One of the best-known names in synth history, Moog Music is the company behind a long list of iconic instruments, from the classic to the contemporary.

That's why we've themed our latest free sample pack around Moog's legendary synths, putting together a generous collection of samples that showcase the multi-faceted sound of Moog's instruments.

The latest edition of SampleRadar is a Moog-lover's paradise made up of 493 samples, spanning everything from arpeggiated loops and filtered beats to experimental FX and acid-tinged multi-samples, all produced using Moog's beloved gear.

• Read more: Why does everyone love the Minimoog?

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Moog synth samples: click to download

Moog synth samples (412MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 95,000 more free samples.

From classics like the Roland TR-808 and 909 through to modern greats such as Elektron's Analog Rytm and Polyend's Drums, hardware drum machines play an essential role in many producers' workflows.

They don't come cheap, though. (Well, some of them do.) So if you're looking to integrate the sound of a hardware drum machine into your productions but haven't got one in your home studio, we're here to help.

Today's edition of SampleRadar features looped beats and one-shots from a variety of beat-boxes, including the Alesis H16-B, Arturia DrumBrute, Nord Drum and Roland TR-8. What are you waiting for? Download and dive in.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Hardware drum machine samples: click to download

Hardware drum machine samples (293MB)

These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

As gifted in production as he is in songwriting, James Blake is a multi-faceted artist that draws from his background in experimental electronica to create the soulful but sonically adventurous ballads that make up his contemporary output.

On his latest album, Trying Times, Blake decorates his heartfelt crooning with scattered electronic beats, nervy synths and processed samples, resulting in a hybrid sound that owes as much to the cerebral post-dubstep of his early years as the more conventional influences – Joni Mitchell, D’Angelo, Leonard Cohen – that have shaped his songwriting.

Blake brought together these two sides of his craft on Trying Times highlight Death of Love by sampling the title track from Cohen’s 2016 album You Want It Darker, a creative decision he unpacked in a recent conversation with co-producer Dom Maker (one half of Mount Kimbie) for BBC Radio 6 Music’s Artist In Residence series.

Blake and Maker lifted the vocals heard in the song’s opening to create the eerily evocative instrumental for Death of Love, which were performed by a Cantor Gideon Zelermyer and the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, an ensemble belonging to a synagogue in Cohen’s hometown of Montreal. Clearing the sample was quite a feat, Blake says, but it was Cohen’s son and collaborator Adam that helped them over the line.

“His son actually cleared the sample,” Blake says. “We weren’t sure if it would… I don’t know of Leonard Cohen ever approving a sample. There may have been a couple, but it’s quite rare, so I was very honoured. Maybe he liked the song, or possibly there’s a throughline between the feeling of both things, and I was respectful of the sample itself.”

The Cohen sample isn’t the only unexpected inclusion on Death of Love, Blake says. In an effort to augment the song’s unsettling vibe, he and Maker sampled a dub siren gifted to him by revered dubstep producer Mala, and the SOS signal sent out by the RMS Titanic before it sank into the Atlantic, which appears at the end of the track.

“Right at the end, the song wasn't really done,” Blake says. “I remember [Blake’s partner and co-producer] Jameela… it sounded good and it had impact, but there was just another 15% left, though I didn't really feel that way at the time. I was just going, ‘No, it feels done, it's fine’. But Jameela was like, ‘No, there's another 15% in this, this could hit harder.’”

“That’s when you were like, ‘can you try and get hold of the Titanic SOS’?”, Maker says. “There was one last touch, and I was looking for Morse code, which I believe also may have been Jameela’s idea,” Blake adds.

“[We wanted] the feeling of ‘we are in trouble’, basically, without actually being too on the nose about it. The only thing that actually sounded good was the real Morse code from the mayday on the Titanic. It was very eerie to listen to, and to read what it meant… and it just fit right in with a little bit of reverb! [laughs]”

Blake’s Morse code is unlikely to be the “real” Titanic SOS signal, as no audio recordings of the ship’s wireless transmission exist. Instead, he will have sampled a modern recreation of what radio operators at the signal’s receiving end will have heard, using transcripts reconstructed by historians from handwritten logs.

Regardless of its origin, though, the Morse code lends the song a suitably distressing atmosphere, representing another example of Blake’s talent for taking his tracks to another world by weaving in samples from unexpected sources.

Subscribe to BBC Radio 6 Music on YouTube.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: The ferocious big beat sound of The Prodigy's 1997 album Fat of the Land has been hailed as a classic of the electronic genre. But, in our view, it’s not just an excellent dance record, but one of the decade’s most significant releases.

The album that birthed the multimillion selling Firestarter and the controversial Smack My Bitch Up, were key strikes in rave culture's invasion of the mainstream.

The Prodigy had a long-established reputation as a superb, invigorating live act, but wider exposure led to their expressive frontman Keith Flint terrifying middle England, and besieging the homes of everyday folk via Top of the Pops.

Preceding the album by 8 months, the single Breathe became the band's most successful single (at least before Firestarter was released) but its development took quite a while.

“It was an instrumental for ages,” The Prodigy’s chief musical director Liam Howlett recalled in an interview with Addicted to Noise. “We were playing it on stage and the guys were just dancing to it and stuff. It was just like an instrumental track. And I thought that it was so obvious to put a vocal on it.”

It's Breathe's distinctive opening and recurring 2-bar, guitar-sampled riff which we are going to examine and try and re-build here.

As we will discover, we can create an interesting facsimile using our own software, using many of the identifiers from the original track, but without the initial samples, it's difficult to re-create note for note.

Therefore, think of this as an opportunity to take the spirit of the track in a different direction, using a slightly mutated sound of your own choosing.

Though some speculated that Liam Howlett had in fact sampled the theme from the iconic James Bond music cue (undoubtedly because of the twangy guitar sound), in reality, it stemmed from a recording of the Prodigy live-band member, guitarist and contributor, Jim Davies. His processed and mono guitar sound was tracked to DAT, leaving Howlett to extract a couple of notes and re-mould them.

“I just got him into the studio and he played a couple of notes,” Howlett told Addicted to Noise. “I just took those single notes and basically put them through the sampler. I constructed the riff, in other words. Everything you hear on the track is basically from my head. All the riffs are mine. I've never sampled a whole riff of someone else's stuff. A lot of people get confused 'cause when they hear ‘sampler,’ all they can think about is sampling other people's tracks, you know. It's not like it used to be, like with Pump Up The Volume, when it was just built around someone else's track. This is actually rock music written on electronic equipment, you know? With Breathe, I made the riff.”

Breathe is, therefore, a very sample-heavy production, reliant upon sampled material at just about every turn. Thin Lizzy’s Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed supplies the drum break, while Wu-Tang Clan’s Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ provides the identifiable whiplash effect, used throughout.

Rather than get caught up in the wormhole of samples, we're going to examine how we can recreate the opening riff ourselves, with workarounds that might provide an simple alternative for achieving a similar sound in a different context.

How to get the sound of Breathe in your DAW

You may be limited by the tools at your disposal, but the good news is, you can create something similar with a basic soft synth or sampler, a DAW, some distortion effects and EQ.

The preferable choice for your synth or sampler will be anything that has a band-pass filter. Don't worry if this isn't something you have, as you can adopt EQ to acquire similar results. It’s preferable to be able to control your filter cutoff using velocity, although once again, there an alternative solution, which we’ll come to later.

If using a synth, we are looking to create a fairly sharp wave upfront, so while you can use conventional subtractive-style synths, try using a modulated pulse wave, or better still, some form of sync, bright digital or FM tone.

