Sampling is a quintessential part of modern music-making, and a niche skill responsible for some of the most recognisable tracks in recent recording history. From iconic vocal samples to innovative flipping of obscure beats, sampling is a broad field of creative expression and functional production.

It is also at once extremely easy and extremely difficult. Early forays into samples yield fun results, but quickly reveal the true expertise and vision of the greatest producers to ever do it. So, as someone wanting to start their own sampling journey, where should you start? And what do you need to know?

editing music on laptop

Getting Started

Sampling is an easy skill to over-complicate, and there will be plenty of opportunities to complicate things a little further down the line – but let’s start with the basics. Sampling is, effectively, the cutting-out of some music from another source to repurpose in a track of your own. Good sampling is dependent on two things: your selection, and your production skills (or how you ‘flip’ your sample).

You’ll already have some familiarity with DAWs and production, so let’s start here. There’s a slew of resources out there for beginner producers, including free sample pack libraries and paid subscription services that allow access to licensed music or loops. Start with pre-cut samples, and start building a track around them. Sampled instruments can be used to create your own parts, and a sampled vocal line could become your hook. You might even experiment with chopping samples up to re-arrange them, and change the flow altogether.

Crate-Digging (and the Law)

After you’ve gotten a little familiar with working with samples, you’ll naturally want to start grabbing your own. This, though, remains murky territory, legally speaking. Danger Mouse famously chopped up Beatles samples for his seminal Beatles/Jay-Z mashup ‘The Grey Album’, and ignited the industry – attracting legal action from EMI Records despite giving the album away for free. Today, it is easier than ever for publishers to track intellectual copyright and litigate accordingly, so take care!

Digital Audio Workstation

Tools of the Trade

Still, finding and flipping your own samples is a major part of the sampling process, and where a great deal of the joy comes from. You could buy digital files and chop them up right in your DAW, but where’s the fun in that?

Given sampling’s roots in DJing, DJ equipment in the form of CDJs and a mixer would be a shrewd purchase – provided you covered them with musical instrument insurance, given their cost and the value of your investment. Another option would be the Akai MPC, an essential hip-hop tool alongside Roland’s SP-303. The hands-on nature of mixing records like this invites you to experiment, and leads you to advanced technique.

Advanced Techniques

Having had some hands-on time getting to grips with basic sample usage, and having chopped your own, you can now start to experiment properly. Again, your DAW is an extremely powerful piece of software for this, but less intuitive than the aforementioned MPC or SP-303. Effects are a vital aspect of making samples work, whatever your intention; a masterclass on sample manipulation can be found in Burial’s atmospheric electronica, particularly Archangel – which flips samples from Ray J, a 2004 episode of Saturday Night Live and the Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtrack…