Sampling

For a substantial amount of time, the use of sampling has had a major impact on music. Whether it be in electronic, rock or pop, sampling has definitely played a creative role in music. From the very early technology of Mellotron in the 60’s, to the majorly successful MPC drum machines which are still used today, most notably in Hip-Hop. Jump forward to today and we now have digital emulations of these classics and brand-new plugins that seamlessly integrate with your DAW.

For my remix I hoped to take inspiration mainly from the use of the vocal melody in the chorus of Skrillex and Diplo’s song “Where Are U Now”. They took a sample of Justin Bieber’s vocal and processed it until it is unrecognisable and used in a way to make it the centre piece of the whole track. (1:09)

Pitching it up, distortion, and other processing changed the timbre, giving it a completely new sound.

Although I didn’t want to take it as far for my remix this was a good basis for learning how to sample a vocal and place where it would have the most impact.

To create a rhythm, harmony, melody, from a pre-recorded sound has impacted the making today's current music, and with emergence of future bass we now see this used a lot more in popular music. Of course, sampling has been used for decades but with the technology we have now, sampling has now been transformed almost into a new instrument. Making a sample usable proved difficult in my remix as not really having a good understanding of how to implement them in a structural context. Musically the vocal sample I used was well recorded and would fit anywhere, but I was hesitant to alter it. Overall, samples are a great creative tool for any genre, being that a simple sound can be turned into a drum, a pad, a melodic synth or anything that you want.