Alternatively, use a sampler (which is what we are choosing to use here). We are using the EXS24, which is the stock sampler from Logic Pro.

The beauty of this approach is that we can select a sound source which will pave much of the way for a similar sound.

Step 1: As a starting point, we have selected the ‘Clean Electric Guitar 1’ patch, from the default EXS24 library. It's a clean sound, which is played/sampled by using a pick or plectrum.

Step 2: In order to easily work with this sound, create a simple 2-bar loop or cycle, which will make it easy to audition the sound.

For reasons of copyright, we have used a loop which is slightly different from the original, but we have kept this rhythmically the same. Also note that all of the notes have been entered in step time, and are set to the same velocity value of 70. We will return to this later to make further adjustments.

Step 3: Returning to our sound, we’ll start by making some filter settings. One of the luxuries of working with the EXS24 sampler, is that we can employ two filters, which on this occasion we’ll assign in series.

We are setting filter one to ‘HP 24db Edgy’, which is a 4-pole high pass filter, and selecting filter two ‘BP 12dB Edgy’, which is a band-pass filter.

Between the two filters, you can see the ‘Series’ icon, which needs to be highlighted in yellow.

Turning to the Cutoff and Resonance settings, these will differ from one synth or sampler to another, but as a general guide, aim to set the high-pass filter cutoff to around 30% and resonance to 45%, with the band-pass filter cutoff set to around 25% and resonance set to 50%. Be sure to listen and audition your sound, and don't overly indulge the resonance.

If you have drive or distortion available within the filter circuit, you could certainly apply this at this stage, although it’s not essential, as we will add distortion to our signal chain at the end of the process.

Step 4: Ideally, we want to use two envelope generators, with one applied to amplitude/volume, and the other applied to filter cutoff. If you only have one available, you can use the same envelope for both elements.

Beginning with the amplitude envelope, engineer a small amount of sustain, preceded by a quick attack and snappy decay. If you have a second envelope, for filter cutoff modulation, apply settings for a quick attack and decay with zero sustain.

Step 5: Returning to our note editor, we now need to implement two different levels of velocity value.

If we refer to the original track, this begins with the on-beats being a higher velocity than the off-beats, although there is nothing to stop you altering this to suit your own track. The velocity value pattern in the original also changes, once it reaches the second bar.

We are going to start by changing some notes to a velocity of 100, leaving the opposite notes set to the previous velocity of 70. The differences in velocity value will allow us to control the degree of filter modulation, which we’ll route in the next step.

Step 6: Using your synth’s mod matrix or modulation routings, assign velocity to both filter section’s cutoff controls. Once you have a assigned the source and target, you may need to experiment with the amount of modulation. In our case, we have assigned a modulation value of around 25-27% but again, this will differ from one synth to another. You may also note that there is an indication of modulation, within the filter section, as seen in our example by the appearance of an ‘orange curve’ above the cutoff control.

When you now audition your 2-bar loop, the changes in velocity value should instigate a change in the cutoff of each filter, replicating a similar sound to the original track.

Step 7: To further enhance this effect, try applying a small degree of filter cutoff modulation, using the filter envelope as a modulation source. A small amount of modulation should enhance the effect even further.

Step 8: If the synth or sampler that you are using allows the application of distortion within the filter section, you may already have convincing results. However, the application of overdrive or distortion on the backend of the signal chain, will likely add another useful element.

If you listen very carefully to the original, you can hear a slight grainy-ness in the original sound. This may be down to the original sampling process, and a reduced sample rate, or merely noise from distortion. Either way, try experimenting with a bitcrusher, as this will allow the introduction of a similar texture.

Alternatively, add a healthy dose of distortion; something aggressive, such as Soundtoys' Decapitator would be ideal for this and can be cranked quite hard, to achieve impressive results.

As with the programming of any synth sound in a contemporary DAW, there are a number of ways of approaching sound design in order to achieve similar results.

If working with a conventional subtractive-style synth, armed with more usual waveforms, experiment with different combinations. A sync tone, or reedy PWM pulse would be ideal starting points for this sound. Many modern synths provide metallic or glassy sources, which may prove to be worthy fodder in this context.

You can also experiment with different filter types. While high-pass and band-pass filters are the ideal option, you can also explore formant filters, which can provide wonderful colours.

Be aware that each filter and synth will require its own specific set of values. You can also use heavy EQ curves, to limit the sonic bandwidth, much like a band-pass filter.

One issue that may present itself, particularly with less capable soft-synths, is the lack of ability to route velocity to the cutoff control of the filter. Another method for achieving the same result, would be to automate the cutoff within your DAW. But be sure to create steps for each note, rather than a slope between values, as the cutoff changes.

Learning how to create impressive sounds from the past masters is a valuable route to understanding how to get the most out of your synthesis. However, it is also a superb springboard for individual creativity, and while it can be highly rewarding to try and recreate an existing track, try to take your sound exploration in a new direction which will be entirely unique to you. Then you can release your track without stepping on any copyright-toes.

Take a deep breath… now get creative!

Now the world's most popular musical genre, hip-hop has come a very long way from its humble origins in the streets of '70s New York.

Hip-hop in 2026 is stronger and more diverse than ever, having heavily influenced the sound of contemporary pop while splintering into a multitude of subgenres and microscenes, from trap and drill to mumble rap and rage beats.

But few would disagree that the genre's "golden age" – a fruitful period from the late '80s through the mid-'90s – was the genre at its peak, producing a historic run of groundbreaking albums from iconic artists like 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, Mobb Deep, Outkast and many more.

It's that slice of hip-hop history that served as inspiration for our latest free sample pack, a varied collection of beats, loops, drum hits, one-shots and multi-samples that share a distinctly nostalgic feel - there's even some vinyl crackle samples thrown in for that authentically vintage vibe.

From laid-back boom-bap drum patterns to dusty chords and slinky basslines, this pack's got pretty much everything you need to put together a convincing imitation of classic '90s hip-hop. Except the rhymes, of course – we'll leave those to you.

What you need to know

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

Examples

'90s hip-hop samples samples: click to download

'90s hip-hop samples (202MB)

For thousands more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

• Follow MusicRadar Tech on Instagram to stay up to date with the latest gear news, artist interviews and tech tutorials.

There are so many ways to create a synth bass, from processing the simplest of sine waves with analogue gear to frequency modulating complex wavetable oscillators in the digital realm.

Though the possibilities are infinite, time and data space rule that this sample pack only provides a selection of bass synth instruments. These come in the form of loops and multisamples, and each of the folders is subdivided into 'analogue' and 'digital'.

Though all the synths used in the pack are digital, some are emulations of analogue synthesizers, such as the Arturia Mini V, ARP2600, MiniMoog, Korg MS-20, SEM, and Jupiter-8 were used along with Gforce's Oberheim OB-E.

Though many digital synths can serve up great analogue style sounds, here they have been used to emphasize their digital natures. Those used include the Kurzweil K2600 and the SQ80, Emulator II, DX7, Yamaha CZ, Prophet VS and CMI/Fairlight from Arturia's V Collection.

What you need to know

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

Examples

Bass synth samples: click to download

Bass synth samples (400MB)

For more than 98,000 more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

• Follow MusicRadar Tech on Instagram to stay up to date with the latest gear news, artist interviews and tech tutorials.

The soft, smooth tones of 70s/80s AOR (Adult Oriented Rock) has come to be known as yacht rock. Though not really a formal genre, there are common elements, including pillow-soft production and close jazzy chord voicings, that have pricked up the ears of many modern artists cherry-picking the 'best' aspects.

