Week 5-Learning more about sampling

Most of the big time producers right now sample their music so I thought it is important to learn more about sampling. In music Sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of a sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece.

Types of Samples:

Vocals/Lyrics:Some producers sample vocals for example
Ahmad's song "We Want the Funk" that was released in 1994 was recently sampled in a song released this year called "King Kunta" by Kendrick Lamar

This is the original song released in 1994

(sample appears in 0:21)

This is the song that sampled the vocals from Ahmad

(sample appears in 3:17)

Instrument:another type of sample is taking instruments from a song and using them in a different song, you could use the original instrument track or you cant change it up a bit for example Cold Grits drum track for "Its Your Thing" was taken and sampled on "Then Blacker The Berry" and they changed the pattern of the drums and also added more bass to them.

Original Drum track released in 1969 

"Blacker the Berry" drum track

(sample appears 0:11 and throughout)

 

Multiple Elements: The last type of sample 1 learned about was multiple elements, This is basically almost sounding like the original, it is multiple sounds together the to make a complex sound. The person who samples the original might add a couple of more sounds to it.Usually the person who samples it gives producer credits to the original maker of the tune even though the instrumental was not originally made for them . Here are some examples

Knxledge instrumental, so[rt] that was released in 2013 

(appears 0:12)

The original was used in Kendrick Lamar's track "Momma" that was released this year

Another example is Boom Clap Bachelors song "Tiden Flyver"

  

In this example you can tell that the sampler added some more sounds and instruments but sounds identical to the original.

Week 4

This week I wanted to make some beats but I didn't have enough time because I spent a lot of time looking for old tracks to sample off of. I found couple and that is what i will be working on this week.

Some albums that are going to inspire my work are:

Oxymoron by Schoolboy Q

                                                           Cilvia Demo by Isaiah Rashad

                                                         
                                              Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar

A lot of the music I produce will be similar to the tracks on this album because this is my favorite album right now because it is based on Kendrick's life growing up in Compton and it is mostly produced by Dr Dre,my favorite producer , he is also a Compton native. The reason I like this album so much is because I also grew up in Compton for a good portion of my life and I understand his music better because in some of the tracks he says what happen to him in a certain part of town and I know exactly what he is talking about.

Here is a picture of a concert that I attended. he preformed some tracks from Good Kid, M.A.A.D City for free this past Christmas at his hometown of Compton,California.

Here is a picture of Dr Dre(right)Kendrick Lamar(middle) and another famous rapper from Compton, The Game(Left)

Audiotool/ sampling a drum track

I got the hang of audio tool but there is a lot I still have to learn, it is so complex that I think I will not be using it as much. I am going to start using garage band a lot more because I think it is easier to use.

This week I learned how to sample. I remade the drum track for a song that was already sampled.Just in case you don't know, in music sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece. I remade the drum track just as practice.

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2. This is the original drum track that was sampled in the track that I am going to remake.(just listen to the first 10 seconds.)
3. So I downloaded the song opened it in Garage band an cut up parts of the drums that i needed.
4. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Once I had cut up every sound I needed, I opened up musical typing, what musical typing does is every time I hit a certain key it will make the sound of whatever sound i assigned the key to make.
5. 
6. So now that I have all the sounds assigned to a certain key I connected a keyboard to make it easier for me. 
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8. I listen to the song a couple of times and practices the pattern and when i thought i could get it down I recorded it a couple of times until i thought i got it right.
9. This is what it looked like when I was done.(every white box is a time i hit a key on the keyboard.)

This is the song that I remade the drum track.(drum track appears 0.11 - 0.23)

And this is the the remake I made. I know it sounds easy but it was a long process and I am proud of myself  

Learning to use Audiotool

This week I tried using a website that is used to make beats called Audiotool and I was completely lost the first time I tried it. I took the tour and kind of got the hang of it, I learned a little bit but I'm still confused. I don't know how to start making it. This is a lot harder than I thought. I'm going to watch a couple of Youtube videos so I can learn more and hopefully by next week I will be able to use the site well.

Here is a screenshot of the website.Can't blame me for being confused.

Introduction

My name is Alfonso Ramirez and on this blog I will be sharing beats I made. They might not be the best because I have no experience but this is something I have always wanted to try.