Samples provide the mixed blessing of greater range; there are, after
all, "only twelve notes a man can play" (to quote the Beastie Boys)...
but there are thousands upon thousands of potential samples.
** a few quibbles about 12 notes: unless you're into microtonality - - then there are more . . . and the 12 notes have different weights in different registers, so they really act as more than 12. and then there's timbre and so forth: a c major chord has a totally different weight when played by dimebag darrell (however many strings he plays), a symphony orchestra, a string quartet, a classically trained pianist, jerry lee lewis, howlin' wolf, etc.; one note on an oboe sounds radically different than the same note on nylon string guitar or a synthesizer - - in fact one might need to ask if they are the "same note" at all, same pitch frequency, sure, but there's a lot more information in that one note. these examples are scratching the surface as we haven't even discussed nuance of attack or dynamics or modulation - - or even a subject near and dear to us here, processing . . . so i would say that there are (many more than) thousands and thousands of possibilites in "just 12 notes."
so i don't know if i can agree that there is more range in samples, per se. different combinations are being created everyday. i suppose you could sample all of those . . . in which case, you may be right.
but maybe it all comes down to mixing colors in a "pleasing and artistic" way.
questions for you:
are you doing this in a live situtation or a controlled studio situtation (forgive me if this is old ground, i came in somewhat late on this).
are you doing in interacting with others, or in one-person environment?
how do you come up with the combinations of samples? are they consecutive or at the same time?
can you hear combinations in your head before you do them, or is it all by trial and error?
s