Though hip-hop has long been sampling well known as well as obscure AOR tracks (Warren G's Regulate lifts a lot of Michael McDonald's I Keep Forgetting, while De La Soul's Say No Go goes for Hall & Oates' I Can't Go For That), the popular subgenre of chilled lo-fi hip-hop is a perfect context to utilise the non-confrontational stylings of yacht rock.

This sample pack focuses on the guitar parts and includes loops and single chord hits from a variety of clean guitar tones. Some of the tempos used range a little higher than most chilled hip-hop tracks, though they remain comfortably within the hip-swaying boundaries of yacht rock.

This is to provide some usage outside of the intended sub-genre, and to invite the use of time-stretching which, along with a healthy serving of vinyl crackle and/or noise, will warp the guitar parts into something a little more crusty and 'sampled'. Re-pitching, stretching and generally mangling these samples is very much encouraged!

What you need to know

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

Examples

Yacht rock samples: click to download

Yacht rock samples (228MB)

For more than 97,000 more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

• Follow MusicRadar Tech on Instagram to stay up to date with the latest gear news, artist interviews and tech tutorials.

The '80s was a transformative period for music, spawning countless artists and sounds that remain vastly influential in the modern age.

It was also a golden era for synthesizers, bringing us the birth of digital synthesis and giving rise to legendary instruments like the Yamaha DX-7, Fairlight CMI, Prophet V, Synclavier and many more.

These are the inspiration behind our latest free sample pack, as we've sought to bottle the retro tones of classic '80s synths in a collection of leads, basses, pads and arps created with Arturia's V Collection and routed through some authentic '80s outboard gear.

What you need to know

The samples are split into four subfolders, in which you'll find several tempo-labelled folders.

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

Example sounds

'80s synth samples: click to download

'80s synth samples (1000MB)

For more than 97,000 more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

Tutorials

How to imitate an '80s-style studio with modern software

Back to the '80s: how to capture an '80s sound in your home studio

6 ways to recreate the sound of '80s synth-pop

6 ways to recreate the sound of classic '80s live bass

Drones are a fantastically useful musical tool, whether you're placing them in the background of a track to provide a subtle sense of atmosphere and texture, or basing an entire ambient track on a single stretched-out chord.

Drones are often created with synths, or perhaps a guitar run through a reverb pedal or two, but we've taken a slightly different approach with our latest sample pack, transforming a collection of field recordings into organic drone samples through creative audio editing and processing.

They may have started life as recordings of glaciers, rainstorms, steam trains and extractor fans, but these samples have been timestretched, distorted and mangled via a variety of effects to drag them kicking and screaming into a state of drone.

What you need to know

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

Examples

Organic drone samples: click to download

Organic drone samples (817MB)

For more than 97,000 more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

• Follow MusicRadar on Instagram to stay up to date with the latest gear news, artist interviews and tech tutorials.

The ferocious big beat sound of The Prodigy's 1997 album Fat of the Land has been hailed as a classic of the electronic genre. But, in our view, it’s not just an excellent dance record, but one of the decade’s most significant releases.

The album that birthed the multimillion selling Firestarter and the controversial Smack My Bitch Up, were key strikes in rave culture's invasion of the mainstream.

The Prodigy had a long-established reputation as a superb, invigorating live act, but wider exposure led to their expressive frontman Keith Flint terrifying middle England, and besieging the homes of everyday folk via Top of the Pops.

Preceding the album by 8 months, the single Breathe became the band's most successful single (at least before Firestarter was released) but its development took quite a while.

“It was an instrumental for ages,” The Prodigy’s chief musical director Liam Howlett recalled in an interview with Addicted to Noise. “We were playing it on stage and the guys were just dancing to it and stuff. It was just like an instrumental track. And I thought that it was so obvious to put a vocal on it.”

It's Breathe's distinctive opening and recurring 2-bar, guitar-sampled riff which we are going to examine and try and re-build here.

As we will discover, we can create an interesting facsimile using our own software, using many of the identifiers from the original track, but without the initial samples, it's difficult to re-create note for note.

Therefore, think of this as an opportunity to take the spirit of the track in a different direction, using a slightly mutated sound of your own choosing.

Though some speculated that Liam Howlett had in fact sampled the theme from the iconic James Bond music cue (undoubtedly because of the twangy guitar sound), in reality, it stemmed from a recording of the Prodigy live-band member, guitarist and contributor, Jim Davies. His processed and mono guitar sound was tracked to DAT, leaving Howlett to extract a couple of notes and re-mould them.

“I just got him into the studio and he played a couple of notes,” Howlett told Addicted to Noise. “I just took those single notes and basically put them through the sampler. I constructed the riff, in other words. Everything you hear on the track is basically from my head. All the riffs are mine. I've never sampled a whole riff of someone else's stuff. A lot of people get confused 'cause when they hear ‘sampler,’ all they can think about is sampling other people's tracks, you know. It's not like it used to be, like with Pump Up The Volume, when it was just built around someone else's track. This is actually rock music written on electronic equipment, you know? With Breathe, I made the riff.”

Breathe is, therefore, a very sample-heavy production, reliant upon sampled material at just about every turn. Thin Lizzy’s Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed supplies the drum break, while Wu-Tang Clan’s Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ provides the identifiable whiplash effect, used throughout.

Rather than get caught up in the wormhole of samples, we're going to examine how we can recreate the opening riff ourselves, with workarounds that might provide an simple alternative for achieving a similar sound in a different context.

How to get the sound of Breathe in your DAW

You may be limited by the tools at your disposal, but the good news is, you can create something similar with a basic soft synth or sampler, a DAW, some distortion effects and EQ.

The preferable choice for your synth or sampler will be anything that has a band-pass filter. Don't worry if this isn't something you have, as you can adopt EQ to acquire similar results. It’s preferable to be able to control your filter cutoff using velocity, although once again, there an alternative solution, which we’ll come to later.

If using a synth, we are looking to create a fairly sharp wave upfront, so while you can use conventional subtractive-style synths, try using a modulated pulse wave, or better still, some form of sync, bright digital or FM tone.

Alternatively, use a sampler (which is what we are choosing to use here). We are using the EXS24, which is the stock sampler from Logic Pro.

The beauty of this approach is that we can select a sound source which will pave much of the way for a similar sound.

Step 1: As a starting point, we have selected the ‘Clean Electric Guitar 1’ patch, from the default EXS24 library. It's a clean sound, which is played/sampled by using a pick or plectrum.

Step 2: In order to easily work with this sound, create a simple 2-bar loop or cycle, which will make it easy to audition the sound.

For reasons of copyright, we have used a loop which is slightly different from the original, but we have kept this rhythmically the same. Also note that all of the notes have been entered in step time, and are set to the same velocity value of 70. We will return to this later to make further adjustments.

Step 3: Returning to our sound, we’ll start by making some filter settings. One of the luxuries of working with the EXS24 sampler, is that we can employ two filters, which on this occasion we’ll assign in series.

We are setting filter one to ‘HP 24db Edgy’, which is a 4-pole high pass filter, and selecting filter two ‘BP 12dB Edgy’, which is a band-pass filter.

Between the two filters, you can see the ‘Series’ icon, which needs to be highlighted in yellow.

Turning to the Cutoff and Resonance settings, these will differ from one synth or sampler to another, but as a general guide, aim to set the high-pass filter cutoff to around 30% and resonance to 45%, with the band-pass filter cutoff set to around 25% and resonance set to 50%. Be sure to listen and audition your sound, and don't overly indulge the resonance.

