Samplephonics CM Pack
Unpack this month’s epic sample giveaway and see us using it to get a track started,
Here at , we pride ourselves on bringing you the best free software and samples every single month – and this issue is no exception, as not only have we brought you one of the most epic softsynth giveaways of all time, but we’ve also teamed up with A-list sample label Samplephonics to bring you an unbelievably phat collection of sounds.
The pack
Samplephonics CM Pack 2016 is an exclusive 2GB sample pack crammed to the max with 693 premium-grade one-shots and loops, all lovingly picked from 47 – yes, 47! – of the brand’s best commercial packs. All manner of musical styles are covered – from hip-hop, techno, DnB and house through to ambient, acoustic, soul and disco – so you’re guaranteed to find some form of aural gold, no matter what kind of music you make. Some of our favourite categories include the blissful sounds of Celestial Projection, the abstract rhythms of Alien Beatscapes, and the of Technomaschochism’s rugged complexity. Once you’ve scoped out the pack for yourself, make sure you check out Samplephonics’ other fantastic sounds at samplephonics.com!
The track
So, to proudly parade this fantastic collection of sounds and show you exactly what they’re capable of, we’re going to use samples from the pack to put together a wonky, lo-fi house groove in the style of artists such as Four Tet, Bonobo and Maribou State. After building up the track idea piece-by-piece, incorporating creative sampling, chopping, pitchshifting and effects processing, we’ll cover a handful of mixing and mastering techniques to help our choice combination of sounds gently slot together in a mix context.
We’ll be using Ableton Live 9.6 as our DAW, but don’t worry if you don’t own Live: simply download a 30-day demo from ableton.com to follow along. Our finished Live 9.6 project, plus tutorial files and video, can be found in the Tutorial Files folder – just log in to vault.computermusic.co.uk and register this issue ( 232) to get access to the download. Alternatively, if you use a different DAW, you can easily follow along with our techniques using similar plugins.
Finally, we’ve created a four-bar groove in this tutorial – so we’d like you to turn it into a finished track! We challenge you to take our initial idea and flesh it out into a complete arrangement in any way you wish. Email your efforts (in MP3 format) to computermusic@futurenet.com, and we’ll announce the winner in a future edition.