ideas and turning them into something entirely their own. But then again, that is a very different thing from just releasing the demo track of the sample with some of your own ear candy and vocals.
Exactly I'll use a sample because its sparks off a creative idea. I made a dope track recently using a preset melody off of a VST sythersizor, it's a very long evolving 10 second loop and sounds great so I just kept that exactly as it is and built My track around it and it sounds great.
@@HOLLASOUNDS Like Andrew Scheps always says: It doesn't matter, HOW you arrive at your destination, but THAT you arrive at all.
In the end, it is important, that you don't blatantly steal 1:1, but actually create something entirely new and original with it. And tbh, I often enjoy listening to songs with the sample in its original form but having a complete different song built on it.
@@lazerboomerangWhile the sound is actually being generated from a VST sythersizor preset, I used it like a uncut sample I actually bounced out the audio. When it comes to actually sampling some one elses music I often dont chop it up very much, often I just loop 3 bars and play the last loop out to the 4th bar and that's it.
Thanks for putting such good hard work into making important questions and dialogue happen! i'm a longtime singer/guitar guy who has jumped into dawless production the past few years, and i feel like i'm really truly still just entranced with the novelty of the electro playing experience.... i've made my own stuff but i'm using one-shots that somebody else made, loops that someone else created, and bass and leads using some of my own sound design, but also some synth presets that someone else designed! Basically, the entire thing almost is stolen from the beginning, right down to those ubiquitous beloved Roland drum sounds.... i even love using the stock patterns that come with all the groups available in Native Instruments expansions, and just fooling around with the stuff already on there for a while! IT's so much fun, and i didn't even have to delay my gratification for endless hours while i created drumsynth sounds from init waveforms, sound designed everything from scratch, etc etc before i could even begin Note One of a jam! 🤷♂️
i guess i'm trying to say that from a traditional musician and instrumentalist's perspective, the entirety of modern mass consumer music-making is based on stealing - or more accurately borrowing - other people's sounds and having a lot of fun with them! i say borrowing, because hopefully you're giving something back to the musical community at large by showcasing your fun and maybe encouraging others to have some as well 🥳.... Money seems to be the main sticking point for most people in these matters; did someone get paid off of someone else's material? Did original creator get compensated properly? Who's making what dough where, and when? 🧐
This is pretty much, as usual, the exact opposite of having fun, where basically everyone has no fun because everyone has to figure out who's making what money.... And music, and music appreciation, gets lost in the shuffle of the rush towards the chunk of change.... And this obsessive focus with remuneration is not going to shift any time soon, so unfortunately there will be a difficult road ahead in convincing people that the music ITself is honestly the most important thing, and who did what with which is just not really very meaningful in the great, cosmic scheme of things 🙄🤷♂️
Just my two cents.... Thanks again for encouraging meaningful dialogue in our world 🙏🌌
The scary part is that sometimes a sample pack can *_itself_* be partly comprised of loops outright stolen from some random, obscure artist's song. So, if you utilize the pack, while you might be in perfect compliance with the loop company's terms of use, you might still be vulnerable to some original artist coming out of the woodwork to sue you if your song becomes huge. Didn't Vengeance have a sample pack that turned out to be problematic in this way, years ago?
Lol that's crazy. Glad I don't just drag and drop and call it a day.
Think of all the kick and snare samples on the sample packs by now. It must be millions of each. Nobody every created all those themselves. My guess is that a significant percentage of drum hits on sample packs were taken from a previous sample pack and altered slightly. Or not even altered, in some cases. They probably all trace back to a handfull of samples from the 1980s!
And this is why I like to avoid sample packs.
I bought my first sampler in 1993. It could hold 15.625 seconds of 12 bit samples. I only used it to sample 'found sounds'.
I still don’t like using a commercial loop. I want to create. I have drum machines. I have synths. I want to make my own music. I sometimes like to sample and chop up things or reverse things and see what happens, but it needs to be overlaid with my own sounds.
I don't mind people using sampled sounds. The Orb are one of my all time favourite acts, and they are primarily based on samples, but not commercially available samples.
Taking a sample and making your own music around it is perfectly fine however doing what Notlo did is just lazy and basically cheap and gets no respect from Me and I see her as a rip off because thats what she did. Akai demo songs are dope maby I should just take those stem them out, put them in My DAW do a little rearrangement add some basic effects and there thats My next 5 albums finished lol. I would never do that or never use something like Niko midi cord pack because it undermines My own original created music because everything I put out even if its 100% My own will be believed to be made by someone else. I have made very nice piano melodys of My own for decades and if was to now to use Niko midi cord pack then everyone would think all My own piano melodys was created by Niko or I was heavily influenced by Niko and I dont like that. I'd have to point out "This was My own created melody nothing to do with Niko" Then someone will says "Yer but you can only make melodys like that because your copying Niko" I wouldn't even have Nikos midi pack on My computer for that reason.
@D T Day Depeche mode also used stock emulator samples though... 🤷♂Cest la vie
To be honest that is just another reminder to always find niche libraries, or to mangle samples a lot to turn them into something you wanted first instead of them inspiring a track. Maybe it'll make it lose some magic, but if going against the current is safer and very doable (and much more fun) then so be it :)
@AlgoCompSynth by znmeb no no, to be honest i think i used a ton of sampled that are still recognizable but that no one uses/makes a copyright with. Things like freesound, zero g, akai's, etc... just the old CD ROM's that a lot of underground and media composers used from the 1990's to 2010's, less now. This is my niche, the point of finding one is that it's now very unlikely i'll encounter copyright issues with it. I still cut things though. But i disagree with that "you can create anything just do it," i have a very limited view on aspects of a sound compared to the sound designers making them, so it's more inspiration.
Or just make your own music
My 2 cents: For one of my albums, I used the ejay sample packs, which are older than most people here. I only got one fingerprint warning and it was solved in a few hours without any negative repercussions. Zero regrets. Sampling can be theft or art, it's up to you as the artist. If you, as an artist, can sleep well at night then it's all good.
@@sub-jec-tiv trust me it's not laziness to use samples lol. I'm willing to bet you dont consistently hit more than 130 stems per song you make.
@Tachy Bunker nah, its laziness-what you think is a tool is really a crutch
I was mad at the beginning (being i had watched this in real-time) how this video started, BUT after watching, i thoroughly enjoyed this take. I want to add that the deeper issues are how she gained a following of 13k, releases on pretty big labels in the dubstep sphere, had some big producers come to shield, and were getting good bookings really showed the darker side of the industry pushing specific individuals while walking over talented individuals.