If you have drive or distortion available within the filter circuit, you could certainly apply this at this stage, although it’s not essential, as we will add distortion to our signal chain at the end of the process.

Step 4: Ideally, we want to use two envelope generators, with one applied to amplitude/volume, and the other applied to filter cutoff. If you only have one available, you can use the same envelope for both elements.

Beginning with the amplitude envelope, engineer a small amount of sustain, preceded by a quick attack and snappy decay. If you have a second envelope, for filter cutoff modulation, apply settings for a quick attack and decay with zero sustain.

Step 5: Returning to our note editor, we now need to implement two different levels of velocity value.

If we refer to the original track, this begins with the on-beats being a higher velocity than the off-beats, although there is nothing to stop you altering this to suit your own track. The velocity value pattern in the original also changes, once it reaches the second bar.

We are going to start by changing some notes to a velocity of 100, leaving the opposite notes set to the previous velocity of 70. The differences in velocity value will allow us to control the degree of filter modulation, which we’ll route in the next step.

Step 6: Using your synth’s mod matrix or modulation routings, assign velocity to both filter section’s cutoff controls. Once you have a assigned the source and target, you may need to experiment with the amount of modulation. In our case, we have assigned a modulation value of around 25-27% but again, this will differ from one synth to another. You may also note that there is an indication of modulation, within the filter section, as seen in our example by the appearance of an ‘orange curve’ above the cutoff control.

When you now audition your 2-bar loop, the changes in velocity value should instigate a change in the cutoff of each filter, replicating a similar sound to the original track.

Step 7: To further enhance this effect, try applying a small degree of filter cutoff modulation, using the filter envelope as a modulation source. A small amount of modulation should enhance the effect even further.

Step 8: If the synth or sampler that you are using allows the application of distortion within the filter section, you may already have convincing results. However, the application of overdrive or distortion on the backend of the signal chain, will likely add another useful element.

If you listen very carefully to the original, you can hear a slight grainy-ness in the original sound. This may be down to the original sampling process, and a reduced sample rate, or merely noise from distortion. Either way, try experimenting with a bitcrusher, as this will allow the introduction of a similar texture.

Alternatively, add a healthy dose of distortion; something aggressive, such as Soundtoys' Decapitator would be ideal for this and can be cranked quite hard, to achieve impressive results.

As with the programming of any synth sound in a contemporary DAW, there are a number of ways of approaching sound design in order to achieve similar results.

If working with a conventional subtractive-style synth, armed with more usual waveforms, experiment with different combinations. A sync tone, or reedy PWM pulse would be ideal starting points for this sound. Many modern synths provide metallic or glassy sources, which may prove to be worthy fodder in this context.

You can also experiment with different filter types. While high-pass and band-pass filters are the ideal option, you can also explore formant filters, which can provide wonderful colours.

Be aware that each filter and synth will require its own specific set of values. You can also use heavy EQ curves, to limit the sonic bandwidth, much like a band-pass filter.

One issue that may present itself, particularly with less capable soft-synths, is the lack of ability to route velocity to the cutoff control of the filter. Another method for achieving the same result, would be to automate the cutoff within your DAW. But be sure to create steps for each note, rather than a slope between values, as the cutoff changes.

Learning how to create impressive sounds from the past masters is a valuable route to understanding how to get the most out of your synthesis. However, it is also a superb springboard for individual creativity, and while it can be highly rewarding to try and recreate an existing track, try to take your sound exploration in a new direction which will be entirely unique to you. Then you can release your track without stepping on any copyright-toes.

Take a deep breath… now get creative!

Many of the most common percussion instruments are made from wood: marimbas, guiros, (some) tambourines, claves, and, of course, wood blocks.

But for today's wooden percussion sample pack, we've cast aside our castanets and gone full DIY, grabbing anything and everything wooden that we could find around the house and clattering away to our heart's content to create some truly organic percussion samples capable of lending a natural touch to any drum pattern.

Garden decking, mallets, a table, chopping boards, various planks of wood in our shed and back garden, worktops, rolling pins and furniture were all recorded being struck with either hands or other pieces of wood.

The raw sounds were then pitched and stretched to taste before being processed through six different processing chains. The resulting sample pack features 50 of the best hits alongside eight folders of tempo-labelled loops.

What you need to know

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

Examples

Wooden percussion samples: click to download

Wooden percussion samples (217MB)

For more than 97,000 more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

• Follow MusicRadar on Instagram to stay up to date with the latest gear news, artist interviews and tech tutorials.

Whether it’s over royalty payments, AI partnerships or the investment choices of its former CEO, Spotify has become a lightning rod for criticism in the streaming era. In that context, its expanded Song Credits and new SongDNA features could be viewed as an attempt to shift the narrative and do something that creators might actually appreciate.

“Now, more than ever, we believe it’s critical to spotlight the humans, creative process, and stories behind the music, so we’re building new ways for fans to see and celebrate the people and musical connections behind the tracks they love,” says Spotify. “The more fans understand the careful craft that underpins the music they love, the deeper their fandom grows and the more invested they become in the people who create it.”

While Spotify previously enabled you to see who performed, wrote and produced the song you’re listening to, you’ll now be able to view all the listed contributors to a track (engineers, for example). This information comes directly from labels and artist distributors, so relies on them keeping their databases up to date.

SongDNA, meanwhile, is a new interactive view that enables you to join the dots between different songs, showing collaborators, samples, and covers all in one place. If you’re thinking that this is the kind of service that’s currently offered by the excellent WhoSampled website, you’d be right - in fact, sample and cover information is powered by WhoSampled, which Spotify appears to have acquired.

“With WhoSampled’s community-built knowledge, fans can dive into the influences behind the music they love, while giving sampled and covered artists fresh ways to get discovered and celebrated,” says Spotify.

Looking ahead, Spotify also plans to roll out a feature called About the song, which will add swipeable cards to the Now Playing view. These will share stories of what inspired songs and their cultural impact, taking you behind the scenes of the creation process. We’re told that these stories will be “sourced from third parties”, though it’s not clear what these will be or how they’ll be credited.

You’ll start seeing the expanded Song Credits from today, while SongDNA will arrive for listeners later. Prior to that, there’ll be a Spotify for Artists Preview of SongDNA and About the song, so that the creators themselves can “check out the features first, redeliver your credits if there are inaccuracies, and give us feedback.”

Find out more in a blog post on the Spotify website.

An unsettling sense of mystery and darkness permeates this instalment of SampleRadar, which is inspired by the eerie sound of '80s horror film soundtracks.

In this pack, you can expect tense electro-pulse loops, suspenseful synth basslines, dissonant pianos, dramatic strings and some rather chilling chimes, culminating in the spookiest sample pack we've ever released.

What you need to know

The Halloween-themed samples are divided into four folders that are labelled according to their tempo.

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

Example sounds

Slip bass 75bpm

Noise kick 95bpm

Tube bells 120bpm

Video organ 136bpm

Spooky samples: click to download

Spooky samples (210MB)

For more than 95,000 more samples, head to our SampleRadar hub.

• Follow MusicRadar on Instagram to stay up to date with the latest gear news, artist interviews and tech tutorials.

As they prepare to kick off their North American tour, French duo Justice - Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay - have been discussing their approach to music making - specifically in relation to 2024 album, Hyperdrama - and explaining why they no longer sample other people’ records.

Asked by Rolling Stone if this is about having more control over their sound, de Rosnay replied: “100%. Sampling the traditional way gets frustrating fast: bad tuning, rigid tempos, weird textures that don’t bend. So we started recording our own source material – built for flexibility. It saves us 900 hours digging through crates.”

