"[Samples have] a certain reality. It doesnt just take the sound, it takes the whole way it was recorded. The ambient sounds, the little bits of reverb left off crashes that happened a couple of bars ago. Theres a lot of things in the sample, just like when you take a picture—its got a lot more levels than say, the kick-drum or the drum machine, I think. [...] Looking at a sampler the way it was used first—to try and simulate real instruments—you didnt have to get a session guitarist and you could just be like, Hey, I can have an orchestra in my track, and I can have a guitar, and it sounds real! And I think thats the wrong way to use sampling. The right way is to get the guitar, and go, Right, thats a guitar. Lets make it into something that a guitar could never possibly be. You know, take it away from the source and try to make it something else. Might as well just get a bloody guitarist if you want a guitarist. Theres plenty of them." —Amon Tobin dead link, view archive here"
"When I sample something, its because theres something ingenious about it. And if it isnt the group as a whole, its that song. Or, even if it isnt the song as a whole, its a genius moment, or an accident or something that makes it just utterly unique to the other trillions of hours of records that Ive plowed through" —DJ Shadow, 33⅓ Volume 24: DJ Shadows Endtroducing..., 2005"
"Modern recorded music has evolved from focusing principally on musicianship and performance into an auditory collage where no sound is off limits. Sampling is simply another color on our palettes. Whether were sampling old records, using advanced multi-sampling, or recording sounds ourselves, the final artistic product is paramount and should not be compromised in the face of any corporate legalities." —Sono"
"Lets say I find a loop or something that I want to use—you attach yourself to a particular aspect or emotion that you find in it—part of it is looking for like-minded sounds and part of it is just laying things out in a way that kind of helps accomplish what you want. Its what you can hear in a particular sound." —RJD2"
"My music is based in hip hop, but I pull everything from dancehall to country to rock together. I can take a Led Zeppelin drum loop, put a Lou Donaldson horn on it, add a Joni Mitchell guitar, then get a Crosby, Stills & Nash vocal riff." —Prince Be Softly of PM Dawn, Musician magazine, June 1993"
"Cutting and pasting is the essence of what hip-hop culture is all about for me. Its about drawing from whats around you, and subverting it and de-contextualizing it." —DJ Shadow"
"I look at all the different parts and see how I can organize them in a way. Its like mathematics. Very mathematic. Its like graphs! Youre always searching for the combination that sounds best. Its kind you set back, and feel the thing. If you want something to come in, you have to search for it, listen to it." —Blockhead"