Beat Making Ethics

If it works I will use it, if it sounds good I will use it. If I like it I will use it. I don't really like loops but I will use one every blue moon. I use riffs once in a while. I LOVE one shots cause I can freak them my own personal way. I will sample whatever from wherever I don't limit myself at all cause you never know where that next hot sample you will hear comes from, whether it be mp3, cd, cassette, dvd, md, vinyl, dat, tv, radio, the kitchen sink, your friends drum set, your friends trumpet. It doesn't matter, if you like it then use it. Of course if it's someone else sample then you get permission, simple as that. If it's your own instrument then props to you for being able to create like that.

The bottom line is the MPC uses SAMPLES, get them, get them cleared if applicable and create until your heart is content.

I agree with everyone, to an extent. Yes, the MPC is built for samples but it is also built for midi (MPC = Midi production center), but i like to sample. As far as sample clearance goes, man if they aint gonna know it was sampled, they aint gonna get you for royalites. plain and simple. that "so contagious" beat by Dj quik, the only way that the artist found out that quik jacked the hook from her song, unchanged word 4 word was that it went to #1 otherwise, she wouldnta known at all. This was a song from a MAJOR indian film soundtrack, that nobody knew about. I think that was one of the main reasons for the crackdown, that the artists being sampld for hip-hop were the peopl whose staff, family and friends aint listening to hip-hop (ie out of genre) and therefore werent able to spot thier samples being used. IE Def Leopard aint gonna know you sampled them unless someone tells them, this REALLY makes them angry. shoot, I can recognize a lot of samples in songs that aint cleared since the notes dont credit the samples, but they are likely, sound that you can argue came from somewhere else, or that you cannot tell if that is the sample in question etc.

Sampling is now less of a "pay to jack a beat" like the puffy era of 96-99, but more, sample, chop and disguise samples so only you know where they came from and if anyone elese does, the sample is so altered there is no way to prove where it did or didnt come from.
its kinda an end run around copyright law, since the first thing the accuser has to prove is that you sampled them. If they cant do that, they have no case. If the sample is chopped, flipped, layered and looped, its gonna be impossoible to prove that the sample came from one place and not another, (you can search lexlaw for coyright cases and search by name of an artist with it to see a lot of copyright decisions that basically say "perosn X cannot prove that person y sampled thier music since there are about 5 billion albums that have tha lick on it, or that phraase or that bassline.

so sampling is now more about hiding samples, in the early 90's it was about sampling, and changing the sample slightly to make it ok (vanilla ice changed 1 note in "under pressure", bam! no clearance needed for ice ice baby, the song that PAID him in full) then we go to, "puffy pays 40 grand and just uses the beat to kashmir.) now to the "sample it and hide it" era, basically taking it back to the beginning with biz markee and the old skool heads disguising sounds.

yowie mane....great post.

bricks wrote:to each ya zone,

word

I have never sampled from vinyl. I don't even own a record player of any sort. That's not to say that I'm opposed to it. I will sample from any source. In fact, I was sampling from a cassette player a week ago. When it's all said and done, if it's a hot track, it's a hot track regardless of the sampling source. Personally, I don't sample beats. I sample individual drum sounds and create my own beats with the sampled drum sounds. I prefer it that way; it's more original but, I ain't mad at someone that uses a "prefab" beat (if I can call it that) and adds his own flavor to it. I won't bother to argue whether it's real hip hop or not on the basis of how one samples. I get my satisifaction from having an artist want to write to my track that what I'm aiming for. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

AMEN.

And a good story it is

2 more cents

everyone has great points. i fully agree with the arguement that good music is good music regardless where the source material came from. one of my producer friends samples public access tv all the time and creates f*ckin ill ass beats. neptunes use the sh*t out of keyboards. shadow uses samples. to each his own.

me personally, i like the feeling i get from finding all my own samples off records that i randomly find. i dont consider it stealing cuz i dont really jack a song and add a kik and snare pattern and call it mine, i do like a lot of cats and hide my samples through processing.

i dont think there should really be any "code" of ethics involved in beatmaking besides your own personal one. my code is that it has to come from wax. others dont do that and that is perfectly fine.

so bottom line, and it pretty much been stated, is that nobody is any better than anybody else because of how they make their music. as long as it is some good sh*t behind that bullsh*t, i will listen to anything.

this has been an exercise in redundancy.

My own personal ethics are that I really don't like to use loops/phrases. I SO enjoy making my own rythms/loops/riffs on my Triton and challenging myself to do pianos on the MPC with the pads. Once in a blue moon I will use a loop and afterwards it might sound cool but I just don't feel the same about myself, I feel dirty, I feel like I need to go take a shower.

That's just me though.

im def. feelin u on that lampdog. i feel like the morning after a long night of drinking.