We can certainly see the benefits - no royalty payments to be made to other artists, for a start - but de Rosnay also admits that there are downsides: “No more surprises. No more accidents. That spark of stumbling on a forgotten gem… gone,” he says. “Daft Punk were the kings of that. They could turn half a second of groove into a global anthem.”

But it wasn’t just sampling that Justice shunned on Hyperdrama - de Rosnay says that they wanted to take a completely different creative approach to previous projects.

“From the jump, we wanted to unlearn what we knew,” he says. “Break the usual habits. Skip the expected resolution. What happens if you strip everything away – and let something else explode?”

Some things did stay the same, though: “We build around loops. Always,” says de Rosnay. “Then we stretch, bend, push – until something new cracks through. That one bass note, dropped three minutes in, that rewires the whole track; that’s our sweet spot.”

Another aim on Hyperdrama was to make it difficult for fans to spot its various sonic ingredients. “We didn’t want listeners thinking, ‘Oh, that’s a Moog bass, that’s a Juno pad,’” says de Rosnay. “The goal was fusion. No instruments, no stems – just one dense block of sound. Organic and synthetic, indistinguishable. Samples and live playing, melted together. Even what sounds ‘natural’ is often heavily processed.”

Of course, ‘heavy processing’ is part and parcel of a lot of electronic music making, but what about taking things a step further and letting AI do some of the creative legwork. While de Rosnay admits he finds it “intriguing” at this point, Augé argues that some kind of rubicon has already been crossed.

“Humans choose convenience,” he argues. “There won’t be a mass awakening like, ‘Wait! It was made by AI? I refuse to listen.’ We’ve already crossed that line. Some K-pop bands are fully generated – face, voice, video – and they’re killing it. But I do hope it sparks a punk backlash. A real DIY return.”

“That’s how it usually plays out,” reckons de Rosnay. “AI reminds me of frozen food in the ‘80s. People were amazed – ‘Just add water, voilà: powdered bolognese!’ Then came the moment: ‘Wait a minute … what if we actually cooked again?’”

Tour dates and ticket details are available on the Justice website.

Lizzo has claimed that the ‘origins’ of sampling law are "racially charged".

The singer was on the podcast Million Dollaz Worth Of Game discussing her current mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling when she observed that: “In this day and age people get so weird about samples. I feel like the sampling laws are racist.”

“Why,” the presenters asked, before Lizzo broke it down: “The first time people started sampling was... who? It was rappers in the '80s and '90s. They were sampling records because they didn't have access to big studios. They didn't grow up learning how to play bass and stuff like that. They created the genre of hip-hop through sampling records in their parents' vinyls and stuff.

"There were no sampling laws back then," she added. "It was all a free-for-all. So, they was just outside, just like, ‘OK, this is just what it is.’ And then hip-hop was born, and it was this beautiful thing.”

After mistakenly citing Sir Mix-A-Lot as the first rapper to get sued for sampling - maybe she was thinking of Biz Markie, or even De La Soul, who were sued for using a sample from the '60s group The Turtles, on 3 Feet High and Rising - Lizzo continued.

“I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on black culture, that's the part that kind of turns me off.”

Perhaps feeling like she might be wading too deep into murky waters, she said: “Maybe this is a conversation that shouldn’t be on camera! It’s policing black music. Hip-hop's medium was sampling. Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”

Perhaps clarifying herself, lest anyone get the wrong idea she said: “The origins of sampling law, I think, were racially charged. It was policing Black art. I think now, of course, they had to regulate some sort of thing, and there's certain things that are fair and unfair. I get it. But when you're suing people off of a vibe, it's like, man, that's the vibe of my song.”

She relates an episode from her own career when she had inadvertently copied another song, without having any previous knowledge of it. “I get it if I have intentionally taken your song or if I was intentionally doing that – I want to give you credit. But I’ve had to give pieces of my songs up to songs I’ve never even heard of.”

But as many artists who’ve gone before will sagely nod, ignorance of the song whose copyright you’re infringing is no defence in a court of law.

Modular synthesizers are some of the most powerful tools in the electronic musician's arsenal, offering a level of flexibility and freedom that's unrivalled by conventional synths.

Making it possible to create a customized instrument from multiple modules made by different manufacturers, each with unique abilities, modular lets you build your own dream synth, one that's designed to cater to your specific musical interests and workflow.

Modular isn't without its drawbacks, however. Expensive, complex and prone to technical difficulties, it's a hobby that requires some investment. That's why we've dedicated our latest sample pack to the sounds of modular percussion, saving you the time and energy of dialling in synthesized drums from a Eurorack rig of your own.

Our modular percussion sample pack is made up of a collection of tempo-labelled percussive loops and toplines, joined by a variety of individual drum hits with which to build your own kits. We've also thrown in a handful of wild and wacky percussive FX and a bonus pack of one-shots produced by a semi-modular classic, the Korg MS-20.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Modular percussion samples: click to download

Modular percussion samples (191MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

What is it?

Though primarily known for its exceptionally well-produced (and exceptionally hefty on the hard drive space requirements) orchestral suites, EastWest has widened its software offerings in recent years, with the company’s Opus engine now housing a vast array of smaller software instruments, vocal libraries and colourful effect toolkits, with generally pretty superlative results.

At just 22GB, Lo-Fi is EastWest’s latest drop in the latter category, and was released to mark an impressive ten years of its ComposerCloud+ subscription. On first glance, Lo-Fi sits within a fairly (perhaps suitably) old-fashioned looking GUI – housed within the now familiar Opus shell. But on closer inspection, its scope and abilities soon become readily apparent with even just the bare minimum of tinkering.

Dubbed a ‘distorted, gritty and mangled producer’s toolkit’, Lo-Fi brings a range of samples, textures and effects, all neatly organised by category.

The 350 instrument presets span sections for Bass, Drums and Percussion, Guitars, Keys and Synths, Leads, Textures, Orchestral, Pads and Vocals. Although you’ll notice straight away that some of the sounds appear quite different to what their tag indicates they should sound like, the patches have been grouped based on what the original starting point for the sound was.

The main UI (displayed under Opus’ Play window) is framed around a central X/Y pad, where four effect types (Stutter, Dream, Space and Grit) can be blended to shape sounds in all manner of bizarre, and unique, ways while the effect is in play. This foregrounds the happy accident-leaning approach to creativity from the off.

Surrounding the X/Y pad are individual control sections for broader effects such as Delay, Reverb, Auto Pan, Drive, Ring Mod and modulation controls for LFO, envelope or velocity to give the sounds more kinetic movement, as does a sturdy arpeggiator that can easily build out defined rhythmic patterns from the sonic palette on offer.

It’s these effects that are automatically manipulated once you start moving your X/Y control around the pad. For instance, selecting ‘Space’ then shifting the cursor up and down yields the Chorus and Delay effects to respond in turn.

Depending on your selected sound, different results are generated. For instance, selecting the Forgotten Pads preset then infusing a Grit effect on the X/Y creates a morphing, kinetic phaser effect which can be reined in or let to bleed to your heart’s content. But that’s just one of many nuanced, vibrant results you can achieve with Lo-Fi.

Performance

Starting with a leisurely swim through Lo-Fi’s instrumental presets, and it’s instantly clear that this source material has been distressed (or not, in some cases) with some chin-stroking consideration. The sounds range from the jittery and constricted to the lush and verdant – albeit often filtered beyond all recognition from their original source.

