MusicRadar

There's not much room for subtlety in many of today's pop records: they sound big, brash and ballsy, taking inspiration from dance music, hip-hop and R&B.

This is reflected in this week's SampleRadar collection, which gives you the sonic building blocks you need to craft a pop smash.

What you need to know

The samples are split into four construction kits, each of which contains bass, beat and synth samples at a specific tempo (90, 100, 120 and 130bpm).

All the samples are supplied as 24-bit WAV files so can be imported directly into your DAW or sampler of choice. Because they're royalty-free, you're welcome to use the samples in your music in any way you like - all we ask is that you don't re-distribute them.

The pop samples are supplied in a zip file, so you'll need to extract them before you can see them. Enjoy!

Example sounds

Synth 90bpm

Bass 100bpm

Beat 120bpm

Beat 130bpm

Pop samples: click to download

Pop samples (283MB)

These samples originally appeared on Computer Music magazine's cover DVD. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Tutorials

8 steps to producing a pop record

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