Samples in Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament etc. Legal to sample?

[ModManiac12]

hi ! i found this page via the websearch and i hope you can help me , i dunno where those samples originated from but i wonder if these samples are legal to use or sampling or do you have to ask the creater first/musician? i  dunno the mod scene that well. thx

[Saga Musix]

Generally this is a legal grey area that noone really cares about. Many of those samples are just samples that have been circulating in the tracking community for years, many of them are also selfmade by the composers on their synthesizers. If you absolutely need 100% certainty that it is legal for you to use the samples then I wouldn't use them, but if not: Hundreds of people have used those samples (myself included). Nobody will probably care if you do, too, as long as you're not suddenly getting rich from using "that one iconic sample from Deus Ex" (whichever that may be ).

[ModManiac12]

Generally this is a legal grey area that noone really cares about. Many of those samples are just samples that have been circulating in the tracking community for years, many of them are also selfmade by the composers on their synthesizers. If you absolutely need 100% certainty that it is legal for you to use the samples then I wouldn't use them, but if not: Hundreds of people have used those samples (myself included). Nobody will probably care if you do, too, as long as you're not suddenly getting rich from using "that one iconic sample from Deus Ex" (whichever that may be ).

thx a lot, after exporting some samples i read GOLDSMITH pad, breaks etc. so it seems these samples arent always self-sampled and maybe also just "taken" from them in the past . or also breaks/loops from various sample cds i guess. of course if i would ask they wouldnt tell i guess cause of legal issues, but i didnt read or hear that the composer of Deus Ex for example (if that would be the case!) was sued by Goldsmith in the past for using maybe some sample or some sample of a DnB breakloop.

[Saga Musix]

There's little to be gained from sueing individual artists for misusing a single sample, so even if it was possible I doubt anyone would do it - unless it's maybe a very obvious sample and the tune in question turned out to be a #1 charts hit.

[LPChip]

I stand by Saga Musix' advice, but I'd like to add a bit. I too have used these samples from other modules in the past, like everyone else did and I even shared some of those modules online for free like everyone else did.

These modules are crap now compared to what I can do today so it won't really be a problem. However if for whatever reason I would want to release one of those songs as a commercial song, I will not do that unless I replaced all those sounds with sounds I have licenses for etc.

Usually this means that I remix one of my old songs into a new song and only release the new song. So keep that in mind, that if you use those samples now, which is fine, that you remember that these have those sounds and that you work towards using sounds you can use everywhere, for example, by using a VSTi plugin and share as mp3 instead of the original module. That way, you can be assured that you are fine in the future. This will also stop people from stealing your music (eg: downloading the source, make a few changes, and then claiming it to be their own).

[Saga Musix]

So keep that in mind, that if you use those samples now, which is fine, that you remember that these have those sounds and that you work towards using sounds you can use everywhere, for example, by using a VSTi plugin and share as mp3 instead of the original module.

Cross-posting from the "Legal/royalty free MOD Samples" thread, it's worht noting that using samples from VSTis doesn't automatically solve the problem as some well-known commercial VSTis have license clauses that explicitly forbid using them in certain ways.

[LPChip]

Right. I actually meant to use VST's in your project rather than to sample from them, but its a good addition to keep in mind.

[Saga Musix]

What Ceekayed's post in the linked thread is hinting at: It's not just the process of sampling that can be problematic with some licenses: Even the way you use a preset (not as part of a composition but in an isolated context) may be an issue. Pretty messed up, but again it's unlikely anyone would be getting sued for that, unless they were maybe producing the soundtrack to a multi-million dollar movie and they were not using the plugin in a musical context. Most plugins (or their presets) don't come with such strict clauses though, that's also worth noting. And I don't think I have ever read this kind of nonsense it the manual of any hardware synth.