Despite the angle of Lo-Fi’s marketing, we were quite surprised by how clean some of the instrument sounds were, although it’s pretty easy to tarnish them beyond all recognition.

In terms of the satisfying selection of kits on offer, the more clean-sounding 808 and PE kits were unexpectedly hefty, and a surprising treat to find nestled among the gnarlier presets.

In textural terms, the assortment of Orchestral sounds is one of the most enticing. There’s some manipulated real instruments, and some expansive creative effects (Night Feelings and So Electric Orchestral to name but two). On the leads front, there’s a tendency towards the tape/Mellotron-esque aesthetic, and every lead we select soars atop most mixes without any additional mixing required. So, while tinkering and pitch wheel-riding is encouraged, there’s already the building blocks of some absorbing sonic textures ready to go from the outset.

Verdict

It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into coating up this smorgasbord of sonics, but as we indicated earlier, some of the sounds on offer remain pristine enough for modern production purposes.

It’s indeed tempting to just stick with what’s provided here to use as the raw materials for a track, yet even a nudge of just one macro control can suddenly swing your starting point into a new direction.

Of course, if you want to get forensic you’re more than equipped. Lo-Fi brings lo and hi-pass filters, ADSR envelopes, LFO and step-sequencer options as well as robust MIDI Learn capabilities – it’s every bit as manipulable as a dedicated synth, albeit with a distinct flavour.

Though there’s a huge array of sounds on offer here, there is a notably ‘wonky’ flavour that might not suit everyone’s taste, but we’d argue it’s nigh-on impossible to believe, with the amount of control and shaping scope that EastWest has presented here, that any musician should not be able to find a brilliant new colour to add to a developing mix.

Hands-on demos

EastWest Sounds

Alternatives

Specifications

Sample library Loopcloud has announced a new feature that allows users to instantly transform any sample from its library into a new musical idea by intelligently applying curated patterns and effects, creating fresh variations on any sample with a single click.

The Flip Sample tool can be accessed from both the Browser and Editor in the Loopcloud app: simply select a sound, hit Flip Sample and the software will slice, dice and process the sample using an intelligently selected treatment from a library of over 1000 curated patterns and effects.

The transformations applied can range from editing and rearranging loops, pitching and sequencing one-shots, and applying automated effects like delay, reverb, filter and compression to create evolving and dynamic patterns. Variations are tailored to different instruments and sound types, and samples will be automatically stretched or arranged into sequences to create loops that fit neatly into a 4- or 8-bar pattern.

The feature builds on Loopcloud's existing Patterns system with five times more options, tighter instrument matching and deeper integration with the multi-track editor and effects. The goal is to inspire users by showcasing new ways to work with samples from the Loopcloud library, giving them an instant starting point for further creative manipulation in their DAW.

The introduction of Flip Sample continues a trend among sample platforms such as Loopcloud, Output and Splice towards assistive features that automate the process of discovering and manipulating samples.

Earlier this year, Output launched Co-Producer, a plugin that scans your DAW project and suggests musically compatible samples from its library. This was soon followed by Re-Imagine, a tool that reworks samples using generative AI to create variations on any sound. Last year, Splice launched its own AI-powered sample matching tool.

Loopcloud Flip Sample is a free update for existing subscribers. New annual subscribers can access a 50% discount on any plan and a free 10-plugin bundle featuring instruments and effects from Native Instruments, iZotope, IK Multimedia and more.

Prices start at £35.99/€41.99/$47.99 and the offer ends 6th January 2026. If you want to give Sample Flip a try for free, Loopcloud is offering a 14-day free trial.

Find out more on Loopcloud's website.

Founded in 2023 by composer Christian Henson (formerly of Spitfire Audio) The Crow Hill Company is an Edinburgh-based developer of software instruments and sample libraries.

Launched in 2024, Crow Hill's Vaults collection is an ongoing series of free sample libraries and virtual instruments. At any one time, six Vaults instruments are available to download: each month, a new instrument is dropped and one is archived. Archived instruments can still be accessed in return for a small charity donation.

The latest addition to the Vaults series is Lo-fi Strings, a string library with a nostalgic sonic palette. In developing Lo-fi Strings, Crow Hill processed clean string recordings through a vintage cassette deck in an attempt to bring the the characteristic sonic imperfections of magnetic tape – compression, saturation, pitch instability and tape hiss – into the orchestral world.

Lo-fi Strings shares the same basic interface as the other Vaults plugins. Two central dials control two main parameters: Timbre is a subtle volume and filter control while Dropout introduces additional imperfections to the sound, mimicking the dropouts that can occur in cassette recording. Four additional controls along the bottom of the interface can be used to tweak a high-pass filter, saturation circuit, reverb and stereo ping-pong delay.

Check out the demo video above to get a flavour of how Lo-Fi Strings sounds – it's a gorgeous instrument with oodles of vintage charm that could come in useful across a variety of musical contexts. (If you're scoring an indie rom-com and don't have the budget for a real orchestra, it's your lucky day.)

While you're over at Crow Hill's website, there are five other free instruments currently available, including a TB-303 acid synth, mallet piano, rubber bridge guitar and bodhrán, a traditional Celtic percussion instrument.

Lo-fi Strings is compatible with macOS and Windows and available in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats.

Download Lo-fi Strings on The Crow Hill Company's website.

Roland's iconic TR-808 drum machine celebrated its 45th birthday last week, so we're marking the occasion with an 808-themed edition of SampleRadar.

We've shared several free 808 sample packs in the past, however, so this time around we had to think a little differently. We began with a simple premise: slam TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines (or samples thereof) through processing that bends them right out of shape, giving you an alternative take on the classic drum sounds you know and love.

What resulted was a smorgasbord of warped and mangled drums that, in a testament to the sonic ubiquity of the originals, are still recognisable as the good ol' 808s and 909s, despite their unfamiliar edge. These were used to create 12 sets of tempo-labelled loops along with a selection of individual hits with which to craft your own patterns.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Processed 808 and 909 samples: click to download

Processed 808 and 909 samples (102MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Here's one for the IDM fans. Today's free sample pack is a collection of more than 200 glitchy textures: fuzzy, weird and abstract sounds that can be used to provide textural interest and timbral variation in electronic productions.

To create these sounds, we applied heavy digital processing to simple sound sources (noise, field recordings and other non-musical types) to create a selection of loops than spans everything from reverbed-out slabs to dry, visceral crackles and clicks.

Some of the source sounds were first processed in iZotope's RX9 running De-click and/or De-crackle, but outputting the noise (clicks/crackles) instead of the 'tidied-up' signal. This is a great source of transient material to feed into delays, reverbs, modulation and pitch shifting, which is what has happened here.

As well as other sources these sounds were processed with often long chains of effects, stripping out sustained elements, then adding reverb/delay to create new 'space', only to use bitcrushing, sample rate reduction or some form of distortion and noise reduction to reduce everything down to a new soup of crackles and pops... and then dousing in reverbs, delays and modulation with a healthy dose of pitch-shifting.

The four sets of loops (A-D) are derived from different processing chain setups, with C and D using some of the A and B loops as sources, pitching, reversing and otherwise mangling them before heavily wrangling them into a new form. You can loop them, layer them, slice them or run them through further effects to create even glitchier textures; the choice is yours.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Glitchy textures samples: click to download

Glitchy textures samples (233MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Comedian-actor-musician-writer Fred Armisen has announced a new album - but it’s not a collection of songs. Instead, 100 Sound Effects is almost precisely that (there are actually 101).

