On Sampling – Part 3

If you missed the first two parts of this series, you can read them here: On Sampling – Part 1 and On Sampling – Part 2.

I have a wonderful software sampling program called “Heart of Africa”. It’s made by one of the best companies out there, my favorite company, Spectrasonics. For my money, they make some of the coolest stuff on the planet. I don’t even pre-listen to their offerings anymore, I just buy ‘em and use ‘em.

Heart of Africa is a 2-part series created by a team of recordists who went through Africa and recorded various tribes and musicians and African indigenous instruments. Part A is single note samples of their instruments – the kind of recordings that I spoke of in last night’s post where each instrument is recorded note by note, those notes are spread across a keyboard, and one can play one’s own parts and solos on that keyboard.

The samples are beautifully recorded, capturing the subtle nuances of each instrument in its sonic richness. I use this software all the time and not just for African music, but for many other types of music that need special color.

They also have Part B called loops. Loops go beyond single notes into recorded phrases. Usually played by only the very best musicians, these phrases are sometimes useful to sprinkle into a song’s arrangements when the tempo and keys match.

These kinds of products are also available in Indian music, Asian music, South American music, Tibetan music and even Eskimo music, for all I know.

One of my favorite tools is Spectrasonics Stylus RMX. You’ve probably heard the term “Drum Machine”. Well, this software goes waaaaaaay beyond the drum machines of the 90s and early 2000s. Using Stylus is basically the same thing as hiring a world-class drummer and having him come into your world-class studio and recording with world-class engineers.

I won’t go deeply into the technology for fear of really losing some of you, but it’s pretty awesome – and I try to use that overused word as little as possible. Essentially, I can explore through their vast libraries of drum loops or phrases, gorgeously recorded and played by each of the world’s best studio drummers and select the drummer and the drum groove that I need for my song. I grew up a drummer, so I’m pretty particular about my drumming in my music. I worked with drum machines for years and found them to be severely limited and mostly lacking in human feel and groove. Whenever I could afford it, I would hire a great drummer.

A couple of years ago, when I built my home studio, I was able to eliminate the drum booth. This new program is just that good. When I used to advise clients on their recording budgets, I would always say, “When you use drums on a song you may as well quadruple the budget”. The old way of recording drums was expensive and extremely time-consuming if done right.

Today it’s, thankfully, a different world. I have great drummers and drumming at my fingertips recorded with pristine accuracy and groove – beautifully played, and literally thousands of choices to choose from. There’s even a new program out now that can take the 4/4 groove loop that the drummer plays and turn it instantly into a well played 5/4 or 6/8 or 12/8 meter – whatever you need. Again, pretty awesome. Oops, there I go again.

A quick digression now, but we’ll bring it back around to the point. Yesterday, one of our truly great artists and musical geniuses passed away. Les Paul, the father of the electric guitar. Most people know him as a great Jazz player and innovator. What they don’t know is that he actually invented the electric guitar.

The story of how he did it is one of those great examples of human ingenuity that prove that necessity breeds invention.

As a young boy and already huge guitar enthusiast, Les was sitting in his room one day frustrated because he couldn’t get his acoustic guitar to play loud enough. In desperation he unattached the arm with the needle from his record player keeping the wiring intact and jammed the record player’s needle into the wood body of his guitar and turned up the volume on his hi-fi amplifier. Voila! The electric guitar was born!

A whole new instrument was born which spawned a thousand new genres of music. Technology changed the face of music.  Some may say, “Not for the better!” “To each his own” is my retort. Classical acoustic music still exists and sounds better than ever because of digital technology. Recordings are more pristine than ever.

We must stay open to the advances in music and wait out the developing technology while it is perfected. Out of this patience will come great innovation.

Synthesis never was especially good at creating or emulating the sounds of real instruments. The technology got close on many levels, but when sampling was born, it did it so much better. So the developers of Synthesis technology basically stopped trying to emulate. But in the meantime the technology had advanced to the point where the synth designers could go off on their own and develop a palette of sound that the world had never heard before.

Now you hear the gorgeous sounds of synthesis in movie scores, television, pop music, classical music, avant garde music and nearly every genre.

I just bought a new Spectrasonics software program called Omnisphere that has literally tens of thousands of sonic possibilities at my fingertips – a mixture now of synthesis and sampling technology that I will use for the rest of my life. The multifarious sounds are listed alphabetically and I’ve been using this on all my music for the past 6 months to great effect.  Their Tuban Voices open the Siyahamba Project that I worked on.  I’m not yet through exploring the ‘A’s.  I’ll let you know when I get to the ‘B’s.

Am I excited about all this new technology? Duh. I wake up in the morning and immediately begin to drool at the thought of getting into my studio.

Life is grand.

In case you missed it, you can read the first 2 parts of this series here:
On Sampling – Part 1 and On Sampling – Part 2.

And for more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.