That’s the magic of old samplers – that digital grit which could truly transform a sample and apply a unique stamp of imperfection. While “Rain Dance” is clearly the sample source, it doesn’t sound so much like a jazz fusion combo on “Crush on You” as it does like a fuzzy flute synthesizer. Now, listen to Lil’ Kim & Lil’ Cease’s “Crush on You”, a classic 90s Bad Boy production from Fanatic of the 3 Boyz from Newark collective (watch for an Aaliyah cameo): Check out “Rain Dance”, by Jeff Lorber Fusion: This bit and sample rate crunch – in addition to digital hiss and other jittery ghosts in the machines – is part of what continues to make artifacts like the Emulator, Linndrum, and SP-1200 so desirable to this day.Īnd here’s where Lil’ Kim comes in. Most samplers were 8- or 12-bit, with noticeably low sample rates. Into the late 80s and early 90s, samplers got smaller and more affordable. Here’s Herbie Hancock demonstrating sampling on Sesame Street with a Fairlight CMI (watch for guest appearance from a very young Tatyana Ali): Suddenly, sounds and sequences which used to take days of work from skilled tape manipulators became keyboard-mapped. Groundbreaking (and expensive) instruments such as the Fairlight CMI and Synclavier brought new possibilities for playing with recorded audio. Much as we take it for granted in 2015, once upon a time in a far-gone decade called the 80s, sampling was a new technology.