The idea of music sampling originated back in the 80s and 90s hip-hop and dance music. But today, it is widely used in every music genre. Putting it in easy words, “Sampling” is the reusing of a specific piece of music in any other sound recording. The length of music used in the “Sampling” process varies; from merely using another soundtracks violin rift or drum combination in a song, to using an entire chorus from a song. With modern technologies like DAW software and sampler plugins, you can easily use samples in your music tracks, whether its rap, R&B, rock, or even classical music.
Now let’s go through the top 5 platforms for music sampling.
Shutterstock
You thought it was for photos and videos only! Well, it is not. Shutter stock includes a great selection of free music samples for you to use. There’s cello, choir, drums, guitar, piano, percussion, vocals, flutes, horns, and many more samples to fit into your music. And if you are interested and have time to create your own high-quality recordings, Shutterstock takes submissions to be made available on their page.
SampleRadar
SampleRadar is another brilliant platform with a large selection of sample packs, covering any music genre or imaginable topic. With over 64,000 samples, SampleRadar includes some prime samples covering every sound or loop you could ever think of to produce your music.
Looperman
Unlike the other music sampling websites, tempos, categories, genre, key, and date are searchable on Looperman. You can even filter a ridiculous range of sounds, and loops by tags. And if you are looking for type beat snippets, ringtones, vocals, or even Gameboy sounds, it’s all there to explore on the website.
SampleSwap
SampleSwap is chockablock with free and high-quality. The website features thousands of copyright-free sounds, from ambience and noises to full kits and multi-sampled instruments. SampleSwap provides so many collections to explore and music samples to inspire you.
FreeSound
FreeSound is more of a collaborative database, offering a diverse range of music samples and sound effects. The formats and quality of sounds vary across the site, as it allows anyone to upload sounds under a common license. But the website does display the sound’s waveform alongside the sample music to give you some insight before you get started with your music. FreeSound includes some real gems if you are willing to make some effort researching around the website.