Making Music with Samples: Tips, Techniques, and 600+ Ready-to-Use Samples

American Music Teacher, August-Sept, 2005 by Ouida Thomas

Making Music with Samples. Tips, Techniques, & 600+ Ready-to-Use Samples (w/CDS), by Daniel Duffell. Backbeat Books (600 Harrison St., San Francisco, CA 94107), 2005. 208 pp. $39.95.

In the introduction, Daniel Duffell explains that sampling has influenced popular music more than any other technique during the past 20 years. He says the book is not intended to offer advice about what equipment to buy or to replace the operation manual, but is concerned with helping one create an innovative, exciting and personal sound palate using a sampler.

Duffell suggests that chapters can be skipped or read out of order. He says that while one does not have to be a skilled performer, it helps to have a good sense of rhythm and the ability to know if one's creation possesses the magical element of musicality.

The most obvious uses of sampling came in the form of dance music in the 1990s, but it is used in many genres of popular music. The author suggests it would be rare to find many recordings of recent years, that did not contain some form of sampling.

The organization is logical, even to a reader not knowledgeable about sampling. The first chapter covers basics of musical building blocks and how samplers work. The second chapter discusses hardware and software, and the third chapter deals with setting up equipment and source material. In the next two chapters, the author addresses loading and editing samples and creating sampler instruments. The sixth and seventh chapters are about customizing sounds and doing hands-on sampling. The final chapter details the history of sampling and copyright information.

Two CDs accompany the book and are useful for understanding the sampling process. A detailed list at the end of the book explains what is on the recordings. Inserts with explanations of terms, equipment and procedures are throughout the book. There are countless photographs that help explain what is being discussed. A reader unfamiliar with this type of music making would arrive at the end of the book believing he or she could actually accomplish these procedures by carefully reading and following the instructions.

The book is easy to read despite the highly technical and complex content. The author began experimenting with synthesizers at an early age. He has spent many years working with sampling techniques and has a long career as a writer. He has utilized these skills well by creating this book. Reviewed by Ouida Thomas, Grenada, Mississippi.