How To Sample Music - Learn how to make audio loops

If you are an aspiring musician, you certainly would have chanced upon the term “Sampling”.

Having seen the same word in different contexts could also have confused you. Nothing to be worried though. When coined in the ‘70s by the makers of Fairlight CMI (workstation), the word “sampling” had just one meaning. However, today two different processes in music production (essentially originating from the same) are referred to as “sampling”. The first one, the more sophisticated process is used for original music production. This is nothing but recording an original performance in a music instrument, with all possible variations of each note so that they can exist in sample libraries. An original music producer can use these recordings to create new music. The second one of course is sampling bits from an existing recording for use in your own track. The former is a creative process while the latter has been repeatedly subject to criticism and copyright controversies, especially when an entire bar, an interlude or even a hook gets reused.

Let us start with the first one; the more creative, complicated and original “sampling” process:

With a DAW and a MIDI keyboard, a music producer can import samples from these libraries to compose, arrange produce his own music for that particular instrument. Here, the music producer performs this virtual instrument playing each and every note originally, just like playing on the real instrument, but on a MIDI keyboard instead. Hollywood composers use extensive orchestral libraries from companies like Spitfire, Orchestra Tools, Project Sam etc. to produce full-fledged mockups of each cue, before hiring a live orchestra to record them. In films with lesser budget for music, scores programmed with virtual instruments are part of the final cut. Good programming with the best virtual instruments makes it hard for the majority to recognize any difference. For a rare and exclusive instrument, a composer can also call in a live performer and record with him, while sampling his instrument. Film-scoring virtuoso Hans Zimmer has been consistently doing this over the last three decades. He has been dedicated to sampling rare instruments, especially the ethnic ones on the brink of extinction so that he needn’t fear the prospect of unavailability many years later.

Also read: Beginner's Guide: Computer Setup for running DAW

Attempts to record and reuse instruments and real sounds had existed since the 1940s, with the Mellotron that came much later being often called the first sampler. However, the modern process was invented in the late 70s by the Australian company Fairlight that manufactured the Fairlight CMI workstations. Peter Vogel, the co-founder of Fairlight almost accidentally discovered this when he recorded a piano note from a radio broadcast with the intention of imitating it. He soon realized that instead of manually synthesizing it, he could play back the same piano note in different pitches. Decades later he commented on the discovery claiming that it sounded far superior to any piano sound that synthesizers produced back then. The Fairlight CMI had a built-in sequencer and an interface to facilitate this. Despite sampling limitations compared to samplers from subsequent generations, the Fairlight became incredibly popular among music producers of the time, for this feature.

More advanced samplers like the Akai MPC ruled the roost in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. However most of these early samplers could record and sample only for a few seconds. Hardware was expensive and so was sampling memory during those times. The Akai MPC60 could sample up to 13 seconds and was primarily intended for rhythm production.

However digital advancements over the last few decades have given music producers the luxury of sampling extensively without much limitation on Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). Today, you can invite your musician friend for a jamming session and start sampling from your home studio.

So your obvious question would be “How is this done?”

A complete step by step explanation of sampling an instrument requires a very detailed visual demonstration. For this article, we shall however not go for it. Instead, let us quickly run through the steps. Take an instance where you want to sample the famous Indian stringed (plucked) instrument Sitar.

The first thing you need to ensure is that you have an excellent performer who knows the instrument like the back of his/her hand. This is because, it is her/her performance that is going to exist in your sample library. The way he plays each note would reflect the way you play them later on your MIDI keyboards. The next important thing, is to acquire decent condenser microphones to record your instrument. You wouldn’t need very expensive ones for this. Go for good small diaphragm condenser microphones that efficiently cut out background noise.

Also read: Guide to Condenser Microphones for Home Recording

Choose your most comfortable DAW to record your samples. We suggest you use Reaper to sample your first instrument. It is one of the cheapest and most user-friendly DAWs available out there.

