The Top 10 Samples in Hip-Hop History. -- Well, not really the 'Top 10', but it's 10 samples and loops from hip-hop history, brought to you by a somewhat goofy bedroom DJ. He followed it up with 14 more sets of 10 -- 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. (List of tracks discussed in each part in the youtube descriptions.) [more inside]
posted by empath on Nov 30, 2008 - 40 comments

The Crate Digger Death-Match. A couple of weeks ago, Drown Radio challenged 12 musicians to create a complete album in 12 hours while utilizing only $12 worth of materials purchased at thrift stores. Here are the results of round one, complete with MP3s.
posted by The Card Cheat on Jan 29, 2008 - 18 comments

Dance music toys. Get your cheese on. Via Music Thing.
posted by nthdegx on Jan 15, 2008 - 10 comments

Samples of the Javanese gamelan The Museum Nusantara Delft in the Netherlands recorded its century-old gamelan, Kyahi Paridjata, note by note. Most of the instruments in the orchestra are included. Samples are available as MP3, but the museum also includes the original files and some variants.
posted by NemesisVex on Apr 22, 2007 - 21 comments

You may have never heard of it, but you've damn near certain heard it. The Mellotron (FortuneCity link) is a keyboard instrument; each of its keys triggers a tape with a pre-recorded instrument on it. It was effectively the world's first sample player. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 7, 2006 - 38 comments

Brian Eno and David Byrne released My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1981. It's a great album--and now it's available with a Creative Commons License. "This is the first time complete and total access to original tracks with remix and sampling possibilities have been officially offered on line."
posted by dobbs on Mar 30, 2006 - 44 comments

A world of sounds. Despite their difficult URL, The Freesound Project has grown at a rapid pace over the last year, arguably surpassing archive.org's audio library when it comes to sound effects, field recordings, site design, and usability. Now Freesound is combining their sound library with geotagging and Google Maps, allowing users to navigate the world by sound too! (previously on mefi)
posted by insomnia_lj on Mar 4, 2006 - 11 comments

The Freesound Project - a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.
posted by signal on Apr 13, 2005 - 8 comments

I just found my new outgoing answering machine message at Tape Findings. {first link is mp3. via News Today}
posted by dobbs on Nov 30, 2004 - 28 comments

Three Notes and Runnin' has decided to protest the recent court decision that cited N.W.A. with illegally sampling a snippet of Funkadelic's Get Off Your Ass and Jam that had been modified to the point of unrecognizability. So in the tradition of online civil disobedience such as Grey Tuesday, Downhill Battle has issued a challenge to sample-based artists to create 30-second remixes that consist of nothing but the disputed 1.5-second Funkadelic sample.
posted by jonp72 on Sep 24, 2004 - 10 comments

All samples must now be licenced according to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, including tiny samples that have been modified to the point of being unrecognisable. "We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way." via /dev/null
posted by Jimbob on Sep 9, 2004 - 40 comments

A hip hop geek's wet dream... I don't know about you, but to find this site made my day. Dozens and dozens of full length songs that your favorite hip hop producers have sampled. If you can convert streaming audio to mp3, the songs are yours!
posted by Slimemonster on Jun 9, 2003 - 22 comments

Recombinant music has been around since the 19th century and now there is an amazing online tool for fans of both the samplers and the sampled.
posted by cadastral on Sep 16, 2002 - 10 comments

Spillway "is a non-linear loopbox of digital samples and serendipitous scraps which may be entered and mixed from multiple points"
posted by MrBaliHai on Nov 11, 2001 - 2 comments