Book excerpt: Making Music With Samples is packed with creative, hands-on tips - aimed at getting the reader actively enjoying the art of sampling as quickly and easily as possible - interspersed with snippets of essential theoretical stuff: whether it's the science of sound, or copyright legalities. Starting with the absolute basics of what sampling is, author Dan Duffell progresses from simpler, widely-used tools like small loop-based samplers, through the various platforms available to the sample user - the different methods and equipment required to create and manipulate samples, including: hardware samplers, sampling/keyboard workstations, computer setups, software samplers, drum samplers, etc. He then describes the setting up procedures needed to get you started - connections and installation, signal levels and so on - at the same time providing some relevant background information on how a sampler actually works. Next: choosing source material - whether created you, or from sample CDs like the one attached, or from other people's recordings - which inevitably also raises the thorny subject of copyright and licensing: sampling and the law.Then there's a section depicting the basic layout and operation of some well-known software and hardware samplers, and a look at Sampling & Synthesis and Modular Systems...