At 6/25/20 02:24 PM, FelixZophar wrote:Is it okay if I chop the loop and use it as a sample in a sampler to make melodies with it? So for example there is a choir loop, but I chop it to make one note of the choir and make a melody out of that one note I chopped. Would this be acceptable?

At 5/1/20 06:23 PM, LexRodent wrote:Hello ladies and gents.

There seems to be some confusion among users regarding the usage of sound packs, sample packs and all that kind of pre-made audio clips libraries on the Newgrounds audio portal.
This pointers apply to any audio clip library in existence (including your beloved cymatics).
Hopefully this will help to clear common doubts and misconceptions.

1 First and most important :
Relying solely or heavily on that kind of materials goes against the AP rules (no way around it).
This is true for every sound pack / sample pack by any author.

Dragging and dropping audio clips from libraries into your D.A.W.'s grid it's not considered original work in here.
That's in the same vein as playing with toys like Music Maker Jam, Groovepad, Garageband Live Loops, etc.

2 Common misconceptions :
The T.o.S. of my audio clip library state that the samples are free to use / royalty free.
That's fine and dandy. Please refer to number 1.

I'm combining / re-arranging the samples on my D.A.W. to make something different.
That's nice, you are starting to put a little work on it. Please refer to number 1.

All the sounds in my track are edits / snippets of the original samples.
Congrats ! Editing it's a valuable skill to make music. Please refer to number 1.

3 Is it allowed at all ? Yes it is , but ...
Any track you publish in here needs to have a BIG percentage of original work on it.

Here's how it goes :
Lets' imagine you are making a track. To keep it simple, let's pretend it includes the following 5 elements.
Drums , bass line , chords progression , melodies , misc. sounds or effects.
If 3 or more of the elements of your track are made out of pre-made audio clips, that's not enough to be considered original work in here. That's relying heavily on pre-made materials. So again ; Refer to number 1.
Please put more effort on your tracks. Other wise your audio will be subject for removal.

The minimum recommended ratio it's 40% pre.made vs 60% original.
That way it's safe to say your track it's mostly your own work even if pre-made clips were used.

4 Some practical examples :
Pre-made drums, pre-made bass, pre-made progression, pre-made misc sounds, original melodies.
Nope, that's a no go.

Pre-made drums, pre-made bass, pre-made misc. sounds, original progression, original melodies.
Almost there, but still it's a no go.

Pre-made bass, pre-made misc sounds, original drums, original progression, original melodies.
Now we are talking. A big part of your track it's original. That's good.

Pre-made drums, Original everything else.
That's great ! A minimum of sampling, mostly original work. You Sir, are serious about your music.

Final related notes :
Usage of individual samples (e.g individual kicks , snares , hits , etc) to build your own patterns it's perfectly fine.
Usage of synth preset packs to make your own melodies / progressions / bass lines, it's also perfectly fine.

Keep creating mates ! But please keep the clip libraries use at the minimum possible ;)

At 10/16/20 02:22 AM, LexRodent wrote:

At 10/15/20 11:40 AM, LostChronology wrote:What does this mean for classical 90s Drum and Bass like music which heavily relies on third party samples?

Style purism aside, the rules would be same for every genre.
It's ok to use some samples here and there (with the right license terms of course), as long as most of the track it's original. This also would apply to old school hip-hop and other music made using similar techniques.
Some extra amount of original work it's needed to avoid falling into drag n' drop / duplo territories.

At 10/15/20 11:40 AM, LostChronology wrote:

At 5/1/20 06:23 PM, LexRodent wrote:Hello ladies and gents.

There seems to be some confusion among users regarding the usage of sound packs, sample packs and all that kind of pre-made audio clips libraries on the Newgrounds audio portal.
This pointers apply to any audio clip library in existence (including your beloved cymatics).
Hopefully this will help to clear common doubts and misconceptions.

1 First and most important :
Relying solely or heavily on that kind of materials goes against the AP rules (no way around it).
This is true for every sound pack / sample pack by any author.

Dragging and dropping audio clips from libraries into your D.A.W.'s grid it's not considered original work in here.
That's in the same vein as playing with toys like Music Maker Jam, Groovepad, Garageband Live Loops, etc.

2 Common misconceptions :
The T.o.S. of my audio clip library state that the samples are free to use / royalty free.
That's fine and dandy. Please refer to number 1.

I'm combining / re-arranging the samples on my D.A.W. to make something different.
That's nice, you are starting to put a little work on it. Please refer to number 1.

All the sounds in my track are edits / snippets of the original samples.
Congrats ! Editing it's a valuable skill to make music. Please refer to number 1.

3 Is it allowed at all ? Yes it is , but ...
Any track you publish in here needs to have a BIG percentage of original work on it.

Here's how it goes :
Lets' imagine you are making a track. To keep it simple, let's pretend it includes the following 5 elements.
Drums , bass line , chords progression , melodies , misc. sounds or effects.
If 3 or more of the elements of your track are made out of pre-made audio clips, that's not enough to be considered original work in here. That's relying heavily on pre-made materials. So again ; Refer to number 1.
Please put more effort on your tracks. Other wise your audio will be subject for removal.

The minimum recommended ratio it's 40% pre.made vs 60% original.
That way it's safe to say your track it's mostly your own work even if pre-made clips were used.

4 Some practical examples :
Pre-made drums, pre-made bass, pre-made progression, pre-made misc sounds, original melodies.
Nope, that's a no go.

Pre-made drums, pre-made bass, pre-made misc. sounds, original progression, original melodies.
Almost there, but still it's a no go.

Pre-made bass, pre-made misc sounds, original drums, original progression, original melodies.
Now we are talking. A big part of your track it's original. That's good.

Pre-made drums, Original everything else.
That's great ! A minimum of sampling, mostly original work. You Sir, are serious about your music.

Final related notes :
Usage of individual samples (e.g individual kicks , snares , hits , etc) to build your own patterns it's perfectly fine.
Usage of synth preset packs to make your own melodies / progressions / bass lines, it's also perfectly fine.

Keep creating mates ! But please keep the clip libraries use at the minimum possible ;)

What does this mean for classical 90s Drum and Bass like music which heavily relies on third party samples?

At 4/2/21 06:58 AM, Flyingduck91 wrote:

The minimum recommended ratio it's 40% pre.made vs 60% original.
That way it's safe to say your track it's mostly your own work even if pre-made clips were used.

Reply: there was a remix that got deleted and it had 60% original but if the samples are from a song that has copyright it it still alowed? I don't know if the original had copyright but I'm still going to ask

At 5/15/21 11:27 AM, Sequenced wrote:honestly I've been sampling kicks from tracks I buy that I play out in gigs and I cut everything except the kick, cut the highs and keep the low end and then add a higher end myself for its own punchiness, because most kicks in sample packs I find are absolute garbage and they don't have proper sub, or its just boosted to hell around 90-110 hz and if you try cutting it it ruins the sound LOL

At 5/31/21 01:43 PM, Phantassimo wrote:Maybe I missed this entirely, but what about Kontakt instrument libraries and the like? They use "samples," but are more or less their own instrument. I use these a lot for orchestral pieces, so if they're categorized here as "samples," then I'm kind of in the shit (a long with several others) xD

At 5/1/20 06:23 PM, LexRodent wrote:Hello ladies and gents.

There seems to be some confusion among users regarding the usage of sound packs, sample packs and all that kind of pre-made audio clips libraries on the Newgrounds audio portal.
This pointers apply to any audio clip library in existence (including your beloved cymatics).
Hopefully this will help to clear common doubts and misconceptions.

1 First and most important :
Relying solely or heavily on that kind of materials goes against the AP rules (no way around it).
This is true for every sound pack / sample pack by any author.

Dragging and dropping audio clips from libraries into your D.A.W.'s grid it's not considered original work in here.
That's in the same vein as playing with toys like Music Maker Jam, Groovepad, Garageband Live Loops, etc.

2 Common misconceptions :
The T.o.S. of my audio clip library state that the samples are free to use / royalty free.
That's fine and dandy. Please refer to number 1.

I'm combining / re-arranging the samples on my D.A.W. to make something different.
That's nice, you are starting to put a little work on it. Please refer to number 1.

All the sounds in my track are edits / snippets of the original samples.
Congrats ! Editing it's a valuable skill to make music. Please refer to number 1.

3 Is it allowed at all ? Yes it is , but ...
Any track you publish in here needs to have a BIG percentage of original work on it.

