I am not quite sure how to use the sample....
Is there anyone who uses them as is?
Or do I have to modify it in some way?
Is there any technique other than applying effects or slicing the sample?

You may not want to reveal your techniques, but I would like to hear how you all devise them.

 

Well, a "sample" is a pretty loose term, it could be anything from a millisecond click to a several minute wrong loop. Nothing wrong with using a sample as is (unless you're sampling somebody else wholesale), but often there's fun to be had by playing with it.

Say I record a Em7 chord on a guitar and stick it in a sampler, now, I can play it an octave higher, use a short envelope and get a rave stab. But lets say I play it -17 semitones, and it becomes a boomy Am7, and something that will not sound like a real guitar. However, listening to it, seeing that apart from the harmonics, all of the resonances and noises are also tuned down. There's bound to be something interesting there, so I can focus with filters to get the attractive bits and remove the unusable messes. Maybe I could loop the sustain part and timestretch it to have an ominous drone, maybe reverse it to get a weird sweep to use in a transition of a tune, or chase it to video for a scene change.

It's all really taking the source material, whatever it is, and finding the good bits in it and focusing on those. The technique will follow.

 

Use samples as impulse responses in convolution reverbs.
Granulize samples in granular samplers.

 

Last edited: Mar 16, 2025

vocal resynthesis is also fun
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkYsB0Ki9lAeAjRS00PK9A51ISvfP3Jx8

 

Use the: "Togu Audio Line - TAL-Sampler" !

TAL Sampler Grain Engine Demo

Tal-Aampler - time Stretch feature

 

drum samples, either one shots or loops. I'll often use them as is, with maybe some choppage. Other time's ill program my own.

melodic samples, my main use is as inspiration, using them to inspire a feeling or vibe of a track, building around that sample with other elements and eventually removing the sample.

creative use's:

Resample and chop. Load up a handful of your favorite crazy fx. Infiltrator, Turnado, Beam, etc, tweak some knobs and scramble through presets, recording the output the entire time. Find little bits of your resampled audio and use those as elements in your song.

Use a sidechained gate, sidechained to your kick, snare, or whatever, so that the gate opens when the sample hits. Use this technique with a long sample, like a whole song, you get a constantly evolving strange percussive element to layer with your drums. Tune the sample to key of your song before hand

Granular - yup, pretty straight forward. One of my favorite things to do.

Monkey C Rando - one of my all time favorite plugins. You hit the magic button and it loads a bunch of random samples from your collection that for the most part all work together. Then play those samples. Crazy, unexpected, interesting results. Use as it, or build around them.

 

TX16Wx Software Sampler --> www.tx16wx.com It is 100% free!
- Extensive sound shaping, - Unlimited modulation, - Wave editor and beat slicer

 

For inspiration, check out Jemapur, Todd Edwards and Akufen!

 

Oh, and of course there's the great technique of resampling. Really.

I mean sure, repeated processes of anything will get some interesting results, but there's magic into rerecording what you just put in. Get some drums into a sampler, create a drum pattern, add some reverb, compression, whatever. Now record that into a sampler again, chop it up, and process again. It's a surefire method of creating some truly monstrous sounds. Layer two samples, compress and saturate together, record into a single sound, go again.

 

as per 808 State...

"The group... it also uses a technique it calls “silhouetting,” where a track is built around a sample which is then removed, leaving only a musical ghost image."

https://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=808

 

An interesting video concerning this topic: