Everything Is a Remix: Making Music by the Creative Manipulation of Samples

In this episode of his music production workshop series, musician and sound engineer Zsolt Török invites you to discuss and explore how sampling became a creative tool in its own right, and get hands on with the sample based devices and workflows available in Ableton Live.

What does avant-garde composer Pierre Schaeffer’s musique concrète from the 1950s, The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever, and Dr Dre’s hip hop beats from the late 1980s have in common? All three rely heavily on the reuse and manipulation of existing audio recordings. While Schaeffer and The Beatles had to contend with the limited possibilities of magnetic tapes, the hip hop sampling revolution was made possible by digital samplers like the legendary E-mu SP-1200 or the AKAI S1000.

Beyond enabling the creative reuse of other artists’ recordings, sampling can also be used to create faithful digital recreations of acoustic instruments. But you don’t necessarily have to start with a sample of a musical instrument to come up with something creative and playable. Many electronic music producers turn found sounds recorded on the street or in their own home into percussive or melodic instruments.

In this workshop salon, we will learn how to use the sampling capabilities of Ableton Live to create our own sample based instruments and compositions.

Each workshop in this series will include a presentation demonstrating concepts and techniques, while leaving ample time for hands-on experimentation, sharing, and discussion. The workshop will be recorded, and made available to series ticket holders in case they missed a session, or want to review some things later. 

What you will need to follow along

Participants should have Ableton Live 11 Standard or Suite already installed on their computer before joining the workshop. The free and fully functional 90-day trial includes the full feature set of the Suite edition, and even allows the software to be used beyond the trial period, although with saving and exporting disabled.

Attendees will receive a downloadable package (project files, audio samples, etc.) as a common starting point for the workshop.

Good to read or watch before the salon

• Eclectic Method – A Brief History of Sampling
• If you use samples, then wish Pierre Schaeffer a happy birthday
• Sampling Ain’t Dead: Hip-Hop Producers Break Down The Formula
• Andrew Huang’s 4 Producers 1 Sample videos

Tickets

This workshop salon is part of the Unlock the Music in You — Music Production Workshop Series. Only the first 4 workshops will be sold individually; a series ticket is required to attend all 8 workshops.

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