This is one of the reasons I became disillusioned with making music and DJing. I’m not prepared to kiss 🍑 for bookings etc
Exactly my thought. I buy sample packs (ghost syndicate being one of them) and never has it crossed my mind to do what she did. Here I am, an independent producer trying to get booked, play shows, gain a following, etc, and there are people doing this instead of making original music. I suppose this story makes me want to shift my production techniques a bit but it doesn't change my goal of making my tunes sound unique
@@fishcakes5626I slaved for years, thought that having a hit was the reason I was born...I found the industry isn't interested in good music. It's who you know, not what you play. So don't play their game. If you love music, just make the music you love, the music you've always wanted to hear, own it and be proud. Play it loud, & give it to your friends. It's honestly a better way
@@msmith323 Thanks for the insight! I try to keep this in mind when I create music; Bottom line is it’s an art form for me. With that said, if people like my art and will pay to see it live I’ll definitely not shy away from the opportunity to turn a profit
Thank you - great "discussion" - my view is this - composers and song writers have a toolkit - chord progressions, arpeggios, key changes etc etc and the more you know the easier it is to take these and make them your own - Moonlight sonata - "simple" arpeggios (if these did not exist most Genesis keyboard playing on theior first few albums would be silent!) - Bowie vs Marc Bolan - "we both stole from Chuck Berry" ... with more musical knowledge (in the past 10 years of playing with Ableton) than when I started listening 60+ years ago I can say that very little in the world is new - McCartney based his (imho) worst songs on music hall and Springo based B to Run on a Beatles song and S & Garfunkle used old folk songs - Bob D*lan would not know an original tune if he fell over it (imho) - Bad Boy by BI and bro' is based (bar 1 note) on a folk song - so while I think the lady in question was VERY cheeky, very few, if any, music writers throughout time can claim to be totally original.
The art of sampling is a nuanced form of expression and genre where often the creativity is in how little a sample can be altered to create a new sound. That's not what happened in this case haha! Great video, thanks for sharing the story
You are slowly but surely becoming one of my favourite UA-camr. Your videos are thoughtful, interesting, bring a new light on things debated time and time again, witty and funny but most of all: so well prepared! Few UA-camrs actually script their videos, so their it becomes a mess of edited chops that I can tolerate only up to a point. It happens to everyone to mess up here and there, but having whole sentences made up of edited parts is excrutiatingly annoying. I know that you spend a lot of time preparing your videos and put a lot of thought into them. I sure hope you can continue to do so because I am staying tuned.
Thanks for the video. Don't overthink it - if collecting samles creates great music, listeners don't care and no one should spam them. As you said - you create samples to be used. Your last guest talks about making music as an artist - its about making what You want and what you makes you - and an ordnance - happy about.
I think "sampling" in hip hop and "sampling" in other genres versus "samples = Loops" are all nuanced things. Great topic. I didn't know these nuances cause a major wall in conversations between producers in different communities. I learned a lot
YOOOOO DUBSTEP SIDE
What sucks is when an artist on a label uses loops or sample packs the label then goes after everyone that might has used that same loop/sample pack and copyright claims it....even though its royalty free. It creates a HUGE problem for everyone especially on youtube (and im assuming streaming services too). I used loops in my production infancy but will not touch them now because of all the DMCA claims on my videos. Id sometimes have 5 labels trying to claim my song at the same time causing my videos to be put in UA-cam purgatory until all the appeals were done.
Excellent video, I'm a Music Producer and for years out of laziness I often used melody loops and even though I made changes the few times I used them, inside I always felt bad until I decided not to use them anymore and I started to reevaluate that thought, I realized that the use of loops makes learning not happen and the evolution that should exist does not happen, not to mention that even though it is supposed to be free, at some point there will be a copyright process, often even in the field. harmonico or a phrase used identical to an already released track, here in Brazil, even with strict laws, there is no point in monitoring and banning this practice and now with some music distributors trying to ban songs that are used, another problem has arisen, which is AI, each time more generating immature children in music production, today I understand that when there is a love for music, there has to be time to dedicate to studying the harmonic field, developing knowledge with notes and scales and no matter how easy it is, the best thing is to create something that records your musical feeling and brings authenticity. We need to put a brake on this practice of loops without melodic modification and these AI that creates entire melody with voice and instruments and producers only sign if they want merit in something they didn't develop.
Never heard of her, but for so many demos to be used in her catalog, I'd be interested in learning how long she's been producing. Seems like she got big enough to have tour dates as a beginner producer.
What I took from the version of the story from here, NotLo "sampling" was like putting a 500 piece puzzle of The Mona Lisa together and then framing it, then charging folks to view it at a gallery!
Hah! That's a really great way to describe it!
Women have it far easier to be booked
@@movement6514 I remember the case study by this feminist student who thought the EDM community oppressed women. She found out that just because she's a woman she immediately got booked to massive shows and events to play the Billboard top 100 and was shocked. It was the funniest thing.
@@Arcessitor women that can actually produce and show that off in a video/stream w/o male help are ultra rare but I hope it will happen. This industry needs to be less superficial
Shes fairly well known in the underground/Experimental bass scene
flew onto my Rader with a song called Catnip 2 years odd ago. ( a longtime fave)
Pretty much song release has been on well established labels with international Reach ( I'm From Perth,Australia )
her newest release have been inconsistent lackin "flow" the is in her older tunes.
This is likely due to said sampling..
odds are she will iced out of the scene. as the Genre Is based around wacky exciting sounds and carving out a unique space
and burnt on of my fave tunes to DJ, the real outrage here.
People nowadays refer to sampling as taking a sample from a sample pack and using it as it is in their own music. Older generations of producers know that sampling is in fact taking a piece of music or a tiny bit of information from a song or some sample pack and twisting it or warping it until it fits your own song or idea. J Dilla was a fan of this, Liam Howlett from Prodigy based his whole sound on that technique, Daft Punk, Burial, Noisia did it in their first album Split the Atom, i also remember watching a doc about Pink Floyd where they talk about taking some cash register sounds and making their track "money". Sample packs today are specifically made for genres, which leads to lack of creativity, downloading an "Insert genre here" sample pack and using the projects or the wav loops from that pack. That will produce a generation of uncreative individuals (already has) and will boost up the noise in the industry. As a result from that we have a lottery where some people that cut thru that noise and some people don't. Many of the makers of sample packs are producers that just didn't made in the industry and they started to make samples as a way to survive and make some money. Whos to say that if the guy that did the original sample pack couldn't have a successful music career if he just released them as songs. We owe a lot to the makers of sample packs, half of the electronic scene wouldn't be alive if Vengeance didn't exist. The way to solve this is just by opening our eyes a bit and giving credit where credit is due. I love a good sample pack, but if i need to copy paste it in whole and write my name on it then i would rather stop "making music". And remember, the guys that make the sample packs are the guys making the scene and what is popular at the moment.
This. I was always a bit speechless when some people asked in forums or social media groups thinks like "where do i find samples to make music/ to sound like artist x", sometimes i asked how long they tried to find them/how long they "make music" wich was always a few days to a couple of weeks. for them making electronic music consists of using samples that sound like someone else to recreate that sound and thats it. like playing with Lego, sometimes even rmisinterprete that as "being inspired" by the artist they copy. explaining carefully, that finding their personal sound which can take "a bit longer" than a few weeks, researching sounds etc is a (if not the) main part in creating music, sometimes resulted in a bold reply along the line of that they do not which to get further with producing music than this.
Genre-ification is one of the suspects for the murder of music.
Steady on, I don’t actually mean music is dead, I believe there are more talented and certainly more skilful musicians making music now than ever before.
