Sample ripping

Taking samples out of other people's modules — with a ripper such as GetSamps v2.42 by Zab [Hardcode], or by loading the module in a tracker — and reusing them in your own songs. In the 1990s PC scene it was both universal practice and "one of the most controversial subjects on the tracking scene"; traxweekly argued it out twice, in 1995 and 1996 (source: s-tw024-sample-ripping-debate).

The debate in tracker terms#

• Everyone did it. Mhoram's second act after discovering Mod Edit was to rip samples "until [the] hard drive is full"; a year later he owned ~50 MB of samples of unknown origin. Kristian Eriksen put his own self-sampled share at 0.3 % (source: s-tw024-sample-ripping-debate).
• Most "scene" samples were themselves ripped from synths, sample CDs and records. Psibelius's proof: the famous "Second Reality" marcato strings from 2nd_skav.s3m are "virtually IDENTICAL" to the GUS MIDI patch marcato.pat; Eriksen: the only copyright holders are Roland, Akai or the Prodigy, so "the only real sample theft … is done by the ones who sample it in the first place" (same source).
• Good samples are hard to make — "No clicks, loop easily, correct pitch, and volume" (Psibelius) — which is why libraries circulate; Mhoram calls sampling harder than composing (same source). See sample-looping and recording-samples.
• The legal position (Beacon): only a sample you produced yourself (your voice, your riff) can be reserved; samples from CDs, movies, TV and radio need clearance before distribution, synth sampling is risk-free, sample CDs need written permission for commercial release; module music is "usually risk-free, because you don't sell your tunes for money" (same source).
• The artistic argument against ripping is originality, not law: Beacon rips nothing from module musicians because unheard samples make a tune "A LOT more distinct"; if everyone used "basehead's and necros' super-samples" the scene "would eventually die because of monotony" (same source). Behemoth sampled his own Korg X5 rather than reuse "three or four Purple Motion samples" (source: s-tw076-realism-in-mods).
• The 1998 coda (Jesper Pedersen): "that whole thing about PMS and MuzikMan back in 1995 pretty much ended" song theft; ripping with credit is "sharing"; releasing MP3s to prevent theft would lose the open score that lets others learn from a module (source: s-tw118-tracking-the-format).
• Riffs and loops are not piracy — necros (#9, 1995): "I disagree with those who would say that using any sort of a sampled riff is piracy"; a loop chopped, re-cut and layered until it is "not even vaguely similar to the original" is original work, and using samples in new ways is "a very difficult and respected task". The test case was basehead's NAID entry, called "35 % ripped from CD samples" by Perisoft — most listeners could not tell without soloing the samples (source: s-tw009-samples-lameness-preconceptions).
• Two 1995 rules of thumb. Necros (#15): never rip the Second Reality soundtrack ("that lead synth") or ST:-prefixed Amiga samples; rip only obscure sources such as Aminet modules, and credit them (source: s-tw015-advanced-tracking-tips-ii). Atlantic (#32): ripping is not a crime and bad self-made samples for originality's sake are worse — "just GIVE CREDIT where credit is due — always" (source: s-tw032-not-so-advanced-tracking-tips).
• The 1997 way out: build a one-pattern drum loop in impulse-tracker and render it with the WAV driver — a breakbeat "you can claim to be your own", "much more interesting (and legal)" than a ripped one (Zinc; source: s-tw096-studio-tracking-tips; see sample-looping).

