There are many sample CDs available today full of samples and while a lot of them contain some excellent sounds and loops, I believe that you should stay clear of them as much as possible when selecting samples for your music. This article explains why I think that way.

Sample CDs can cost a lot of money, mainly because what you are buying is a license to use the sounds in your productions legally and not just to listen to like a standard CD. I don’t want to make out all Sample CDs to be evil because some of them are great and can come in very handy when looking for that certain orchestral instrument sound for example which you can’t get hold of yourself. But there are many Sample CDs out there containing nothing but sounds and loops which I believe can slow down creativity, the learning process (especially for beginners) as well as making musicians lazy.

They slow down creativity because they stop people from creating and developing their own sounds and if everyone sticks to the same old sample CDs (especially genre based ones) then they aren’t going to be creating their own unique sound or take on a certain genre.

They can also slow down a musicians learning process because many of the sounds have had effects and processing galore put on them to make you go WOW! While this sounds amazing for the individual sounds, when all these sounds get put together into a track they end up sounding mushy, all fighting for the same space in the mix. Beginners to music creation then learn from tutorials and books that they then need to add more effects and mix down their tracks only to find they can’t get the sound they want as they have nothing to work with. This stops and hinders them from learning about sound creation, how to add effects and mix sounds together properly. This then leads to “why doesn’t my track sound as good as the ones in the shops” questions you see a lot on message boards.

The truth is that you can easily find alternatives which are a lot of the time a better choice. I would advise anyone before buying a sample CD to ask themselves can I record these sounds myself with a microphone myself or can I use a synthesizer to create those sounds myself. Can I recreate that drum loop using my own samples, can I then mix it up, change it and make it sound better. Can I be limited only by my own creative abilities and not what some some sound engineer decides is a good collection of sounds.

I also know that as a musician using your own sound creations you will start to look upon your own music with a lot more pride. You may even find yourself creating a new unique and personal sound in your music and surely that can only be a good thing.

Article written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation