in music, what is the difference between a sample and a remix?

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in music, what is the difference between a sample and a remix?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

A sample is a snippet of another song. Sampling has been done since the classical music era by just “interpolating” someone’s composition or lyrics into your own composition or performance, just as a sort of tribute.

However, usually when people talk about samples, they’re talking about actually taking a piece of some other artist’s *recording* and putting that into your own song; this was something that started happening mainly in the 1980s and remains popular today.

Since the mid-1950s, most songs are recorded on “multitrack”: vocals and instruments are all recorded separately onto parallel “tracks” (on reel-to-reel tape, historically). Later, the tracks are played through a mixing console so that their relative volume levels can be set and effects like echo and stereo panning can be added, the goal being to produce a stereo “mixdown”. This recording is sometimes then further edited.

The first remixes were simply another publicly released attempt at mixing the multitrack recordings in a new way.

In the late 1950s/early ’60s, remixes were made by anonymous engineers who were just trying to create stereo versions of songs that were only in mono before.

In the 1970s, remixes were made by disco DJs or reggae producers who wanted to lengthen and beef up the sound of songs so they sounded good on very loud sound systems.

In the 1980s and beyond, remixes became more ubiquitous and daring, incorporating a lot of new percussion and other instrumentation that the original artist didn’t make. Sometimes the new material includes samples of other recordings. Sometimes the remixes are arguably superior to the original productions.

An example is worth a thousand words. Listen to a few seconds of each of these clips on YouTube:

[SWV – Right Here (radio edit)](https://youtu.be/j3Wozms0IGM?t=25)

This version of this combination R&B/rap song wasn’t bad, but it was not a hit.

[SWV – Right Here (instrumental)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7xl2lVTWyc)

This “instrumental” is a remix in which most of the vocals and percussion has been removed, minor changes have been made to the effects and the way the remaining instruments were combined, and the entire song has been re-edited.

[SWV – Right Here (Human Nature Radio Mix)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHwXoY0LiQk)

This was a very popular remix in which all the instrumental backing parts were replaced and the rap was removed. The biggest change is the inclusion of a gratuitous, repeating sample (used with permission) from Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”. The remix was not what the original singers and producers envisioned, but this new version was a huge hit, and the record company even commissioned a new video for it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Also, a sample can taken from any part of the original song.

Old town road has a sample of just a single guitar from some old rock song (I can’t remember the band name)

Whereas a remix often will retain most of the original sounds, but maybe swapping a few instruments (depending on the remix’s genre)

Edit : this was already mentioned oops

Anonymous 0 Comments

A sample is if you take a small snippet of what is otherwise a finished track. Like if you take a 3 second clip of a song – but it will include all tracks (drums, vocals, guitar etc.). Or, if you have access to the individual _tracks_ of the song, perhaps you just want to snip a really good drum fill.

A remix, is where the remixer has access (and permission) to the original isolated tracks that make up the song: vocals, guitar, drums etc. Not only can each individual track be edited and manipulated, but entire tracks can be added or thrown out. Its a little bit like the Song of Theseus problem – how much of the original song can you discard before its no longer that song, but really a _new_ song that _samples_ the original.

The most famous _sample_ that comes to mind is the Amen break, which is a drum fill from a (of itself really great) 60s R&B track called Amen Brother by the Winstons. side note: [really cool video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac). Sliced into its component drum hits, it has formed the drum track of gobs of R&B and EDM hits for the last 40 years.

Another would be the small bits that Vanilla Ice sampled from Queen+David Bowies Under Pressure to make Ice Ice Baby. That cool bass lick, the tink hook, but otherwise his own lyrics and arrangement. Or the Rick James funk bass sample that MC Hammer used for Hammer Time. Its really just that bass hook that he uses.

A good example of a _remix_ would be [Elvis x Junkie XL’s A Little Less Conversation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx1_6F-nCaw). Junkie reuses almost every track from the original (backing vocals and all), just slices and dices it into a little more uptempo modern EDM song.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A sample is telling you that the music you hear was originally done by another artist (think original artist)

Vanilla Ice ‘sampled’ Under Pressure by Queen for his hit Ice Ice Baby.

Remix – is generally a song you may know that has had other music mixed in that could be sampled from another artist.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A sample takes a little part of a song and makes a new song.

A remix takes a song and changes it around, that might include new drum beats but it we’ll be essentially the same song