The Future Music Sample Challenge

We gave 14 producers the same basic sample pack and challenged them to make a track. Here’s what happened…

We gave a plethora of diverse and far-ranging artists one basic sample pack, and told them to do what they will with them… then marvelled at the results

Electronic music making largely comes down to process; in theory, we all have access to the same pool of software, hardware, sample libraries and techniques. While a great band might be defined by an exceptional vocalist or lead guitarist, or the almost telepathically tight relationship between a drummer and bassist, what makes a great electronic musician is harder to quantify. It comes down to how they work with the tools at their disposal, how they shape their basic building blocks to fashion something that sounds distinct to their own style. Essentially, if you want to understand who an electronic musician really is, you need to understand their process.

That’s what our new Sample Challenge is all about. We gave a collection of producers and musicians from across a range of genres the same, very basic, materials, plus a strict set of rules, and challenged them to turn them into a track. Unsurprisingly, despite using the same basic building blocks, our artists have created some hugely varied results, each turning to different effects and techniques to put their own stamp on our pack of 30 loops and one-shots.

Over the following pages we break down the core ideas behind each artist’s entry. Be sure to head to filesilo.co.uk/future-music-358 to watch the breakdown videos too.

The Rules

All artists got the same sample pack, containing 10 loops and 20 one-shot hits, with which we asked them to create a song ‘sketch’ of at least 16 bars.

Each track had to use the sample pack as a starting point.

There were no restriction on how many of the samples artists needed to use: they could use all 30 or just use one sample in a multitude of different ways.

Artists weren’t allowed to use any samples other than those contained in our pack.

Each project was allowed one new audio recording and one new software instrument part.

Artists could use any DAW/ audio recorder, any combination of hardware or software samplers, and as many effects as they liked. They could also ‘resample’ the samples or bounce them out through external effects as many times as you want

Take The

Challenge Yourself!

Grab our Sample Challenge pack and test your own creative skills or try out some of the techniques on the following pages for yourself.

You can find the download link, as well as a set of instructions on how you can share your creations, at the following link: bit.ly/ FMchallengepack