Sampling, Does It Rob You Of Learning The Art Of Recording?

I've listened to a few projects here & there and noticed a few things that stands out...the lack of spatial recognition, eq'n, tone, and a few other things.

So if one doesn't have to deal with those aspects of recording and soley relys on the material that's gone through that process, does that rob the individual of the finer principles of learning music composition, mixing & mastering?

I'd like to hear some thoughts on this.

I think sampling can give you a nice shortcut to obtaining a pro sound because you can bypass the finer points of recording, but I'm not sure how this affects spacial recognition, eq or tone?

The onus is with the beatmaker to mix his sounds and create space and dynamics, and that's one element that can't be bypassed.

Depends on what kind of sampling u're into. Sampling a loop and program a few drums doesn't require much skill. But sampling from different recordings and blending them together forces u to be more aware of tone, equing and mixing. Of course most sampling artists don't have any experience with micing and recording session players, but people who only rely on software and vst's don't have to deal with that either.

Recording musicians and mixing big studio projects is something that has become rarer the last few years.

Menco wrote:Depends on what kind of sampling u're into. Sampling a loop and program a few drums doesn't require much skill. But sampling from different recordings and blending them together forces u to be more aware of tone, equing and mixing. Of course most sampling artists don't have any experience with micing and recording session players, but people who only rely on software and vst's don't have to deal with that either.

Recording musicians and mixing big studio projects is something that has become rarer the last few years.

True, but it's not that we have recording musicians these days to contend with, it's the recording producers. Katz that piece together a mixture of their skills and samples (not to mention there's a growing list of these folks out here).

Dunno man... having gotten more into the mixing to start with I don't even know if I can say either way anyways. The truth is in how it sounds anyways... and we all know we take short cuts at one time or another. Who's to say?

I always say that too much of a 'good' thing eventually will make it bad. Anybody that really has a love for music needs to be able to move on to learn new things. If you get sucked too far into digging and sampling you'll miss out on so many opportunities. You can say the same thing about someone who works with loops all day or even the person that just records live instruments in their bedroom studio.

So yeah... I guess my thought is that just focusing on one thing in general is bad for your music. It is always good to know what is out there at least so that you can know why you are or are not using something.

Who has a better appreciation for music, the person who digs, listens and samples... or the person who's out there practicing their instrument all day? What about the person who's getting their time in at the console and tweaking the eq, compression and mixer levels? I guess it's not even worth trying to answer that question though... since it is impossible to answer. We've all gut our own style, expression and vibe. I think it's a worth while pursuit to try and appreciate the flip side, but there's no reason to have to become it either.

Let's flip the question though... does the art of recording rob you of learning the art of sampling?

NearTao wrote:Let's flip the question though... does the art of recording rob you of learning the art of sampling?

That's a good question. The way I see it is, if you have control over the outcome of the recording, then I figure you can be more creative with it from a sampling standpoint and it not being too one dimensional.

Then if you have good sampling skills, you can flip it in more ways than you could otherwise.

interesting topic... I guess the question is asked with the angle of sampler players being engineers or technicians rather then instrument players. I think if you are the type of person who is playing a sampler like how a keyboardist plays a keyboard.... you would probably need to learn the art of recording as much as any other musician or recording artist.

Sampling, Does It Rob You Of Learning The Art Of Recording- Yes and No..but more towards yes.

Doing beats in general (keyboard or sampling) is a different world as compared to micing instruments.

On keyboards or samplers you have very controlled environments to work with. When micing a band its a way different game. You have acoustics, people moving, tuning of instruments, mic placement etc etc etc. With the MPC its line out to line in.

poundaproblem wrote:Sampling, Does It Rob You Of Learning The Art Of Recording- Yes and No..but more towards yes.

Doing beats in general (keyboard or sampling) is a different world as compared to micing instruments.

On keyboards or samplers you have very controlled environments to work with. When micing a band its a way different game. You have acoustics, people moving, tuning of instruments, mic placement etc etc etc. With the MPC its line out to line in.

yeah that is true... I was thinking like... lets say you were a rhodes player or a hammond player... i mean some people play the mpc like that... live and stuff.

but you are right, no mics, isolation booths, choosing the best guitar amp... none of that for the most part is involved with making a production when just using a sampler. But at the same time... a guitarist, singer, and all those guys might not be the person doing the recording either.

mr_debauch wrote:But at the same time... a guitarist, singer, and all those guys might not be the person doing the recording either.

very true however most producers will end up doing some sort of recording engineering (or at least want to). Guitar players, bassists etc may dabble with recording but not on a scale a producer would. At the end of the day I think everyone should have some fun recording live. Its a nice experience.

poundaproblem wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:But at the same time... a guitarist, singer, and all those guys might not be the person doing the recording either.

very true however most producers will end up doing some sort of recording engineering (or at least want to). Guitar players, bassists etc may dabble with recording but not on a scale a producer would. At the end of the day I think everyone should have some fun recording live. Its a nice experience.

I agree, and not only is it nice.... it is hard to do compared to what most of us do. One thing I like about the MPC is not needing to rely on others to make music, and I'm sure a lot of people here can relate to that one! haha. no worries about other members being late or canceling, none of that.

^ Damn right about that lololol

So does anybody feel that a majority of our best producers out here go for it from a group standpoint, or they pretty much go for it on a solo basis, or both?

Though they're recognised artists/producers/musicians, R. Kelly & J. Dupree come to mind when I think of folks who dabble in every aspect of the sampling/recording game.

There's quite a few others, but I can't think of a them at the moment.

mr_debauch wrote:I agree, and not only is it nice.... it is hard to do compared to what most of us do. One thing I like about the MPC is not needing to rely on others to make music, and I'm sure a lot of people here can relate to that one! haha. no worries about other members being late or canceling, none of that.

Yeah, and lately haven't had to worry about any crazy bugs showing up or CF cards biting it.

To the point of it being isolated though and not dealing with mic'ing... the same thing can be said about a lot of the DAWs (hardware or software)... I guess it depends where the interest lies.

It is *way* harder to mic up in a full band and worry about bleeding and all that... or is it even simpler and isolation booths still count for your list?

I've dabbled in a lot of the different music fields to have at least some appreciation for a lot of the different jobs. Worst thing I did for myself was learn about DJ'ing, beat juggling and pitch matching... suddenly going out to clubs I started paying more attention to how bad the DJ was than how much fun I should've been having . Repeat after me... "The backspin is not a way to transition into every song" hehe

BTW, anybody feel the connection between live playing and recording? I mean, I understand the old way of micing stuff but what about the katz that get recorded from lets say the amp/pre-amp feeds & direct box connections?

And with the kat that likes to use electronic drums over acoustic? I think there's other angles that can be looked at and dealt with if you have to go with tracking live musicians.