The thing is, most people don’t care. A bit of aural wallpaper here, a teenybopper choon there (these things have always been around), the inexorable rise of retro and nostalgia music and that’s yer lot. For most people. Especially young people who used to define their identity through music, and I don’t mean accessorise. That still happens. But shoving everything into genres, as you need to do for the algorithms, squashes anything new or truly creative in the playlist of Jack or Jill Gooner, the people who in previous generations ‘consumed’ music. But they had to hear or find the music themselves. And it was called listening, not consuming.
@@ZombieflesheaterZFE I wonder sometimes if people like that think that all music is made that way, like the samples just naturally exist or something and all the big producers just get the best loop packs…. The same “why do we need farmers if food comes from the store?” type of mindset 🥴😅
Me personally, I have steered away from using melodic samples and have mostly stuck to one shot samples for things like drums, as that is mostly what I use from my sample library. With one shots, whether it be melodic or percussive, you still have to do something with it to make it your own, similar to presets in synths. I stay away from any kind of chord or melodic sample pack as for me, I enjoy the process of writing my own chords and melodies. I'm currently studying audio production in uni, and I've seen some other people who just whip up tracks by throwing together loops in garageband and making a tune in a few minutes. I could never see myself doing that and claiming it as my own when I've done little to no work.
You hit the nail on the head and that's why people like Me and you are not making a living off of are music because We care to much about are own sound and respect are selfs to much to ever undermine our creativity however some people are here for that quick money. Matlo basically see a quick money making scheme by ripping off of demo tracks from sample packs, I could just rip off Akai demo tracks and I'd have over 100 tracks ready to upload by tomorrow. To Me that sort of behaviour is similar to a prostitute dignity and self respect sold out for cash.
I feel you on the last part, after making a lot of beats I can easily whip something fire up from scratch in 10 or 15 minutes. With more time I can make something even better. All it takes it practice and many producers are lazy, or just trying to make a bunch of beats for profit
Your videos are always incredibly calm and peaceful, something unique that I don't see a lot of music based channels doing; keep it up, I'm always here for it
I can't imagine not altering any samples I didn't make myself. Using DAW makes it so easy to create, so I am focused on making my own original content. Videos like this are important for the music community to call out plagiarism.
These lazy artists are people more interested in the results of a good song than making a good song.
@@oxicemusic true, it's easy being a copycat...it takes talent and guts to be original
I'm really glad that this video came across my feed today. As an aspiring electronic music producer, I've asked myself these very questions nearly every day that I practice. I think, for the most part, that how I felt was sort of validated by your thorough analysis. I'd like to thank you for producing such a well-written commentary on something that is such a pressing matter. I find there are days where I worry that, if I try too hard that I'll burn out and this passion of mine will fade; I think Mr. Meyer raised some incredibly thoughtful points on the matter. Doing research, experimenting and learning are all things that I've already been doing, and it feels so great to hear it from someone who's so versed in the industry.
If NotLö made something completely different but wit the original sounds it would be creative in a way but this is just an outright rip-off imo.😐
That's my same though about this situation. If you're going to use loops from sample packs, why not just take different loops from different sample packs and come up with something different and, maybe, original? I feel like it's next level lazyness
@@dynamicphase8239 true but she did exactly what non musicians do. Which is make very small tweaks to the original sound and then put it in their videos and legally speaking the license allows for that.
5:27 5:31
5:41 6:14 6:27 6:28 6:41 6:46 6:48 6:50 6:54 😊
If your samples come from sample/MIDI packs or a curated database, you're not an artist!
The process of "digging in the crates" is a skill in and of its self. You're listening to something that was never intended to be sampled, finding a moment in that song that inspires you, and then finding the right moment(s) in that song that will work for how you plan to use it. You then have to chop them just right (without stemming software), which often requires slicing before and/or after each measure to create the moment that's not otherwise a perfect loop.
I guess the easiest way to say it is that the difficulty involved in finding a sample and cutting is everything. Cheating isn't okay
I released a song last year with one free loop from landr samples through oneRPM, and after the initial revision, my track upload was cancelled because another artist had used that same exact loop on a song he released previously, so yes, there's issues like these when using royalty free loops. They either have to be taken out completely (which in this case I did) or modify it altogether to not land a copyright strike.
Pro tip : When im done with a beat, I always upload to soundcloud, private. Bc it acts as a soft Copyright test. I used a sample from Splice not too long ago, and someone else had used it and uploaded to all platforms. By uploading to soundcloud first, i avoided a headache. Love.
As a Native Instruments user I would rarely use melodic loops, though I have once or twice on ipad Garage band when messing about. I'm much rather record my guitar or play a vst and just use a few vocal samples if I dont have a singer available. I totally get why Hip hop & Rap do this though and If you re-contextualize it is not straight stealing :)
Such a tricky thing though isn't it - for those who can't play melodic instruments (ie: a drummer making a track or something) it becomes so messy to consider loops these days because of all the content ID systems out there and the definitions of what makes music legally 'similar' with melody and such being an integral part of the majority of the definition of a creative work!
I love Maschine
Well-rounded and interesting thoughts - I recognize this is a super nuanced and complex issue, especially since so many artists enjoy hearing their work sampled (at least either when it's credited and/or creatively changed - creating a sort of musical conversation/collaboration).
My initial impulse is that ethical issues arise when the used loop/sample is not either a part of some larger structure or is clearly distinct from the original without requiring a concentrated A/B test, which is obviously a very subjective position.
For this case, I think I'd personally have a hard time distinguishing that they were two different songs if I heard them casually, five minutes apart. To me, that is not enough change to not credit the source within the title.
Big Fish are selling sample pack that cannot be used in any commercial music! That's right. For hobbyists only?!?! I'm lucky I spotted it in the nick of time. It's called Primal Drums, currently half price. I'm talking about ALL the samples in the pack, not just the demo. Read their licenses on the details page. The tiny print is different occasionally. And there's no warning.
an thats coz their job is to exploit people who want to be paid at least something to be better of the time they invested into learning how to make music. copyright through the corporate lense is bullshit!
Magix does that too. Their sample&loop packs for Music Maker DAW and Music Maker Jam app are not free but they are all for non-commercial use only, and that is hidden deep in the muds of their "license agreement". Actually, I wouldn't notice this myself until it was pointed out on a forum. As a hobbyist I … sort of don't care, but as a creating unit that has the ambition to be able to call my creations my own, I ditched it altogether.
...so why even sell such a thing then.
That's why you always have to read the license in detail (and always ask questions that are not answered in the license and save the answers in writing). One big issue is that "royalty-free" doesn't mean what many people think it means. Many people think it means literally use the samples however you want, including making a song from them and then selling that song to another artist who will sell it as their own. People often conflate royalty-free with copyright-free, but the two are very different concepts.
@@zynet_eseled because they can.
"Getting caught sampling is where the line should be drawn IMO. The goal and real fun should be to flip the sample as much as possible. Love that it was recommended at the end. Great video 🔥
The thing is when talking about copyright/stealing is that one really needs to separate the legal aspect of copyright and the artistic aspect. A lot of people confuse these two things yet they are very separate in nature. A legal fight is completely different battleground to discussing that artistic integrity of someone who has stolen/copied/sampled/covered or even just 'inspired by'. And even then, both are subjected to their own respective opinions.
