sam·pled, sam·pling, sam·ples

• A recording of anything which is stored as a useable file, (which can be then used in a Music-Software package to build a song or piece of music).
• A usually digitized audio segment which is inserted, often repetitively (looped), in a new recording.
• eg To use or incorporate (an audio segment of an original recording) in a new recording: a song that samples the bass line of a 1970's disco tune.

Today we're looking at Samplers, Samples, and how to put together your music by a simple drag n' drop system. This basically means you choose and insert a sample such as a drum pattern into a software studio on say track 10, and this can be repeated, looped and mixed with other samples on other tracks. So you might have a drum track/sample down for your song's verse, you then pick a bass sample (for example), and when you hit play, the drum and bass samples will play together. Then it's a matter of choosing and adding more samples such as vocals, synths or whatever it is you have in mind. Just drag the ones you like to your mixing panel and hit play - recommended music software packages below.

You can put together a complete song or tune in this way. It's just a matter of adding more tracks and so on. If you use this system it's highly recommended (essential I feel), to use a computer which is up to the job. This vital sampling subject is dealt with in Home Recording - Studio Set-Ups

If you listen to many songs in the charts today, you'll hear samples of old songs and remixes in there. It's even possible to take complete songs and "remix" them and a whole industry has built up around this. It's a controversial subject with some of the more traditional musicians out there, but hey that's tech progression I suppose. It wasn't that long ago (relatively speaking), when "Rock n' Roll" itself was frowned upon but the times they are a' changin' as one Mr. Bob Dylan once put it.

Love 'em or loathe 'em, samples are a seriously powerful way of working and are the ''norm" more or less in much of the Pop world. For example they are tailor made to suit repetitive Dance music, and you can buy ready made and extremely high quality samples of almost any instrument and/or/in any style of music. You can also mix original/pre-recorded samples in with real instruments and MIDI and this is how I like to use them.

Here's a quick demo of a David Gray tune I recorded and covered myself using a backing track that was MIDI and Sample based. It's a cool song released in 2001 called Please Forgive Me Originally Written and Recorded by David Gray ©

... taken from his cool CD - White Ladder

• This demo - David O'Toole (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Programming, Sampling)

You can make your own samples and you can color or edit anything and turn it into a "contender". For example you could do a good recording of a baby's rattle and use it as a rhythm track :), spice it up with some effects, put it on top of a drum groove, mix it in with a chorus from an old 70's tune, whatever - the sky's the limit.

Your choices here will also depend on your collection of samples you have, and most software studio packages include a collection of samples to get you started - just check the copyright of any samples if you plan to unleash (sell) any of your works to the public. You can buy samples of drum tracks, bass lines, synth progressions and so on and these are usually all royalty free. This means that you can use them in any way you like. The quality of these varies, but as a rule as long as you buy a quality product from a quality source you shouldn't have any problems. Some software Studios and resources for quality samples are added below. Try a Google search for "free music samples +royalty free" (without the "s) and see how you get on.