Week #12 - the fun of samples
Whether sampling from vinyl, the great outdoors or synthetically, have fun doing it!
Goring Mill and the sound of the Thames
My wife Tina and I have been out walking a bit recently, firstly because it is a healthy thing to do, secondly Tina is preparing to take part in the MacMillan Walk For Life in memory of her work colleague who passed away barely a year ago. We chose Goring, not because that is where the walk will happen in September but the terrain is similar and it’s much closer to home than the Jurassic coast of Dorset. I’m also getting into the art of field recording, capturing sounds to share here and then looking at how they can be used to create everything from short musical sketches to entire songs.
Having returned to the village from a recce of the Ridgeway, well worth doing by the way but that is either going to be for
or our new publication
(coming soon) in terms of photographic, historic and cultural content. Anyway, we had a walk around and we found our way down to Goring Mill, the sound of the thundering water rushing through underneath the building, that is no longer operational, was quite a roar with the river being high still.I grabbed 30 seconds of recorded material using Ferrite. I am going to get a field recorder for my birthday by the way, which is in April.
The original recording
What you hear is essentially white noise, or is it? This handy chart helps explain that there are four colours of noise all together.
The beat created from the river
Using Ableton Live 12, I dropped the sample into a Granulator device and synced it to a drum rack to create this.
Vinyl sampling and resampling
It goes without saying, watch your copyright, you’d be angry if someone ripped off your music. I’ve taken bits from two different records, in fact three different songs and merged them together to create a little “sketch”.
The records
Max Roach
Max Roach was one of the two leading drummers of the bepop era and considered to be one of the founders of modern jazz.
Crusaders
The Crusaders began as the “Jazz Crusaders” but later simplified their name to just “Crusaders” were well known for their Jazz Fusion work.
The Beat
Using my SP-404 mk2 to sample extracts of the records, I narrowed the samples down after chopping them, a process I love doing, it’s really fun, you get to appreciate the tracks more deeply along the way. I then reversed and re-pitched some of the samples but left Max Roach’s drum solo, pretty much as it is to create this jazz montage.
Stuck records
Oh and one of the records must have a little scratch on it, I hadn’t heard a stuck record in years. I only bought the turntable recently as I wanted to explore records and vinyl sampling again - mid-life crisis or creative outlet? You decide!
Album of the week
This is a very good album and it led me to the discovery of The Pangbourne House Mafia which I’d never heard of before. We often visit Pangbourne, as it’s down the road from us and it has been the creative base for writers and musicians for many centuries. Wind in the Willows was inspired by the village and Led Zeppelin was formed there.
Love “Daydream Repeat” especially!
Until next time - have a great weekend and see you here next week with more creative ramblings.
This was fun seeing your process, Nick. Thanks for sharing-
It's great the way you tie in an outing to Goring Mill with your newfound interest in sampling vinyl. The Granulator resampled river beat sounds brilliant.