I think more than anything its just important to discuss these things, not to find an answer (because it's almost impossible) but to make people aware that there are different perspectives. Also point out when an artist has sampled as to give respect to the original and also pointing out the the 'sampler' has not made this as an original creative piece. Then it's up to people to decide for themselves whether they support that artist, because everyone has there own individual limits/boundaries. For example those 'boomer' rock fans you mentioned in the vid have a hard limit to copying (which i ofc find silly as nothing is original).
Hell if someone samples an 80s track, adds some tape distortion, effects and stuff I would count that as a new piece whilst being a homage to the original. Myself, personally would not support the artist mentioned in this because it really goes past the rather forgiving line I have regarding sampling.
I’ve talked about this with all of my music friends at this point. In a perfect world, people would use samples as a catalyst to create their own things. I can’t really knock anyone because I don’t know what you’re hearing in your creative mind. Everybody’s creativity deserves some space to be heard or shared. My conflict is that I definitely feel a way about the cut and paste situation, or people using exact samples to re-create a track that was made to be “Sampled” I find it difficult to have an issue with that, and at the same time, say that everybody’s level creativity has a space.
Up until recently, I didn’t want to use any sample that would be recognized by Shazam, but let that go because I trust my creative ear to steer me in the right direction. It’s a gray area unfortunately, but I just focus on staying true to what I hear in my soul. Besides create and share with others, that’s all one can do.
That's how acid house was born. 'Acid burn' meant lifting a sample off a record, years before acid became known as LSD
As some people have said already, what NotLo and others have done just using whole loops or tracks without much alteration simply deprives them of the rewards of learning to make music. This is a symptom of our current culture, where instant gratification is an option in every facet of our existence. People doing things simply for recognition miss out on learning and creating for the sake of it, that kind of zen feeling of getting totally absorbed and lost in a subject. Back to sampling...as i bask in nostalgia and the glory of De La Soul's catalog being available on streaming, it's definitely not a requirement to make a sample unrecognizable to make something new out of it. Dilla's chop on Stakes is High's main loop is fairly straightforward, but all of the programming, arrangement and songwriting were strong enough to make it an iconic classic. Of course, it's hard to compare to now, where so much more effort was required then to even find and filter a good section to loop. No keyword genre or bpm tags in a database to just search and instantly pull up.
They dont care about the music they found a way to make cash and a following bringing those demo songs to a wider audience most of whom would have no idea, its cheap nasty and Notlo will never be respected by Me ever. She could come up with some incredible music all her own original creations but I'll aways think "ahh Notlo the rip off artist copy past girl whore".
I agree with everything you said, just wanted to add on to the last part there -
I believe the beat tags/key tags etc are a cheat code, but If you treat websites like tracklib as you going to a record store and just spinning what catches your eye - the feeling of digging feels the same. I tend to listen to tracklib records from all over the world for hours digging for nice loops.
Cheers mate!
@@s.j.warden801 Yeah, I can totally see what you are saying. I'm not even against the ease of use of new technology if it helps creative workflow. I really like what Tracklib is doing, and that's a brilliant way to explore new music.
it's not a symptom of instant gratification, it's a symptom of the fact that we live in a capitalist economy. Nobody under capitalism is able to do anything just for the sake of creativity, except people born into money.
@@Bestmann3n Notlo is a ripoff simple as that, I put her in the same category as Unison midi pack users lol.
My rule of thumb is just using one shots and not loops. As a minimal deep house producer I'd only use top loops as a background top end filling, even rearranging and processing them a lot
Yeah, one thing I learned from Jungle production is the best way to use loops is to actually use only percussion ones to fill in the background or if it's a drum loop it's best to chop them off and rearrange, especially since the sudden cuts help give a hectic and chaotic break. People also love doing that with glitch vocals
I like using the analogy of writing a book. You borrow preexisting words when you write. You don't invent all new words. That's borrowing samples.
But using loops is like borrowing pre-made sentences, lumping them together and saying you wrote a book. No that does not fly
@@JohnJohnCrusher in that case Dancehall and Reggaeton are academic papers cause they keep citing the very same sources every single time (and by cite I mean use a combination of the same 8 dembow loops they've used for decades now)
I'm not joking btw
All those things are used for inspiration. I hate starting from scratch. I'm always looking for something inspirational. Pretending someone isn’t an artist because they used some loops is ridiculous. They determined the speed to use it at, which sounds to layer on top, added their own drums, and mixed the beat down. They maje the loop their own in that way. That is artistry. It's a different canvas, but it's still musicianship.
"go out there and make something awesome." Thanks dude I needed to hear this. It's all upstairs bouncing around between my ears. I think it always has. Here's to putting the pieces together to be able to put pieces out to the world. Many thanks for the video and your soul.
I personally use loops and samples as place holders, and if I do use samples, I at least make it unrecognizable. I find it way more rewarding to fully make my own music. It's not the same when you have your own melodies stuck in your head than when it was written by someone else.
I think music making is a very personal thing, you put a little bit of your "soul" into it.
It takes basically 0 talent to kit bash a sample pack to make a semi-decent track in 10 minutes.
Being a producer is trendy now, and like everything else, people will try to take the easy way, and I think that ruins the experience for everyone, especially if your entire track is made out of virtual riot presets.
I don't think you should be making music if you're only in it because its trendy, or for fortune and glory. That's why we have a lot of shallow music out there and it's kind of sad.
I think producers should always try to do better, challenge yourself. You'll never learn if you just take the easy way.
💯👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I avoid mostly as well.. because tbh.. 90% of samplepacks are compltee GARBAGE nowdays... so much trash samplepacks out there because of democratization of music production.
the less u use the more control you have over the sound... it's pretty hard to make something out of a loop, so it wouldnt start sounding really repetitive fast.
i mostly use only samples for stuff wich is not achievable with synths, like real world instruments , jazzy stuff, u know all the warm fuzzy stuff in deep house
I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat. I also think that is cheating, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I haven’t made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all.
where does it stop? lol my thoughts exactly
you could sample the sound of your arrow flying towards the goat and make ambients pads.
King comment!
That’s cheating you can’t just farm goats
You are going to be sued by the goats for using ‘their’ property.
This is the same discussion as with using presets without changing a single thing. Some huge artists within the techno genre did this many times, but only us producers care about those things. In the end, it’s about how you use presets/samples and what you create around these ideas. I use a lot of samples, but change and resample them until you can’t recognise the originals anymore.
Use others ideas and change them to your fitting. Don’t steal, get inspired. Much love Cameron, really love your content and talks. Super refreshing to hear some insights from other artists. Keep it up!