Positions from the interviews, 1995–97#

• The Basehead row, from the other side. perisoft's own account of his #8 article: he judged Basehead's NAID entry by its sample credits, "didn't realize he reworked the sax samps", was kick-banned and called "anal retentive", and meant "to shock people into thinking" about complacency towards famous people and dissenters — which confirms the "35 % ripped" charge above as his (source: s-tw011-interview-perisoft).
• Ripping in practice, 1993–95. thehacker started by "ripping Amiga samples" into MODEDIT (source: s-tw005-interview-thehacker); Perisoft's conventional songs begin with "some poor bastard's" samples (source: s-tw011-interview-perisoft); stalker's Tropical Beans is built on a loop from Sonic CD (source: s-tw004-interview-stalker); leinad tries "to do most of the samples myself" (source: s-tw002-interview-leinad); lord-pegasus uses "like 50% bh samples" openly — sharing with credit in practice — yet "rippers suck": a whole S3M of his was ripped (source: s-tw018-interview-lord-pegasus); mesonyx (15): borrowing samples "is not so good either … although I do it myself" (source: s-tw028-faces-in-the-crowd-mesonyx); Fred rips because he cannot sample, but keeps a sample-credit list — "cheesy" is leaving original sample names in the list, or using "UNIQUE samples" everyone recognises, such as Purple Motion's looped techno beat, "in at least 30 different tunes" (source: s-tw031-interview-fred); luv-kohli is fine with permission and credit, lost the provenance of most of his samples and resolved to keep a record (source: s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli); vadimvs rips most samples from modules for lack of hardware but calls ripping samples and ideas the scene's biggest problem — ripping an idea is "horrible" (source: s-tw050-interview-vadimvs).
• The maker's side (Maelcum, July 1995). He and Major Tom made most of the samples in circulation, including the "rezonant bassy sounds"; he is "the only person that people never credit samples from" — "all these DORKS complain about ripping" while half their collection is his (source: s-tw019-interview-quarex).
• Songs versus samples. quarex distinguishes sample borrowing from "taking someone's song and putting your name on it"; nitewynd "continually rips songs, comes back, asks for forgiveness, then rips more", Muzikman "almost the same deal" (source: s-tw019-interview-quarex). esper-division: #trax wastes time flaming "the pagan sample rippers" (source: s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division). paganus discovered that the b0b (Atomic/Mazurka) songs that inspired him were "ripped in whole or in part from some pretty cool amiga 4-trax" (source: s-tw030-interview-paganus).
• The house-music position (Vicious, October 1995). The original sampler "stole it from a keyboard" (Korg, Roland); "House music was born from stealing"; "Take it as a compliment"; originality lies in the use. master-of-darkness in reply: credit when possible, never reuse a signature sample (Skaven's "BLAST" from the Second Reality song) "in the EXACT SAME FASHION", otherwise "WHO REALLY CARES" — and rips "always (unexplainably) lose some fine-tuning and quality" (source: s-tw031-interview-vicious). mick-rippon (January 1996): "A sample is only an instrument for heaven's sake. Did Beethoven whinge because other composers write for the piano as well?" (source: s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon). u4ia (1996): "borrowing" a sound for a different use is fine, reselling a reconstruction is not; "people who say 'hey that's my bass drum' really need to get out more"; vocal samples deserve respect; the dance industry itself was built on unlicensed samples (source: s-tw067-interview-u4ia).
• Etiquette in 1996. Shawn (January): drum loops "perfectly legal", guitar riffs if self-played, not passages copied off a band's CD as the core of a tune; the-grey-note passes because rearranged; credit what you borrow (source: s-tw041-interview-shawnm). pariah and Master of Darkness: "examine other peoples' songs, but don't rip em"; a C–F–G progression is common property, a whole song is not; studying how Skaven handles instruments is fine, Purple Motion rip-offs are not (source: s-tw043-interview-pariah). rage: "I personally never rip anything... not from modules at least", but "it's nice if somebody uses my samples" (source: s-tw060-interview-rage). ryan-sprott: ripping is fine for those with nothing to sample; SoundTracker modules were "100% ripped samples ... and they still manage to rock"; 90 % of his samples came from one friend, the rest from Basehead (source: s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott). vegas: rips only from songs whose samples are already ripped — "they might as well be public domain" (source: s-tw062-interview-vegas). Cosmic/RR (1997): samples from CD, vinyl and keyboard "but rip enuff from other mods" (source: s-tw090-interview-cosmic).
• Theft the other way. blaze-runner registered with SABAM because scene tunes "could get ripped by unscrupulous people" and released commercially; Blue Adonis heard his tune in a club (source: s-tw008-interview-blaze-runner; see commercial-tracking).

