Free soundware
Samples are an integral part of modern musicmaking, and yes, you can have them for free, too – here’s our top picks
There may be those who view the use of samples as a form of cheating or fakery, but let us assure you that even the biggest producers in the business use samples, and they’re not the only ones. Samples are, in fact, big business. Some commercial sample providers spend buckets of cash booking talented performers in world-class studios in order to provide the most authentic musical experience to those who partake of their wares. There are sample collections that span terabytes of storage space and cost many hundreds of pounds. Others are made by people who simply love to make and share sounds – synthesiser aficionados and collectors of vintage gear, for example.
Some even do it for free. And let us be thankful to them, as they allow all of us to realise the music we hear in our heads, regardless of our financial or physical limitations. Samples of all sorts are shared every day. A lot of them are looped beats or one-shots, while others are meticulously multisampled instruments, often formatted for the most popular software samplers. What follows are some of the best, most creative, and most useful sample sets to come our way over the past year.
BPB GAME BOY DRUM KIT
Bedroom Producers Blog is a solid resource for free samples, and that’s where we found one of our favourites, the Game Boy Drum Kit. A pack of 64 24-bit drum samples in WAV format, as an NKI collection for Kontakt users and as a simple SFZ patch. The samples were recorded from a Nintendo Game Boy running LSDJ software and are presented in raw, unprocessed form. Game Boy Drum Kit is a new and cool take on chiptune sounds, and you can grab it at bit.ly/GameBoyDrumKit.
SAMPLEPHONICS HAND PICKED FREEBIE
Samplephonics have a massive collection of 100 free loops and 48 one-shots drawn from various commercial products. 100% royalty-free, their Hand Picked Freebie is a virtual potpourri of usable, inspiring sounds. Get it from samplephonics.com.
LEGOWELT SMACKOS AMIGA 909
Some of us here at have been around long enough to have cut our teeth on the Commodore Amiga. We were therefore thrilled to see the delightful Smackos Amiga 909 released just in time to find its way into Ultimate Freeware 2016. Crafted by Danny Wolfers, aka Legowelt, this drum instrument for Ableton Live 9.5 is based on his own Amiga 909 sample floppy disk. Grab it from bit.ly/Legowelt909 and relive the halcyon days of computer music.
NOVATION PIXELORD PACK
Novation know great electronic music when they hear it, which is why they travelled to Mother Russia to meet producer, graphic artist and label owner Pixelord. Learn more about him in a ten-minute video at bit.ly/NovPixelord, and while you’re there, get your mitts on the free 91MB pack from the man himself, comprising synths, effects, one-shots and looped WAVs, and a pile of ASD files for Ableton Live.
PLUGHUGGER NANOPOLARITY 03 DISTURBANCES
The third entry in a series from Plughugger, Nanopolarity 03 Disturbances is the stuff of nightmares. A set of 30 samples that originally came from an Access Virus TI Polar before being plumbed through an ancient 16-bit Akai S1000 sampler, then onward through the legendary Eventide H3000 D/SX multieffects processor, this droning, distorted and deathly dark collection isn’t for the faint of heart! Get it from plughugger.com.
CLUSTERSOUND ROOM SIMULATOR
Not all sample packs are made up of loops, beats or instruments. Clustersound’s Room Simulator, for example, is a 50MB convolution library for use with Max For Live. Comprising 106 24-bit, 44.1kHz IR samples, 106 Convolution Reverb Devices, 106 Convolution Racks and four Convolution Reverb Pro Banks, this set is packed with rooms, halls, studio and plate reverbs. It can be yours for registering at clustersound.com.
FORCE SAMPLING TOXIC METALS
This new collection offers a variety of percussive metallic hits and effects, purportedly recorded in an abandoned plant contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Oh, the lengths these sample providers will go to bring us amazing free sounds! Nearly three dozen metals were battered with drumsticks, crowbars, hammers and plenty of other tools, before being further processed. It all makes for a truly apocalyptic sound set – don your hazmat suit and get over to forcesampling.com to download your copy.