Thank you Venus Theory for another great video! Interesting questions posed here. I wonder if it comes down to a couple of separate but related questions? 1. Copyright infringement (legal issue) and 2. Aesthetic Choice (taste issue) - Issue 1, Copyright Infringement, can be resolved by negotiation between two parties or eventually get decided in court. If the use is deemed to be infringement, case settled, so to speak. BUT the issue is between the 2 parties involved, not for the rest of us to decide from the sidelines. We can express our opinions, but they don't really factor in to the resolution of the conflict. - Issue 2, Aesthetic Choice, is really a matter of opinion. Is the Andy Warhol Soup Can painting art? We may say yes or no, but in the end that's an opinion, not a legal decision. If an artist chooses materials and then changes them only minimally when creating the finished work, is that a work of art? IMO, this comes down to the intent of the artist and the artist decides whether it is or not. If the party who legally owns the materials used disagrees, we go back to Issue 1. For the rest of us, our opinions and discussions about that intent and the related decisions of that artist are interesting but in the end are just opinions. That's my two cents (and probably priced about right). Thank you Cam for this thought provoking video and all the fantastic insights and info you share on Venus Theory!
Using largely unedited samples from packs to construct entire songs is super lame and contributes to the homogenisation of music. Using samples within YOUR music is absolutely fine. Using samples creatively is also fine (hello, DJ Shadow). It's a fine line in a way, but I feel it's one that should be very easy to distinguish as a creator of music.
I haven't listened to all NotLo examples being claimed, just the one at the beginning of the video, but going by my gut feeling and that example alone, it seems to me not a case of theft or even plagiarism, but a case of bankrupt creativity. The artist takes one sample from a sample pack and does the bare minimum or most obvious thing with it, no wonder it's going to sound similar to a demo for that sample.
I don't know the details of the case or how many "reconstructions" she uploaded, but the thing I don't really understand is why someone would try and pass it off as their own work. I'd be far too embarrassed to send it to a record label if I knew that it was so unoriginal. I can imagine a label asking "Have you got any more tracks?" but I'd say "Yes, but it's mostly just remixes of construction kits". I guess she got caught up in narcissistic loop due to the record label interest and thought "I'll tell them later" or "Maybe no one will ever find out". Either that or she's one of those younger people that thinks that "creativity" means copying someone else's homework and pretending that you didn't. (We live in a culture where - thanks to things like memes and reposts - intellectual property and creativity has been eroded. Many young people don't see it as "wrong" to repost someone else's photos, words, or music, without giving credit. Many seem to delight in getting popular on the back of someone else's work.)
I think that there is a artistic difference between using things that are meant to be samples- like royalty free samples, and sampling existing music or audio and recontexualizing it. Royalty free loops are normally not modified when used in songs and are often used just to finish a project quickly. I think that kind of feels artistically lazy. Taking audio that was not intended for music production- whether another song, audio from another source or foley and using that as a sample in your own music while recontextualizing it I think is a different art because it takes talent to both find those samples and see how they can fit in your vision of the song. Its one thing to go to splice and type in 130 bpm guitar loops in A and another to crate dig and find a cool sound in an old recording and then pitch it and edit it yourself into a track. No one would say that Fatboy Slim or Burial where ripping off the artists they sampled from- or being lazy in their sampling. The sampling in those artists work is the art itself.
why does this apply to music but not, for example, to games and films using stock sounds? just like that "metal pipe falling" sfx. was playing some Burnout Paradise and noticed it in there too, *seems fishy*
but seriously, if its royalty free, and it was used unchanged -- well, youve raised awareness, some people will stop listening to creators' songs, are we done after?
As a person who was just about to buy their first sample pack, really appreciate this video. Great breakdown, great content.
Invest in learning sound design!
buy a sample pack if you can afford it and want it
So, since the beginning of this year, I’ve been on a bit of a vocal kick. Trying to make as many sounds out of my vocals.
And on this journey, it has been very interesting learning how to make percussion out of my vocals, bass sounds out of my vocals, trumpet sounds out of my vocals.
For me sampling is not just the process of taking a sound, but learning how to manipulate the sound and creating your own sound out of it.
I always run back to the same sample from a friend of mine, and I always create a new song out of that WhatsApp message that he has sent me. And all the songs I create are completely different from each other. It’s less about the sound source for me, it’s more, so what does that sound source inspiring me, and can I create something different.
I always give accreditation to the artist that I sample from, because that’s where I got the inspiration from, without that artist, I wouldn’t have this song.
And yet I’ve been leaning more away from using samples to other people have created, and just recording my own iPhone record.inns of sounds, I find in the environment, usually for atmospheric stuff, but sometimes I’m able to find a sweet environment where I could create some unique sounds that are more melodic. So
If you were a sampler, your joy isn’t sampling. But your joy is also in creating new, sounds that you have never experienced before from the environment that preexisted your sampling. So, definitely take the plunge challenge yourself see how you can create those new sounds from recordings of your own. And if you find a recording of somebody else’s, definitely try to challenge yourself to see how you can make it uniquely different.
Pro tip : When im done with a beat, I always upload to soundcloud, private. Bc it acts as a soft Copyright test. I used a sample from Splice not too long ago, and someone else had used it and uploaded to all platforms. By uploading to soundcloud first, i noticed this and avoided a headache. Love.
honestly as someone still only like less than 2 years producing, a few years rapping, i use a lot of splice loops for melodies. but i deff pitch change, chop/flip, stretch, & leave exactly the same, all in one song sometimes. & i make alll my drum patterns from scratch, write my own lyrics, process & think of creative ideas to still add some difference to the "loop"/song so it doesnt sound like others using it. now i mix & master it all too, edit my own videos. definitely dont think loops make a creative lazy. just how you go about it. sometimes they are just so fire you like em how they are & its a "fuck it, time to deal with it when the time comes"
Yup, this.
It's a good jumping off point. DAWs are intimidating and if you want to see it as training wheels, ok sure. At the end of the day if it helped you progress, make something that made you smile or show your friend, taught you something about composition or key or anything it seems a valid tool. I think it all depends on what your intent is with it. If you set out to blatently lift something for a quick buck well, it will likely show. If you did it to make something YOU liked then that will likely show through as a better finished piece. Maybe. Fuck it.
As a complete beginner I find some samplepacks to be helpful. I mean starting out, it can be daunting to navigate through all the different VSTs and figure out what you need to make your own unique sounds. It can also be expensive when starting out. I also don't have the required skill yet to do all of the editing. I want to learn though, but that is something that needs to be done step by step. For me it is also just a hobby, I do not aspire to become a professional musician.
Me too man. I love producing but its just a hobby and I dont plan to release any tracks. At most I'd like to have a collection of my own tracks that I can roll out in a DJ set, but even DJing is just a hobby for me.
Don't let these scaremongering people put you off...you bought a sample pack...use it...there's nothing wrong...majority of people listen to music to enjoy it not to analyse all the nitty gritty stuff
Thanks. I had never heard of "bass music" until you mentioned it. I had to pause the video to look it up. Hmmm....I kinda like some treble, in fact, the entire sonic range in music, myself.
It's a blanket term for songs that are a mix of trap, dubstep, Halftime dnb and experimental , very focused on the low end and sounding amazing on a subwoofer
@@wired-up5677 You should tell Wikipedia about that. They said it's just drums and bass.