The etiquette that came out of it#

1. Keep the author's name with the sample in your library and credit it in the song message (Mhoram); the beginner guides say the same — "make them, rip them (with credit) or use synth patches" (source: s-tw077-general-tracking-tips).
2. Credit the creator if you know who it is; the composer you ripped it from usually is not the creator, and "If you don't know, then don't bother" (Psibelius).
3. Never rip a song-specific sound — a sampled sax phrase, a vocal line — the way you would not rip lyrics; single-note instrument samples are fair game (Psibelius).
4. Never rip a whole sample set from one song: you end up writing something "completely influenced by that one song". Combine samples from many songs — "If you rip don't rip all" (Dune / Orange, quoted by Beacon). The Modsquad's chip method does exactly this: collect candidates from many modules, keep only the normalised ones (source: s-tw077-chip-off-the-block).
5. Respect an explicit "do not reuse" on self-made samples (Psibelius), and be gracious the other way round: "If you sample it, don't get mad if someone rips it — take it as a compliment"; point out a missing credit "NICELY" (Mhoram).
6. Make some of your own to "give back" (Mhoram) — and because it is what makes your songs sound like nobody else's (Beacon).

(All items: s-tw024-sample-ripping-debate.)

Examples from the sources#

• The "Second Reality samples" (Future Crew's 2nd_skav.s3m and 2nd_pm.s3m) were the scene's most-ripped set; the strings are a GUS patch (source: s-tw024-sample-ripping-debate).
• DennisC "found the obscure amiga tune whence necros ripped the point of departure drumloop" — even the scene's stars ripped (source: s-tw070-realism-debate).
• Necros's "The Grey Note" sax is the textbook un-rippable sample: sampled melody phrases, not notes (source: s-tw024-sample-ripping-debate; see sample-offset).

Getting audio out of a ROM#

Ripping a module means reading a documented format. Pulling samples out of a game ROM means finding them first, and little-scale's method is to look (source: s-little-scale-rom-sample-extraction):

1. In Audacity, File > Import > Raw Data, and give it the whole ROM.
2. For a Game Boy Advance ROM, start at signed 8-bit PCM, no endianness, mono, 0 bytes offset, 100 %, 12000 Hz.
3. Scroll. PCM audio "looks more like actual audio waveforms than a square data waveform" — the sample bank is the stretch that stops looking like a solid block.
4. Preview, then re-import with a corrected rate or encoding. "A similar process can be used for many different types of ROMs."

The sample rate only changes playback speed and pitch, so get the encoding right first and tune the rate after. He used it on Pocket Music, the 2002 commercial Game Boy sequencer, to lift its 100 packaged samples.

An alternative to ripping at all: chip sounds recorded from hardware and released unrestricted — see chip-samples and s-little-scale-chip-sample-packs, where the sounds were generated by the person releasing them, which is the provenance question this page is about.

Related#

chip-samples · sample-looping · recording-samples · realism-in-tracked-music · tracking-workflow · future-crew · traxweekly · the-grey-note · commercial-tracking · perisoft · maelcum · vicious

Sources#

s-tw024-sample-ripping-debate · s-tw070-realism-debate · s-tw076-realism-in-mods · s-tw077-general-tracking-tips · s-tw077-chip-off-the-block · s-tw118-tracking-the-format · s-tw009-samples-lameness-preconceptions · s-tw015-advanced-tracking-tips-ii · s-tw032-not-so-advanced-tracking-tips · s-tw096-studio-tracking-tips · s-tw011-interview-perisoft · s-tw005-interview-thehacker · s-tw004-interview-stalker · s-tw002-interview-leinad · s-tw008-interview-blaze-runner · s-tw019-interview-quarex · s-tw018-interview-lord-pegasus · s-tw028-faces-in-the-crowd-mesonyx · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division · s-tw031-interview-vicious · s-tw031-interview-fred · s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli · s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon · s-tw030-interview-paganus · s-tw041-interview-shawnm · s-tw050-interview-vadimvs · s-tw043-interview-pariah · s-tw060-interview-rage · s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott · s-tw062-interview-vegas · s-tw067-interview-u4ia · s-tw090-interview-cosmic · s-little-scale-rom-sample-extraction · s-little-scale-chip-sample-packs