Timbaland’s distinctive sound effects and Kanye West’s sample choices are among the technology initiatives explored in “Musicians Who Rely on Technology to Create Their Sounds.” 

The PotentialofUs.com story points to Timbaland’s work with Aaliyah as one of the highlights of the Virginia musician’s career.

“Having a strong repertoire of beat-box and self-made sounds,” the item says, “Timbaland changed the game when he broke down a baby’s cry from the band Perrey and Kingsley’s song ‘Countdown at 6’ and reconstructed it as the main beat for Aaliyah’s 1996 hit ‘Are You That Somebody.’”

Elsewhere, the article refers to West as having a “genius-level of sampling.”

“Everything from changing the tempo of a Michael Jackson run and using it as the background for ‘Good Life’ or taking the old ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and adding a bit of edge, Kanye has mastered the art of song sampling and sound looping made popular by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs in the early 1990s,” the PotentialofUs.com story says. “Kanye did things with music that weren’t possible before. With technology-based sound, things have a tendency to drift heavily into the electronic or fusion genres, but Kanye’s done an amazing job with maintaining his Hip Hop roots while expanding the palette of his Pop-centric listeners.”

Here is the full post by Verizon.