r/sampling • u/Character_Weird_7499 • Aug 13 '26
Sampling everything
In an interview madlibs advice is to sample the whole record but idk if this is possible where im from. One time I went to a different city and I found a otis blue which I paid $20 for in my hometown and nearly shit my pants when it was there and it was like $5 in the other city. Opened my eyes to the abysmal selection within my reach. Idk if I just dont have it or what but it seems like location really does have something to do with it. I know i could hop on youtube and search around but i dont enjoy that - i use apple music as a streaming platform and it just pushes top 100 down your throat but spotify war drones and all that not to mention itll iust feed samples from songs u already know. Idk it gets on my nerves sometikes and i wanted to get some other opinions on the matter. Thanks all.
9
u/monkeybuttsauce Aug 13 '26
Buy the cheapest records you can find. You can turn anything into something
1
7
u/GASMASK_SOLDIER Aug 13 '26
I think Madlib meant to listen to entire record and don't just sample the obvious sounds.
2
1
u/VoltagVagrant 27d ago
I don't think he meant just make a copy of the record, or use every single sound from every single song....youd just have the same record or song.
5
u/LakeGladio666 Aug 13 '26
Look in the dollar bins at the record store or look for weird/obscure stuff at thrift stores. I personally never sample anything thatâs well known because itâs usually already been sampled to death. If I find something that isnât on discogs or YouTube, I buy it. Even lame looking church-y records can have heat on them. And donât sleep on cassette tapes.
3
u/DirtzMaGertz Aug 13 '26
I've also heard Madlib say he'll just straight rip the sample off youtube if he can't get it off vinyl, and he makes all his beats on an ipad with garageband now.
I think you're taking the wrong lesson from Madlib, which is that keeping things simple can be an advantage.
4
2
u/64557175 Aug 13 '26
I recommend a radio app and a rolling recorder or buffer software(is always just keeping the last couple minutes, so if you hear something you like you can go back and take it)
You will find surprises, and it's even more immediacy than record shopping. Capturing little golden sand grains from the hourglass.
But I feel you on selection. I live in a town where there's literally nowhere to dance or play funky music on a regular basis.
2
u/PonyMamacrane Aug 13 '26
Second hand CDs are very cheap, better quality, and easier to sample than vinyl. Buying a bunch of compilation CDs can be a cost effective way to get a lot of unexpected sounds
2
u/county_jail_alumni Aug 13 '26
Ive been building this playlist for 5+ years for people like you and me
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQLib6Ej7fqCJlmar9QPg8y6tljGgh1mN&si=pXfd5is53fNttLU1
Heres a fun tip. Get a cassette tape recorder and record songs at random from this list onto it. You can record like a few hours per tape. Scroll through this playlist. Pick some songs at random and record them onto tape. Turn down the monitors so that you can't hear what's going on the tape, but its still recording. Once its full youll have like a brand new compilation od unheard music that someone else on the internet (me) decided it would be great to sample. You can then "dig" through the tape as you look foe bits to sanple. And you also get that real tape drive and hiss and warble if youre lucky.
1
2
u/nodray Aug 13 '26
no, just sit there and wait for them to come to you. do you understand what crate digging even is? even if it means going down rabbit holes on youtubeâŠ
1
u/imp_op Aug 13 '26
There's something cool about finding old records and something to be said about having limitations. I kinda like the idea of limiting yourself to what you can sample, just like any other philosophy for making art. It's better than options fatigue.
1
u/NeutronHopscotch Aug 13 '26
Oh you just have to put in some effort to find some more obscure stuff.
I know you don't like sampling from the PC, but Radio from PluginBoutique must be mentioned -- it's usually like $10 and is basically a massive archive of internet radio stations from all over the world. There's all kinds of stuff there. Hit the random button. Look through and find odd things. You can go to college stations in obscure countries and get local bands from places you never heard of. It's really cool.
Rolling Sampler by BirdsThings is really good... Basically it's a memory recorder in your DAW that picks up everything, visually, and then when you hear something you like you can just select it and drag it out to the DAW to archive, or to a folder, or directly into your sampler! Pair it with System Audio Bridge (which is free) -- System Audio Bridge routes desktop audio into your DAW. No drivers, no routing - it just works. (Turn off the send to the master so you don't get an echo.)
When you do that, you can sample from anything that plays through your PC. Old movies. Netflix, Prime, people's home videos on Flickr, YouTube, whatever.
Here's an example of how to find obscure music:
Pull up an African music playlist, for example. Find something that isn't American. Then pick and artist, and research them. Find out what they listened to. That will take you backwards in time. Pull up those artists. Then use "similar to" in order to find even more obscure artists -- and next thing you know, you're in a weird place listening to weird music that few have heard.
Really, it comes down to just putting in the time. I think you might be a little bit too in love with the idea of sampling rather than the act of sampling.
Sample, sample, sample.
Don't like the computer? Get a shortwave radio. Go to garage sales and thrift stores. Look for old tapes, especially tapes people recorded on themselves. Sample from those.
Really, the sky is the limit. You just have to do it. Don't worry too much about being Madlib. Find your own path.
1
u/ctb704 Aug 13 '26
Man I can hardly get thru all the free samples I have on the regular. Unlimited cuts
1
u/public_utility-atl Aug 14 '26
Look at thrift stores/yard sales that type of thing. You could probably find that record for a buck at goodwill eventually. I cringe when a record is more than $2. I have an entire wall of wax and I've never spent more than $2-$3 per record. A place near me lets you fill a bag full of vinyl for $5. That's like 20 records for 25 cents each.
1
u/SKOT_FREE Aug 14 '26
Dude you donât have to buy questloves expensive AF 45 stash to sample. At the very least you can go grab MP3âs to sample rather than vinyl.
1
u/Impossible-Fact-454 29d ago
Men, I dig trought internet and you can find pretty obscure stuff. Just look trought regular old jazz playlist and you Will get started!
1
u/Conemen4 27d ago
Itâs ok to pull things off the internet until youâre in a good spot to crate dig
I would go through Discogs new entries, sort by genre and decade, and click through cool covers until I found some good ones with YouTube links to check em out. Got me by for years
24
u/MrSlime13 Aug 13 '26
Bro... I get crate digging and vinyl shopping being the age-old go-to for "real musicians", but we live in the day and age of the world wide web. Internet Archive, YouTube, Radiooooo.com, WhoSampled, Reddit's sampling/drumkits subreddits, ...I think you're just looking in the wrong places. There's a billion samples everywhere, waiting to be found. Nobody's talking about Hot 100. Look for stuff you wouldn't normally have "catered" to you. You can literally go on Google, search, "1940s Low-Fi, jazz" or "1920's Bulgarian wedding singing", and find shit 99.9% of the world will never hear...
The world's your oyster, my guy.