Re: My Reply to: Wake Up Folks! (the ole' DJ thread)
Matthew Robert Chicoine (scooby@umich.edu)
Fri, 12 Jan 1996 13:53:43 -0500 (EST)
mark-
my man. i totally hear you about the negative side of sampling. i
was actually talking about htis last night. my personal philosohpy is
that if a sample is easily recognizable then you're defintely doing
something wrong. r&b, with the exception of some fine acts(d'angelo), has
officially become a commercial entity. playing live is definitely . .
.live. i just picked up a nice conga and have been laying down some nice
complimentary rhythms to the groove when i spin, giving the mix a little
more of that spontaneous feel. i also like to drop beat box rhtyhms and
am anxiously awaiting an effects processor so i can put records, my
voice, or the conga through it and add a little to the stew. back to
sampling, though. we had a similar discussion in an ethnomusicology class
i had. people in the class were very unfamiliar with what has been done
beyond the media hype surrounding certain notorious, poorly executed
samples. but take drum tracks, for instance. there are so many ways that
one could sample a drum track. what i am thinking of is the process in
which producers, namely drum and bass producers (jungle), construct their
beats. listening to the drum tracks defintely clues you into something
much more complex going on than juist looping some p-funk. as i
understand, they will take a drum sample, or several, speed it up to a
near blinding tempo, and then assign it to a keyboard as a whole and
inchunks. basically, they have a set of keys with different snippets of
the whole, or many wholes, and reconstruct them in a such a way that
mimics the rhythmic style of a marching band drum line or a bop drummer.
this may seem a little far fetched, but if you really concentrate on
these drum lines you'll notice just how unpredictable they are, how they
are constantly changing, contorting into different rhythmic lines. and
although a dj has it a little harder, the capbility to do this is
available as well (listen to how jungle djs will section up drum breaks
themselves and cut in and out of them, as well as a lot of hip-hop djs).
this just serves as an example of how sampling can decieve the ear in its
elusive complexities and possibilities. there really is some skill
required unlike what a lot of people might think, and this skill is,
mechanical, yes, but beyond this musical. to live players, this is not an
attemnpt to devalue what you do at all. having experience from both sides
i feel it important that we all undestand exactly what it is involved.
only then can these interactions really begin to play off of one another
in a complimentary musical sense. i'm out. peace-
bubblicious
On Thu, 11 Jan 1996, Mark Robohm wrote:
>
> Yo bubblicious.
>
> I hear you. I am a drummer and I used to be opposed to the whole beat
> sampling thing and all of that. Jam live with a drummer as much as you
> can ind it will help the relationship between the live groove and the
> print. I just hope that the live shit will never be forgotten. It
> already has been in the new R&B tracks. It is too bad. It's live Stevie
> Wonder (I'm a big fan)......when he used to have his R&B soul jams with
> live drums that shit was soaked with feeling and swing. Today's drum
> loops nod my head but I loose the feeling, the honesty of the groove.
> Anyway, I dig playing with live DJs......I have a lot to look forward to
> and learn with them. Do the live jam again.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>