A work around I’ve been doing recently is using MIDI packs for melody/bass, choosing a sound or designing one. Then rendering that, chopping it and running it through fx chains to create my own samples. This will give you more unique sounds that aren’t exactly samples but not exactly designed from scratch either.
i do this but play guitar and render to midi to get parts for other instruments. Then render the midi to wav and sample my own audio. boom
i've seen a vocal to midi vst that seems to be similar to my process. I have tried migic evo (guitar to midi ) but it is too slow
HELLO DAWG! ^
I think there's an unfortunate downside with using samples but I think that's also due to how terribly in demand music is these days. I feel we have a massive pressure to complete the music as fast as we can. In my case as a film/media composer I've come across many situations where I have to produce a track in 1-2 days whether is replicating an original track to make a sound alike or making a beat in the same style as another type of track. In the end I don't feel like I've made anything that I really care to share publicly as I don't want to be one of those guys labeled as a copycat. I do my best to insert as much originality to make it as different as I can but that little bit that is the same or similar keeps me away from feeling good about a project even if it's for parody purposes.
That said when I do resort to using samples I feel sometimes that I can only stick with samples because the samples all sound good together and anything that I make on my own will be inferior to it. It's a double edged sword, and you feel extremely dependent on it.
Just random thoughts but I can see the positives and extreme negatives on it... Great video man!
Sampling is an art, and like any artform, it can be done brilliantly or poorly. Producers like Prince Paul, The Dust Brothers, Cut Chemist, Bob Power, The Bomb Squad, Dr Dre, etc. are masters. Uploading a barely modified version of a sample pack is the 90s hip hop equivalent of when Diddy did Karaoke over a Police song. It may be legal but it's weak. It's a shame that the art of sampling existing music has become so complicated, prohibitively expensive and basically a boondoggle for lawyers, because the golden age of Hip Hop could've been even better if not for that fateful lawsuit involving Biz Markie which had a major chilling affect on the creativity of producers back in the day. The laws surrounding this need to be revisited and treated more like when an artist wants to cover another artist's song. Compulsory License law is the way forward.
I've released 2 albums. Literally 50% of the sounds within are barely modified samples and loops. But in my case, I don't feel bad or dread the day I'm "found out" because there's nothing to find out. I TELL people where I get all my loops from. I actually list them in the credits of every track, and even my UA-cam artist profile & Spotify profile explicitly state the groups & sites I get loops and samples from. I'm not pretending I created them, and in fact whenever one of my friends says, "Hey man, your music is pretty cool" my immediate response is always "it's not really my music, they're samples, I just mixed it".
I guess what I'm saying is: I totally get why someone uses loops, but I absolutely DON'T understand why someone wouldn't admit to have done so. If anything, I ENJOY the reactions of people when that lightbulb goes off on their head and they think, "oh my god I could make cool music too". I can only hope I've inspired someone somewhere to make music. The fact that NotLo used samples doesn't bother me, it just makes me confused why they didn't admit it up front. I feel like 99% of people listening to music don't even flinch at the concept of using sample packs intended to make music to...make music with. They just say, "Yeah, that's what they're for".
Nobody is listening to Daft Punk and thinking "wow, they sure play a lot of instruments really well for two people". Nobody is stomping their way up to a DJ booth to admonish the DJ of playing other people's tracks. Just be upfront about your sources and I don't see an issue.
Nah man, you cant release two albums because you just mixed them. I wasn’t gonna disagree until you expressed that backwards train of thought. Whatever though, do you.
as long as you change it up it should be fair game. it's like buying a used car, previous owner might not have seen it's true potential so the new owner souped it up a bit.
Many people condemn the use of samples, but they overlook how the industry works today. You have to deliver quickly and the people who use samples do exactly what the samples were created for in the end. Of course I'm only referring to samples for which you have a license. Service providers like Cymatics and so on don't exist for nothing. They can also be used 1 to 1. For example : 1000 people have a license and the owner of the rights is the first person to release/register a song with this sample. Whoever comes first paints first, so to speak. The license also states that you can register yourself as the author. In my opinion, the people who are in such situations are just angry that they didn't do it themselves. They had the opportunity but producer xyz used it. Don't hate the player hate the game if you want.
Using loops and sample packs as a creative starting point is one thing, but what I don't understand is how someone could literally recreate the demo track of a pack and then release it with a straight face as if they just did something creative. When I was first learning how to produce, I would sometimes put loops together to get an understanding of the DAW and arrangement. But those practice sessions were not released as original music (not released at all obvi lol). It's less that it's lazy and more that it comes off as disingenuous and people tend to like musicians (or any creative) to be authentic and ripping off a "royalty free" demo track just shows your audience you were not who you said you were.
Agree, I think the issue may be more about duplicating a song/arrangement (caveat, I haven't heard full tracks side by side), but the sampling aspect being mixed in and muddies what is really more about duplicating an arrangement.
Really interesting video, so much more thought provoking than "just another gear demo"...
Musicians have always borrowed from each other, but I guess the thing about loops and samples is that detecting their use can be automated. To me, as long as everything is properly attributed and (where necessary) paid for, I don't see the problem.
Bands like Igorrr could use a thousand samples in one song and you wouldn't even know because of how meticulous the arrangements are. It sounds like Igorrr, not whoever they might have sampled. Same goes for Skrillex.
Amon Tobin. An entire career and an entire discography based on samples, yet no one ever complained to him for stealing their music. A true artist.
Igorrr and Skrillex in the same sentence and yet it’s perfectly valid.
What a world we live in!
@@maykstuff I feel like Igorrr is king of the DAW.
Never heard of Igorrr, but I am a Skrillex fan and can tell you that he’s very skilled when it comes to manipulating and mixing audio (obviously). But I can argue that a large majority of his sounds are self-created. The vocal chops, for example, are from artists who go into his studio and record a phrase. He’s also a sound designer and knows how to diligently use wavetables and LFOs to craft most of his sound selection.
Igorrr is such an amazing artist! His projects are so creative and weird 🤘😊
This is a great video and I feel it's going to be a timeless one, which will apply to countless situations in the future.
It’s wild that what was the fear in the 2000s of desktop producers, has now become far more likely, thanks to Premade Sampling Loops leaving the niche and turning into a commercialized consumer oriented industry.
Minor detail but when you say at 4:25 "invert the phase" from my understanding this should be called "inverting the polarity". Phase is a measure of degrees and not all frequencies are at the same phase as the same time. But inverting the polarity means that all frequencies have the opposite phase at the same time, which gives you that effect. I know some people use these terms interchangeably, however, they are different even though certainly related things.
I learned this lesson a long time ago, in like 2018. I had just started making music and had bought a generic Cymatics house sample pack. I really liked a couple of the loops in it (not a full demo track but still similar in concept) It was basically just a house piano loop, a guitar loop, and I think some vocals. I lazily put them together and made the full song in a few hours. When I tried to upload it to soundcloud it gave me a copyright notice telling me I wasn't going to be allowed to post it because it was somebody else's song. I went to look into the song and sure enough, it was the same loops I had used, and it sounded extremely similar. I was still mad because I had purchased these loops and therefore the rights to use them, but since somebody else had used them in their song, the autodetection system told me I was violating their copyright. I never released the song and from what I remember was pretty mad about it. Now I look back and laugh, because its not only pretty funny, but its a great lesson to learn, and to be honest was probably a catalyst for a lot of growth in sound design I wouldn't have otherwise had. If I use loops now they're 99% of the time drum loops, and I make it a point to try and change them up in some way. Samples/loops aren't bad, but there's a huge negative side to them that you aren't told when you're in the checkout page, paying for them. I learned way more about music and sound design for free watching artists I enjoyed livestreams/videos.