Each ‘track’ has a descriptive name - Trying Out an Electronic Drum Kit with Headphones at a Music Store, for example, or Walking into a Video Room at an Art Museum and Walking Out Quickly. We’re told that the album “can be used as a library, an industrial tool for your own entertainment projects, or simply for brain-stimulating deep listening”.

Explaining how the record came to be, Armisen said in a statement: “I was thinking about haunted house sound effects albums and how fun those seemed to record. I wanted to do it at Steve Albini’s studio in Chicago, Electrical Audio, but since this wasn’t a collection of songs and I didn’t know how long it was going to take, I needed to do this where I live, in Los Angeles.

“I told Steve what I was doing and asked if he knew of any engineers I could work with in LA He was very excited about the idea and asked Dave Grohl who might be available to help. Dave recommended Darrell Thorp, and we started working at Studio 606, and then later Sunset Sound. Darrell was really inventive and a lot of fun to work with. Because Steve was so instrumental in making this happen, I dedicate the album to his memory. I miss him every day [Albini died in 2024 after suffering a heart attack].”

100 Sound Effects will be released on 26 September but, by way of a teaser, Armisen has dropped a track, Music Venues, made up of content from the album.

You can check out the complete tracklisting and pre-order the record on the Drag City website.

Before there was EDM, there was EBM. Short for Electronic Body Music, EBM was a outgrowth of industrial music spawned in '80s Germany, dialling up the tempo of its predecessor to create a potent fusion of driving synth lines, distorted beats and aggressive vocals.

Today's edition of SampleRadar is an EBM toolkit, containing a selection of synth loops, basslines and drum patterns, along with a variety of individual drum hits, all bearing the genre's punchy and dystopian sonic signature.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

EBM samples: click to download

EBM samples (154MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

At the intersection of artificial intelligence and music creation there are two schools of thought. On one side, we have platforms like Suno and Udio that threaten to replace the process of music-making with the click of a mouse.

These AI-powered music generators, trained without permission on copyrighted work, conjure up sterile imitations of real songs in less time than it takes you to open an empty Ableton project. Write a prompt, press a button, get a song: no creativity needed.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are companies developing AI-powered tools designed to augment musicians’ and producers’ creative process, not replace it - whether that’s by providing them with new sounds, instruments and voices to work with, making tasks like mixing and mastering more efficient, or even helping them learn how to use their gear. We’ve even seen machine learning fuel the development of stem separation, most notably employed in creating a ‘new’ Beatles song from archival recordings.

Sample-based music creation has skyrocketed in popularity over the previous decade, as platforms like Splice have offered beat-makers affordable access to massive libraries of royalty-free sounds, many of them even making it into chart-topping songs. As AI-assisted music-making has seen such explosive growth, the technology has begun to radically transform the way that we sample.

While a handful of companies have explored the development of products that use generative AI to create samples from scratch - most notably Waves’ recently released Illugen - the most popular use cases for AI in sampling are sample discovery and organization. There are simply so many sounds available to the modern producer, whether that’s through sample libraries, subscription platforms, or their own collections, that for many of us, finding the needle in the haystack is becoming an unmanageable task.

Output claims that it has the solution. Launched in March, Co-Producer is an AI-powered, subscription-based plugin that listens to your project, analyzes its musical content and suggests samples that might gel musically with the material you already have, its selections guided by text prompts provided by the user. It’s AI-assisted digital crate-digging for the Splice generation.

Place an instance of Co-Producer on your master channel, play four bars of your track through the plugin, enter the relevant key signature and type in a description of what you’re looking for, whether that’s a vocal hook, drum loop or one-shot piano chord. The plugin responds with a list of samples that – in theory – should work with your project, automatically transposed and time-stretched to match its key and tempo. You can audition these within the plugin, then drag-and-drop any winners to your timeline.

“It starts with an LLM,” Output CEO Gregg Lehrman tells us, when we ask for an explanation of the role that AI plays under Co-Producer’s hood. “The language model enables us to really understand what somebody is typing in. You can type something as basic as ‘clean electric guitar’, or you can ask for ‘guitar for a rainy day’, and we have an understanding of what you’re looking for, even if it’s not been tagged.”

Output’s large language model - the same type of artificial intelligence algorithm that’s behind platforms like ChatGPT - works in tandem with the company’s audio analysis engine to connect its understanding of the prompt with its analysis of the project it’s working with. “It’s trying to understand what is happening from a rhythmic and harmonic standpoint, and then that’s allowing us to find what we think are the most complementary samples,” Lehrman says.

But what makes a “complementary” sample? You might assume that Co-Producer attempts to find sounds that are similar to the material it’s shown, but Lehrman says that similarity is only part of the equation, and that Co-Producer’s algorithm is designed to discover samples that improve or enhance a track by working around what’s already there: a melodic loop suggested by the plugin wouldn’t exactly match the rhythm in your drum part, for example, but it might fill out the gaps in the beat.

“The more granular you go, the better the results,” Lehrman says, pointing out that Co-Producer gives users the opportunity to rate suggested samples with a thumbs up or thumbs down. “Every time you give us feedback, we’re using that to optimize the system, and the benefit of an LLM is that we can convert that to musical terminology. What does a rainy day sound like? It’s kind of cheesy, but maybe it’s more minor chords. Maybe it’s a slower BPM.”

“We can go even further than that: what would the timbre sound like? Maybe it’s a darker instrument, or maybe it has reverbs where the high end is rolled off. Maybe it’s moody electronic guitars played through tube amps, I don’t know. We’re being very specific in taking the emotion from the LLM and converting it into specific music theory and production techniques. It’s taken a couple of years of work to get that.”

We were curious just how deep Co-Producer’s musical analysis could go. Can the plugin pick out melodic loops that aren’t just in the same key as a given chord progression that it’s analysed, but actually gel with it on a harmonic level, with each note of the melody landing on the appropriate chords? “It is that sophisticated,” Lehrman says. “It knows exactly what you’re doing from a progression standpoint and what notes would be cool to hit, and it’s trying to find the best matches we have in the catalogue.”

The catalogue in question is Output’s sample library, a continuously expanding collection of sounds that also features samples licensed from other sound design companies like Minimal Audio, Wavetick and Black Octopus Sound. That library always remains in the background, however: aside from the AI-assisted search, there’s no way to browse the sounds available to you in a conventional sense, as you would do with a traditional sample library.

To us, this seems like an oversight: if we’re paying a monthly subscription to access a library, we’d like to be able to browse all of the samples available to us at once. Why not implement Co-Producer’s AI analysis and sample discovery alongside an ordinary browser to give people the best of both worlds?

“We thought about it, but honestly, that exists already,” Lehrman says. “If you’re just looking for a big sample library that you can go through, there are a dozen companies that have that. If we’re not doing something a little new and different, what’s the point in doing it?”

It seems likely that this decision was motivated by a desire to differentiate Output’s AI sample discovery tool from Splice's AI-assisted search function, Create, launched in 2023. Now integrated into both Pro Tools and Studio One Pro, Splice’s Search with Sound feature analyzes music on the DAW timeline before suggesting compatible samples from its library, much like Co-Producer.

How does Lehrman think Co-Producer sets itself apart from what Splice is offering? “It’s a few things,” he says. “First of all, we’re in every single DAW out there. With Search with Sound, if you’re not in a compatible DAW, you have to export an audio file, drag it on to your desktop, drop it into Splice, listen to external samples and drag those back in. It’s not a great workflow.”

Lehrman also points to the fact that unlike Splice, Co-Producer doesn’t use a credit-based system that limits the amount of samples customers can use on a monthly basis. In return for a monthly fee of $9.99, Co-Producer’s users can download an unlimited amount of samples from its library.

