Origins
We are so used to hearing manipulated sounds that we are rarely aware of it any more. Imagine how today´s sound world would shock someone from the era before recorded sound, when all sounds were heard ´straight´ ie never reversed, stretched out, speeded up or transformed in any way.
In today´s digital world recorded sounds are utterly flexible and the ways in which they can be altered are limited only by one´s imagination and because the price of the technology required is getting lower all the time, ever increasing numbers of people are discovering the pleasures of creating music with sound samples.
The little bit of history that has brought us to this point is intimately bound up with the development of the modern world, spanning the development of the phonograph and moving pictures to the electronic and digital age in which we currently live. And at every step of the way musicians and composers have been right there, playing with the latest technology and always asking themselves, ´What can I do with this?´
That question, the entirely natural response of the creative musician, has been the main driving force that has brought us the incredible sound technologies we have today. This brief history of the sound sample aims to introduce some of the major themes, ideas and developments of the past 100 years of Sample History.
