If you have bought a CD or vinyl from a sound, sample or loop library company, you will usually have a wide licence to use the samples or loops, both live and in recordings, without having to contact the copyright owner. You should check the licence agreement (it is often set out on the packaging or in an accompanying document): generally, look to see if it says that use of the material is “copyright free” or “royalty free”, and that no particular restrictions are specified.

However, take care that the person putting out the compilation is able to give a copyright clearance. There are compilations of samples, sounds and loops which have not been cleared by the copyright owner. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia makes the following comments in relation to “battle records”:

[these] are vinyl records made up of brief samples from songs, film dialogue, sound effects, and drum loops for use by a DJ … Often, the samples featured on these records do not have the blessing of the original copyright holders …

If you use samples from such a disc, you will probably infringe copyright even if you don’t mean to.