Whereas synths were once all powered by analogue oscillators which generated a limited range of electronic waveforms, these circuits have largely been replaced in modern hardware synths by chips containing samples of a colossal range of instruments, including analogue-synth-style sawtooth, square and triangle waveforms to complete the illusion. It's the same in the modern music-making industry - sampling technology is at work in the vast majority of synth, keyboard and virtual-instrument products on the market. Wherever we turn, we have first-hand experience of 'sampling' in one form or another. Everywhere you look, you'll see sampling in action: in the stored messages on modern ansaphones, in those muffled train and airport announcements you can never quite catch the gist of when you're in a hurry, and in those dreadful menu-driven customer service lines so beloved of companies claiming to offer "a better, more focused customer service experience". Indeed, in many ways, it has become 'invisible' - so widely accepted and taken for granted that no-one notices it any more. Sampling technology has become so widespread that it is no longer considered remarkable. In the first of a short series on rediscovering this skill, we look back at how the technique and the technology developed.
But sampling itself has become something of a lost art. Most modern musicians use samples, even if only in S&S keyboards or virtual instruments.
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