Say there’s a 4 bar loop in a song that I want to sample and chop for use in my own track. I know I could run into issues regarding copyright if I were to sample straight from the song. However, would the same issues arise if I were to recreate the sample (using vst’s and/or my own recordings) and then chop/sample my own version?
I understand that copyright applies to the artistic work as well as the actual recording but I am unsure if that still applies when recreating a small portion of a complete song.
Even if you interpolate it (rerecord or recreate the music), you might still be stealing their intellectual property. When I write the sheet music for whatever I record, I have a all-rights-reserved copyright on that as well.
Taking the original sample and spicing it up with some FX (delay, reverb, stutter…) is still as illegal as taking the original sample itself. Recording a cover version of the original sample is also problematic as botstein said.
To avoid copyright issues best thing to do is asking for permission to use this sample. Or create some maybe similar but definitely new stuff!
Alex Metric said he rebuild the Mr.Finger sample, so he played it on his keyboard and shaped the sound. That makes it more difficult to determine, if it’s still Mr.Finger’s work or already Alex Metric’s.
Apart from that, knowing does an artist also does something (illegally), doesn’t mean it’s legal!
And you also do not know if he asked Mr.Finger’s management for permission to use this sample.
When a sample is replayed you just have to get permission from the publisher, not the record label or the artist who made it. You need to contact the specialists and world’s best sample replay company called SCORCCIO Sample Replays. They know all about this stuff and have made some killer beats and sample remakes over the years, actually the very first company to do so. I would 100% recommended them for any sample recreations and their prices are extremely good too.
