We rip all the vinyls to digital and compose the music in Cubase. However we don’t manipulate our samples very much. We do some equalizing, reverb and a little distortion and other effects once in a while, but we don’t pitch the key of the original samples. It’s a goal for us to match things across time and space, but to keep the original expression of the material—to keep some transparency in the material.
A lot of musicians sample, and a lot do it in a way, where they manipulate the samples as much as possible to create a new sound. Nothing wrong with that. But we try to make sample-based music that sounds like it wasn’t sampled. Music that crosses time and space, bringing together completely different styles, genres, cultures and colors in a way that sounds like it was intended to be so. Full of references to music that is out there, but still with its very own character—a bit like tuning into a radio station from a parallel multicultural musical planet, where genre is nonexistent.
However, matching the samples without pitching and heavy manipulation takes a lot of time. We have built an enormous archive over the years, which is divided into categories like instrument type, tempo but also key. But within the E minor chord, you can have so many different pitches. So the challenge is to find stuff that really play together, rhythmically, sonically and key-wise. A gamelan player from Bali didn't tune his instrument to the same E minor chord as a synth player from Germany!
However, one of the strengths with sampling as a method, is that you bring in a lot of resistance with the material. The samples have character and noise from the original recording session, vinyls maybe have scratches, etc. And this gives authenticity to the sound. Just like when we are matching instruments that are not perfectly tuned with each other. Today, a lot of music sounds clean, perfect, almost too good. In the 1970s, that we love to sample from, Auto-tune and computer production wasn’t out there for everyone to use. Instead they had skills, heart and the open-mindedness to embrace imperfection. Qualities that we are fortunate to bring into our music through sampling.