Its also weird because it seems like context comes into play at times. The Sonic Frontiers game has a dubstep soundtrack that pretty heavily utilizes Ace Aura bass samples(from the Chime/Ace Aura Disciple sample pack) to a point that anyone who's heard one or two songs of his will automatically know that those are his samples. This is especially the case since a lot of the bass loops used were originally from Ace Aura's old/new songs. But in this case it feels more like an easter egg than an insult because the song is just meant to support gameplay rather than be the selling point.
I have Frontiers and I didn't even notice this
I been caught sampling once. When I was five.
I enjoy sampling. It's just as simple as that.
Well, it's just a simple fact.
When I want something, man, I don't wanna pay for it.
I walk right through the DAW, and I walk right through the DAW.
Hey alright? Break it by!
It's mine....... well, no it's not mine all mine, but you can still sample it, too. Probably better than me.
Well-played. 😁
I’ve just watched this again a year later and it seems even more meaningful this time. I’ve started browsing through Splice occasionally and even a drum app but only for inspiration, in a similar way to which you might get inspiration from a song (dare I say it these days!). For someone approaching their 60’s making electronic music as a hobby but also for releasing, some of the info you present in this video comes as quite a shock, thinking that the sample packs are fair game for song writing and releasing! Loving your videos of recent years, fascinating topics, please keep them coming dude! 😊
just like i did with djing in the 90s i locked myself in a room for years until i could understand the full process then realized everyone else is just using loops and tempo syncs and arent going through all the growing pains of finishing an original song or dj set..even if no one likes it its more rewarding knowing you did it. ive never been noticed as a producer and barely eeked by as a dj i dont even know how to promote myself or even where to submit music to get people to listen to it but i still keep going because of how it makes ME feel. after years of listening to my own projects loop over and over i think i tapped into possibly what jazz musicians feel....where my music only appeals to other people who are bored listening to the same thing for hours
I would imagine this also happens with some of the presets in VSTs like Falcon expansions where one single keypress and you are listening to a looped combination composition of drums, pads and sequencers. Then the first person to publish a song based on the presets gets the ID that everyone gets a warning about using the same preset.
I can't recall the case name, but I know there was at least one instance where someone got sued, and it came down to the fact that both songs used the same preset on a Nord synth.
Go back in time before the internet. The Roland D-50/Korg M1 & Wavestation we prime examples of “dang Enya used THAT sound too?” This isn’t new but a bigger deal since we’re now swimming in a bazillion loops. 😊
@@PlugInGuruVideo funny enough I did actually buy the Korg M1 VST the other week for some reason as a late night impulse purchase :)
I like this video. Music should be sharing. One person can take a loop and create something amazing. It’s about making it unique enough to call it your own. Anyways, very entertaining video.
But that's not what happened here. Iterating upon a loop is fine but she took the full songs and made very minor changes, keeping the form completely intact.
@@middaymeds Perhaps I should of been more specific. When I meant when I said unique was to make major changes to the loop. What she did was take the samples with very minor changes. I do agree with you on that.
Like Weaver pointed out, Notlo apologizing for using samples in her apology glosses over the problem with her tracks: she basically modified stems of a finished track someone else made and called it her own with no credit. It gives using samples and loops a really bad name
@@SwiftDreamer Yeah, it certainly does.
@@SwiftDreamer maybe, just maybe, there is a problem with someone hoarding rights to the samples?.. and most "royalty free" licenses have clauses that disallow you from crediting the sample pack in the track metadata
There are many layers to this subject.
1 - Finding and chopping samples on your own, and then trying to build a song around it, can give a lot more work than making the sounds yourself. A lot more. Most times I do it because I prefer the sound of real instruments, etc.
2- Simply getting packs with made samples and drum loops has nothing to do with normal sampling, that is like a whole distinct genre. Real "normal" sampling is about taking a piece of a song and mixing with other elements (which can be painful), creating something unique.
3 - Not sampling is not the same as knowing how to play instruments. Since we all can play virtual instruments.
4 - It all comes down to what transformation you made. You can be a "real musician" and also copy what others are playing. Sample no sample, no big difference.
5 - etc, etc...
6 - Shame on those simply play loops and claim to be "sampling", and shame on those that diss on sampling as "stealing".
A real "sampler" takes a piece of crap music and turns into a beautiful creation. Thats art. Musical art is not just "playing instruments".
There's so much great music out there that's only possible because of sampling, such as Madeon’s amazing Pop Culture mashup, entire genres such as vaporwave, plunderphonics, and more recently dariacore; as well as countless bootleg remixes, flips and edits which are a staple in eletronic music and live DJ sets. Not to mention hip hop, of course.
It sucks that copyright laws recently seem to be more effective at stifling creativity than at protecting artists. I hate to imagine a world where none of the above could exist.
I use loops and samples for 2 things: (A) shortcuts - when I'm stuck and have no idea how to make a piece of music work, and (B) inspiration - when I deconstruct an existing sample using my own instruments in order to find out how the groove is made. In most cases though I recreate the sample, and toss away the original in favor of my own recreated version, which I can then slice and dice or edit midi notes. Like anything, it's a tool, and getting creative with samples means working with it - molding it to fit the vision you have for your song. Sometimes that means using it as is.
Not using them at all is how you really learn and can be truly proud of your work. If you find a sample you like, learn how to recreate it or even improve it.
My 2 cents: For one of my albums, I used the ejay sample packs, which are older than most people here. I only got one fingerprint warning and it was solved in a few hours without any negative repercussions. Zero regrets. Sampling can be theft or art, it's up to you as the artist. If you, as an artist, can sleep well at night then it's all good.
ur not an artist if your using samples. paint by numbers is not art!!!
@@raindogred I'm more of an artist than you. I used samples on 1 album out of 10. How many albums have you published? That being said, get lost.
which version of ejay tho.
@@raindogred that's really a blanket statement if you generalize it like that. If I take a demo track for a sample pack, only adding minor differences and variations, and taking credit for the whole thing is not right. But do you also think using snare hits, foley perc or FX one shots makes someone not an artist? Does the same go for someone taking a loop and chopping it into something completely different? It's more nuanced than what you are implying.
What system flagged the finger print? UA-cam or another distributor?
In the demoscene this is called Timbalanding because Timbaland using a loop from one of the sceners' songs without paying royalties blew up to a small scandal. It's definitely a cultural thing because the scene has spirit.
There were rumours that he was stealing whole tracks from independent artists who uploaded their works to the site such as: soundcloud, youtube
This leads into the behemoth of an issue on intellectual property and the internet's disruption of our conventions and laws. Ofc goes way beyond music.