Here's how it goes :
Lets' imagine you are making a track. To keep it simple, let's pretend it includes the following 5 elements.
Drums , bass line , chords progression , melodies , misc. sounds or effects.
If 3 or more of the elements of your track are made out of pre-made audio clips, that's not enough to be considered original work in here. That's relying heavily on pre-made materials. So again ; Refer to number 1.
Please put more effort on your tracks. Other wise your audio will be subject for removal.

The minimum recommended ratio it's 40% pre.made vs 60% original.
That way it's safe to say your track it's mostly your own work even if pre-made clips were used.

4 Some practical examples :
Pre-made drums, pre-made bass, pre-made progression, pre-made misc sounds, original melodies.
Nope, that's a no go.

Pre-made drums, pre-made bass, pre-made misc. sounds, original progression, original melodies.
Almost there, but still it's a no go.

Pre-made bass, pre-made misc sounds, original drums, original progression, original melodies.
Now we are talking. A big part of your track it's original. That's good.

Pre-made drums, Original everything else.
That's great ! A minimum of sampling, mostly original work. You Sir, are serious about your music.

Final related notes :
Usage of individual samples (e.g individual kicks , snares , hits , etc) to build your own patterns it's perfectly fine.
Usage of synth preset packs to make your own melodies / progressions / bass lines, it's also perfectly fine.

Keep creating mates ! But please keep the clip libraries use at the minimum possible ;)

At 7/6/21 05:59 PM, X3LL3N wrote:It's good to have an explanation.
I remember when I first joined Newgrounds, I thought it was a bad thing to use premade drum samples and effects (even though most people don't know how to make original ones)

It took me some time and adaptation to figure out what I could and couldn't do, but I eventually got it :)

At 7/22/21 07:44 AM, DigitalProdigy wrote:The way I look at loops and samples is that whenever I write a song and I want a real saxophone or a real violin I use samples or loops. Let's face most of us musicians cannot play multiple instruments, I myself can only play piano and some guitar. But what if my song calls for a female singer or a real bass instrument that's when samples and loops come to play. Most of us can't afford studio musicians so loops and samples can help us add new realism to our music. I agree you shouldn't rely solely on loops and samples, for an example,  I take a sample for instance a vocal sample and build my song around that say sample. You can do the same with bass loops or drum loops. Most of us can't play bass, drums, flute, violin, sing or piano, but that does not mean we don't want those instruments in our song. I am fortunate to be able to play the piano and have a few synthesizers that mimic all those instruments, but as real as most of them sound, it still not the real thing. So I look for samples that has realism to them and build my song from there. I hope what I wrote will inspire someone and give a different perspective on how and why some of us use samples and loops. Thank you for taking the time to read this post and never stop creative the best music you can create. 

At 7/23/21 02:30 AM, LexRodent wrote:

At 7/22/21 07:44 AM, DigitalProdigy wrote:The way I look at loops and samples is that whenever I write a song and I want a real saxophone or a real violin I use samples or loops. Let's face most of us musicians cannot play multiple instruments, I myself can only play piano and some guitar. But what if my song calls for a female singer or a real bass instrument that's when samples and loops come to play. Most of us can't afford studio musicians so loops and samples can help us add new realism to our music. I agree you shouldn't rely solely on loops and samples, for an example,  I take a sample for instance a vocal sample and build my song around that say sample. You can do the same with bass loops or drum loops. Most of us can't play bass, drums, flute, violin, sing or piano, but that does not mean we don't want those instruments in our song. I am fortunate to be able to play the piano and have a few synthesizers that mimic all those instruments, but as real as most of them sound, it still not the real thing. So I look for samples that has realism to them and build my song from there. I hope what I wrote will inspire someone and give a different perspective on how and why some of us use samples and loops. Thank you for taking the time to read this post and never stop creative the best music you can create. 

There will be always a "legit" way to incorporate sampling into an original creation.
One of the best possible examples are Soundfonts and other specialized virtual instruments.
Those are based on individual samples packed in a UI that enables us to easily make our own notations as well as modifying the original sound via plugins, effects, and other stuff in our D.A.W.
It's easy to find a lot of good ones for free if you know where to look.
By using those, If you know how to compose, there is no need to know how to play all the instruments you wish to have in your pieces. That's a common thing among composers.