It is said that if you sample one note from somebody's record without their permission, you have committed copyright infringement. I respect that as a fellow artist myself. However as far back as the mid 1970’s, music equipment companies like Roland along with other companies started making drum machines and then later on sequencers. My opinion is that the industry made samplers and drum machines not for people to look at them and collect dust. They were made to sample music; however I do believe credit and compensation should be given to the original authors if one decides to use them. The late 1980'/90's lead to the rise of sampling. Creative D J"s like Easy Mo B, Pete Rock, D J Premier, Hank and Keith Shockley became producers and made sampling new interesting and hip. I personally believe during the 1990's the rise of the Emulator SP -1200, Akia MPC-60/60II, and MPC 3000/4000 drum machines in hip hop and R&B gave life to a new sound. Now besides simple sample loops you had to have hot drum sounds (kick and snares) in order to compete with the other artist and producers being played on the radio. So I believe if you sample a kick from a record approximate one second length of time, a snare approximate one second length, and hit hat approximate one second length of time, and then program your own idea using these sounds just like you would on a Roland 909, I don't have a problem with that. Now if you sample more than the kick (more than one second) you should be prepare to contact that artist and compensate them accordingly.
Clyde Stubberfeild from James Brown's band one of the most sampled drummers in the world, having not received a penny from all the times his playing has been sampled is such a shame to me. The under current theme of surviving and becoming successful in America is seeing who is the best thief. On another level what sampling has done is to fertilize a new set of criminals where everybody wants to take someone else's music, put their name on it, don't pay any royalties for it, release it sell millions of copies and get rich the good old American way. It’s just a continuation of capitalism. If there is a dysfunctional break down within a society you have to take a look at how the society was formed and made from the beginning. If you sow in crime you will reap in crime. What’s sad is this trend has given life to a new set of youths who are so lazy when it comes to originality or creativity, they have no interest in making a song from their own mind of creative process, nobody wants to think or try to make something new like a new melody or lyric using their own mind and ability. Everyone wants to steal somebody else's idea without paying them and get rich quick. The proof is in the pudding look at some of the biggest names in the music industry today. Robin Thicke, Pharrell. Williams, like them or not, they have all been involved with taking someone else's composition without permission and claiming it to be their own, a real sad state of affairs for aspiring musicians. by Vere Isaac
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