Hello ! I’m wondering if anyone has tried anything like this. I’m a music producer— mostly worked in rock/folk/indie, so samples havent really been on my radar.

a year a ago, I bought an sp404mkii for fun. I started listening to a ton of sample based music and got really inspired. I started making beats as a pass-time with very little intention of doing anything with it. Now, a year later, I’m sitting on a pile of beats that turned out really well. I’m catching myself trying to finish the productions and daydreaming about sending them to rappers/labels/A&R etc.

the problem is … they are all FULL of uncleared samples. Some of them are maybe tough to detect, even for AI because of being so heavily processed, but some can straight up be shazaamed and lead to a motown song. I’ve basically built full songs around loops from classic soul songs. I’m wondering. Has anyone ever tried replacing their samples with original recordings to avoid copyright issues ? If I just play the same three piano chords I samples from a smokey robinson song on my piano, am I in the clear ? Its such a small section that it doesn’t feel like ripping off “songwriting” especially once everything has been time stretched and restructured.


Anyone have any experience with this ? I know huge songs still get sampled on big albums, but i also know sample clearing is an issue even on major label albums (ex. Danny Brown’s “Atrocity Exhibition” is a favourite that was so expensive to clear, it seemed to mess up his career).


If I recreate a sample closely enough, could AI / algorithms still flag it ? I’m assuming if i actually redo a recording, even if its close, the waveform itself will be completely different and avoid detection. Just opening the conversation….

 

you may still need a mechanical license if you're trying to be entirely legit but it should be enough to not have your stuff taken down

 

Many artists in the world often have the same idea and then the chords sound similar, we only have 7 basic tones (12 tone music), this repeats itself at some point and then your own song / riff / chord progression might sound like that or that musician.

What you wrote here, for example, I quote. "ex. Danny Brown's Atrocity Exhibition", I would rather leave that alone because the AI might scan your thread here at some point.

I wouldn't make such a big deal about what you're doing, otherwise I would just publish everything you've done so far, that's all covered by the artist's freedom. If the AI or YouTube does find something, you will first be asked to delete it.

Stealing is part of the job!

 

You're talking about musical interpolation. If you're not using the original recording then that solves one half of the battle, but there's still the composition element.

Chord progressions and drum rhythms cannot be copyrighted, so you can freely recreate them. Copying melodies and other distinctive elements of a song are what can lead to trouble.

You're not going to get sued for ripping off a ii-V-I jazz progression played on a Fender Rhodes, for example.

 

Yeah
Unless it sounds identical (a remake), it shouldn't have any issues.
Think about covers, don't know much, but I suppose that the artists get paid for them?? At least some percentage..
And covers copy 99% of the elements, they just has a different timbre

 

take the sample you want to replace and stem separate it. extract midi data from the stems. reassign the midi to new virtual instruments (or even other samples in a virtual sampler plugin). move stuff around as you want. Load up some midi fx plugins on the midi channels. They can be arpeggiator/chord tools, step sequencers, and even script players. By the time you are done, you will not be able to recognize the sample; never mind anyone else trying to figure out what it started as.

You can also do the same things, but with your own full track, like where you started with a sample. Producers who used to crate dig for old funk, jazz ,rare groove, vintage records to sample from do this a lot. They will make a standalone retro style song, and chop it up the same way they would with someone else's record.

 

This is a good idea ! Especially for keyboard instrument samples. Thanks ! :D