I received a takedown from the management of a very popular artist. They claimed I stole part of the song. At first I thought it was a sample loop overlap of some kind, or a mistake. But it turned out that both of us had used the same VSTi PRESET. Not a sample, but an arpeggiated synth sound from a virtual instrument. The instrument wasn't one of the most popular tools, I didn't think anything of it at the time. Until then, I never worried about presets. In this case, there was no way I could afford to even defend myself, so I removed the song.
I teach music production at a university, and even the Logic Pro handbook (published by apple), teaches using apple loops in Chapter 1. It's the foundation of the rest of the book, which to me is absolutely backwards, but at the same time, it's the easiest way to tach someone the technical aspects of a DAW as quickly as possible. Music production doesn't require any musical skills, and I'm fine this (I am a musician), in fact I like the barriers to entry being very low for art. But as long as we are teaching people to sample from the start, it's only going to get worse.
What's really strange is that when music is an industry, there will be people seeking profit, people seeking attention and popularity, and also true artists who want to feel the joy of making things. In some ways I think the businessification of music, or the commodification of the final product, is one of the worst things to happen to the art. And yet, I make a living making music. Isn't it absurd that you can own a melody? but not a rhythm?
This, 100 percent. IP laws are broken, especially with streaming services having sided with major labels to punish independent creators, which money-wise makes sense (befriend the one that will bring millions of viewers to your ads at the cost of the one who has a much smaller pull). What is extra awful about it is that these same services have the implied ethos of being a home for independent musicians, and their friends. It just feels really toxic and frankly often exploitative.
Sadly I don't have a good suggestion on how to fix copyright/IP law, because I think artists do need protection - but it should be protection more for the artists and not big studios, in my ideal dream land.
You removed it already so you can say who the artist is and what song it was.
This has happened repeatedly to synth reviewers on UA-cam, such as Starsky Carr. He fell foul of copyright bots which misidentified simple sounds he played on classic synthesisers, such as low-to-high filter sweeps, as infringements on the work of Chemical Brothers and Depth Charge. I don't know how things worked out with Depth Charge or whether it was even possible to contact J Saul Kane, but to their credit the Chemical Brothers did help to get the accusation removed.
@@glyndwr15 It's not really relevant, it could have happened with anyone. It was Lady Gaga's management. I don't remember the name of the song, I had never heard it before. I think it was a preset from the TAL Uno-60. This was over 10 years ago, I imagine the problem is 10x worse now.
@@bricelory9534 IP goes way beyond music and art of course. This whole idea of owning a line of code is only precedented to less than 50 years.
The thing I remind my students is that the recording arts are young, less than 100 years old if you're talking about duplication of a listening medium. The idea of owning music a a publication is older, several hundred years, but even that is very little time if you consider how long humans have been making music. How old is general plagiarism?
We take it for granted that we are in the "entertainment era" of music. Consumer capitalism requires us to think about music as a product or service, and therefore ownership applies. It's kind of wacky if you think of the thousands of years humans used music for spirituality and prayer.
IMO, all roads leads to eventually needing to overhaul what it legally means to own music or an idea. Most people don't want to do this, because the laws we have work better than nothing, and open this can of worms could lead to questions of what it means to own anything. Personally I think it's weird that you can own, buy , and sell a piece of the earth...but I'm probably on the fringes for that one!
5:58 haven't watched this to the end, but just want to say: if nulling is the litmus test for whether a track or song is original then oh boy, oh boy do I have some original bangers coming up
🎵 _friller_ _frill_ _of_ _bike_
_and_ _no_ _one's_ _gonna_ _save_ _you_ _from_ _this_ _yeast_ _about_ _to_ _hike_ 🎵
Does all of this apply to drum loops? I've been experimenting with some breaks for a jungle-like sound in the percussion. usually, I split it all up and rearrange the drums, but at the start of the track I like to let the loop play out for a bar or two because it gives context/prepares the ears for the contrast. Is this something I should be worried about doing if I plan to publish my music?
Also, in the case in the video, I think there's not really that big of an ethical issue in stealing, or at least it's a gray area, but what I would think is akin to what is discussed around 13:00, but a little bit beyond. I would want people to hear *myself* in the music, and creating something that sounds super similar to something else, even if 100% ethical, moral, legal, whatever, would disappoint me. Maybe it wouldn't disappoint my wallet though lol
Samples are meant for making music, so I use them for that.
I think there is a world of difference between using a sample as-is and flipping, or cutting up a drum sample to build your own kit for the drum machine. Having said that, using a sample as is on purpose as a quote is art in itself (Dua Lipa sampling the super memorable trumpet sample from "Your Woman", for example). What's frustrating is that so much turns on the creator's intention. And what's frustrating for creators is that the work is judged on the listener's inferences about your intention. Top it off with the fact that Copyright law in this area is a confused jumble of contradictory holdings that create no clear rule at all, and it makes a space with very little clarity. For me, if I think the creator was trying to say something new, I'm good. The tracks you played at the top sounded too similar for my taste--but again, that's me as a listener making an inference about the creator from the sounds. Whether that is stealing or not is a legal, technical morass--I gave up trying to understand the rules when I tried to square Vanilla Ice winning against Queen for copying "Under Pressure"--because he added one (one!) extra hi-hat to the loop--but "Blurred lines" sounds too generally similar to "Got to give it up". How the hell is anyone supposed to know what is ok for copyright? In any event, good topic!
The copyright laws are confusing enough, but at least there has been some clarity in recent years about what is actually legal or illegal, and how the licensing works. Things get much murkier when there's no obvious infringement of copyright law (sample packs are specifically meant to be used for making music after all) but the public decides "You weren't creative enough with the samples" or "You didn't work hard enough like a real artist does". It's a murky old business.
So what's the point of using free loops if using them is considered plagiarism ? Creating your own loops seems like the best idea and avoid all free loops that everyone is modifying and using in multiple different tracks by different artists.
Agreed. Is it plagiarism for me to steal an a major chord, or remix a 145 progression?
Everything borrows from something else. I did not invent the C minor chord does that mean I can't use it
My favorite bit was when I got a copyright tick on my channel because some band used the same free sample (from an Electronic Musician Magazine CD!) that I used. So many holes in the systems we use to make music. Video creators hit this too--if you use a free sample from Pexels, etc. and a filmmaker uses it in a major release, then someone like Sony issues a takedown notice, or you get your video blocked. Lame.
and, to put a finer point on it, perhaps this is just highlighting the limits of creativity using samples. Maybe it's time for us to step back from the practice in recorded music. The saturation of similar sounds makes it tough for even experts to differentiate them, and the areas of dance, hip hop, film trailers, and film music in general are so uniform today that it actually pulls one out of the situation psychologically while you are dancing or trying to watch a show...
This is why it's best to sample from individual stems and modify them.
I am in the process of producing a trip hop thing under my sigaretto brand and I dread the thought of not making something unique.
Hello!
In music production, I have always used samples mainly for drums or certain sound effects. I prefer to shape and create my own sounds, and this has taught me a lot about sound design. I really enjoy this channel; I always find useful perspectives or ideas that I can apply.