Addicted to... sampling!

Everyone's blogging. 

It's about time I started. I wanted to write about something I'm passionate about, and that didn't take long to think of... SAMPLING..

Hi everyone, (stands up), my names Mal and I'm a sample addict. 

It started around 1996 when my older brother got his first computer. It was a piece of shit with about 3 gigs of hard drive space, a little 13" screen, and awful speakers. But it was a computer, and I didn't have one! 

I used to mess with it after school, teaching myself how to type, editing graphics, badly, and generally twiddling around aimlessly. Then one day I found a bit of software for making music. "WTF?", I thought, "I can make music with a computer?" and so it began, my hobby, my obsession. 

Since then, I've spent countless hours, early mornings and late nights, messing with software, hardware, microphones, records and magazines, making music, but more so, experimenting with sound and enjoying every minute of it. 

I've owned, or used most of the popular software: SONAR, Cubase, Ableton Live, Fruity Loops, and about a million VST plug-ins.

I've built up a cozy studio and have been through tons of kit, including a Nord Lead, a Roland Fantom, a handful of Junos, a few mics, mostly from Shure and AKG, AKAI MPCs, about 20 midi keyboards, and my vinyl collection takes up about half of my studio room. I must sell some, but, it's just so hard to say goodbye.

This blog is going to be about SAMPLES, LOOPS, HITS AND KITS. My favourite collections from the distant past, the methods in which we use samples, and the sample producers who I admire. 

Oh, and records... lots and lots of crackly old records!

I hope you'll join in, maybe learn something, or download something you like.