Verb

sampling

1. Present participle of sample.

Sampling may refer to:

• Sampling (signal processing), converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal
• Sampling (music), re-using portions of sound recordings in a piece
  • Sampler (musical instrument), closely related to a synthesizer
• Sampling (statistics), selection of observations to acquire some knowledge of a statistical population
• Sampling (case studies), selection of cases for single or multiple case studies
• Sampling (audit), application of audit procedures to less than 100% of population to be audited
• Sampling (for testing or analysis), taking a representative portion of a material or product to test (e.g. by physical measurements, chemical analysis, microbiological examination), typically for the purposes of identification, quality control, or regulatory assessment

Specific types of sampling include:

• Chorionic villus sampling, a method of detecting fetal abnormalities
• Food sampling, the process of taking a representative portion of a food for analysis, usually to test for quality, safety or compositional compliance. (Not to be confused with Food, free samples, a method of promoting food items to consumers)
• Oil sampling, the process of collecting samples of oil from machinery for analysis
• Theoretical sampling, the process of selecting comparison cases or sites in qualitative research
• Water sampling, the process of taking a portion of water for analysis or other testing, e.g. drinking water to check that it complies with relevant water quality standards, or river water to check for pollutants, or bathing water to check that it is safe for bathing, or intrusive water in a building to identify its source.

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song.

Producers on sampling

• "[Samples have] a certain reality. It doesn't just take the sound, it takes the whole way it was recorded. The ambient sounds, the little bits of reverb left off crashes that happened a couple of bars ago. There's a lot of things in the sample, just like when you take a picture—it's got a lot more levels than say, the kick-drum or the drum machine, I think. [...] Looking at a sampler the way it was used first—to try and simulate real instruments—you didn't have to get a session guitarist and you could just be like, 'Hey, I can have an orchestra in my track, and I can have a guitar, and it sounds real!' And I think that's the wrong way to use sampling. The right way is to get the guitar, and go, 'Right, that's a guitar. Let's make it into something that a guitar could never possibly be.' You know, take it away from the source and try to make it something else. Might as well just get a bloody guitarist if you want a guitarist. There's plenty of them." —Amon Tobin ^{dead link, view archive here}

• "Producers like Organized Noize mix samples and live instruments really well. Lots of times, I have trouble finding bass lines, because it's not very often on a record that there are good open bass lines. Sometimes I wish I could just have somebody come in and do what I want him to do on a bass line. It would be so easy. But what I do just keeps things much more challenging, I guess." —DJ Shadow [1]

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sat Feb 27 05:12:08 2010