Excerpts from Early Articles About Sampling
:
Now that nearly 20 years have transpired since the mainstream media began
exploring the concept of sampling, it is very interesting to go back and
peruse the early media coverage of sampling, how the issue was framed,
what publications gave it attention, and how things have or have not changed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLICATION:
Business Week - October 26, 1987
HEADLINE: MUSIC IS ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF HIGH TECH
SECTION: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY; Electronics; Pg. 114
With a
technique called digital sampling, the sound of a car door slamming or
a dog barking can be turned into music that can be played at any pitch.
These sounds are captured and stored as numerical values on floppy disks;
to clone sounds, the sampler merely recalculates the number of values.
Flip a switch and you can "sample" patches of existing recordings.
If you don't like it as a violin, punch a key and it's a saxophone. If
you want to see it as sheet music, print it with a personal computer.
Such changes are not without controversy. The biggest battle centers around
the so-called digital sampling technology. These devices are so adept
at stealing others' sounds -- even styles and human voices -- that composers
soon will have at their disposal unlimited electronic "sidemen"
stored on computer chips. Put Beverly Sills singing a high C into the
memory, for instance, and a digital sampler can play it back as a high
D, or any other note. Hit two keys at once, and you hear two Beverly Sills
singing a melody she never sang before.
Professional musicians have taken the issue to court. David Earl Johnson, a struggling percussionist, is suing the producers of Miami Vice, claiming the theme music of the popular TV show rips off his conga sound. Johnson says that the composer of the score with the pulsating beat had sampled his conga playing at a recording session and later used his sound with compensating him. To protect his latest record album, Frank Zappa has taken the precaution of copy-righting against sampling.
Now that entire orchestras can be replaced by synthesizers, some worry that thousands of musicians may be put out of work. Others fear that music as an artistic endeavor will stagnate as the new crop of musicians becomes ever more dependent on technology.
Most, though, believe new technology is giving musicians unprecedented creative tools. After all, what past composer could invent new instruments at will, make music from any sound, and hear their compositions just seconds after they were written?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