Make sure that your microphone placement is very appropriate for the instrument you are going to sample, in this case, the Sitar. Now, ask your Sitarist to make sure that each string is tuned to the correct note. Once this is done, make him/her play each note in the instrument five times to get a round-robin. Do the same for the Sitar’s multiple strumming patterns. Once this is done, use a good noise reduction plug-in to remove noise from the performance. Your job would already be half done, if you had chosen the best microphone. Nevertheless, you would find some noise in the performance. This can be digitally removed using a plug-in or an application like the Adobe Audition or the iZotope RX. Do the same with tracks from every microphone you have used.

Once you get a significantly noiseless output, the next step is to edit your sampled (virtual) instrument. Group your tracks on the DAW and perform split on each track based on the transient functions. Once you have these grouped tracks split into individual audio clips, you may adjust the beginning and end of each clip and implement effects like the fade-in and fade-out or manually space them out. Separate each clip using region markers. Now you will have a region list with each region corresponding to an individual note you have sampled. Sit with your musician (the Sitarist in this case) and decide on the names for each region before you export the samples. Once you export this, the next step is to map the samples for your sample library.

Import your newly sampled VST into your DAW. The mapping process in simple words, is nothing but the grouping of the recorded notes for each key in the keyboard. You can manually do this note by note to the keys, or manually group the or perform auto-mapping instead, whichever seems more appropriate.

While setting the envelopes after mapping, it is suggested that you sit with the original musician so that you nail the behavior of the real instrument. Once you have the samples appropriately mapped, then you should be ready to perform them on your MIDI keyboard and make some original music with the instrument.

So that’s a brief outline of the steps involved in the first “sampling” process. It is a very long and arduous task and the complexity levels change based on the instrument your are sampling.

Now let us come to the second one, another mainstream process in music production, which is also called “sampling”.

This is much simpler and doesn’t require a detailed explanation. On multiple occasions the latest billboard chartbuster would have given you a strong dejavu. It could be a hook, an interlude, a drum-loop or just a bar from the track. This is nothing surprising as in most cases you would have encountered a music bit that was ‘sampled’ and reused from a much older song that you are familiar with. Please note that the verb ‘sample’ here isn’t the same as the one we have discussed in the above section. This sampling process doesn’t have even a fraction of complexity involved in the previously discussed sampling. However, it isn’t a negative word. When used appropriately, it is one of the most interesting things about music production in genres like hip-hop and rap. The practice evolved in the ‘80s when hip-hop artists started toying with vinyl records and experimenting with them.


The 1997 Mase hit “Cheat On You” featuring Jay Z and Lil Cease had its bassline sampled from Michael Jackson’s iconic song “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough” from his 1979 studio album “Of the Wall”. The tempo was altered. Similarly 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” by Grandmaster Flash had its bassline borrowed from Queen’s “Another One bites The Dust”. Queen has been a band that had their work extensively sampled and reproduced by hundreds of hip-hop artists over the decades. The Black Eyed Peas track “Mare” had it’s opening and prominent loop borrowed from A. R. Rahman’s iconic 1995 song “Hai Rama” from the Bollywood hit “Rangeela”. The drum break from the 1969 track “Amen, Break” has gone down in history as one of the most sampled pieces ever, having appeared in thousands of tracks. Even if you haven’t heard the 1969 track, you’ll instantly recognize the drum-loop as it has been so ubiquitous to the extent that you haven’t even realized. In most cases, you cannot dismiss this act of borrowing as “ripping-off” since it takes some smart effort to effectively place an existing music piece in a new track. Copyright concerns have plagued artists who were persistently into sampling. The argument was that the original creators and performers received no compensation or any share in royalty. Despite dozens of lawsuits, opinions about the practice were divided among audiences. Hip-hop fans tenaciously defended the practice even in cases where no permission was sought or obtained from the original creators. Fans of the original artists were quite hostile when expressing their views on sampling.

The best alternative to manually sampling these recordings and dealing with copyright complications is to buy libraries containing samples. Once you purchase these libraries, you are legally entitled to use them in your compositions. Remember those catchy rhythms from the Dr. Alban tracks of the 90s? If you were a music producer during them time, you would have had access to most of it them. You just had to purchase the ‘Best Service XXL 1500 Drum Loops’ library. Hip-hop music producers today spend a fortune collecting the best samples available. Do not forget to check Loopazon’s offerings.

Also read: Extract Drums using FL Studio