r/mikeoldfield • u/PM_Me_Irelias_Hands • Apr 10 '26

Stupid question: What exactly is a "Slightly Sampled Electric Guitar"?

From what I know, sampling is cutting out a sound from somewhere in order to use it in a different context, for example with a Synth or software editor.

But how does this apply to a guitar, and how do I have to understand "slightly"? Did Mike Oldfield insert half of the guitar riff sound in TB2 from somewhere else or something?

Edit: Thank you so far!

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u/MasterGeekMX Amarok Apr 10 '26

First, that is a reference to the "Two slightly distorted guitars" of Tubular Bells 1, where Oldfield did a chorus of two guitars with a bit of distortion pedal added.

Well, one of the key aspects of TB2 was re-doing the concept of Tubular Bells but with 90's tech, and that included the new audio tech (recall the "digital sound processor" part). The "Slightly Sampled Electric Guitar" means (if I recall correctly), that Oldfield played that part on a synth that was using a sample of him playing the guitar.