Questions About Sampling

Q: What is Sampling?
A: In the music world, sampling typically means recording actual musical instrument sounds as individual tones, and then playing them on a keyboard as if you were playing a piano. These individual tones are called "samples" and they can be stored on a CD-ROM or hard disk.

Q: What is a Sampler?
A: A sampler is a type of musical instrument which allows you to record and play samples. The difference between a sampler and a tape machine, is that a sampler is a musical instrument, usually with a musical keyboard attached, that can play sounds at different pitches, just like a piano or an organ. Samplers can be either dedicated hardware boxes or software that integrates with your computer music system.

Q: Why would I use a Sampler?
A: Samplers are a great way to add natural instrument sounds to your music, like orchestral strings, acoustic guitars, even drum kits and vocals. Just load the sound you want into the sampler and play away!

DJs, dance producers and composers can also use them to add drum loops or wild sound fx to a remix, or completely build a remix from scratch.

Q: Can you use Samplers for anything else?
A: This is the beauty of samplers. They are as flexible as your imagination, allowing you to record anything that sounds good to you and turn it into something musical and inspiring.

Q: Who uses Samplers?
A: Just about every song you hear on the radio, every film score, every club mix was created in part with a sampler. Composers, sound designers, DJs, record producers, live musicians and studio musicians use samplers in their daily work.

Q: Where do I get all of these different sounds for my Sampler?
A: This is where companies like ILIO come in. We have thousands upon thousands of samples in our catalog that come on CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or Audio CD that you simply load into your hardware or software sampler and play.

Q: What's the difference between a Sampler and a Synthesizer?
A: Synthesizers typically come with a "stock" set of sounds from the factory. These sounds may actually be made up of samples, but they are usually lower in sound quality and are "frozen" in the Synthesizer's memory. Samplers, on the other hand have flexible memory, allowing you to keep swapping different sampled sounds in and out at will. Samplers are also flexible because you can typically add more memory to hold more sounds. Software samplers are even easier, because you can store as many sounds as your hard drive can hold and simply keep adding to your collection.

To change a sound on a synthesizer, you program the synthesizer's settings using its on-board buttons and knobs. To change a sound on a sampler, you simply load new samples off a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or hard disk.

Q: What is a Virtual Instrument?
A: Virtual Instruments are software synthesizers or sample-players that can be integrated into your computer music system. Many of these come with huge dedicated sample libraries that are actually built-in to the instrument. Most are plug-ins that can be loaded directly into sequencing programs like Logic, Cubase, Pro Tools and Digital Performer. We have many Virtual Instruments in our catalog. They are an ideal way to have instant access to thousands of great sounds.