The Ideal Sample: 6+1 Short Axioms
- It comes in vinyl format, and hopefully in good condition. Better sound quality, natural hiss, possibility to scratch/stretch it.
- The specific snippet has never been used as a sample before. Preferably, the song has never been sampled before. Even more preferably, the album, the artist, and so on.
- It's not recognizable by the majority of listeners, even if completely raw/unedited. Hence, it is rare, very few people own the record, none has uploaded it on the Internet, and if so, the track is quite unpopular with less than 500 views on YouTube for instance.
- You've found it totally by luck while digging crates and the price was rather fair, if not a dollar deal.
- The oldest the better. Yes, that might contradict the "unpopularity" axiom, but that's the tough part, to maintain balance between the rarity and the release date. Preferably, it's been released before 1980.
- A posteriori, your sample becomes catchy and people wanna dig your source. Mission accomplished: a song, a record, or an artist has been successfully resurrected, a cool beat/song was made based on the latter, and you are the one responsible for both.
- Keep in mind that the above six axioms are applied altogether very rarely, it's very hard, and very often they should not be the point of sampling. One may focus only on one of them. Or one might base a project by fulfilling several of these aspects within various tracks.
- It comes in vinyl format, and hopefully in good condition. Better sound quality, natural hiss, possibility to scratch/stretch it.
- The specific snippet has never been used as a sample before. Preferably, the song has never been sampled before. Even more preferably, the album, the artist, and so on.
- It's not recognizable by the majority of listeners, even if completely raw/unedited. Hence, it is rare, very few people own the record, none has uploaded it on the Internet, and if so, the track is quite unpopular with less than 500 views on YouTube for instance.
- You've found it totally by luck while digging crates and the price was rather fair, if not a dollar deal.
- The oldest the better. Yes, that might contradict the "unpopularity" axiom, but that's the tough part, to maintain balance between the rarity and the release date. Preferably, it's been released before 1980.
- A posteriori, your sample becomes catchy and people wanna dig your source. Mission accomplished: a song, a record, or an artist has been successfully resurrected, a cool beat/song was made based on the latter, and you are the one responsible for both.
- Keep in mind that the above six axioms are applied altogether very rarely, it's very hard, and very often they should not be the point of sampling. One may focus only on one of them. Or one might base a project by fulfilling several of these aspects within various tracks.
Picture source: http://nahright.com/news/2008/07/03/oc-ag-put-it-in-the-box/
