In 1969 the BBC Radiophonic Workshop-affiliated inventor Peter Zinovieff developed the first digital sampler, the EMS Musys. The $300,000 Synclavier (1975) and the aforementioned light pen-operated Fairlight CMI (1979) brought samplers into recording studios.

When was sampling invented?

The term sampling was coined in the late 1970s by the creators of the Fairlight CMI, a synthesizer with the ability to record and play back short sounds. As technology improved, cheaper stand-alone samplers with more memory emerged, such as the E-mu Emulator, Akai S950, and Akai MPC.

What was the first song to be sampled?

The Sugarhill Gang's “Rapper's Delight” was the first rap song to use a sample. The Fatback Band's “Kim Tim III” released in 1979 was the first commercially released hip-hop song and it used an original beat, making “Rapper's Delight” the first hip-hop/rap song to use a sample.