You’ve probably heard of an audio sample but do you really know what it is? Well in this article I am going to explain this to you and where you can use them.

Basically a sample is just a snippet of any kind of sound; it could be a sample of a drum, a guitar, a busy road or anything you can imagine. All of these things when on their own are samples. The idea is that you will piece a variety of samples together in some way to create a track or piece of music.

Personally I think it is best if you use samples that you have somehow recorded yourself, but if you don’t have the time or simply can’t be bothered you can always buy samples. They are available on many websites to buy and you can also get them from a variety of shops.

Sampling was probably created by hip-hop artists as many of these take samples of other people’s songs and then mix them together to create a new song of their own. There are many reasons that people would do this, one of them being that some people have no way to record their own samples or buy other peoples samples. Another reason is that every single recording has its own unique sound; sampling allows you to take a piece of this sound and include it in your own songs.

One of the main Pro’s of sampling is that you ‘get something for nothing’ although in my opinion the cons outweigh the pros by far. For starters it is Copyright Infringement. There have been numerous cases in the past where famous artists have got into trouble for sampling other peoples work without permission.

In my opinion it is never worth the risk of sampling someone else’s music and I personally never use samples unless they are in the public domain. I am not saying that you should definitely never use samples yourself; I am simply saying that you need to be careful of using them and make sure not to breach copyright laws.

I hope this article has helped you understand audio samples and where they can be used a little more. Samples can add a whole new dimension to the sound of your music if they are used properly but please be careful.