While Splice is an invaluable resource for producers, some believe artists shouldn’t rely too heavily on sample packs available within the platform in their music, particularly if they are a big name.
And when he found out Fred again.. used a Splice sample pack for Ten – the 2023 track from his upcoming album Ten Days – Afrojack says he was disappointed.
In a new interview with XLNTSOUND, Ten is brought up as an example of a hit track which uses Splice loops, to which Afrojack replies: “It’s based off three Splice samples. To me, that was disappointing when I found out. ‘Oh my god, that’s four Splice sample loops on top of each other!’”
He goes on, “I love Fred again.., and he’s super talented, but when I found out that was a sample, I was like…”
Another well-known example of a track made with Splice samples is Sabrina Carpenter’s massive hit Espresso. The track was made using a sample pack called Power Tools Sample Pack III, by a creator named Oliver.
If you click on the link above and preview a file named “OLIVER_104_pop_loop_surf_dad_rhythm_C.wav”, you’ll hear that distinctive clean guitar hook that’s in the final version of Espresso.
“When I saw that I was like, so a guy took the beat that you produced, and then he looped it and played bass on it, and now it’s his publishing, his intellectual copyright,” Afrojack goes on.
“I’m like, whoa – all due respect to the guy, no disrespect, he used samples and the guy made it a sample – but you made a composition. The composition is the talent. The people appreciate the melody and the composition, they don’t appreciate the guy that put four samples on top of each other!”
While it’s true that selecting samples as key elements of a track does cut corners in terms of composition, there’s still a degree of creativity required in piecing random samples together, and filling the gaps with your own elements, too. Espresso, for example, while heavily reliant on samples, features a totally original bassline, which is undeniably one of the key groove makers of the song.
