Please note that the view point here is of the writer and not necessarily that of the club or it's members.
Samplers, are they true electronic musical instruments? Is their use
truly creative? Should we be using them? The creation of electronic music
has always been controversial, a previous article "What is Electronic
Music?" should have created a debate amongst you. This article put
some good points, but many people from other classes of music, most
noticeably the Classical musicians claim that synthesizers are not real
instruments, this argument started in 1967 and still pops up from time to
time. So what chance do samplers have of becoming accepted ? The basic
concept of a sampling is simple, record a sound on any sort of medium and
then be able to play the sample back. Early attempts where made using tape
recorders, once the sound was on tape it could be played back over and
over, at various speeds even backwards. Not very practical for most
musicians as it was very time consuming particularly if a series of
samples are required. However with the introduction of the Mellotron, it
suddenly became practical to sample other instruments and the keyboard
player could become an orchestra or choir. Once again other musicians
became hostile as this was not a real instrument and threatened jobs in
the music industry. The later point is certainly valid, one good
keyboardist and a number of instruments could replace a whole group of
session players. The introduction of electronic samplers did not initially
trigger the same sort of response, probably because not many were sold due
to the sheer cost, but as prices dropped the same arguments where made
against sampling. But with samplers becoming ever cheaper these
instruments where being bought by small bands and bedroom composers and
they could never afford to hire other musicians so are they threatening
jobs? probably not. A less desirable aspect of the ever increasing use of
samplers was the new practice of sampling from other artists music to
achieve that elusive sound. With time, samplers have continued to become
cheaper or more powerful, (faster, larger memories, more samples, hard
disc drives etc.). This has led to perhaps the worst misuse of samplers,
recording complete passages of music from other artists. This to my mind
is not only cheating the other artist, but also themselves as they are
restricting their own creativity, both in the creation of music but also
new sounds. I own 2 samplers and over the years have used samples of
pianos in the past, before good sounding piano modules became available,
then only because I have no room for a baby grand or an upright. My own
synths have been sampled to try and produce layered sounds that the source
instruments are not capable of producing. This may not be considered as
creative as sampling the sound of dust bins being hit, an aircraft fly
past , animal noise etc. and turning them into musically acceptable
sounds, but at least I am trying to create new sounds. I have also
purchased sample CD's, only because the sounds on them are not available
from my present kit. These have been mainly old analogue synths. I shall
probably add other samples in the future of sound sources such as choirs.
If the complaints against samplers had been heeded, some very creative
work may never have been done, and where would that leave synthesizers
that use samples as sound sources . The use of samplers will cause debate
for years to come, but I hope that the behaviour of a few will not spoil
the pleasure of many.
At the beginning I raised 3 questions
LB
If anyone has any strong feelings about samplers, contact BSC
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