Splice It Up: The Future of Sampling with Zain Wolf

In a recent episode Meagan King and Nasiphi Zwane had the pleasure of chatting to Zain Wolf, a talented sampler for Splice, Audeobox, and Saturate Records. Here are some of the points we touched on in the full interview.

Future of Sampling

As music continues its migration towards digital and online platforms, the trajectory of sampling becomes increasingly intriguing. From the era of records to CDs and now streaming, the question arises: what does the future of sampling look like?

Zain says, 'I think the songs that are going to be sampled are a lot more recent. There are many new kids on the block who are not too familiar with The Beatles, but know Miles Davis or John Coltrane. Some kids can go as far as Black Sabbath, but most will probably end at Nirvana. So I think that's what's going to change in the landscape of sampling; either that, or with things like Splice, people are going to outright never need to really sample.'

Sample Techniques

Sampling in music is a creative art that has birthed countless hits. It not only keeps old songs alive but also infuses new songs with a sense of familiarity. Drawing from Zain’s experience in sampling, here are some techniques he shared.

'If you're looking to learn how to structure your packs or how to build packs, go and download a pack that you really like; see the structure of the pack and what their sounds are, and then think to yourself as a music maker what, what do I need? What would be useful to me? I also find that if you want to make something that you're not familiar with, like rage trap, engulf yourself in the culture and the music and see what the producers of that genre are doing and how they do it and work to the best of your abilities to get as close to that as possible.'

The Perfect Listener

The definition of an ideal listener can differ among artists. Understanding your target audience is as crucial as any other aspect of music production, as they are the ones who will ultimately experience your finished product.

Zain explains, ‘Things to consider while listening to music is to listen to music for the sake of listening to music and not attaching other things to it. Whenever I put out music it no longer becomes mine, so whatever impressions it makes or whatever the people feel the music is, is up to them and I can’t tell them that they’re right or wrong. My message may be missed completely, but it’s up to the listener to create their own world around it and decide whether it’s good or bad.’

Conclusion

In this article, we've highlighted three key points from our informative episode with Zain. However, our full audio episode delves into more topics, such as clearing samples and the steps to take when identifying a song for sampling. Make sure to follow Zain on Instagram for his latest updates.