“I think credits suck, I really do,” Lehrman adds. “Credits are built for companies, not for consumers. When you’re in the creative process, you can’t try things out, because every time you drag something in, you’re paying for a credit. That’s the last thing you want to do when you’re in the creative flow.”

Though it’s a contentious design choice, the absence of a browser is aligned with the fundamental motivation behind Co-Producer, which is to help producers circumvent the often time-consuming process of searching through a colossal sample library for the right sound.

“Our tools are meant to inspire people, to help them focus on the fun parts of music-making,” Lehrman says. “As a music-maker, I don't want to spend time and energy just scrolling through endless lists of samples. I don't think that that's creative.”

While for some, picking out samples can be a laborious task, for others, it’s both a rare talent and a fundamental element of the creative process. Gifted samplists like J Dilla and DJ Shadow spent months digging through record crates before identifying the sounds they used to craft their tracks, patiently developing an ear for samples that had the potential to be transformed into something new.

By listening through thousands of records and choosing only the samples that spoke to them – rather than letting AI choose samples it deems “complementary” – artists like these developed a unique sound, imprinting their taste and personality on the music they made.

By outsourcing that process to AI, aren’t we stripping the creativity out of the entire affair? “I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but a lot of this depends on where you are in the process,” Lehrman responds.

“If I’m starting a song, crate-digging is the coolest thing. I’ve got a blank canvas and I’m going to go and find something that inspires me, and then I’m going to make a beat on top of it. But if I have a track that has six elements already - and I’m like ‘man, it’s just not there yet, what the heck am I missing?’ – it’s an annoying process of scrolling through samples that are sometimes in the wrong tempo, sometimes in the wrong key, and that part to me is not all that creative.”

“In that scenario, the crate-digging is not the exciting part, because I’m just flipping through samples until I hear my song in a better state,” Lehrman continues. “And with Co-Producer, you still have to do that: when we look at our users’ searches, they might still go through 200 samples to find what they’re looking for, but at least they don’t have to go through 200,000 samples to find what they’re looking for. I just want the stuff filtered out that’s never going to work.”

Lehrman’s keen to emphasize that Output doesn't aim to replace any aspect of the creative process with artificial intelligence, but instead to streamline it, in an effort to help people be more creative, not less. He even admits that the company previously developed its own generative AI tool that creates samples from scratch, but ultimately chose not to release it.

“We had some really cool technology that we basically canned and said, ‘what’s the point?’” Lehrman says. While AI music generation gradually becomes more commonplace, even finding its way into plugins from established brands, Lehrman maintains that Output is committed to developing tools that enhance our creativity, rather than supplanting it.

“Suno and Udio and these other companies are making tools for people that are not interested in the creative process. That’s the opposite of what we’re trying to be,” Lehrman concludes. "Output is a company built for people that want to be creative, that want to actively make music and build it piece by piece. We are absolutely opposed to writing music for people. That’s not what we’re about.”

These days, composers have access to tools so advanced that it's possible to score an entire Hollywood movie with nothing more than a laptop, a DAW and a decent sample library.

Once upon a time, though, recreating orchestral sounds in the digital domain wasn't such an easy task, and we can't help but feel a touch of nostalgia for the slightly dodgy-sounding imitations of acoustic instruments produced by the synths and samplers of yore. Chintzy but characterful, these sounds have a personality all of their own.

Hence the theme of our latest sample pack, a collection of symphonic sounds from vintage noisemakers like the Akai S01, Yamaha DX100, Casio CZ-1 and more, in the form of tempo-labelled loops, one-shot chords and an array of multi-samples.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

MIDI orchestra samples: click to download

MIDI orchestra samples (369MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Mobygratis is a free sound library launched by electronic artist Moby all the way back in 2005 with the goal of providing creators of all kinds with high-quality, royalty-free music to use in their projects. The library has since supported over 50,000 indie films and media projects.

This week, Moby announced a relaunch of Mobygratis that brings 500 new tracks to the platform.

The majority of the library's songs can be downloaded in both MP3, WAV and multitrack formats, making it easier to remix, adapt and customize music to suit any project. The library also now has improved search and filter functionality, so you're able to filter tracks by genre, mood or BPM to hone in on exactly the vibe you're looking for.

Most of the music in the library can be used in any non-commercial creative project, with the proviso that it cannot be used to promote animal products or right-wing political causes. If you'd like to use the tracks in monetized or commercial projects, you'll need to apply for a license. Certain tracks marked as restricted may not be modified or used collaboratively.

"You can do whatever you want with it," Moby says in a video shared to his YouTube channel. "You can remix it, you can edit it, you can add parts to it, you can play clarinet on it, you can use it for social media, for films, for choreography: the idea is complete creative freedom. I don't want to inhibit whatever you're going to do with the music here."

"To be really clear, it's free. There's no bait and switch; it's not like you have to sign up for seven days free and then all of a sudden you have to pay something. Nope. It's free. One of my goals with Mobygratis is to create as few barriers for use as possible. I want you to just dive in, use the music and we can see, or you can see, what happens."

The tracks in Mobygratis' library are almost exclusively instrumental, as Moby says he wants to leave them open to be adapted and reimagined by its users. He also says that at some point in the near future he plans to add another 1000 songs to the platform, so stay tuned for updates.

Visit Mobygratis to browse the library and find out more.

Music creation platform Splice has acquired Spitfire Audio, the British sample library and virtual instrument developer, for around $50 million, according to reports in The Financial Times.

A press release shared by Splice states that the two companies are planning to work together on developing new products that blend Spitfire Audio's "cinematic soundscapes and orchestral expertise" with Splice's sample catalogue and AI-powered discovery engine.

The unexpected acquisition brings together two unlikely bedfellows that serve distinctly different audiences. Splice is a US-based, Goldman Sachs-backed sample platform geared towards artists and producers working in pop, hip-hop and EDM. Operating a credit-based subscription model, Splice has integrated AI into its workflow with the Create sample discovery tool, launched in 2023.

Spitfire Audio is a UK-based independent company known for producing high-end orchestral sample libraries and virtual instruments. Founded in 2007 by composers Paul Thomson and Christian Henson, the company's software tools are popular with composers and producers working in film and television.

Splice has confirmed that both companies will continue to operate independently "in the near term". Olivier Robert-Murphy will remain in place as Spitfire Audio's CEO, while Paul Thomson will continue to oversee creative direction for the company.

“The teams at Spitfire Audio and Splice have deep respect for composers, musicians and producers and are committed to celebrating and supporting their work”, Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava said in a statement.

“We’re both sound-first, creator-led companies who believe great software and technology can supercharge the creative experience. Our shared vision is to develop tools that expand - not replace - human creativity. With Spitfire’s expressive instruments and Splice’s AI-powered platform, we’re just beginning to explore what’s possible.”

Addressing Spitfire Audio's customers in a conversation with Srivastava shared on the company's YouTube channel, Thomson reassured viewers that Spitfire Audio will continue releasing perpetual-license sample libraries and supporting its existing products, allaying fears that the company could transition entirely to a Splice-style subscription model.

Reactions to the video have not been wholly positive. "I'm worried," writes one viewer. "As an owner of a significant investment in Spitfire Audio sample libraries, I don’t know what to believe about future stability."

Speaking to The Financial Times, Srivastava said that the acquisition will support Splice in the development of more AI-powered music creation tools, but confirms that the company is not planning to build a Suno-style prompt-based song generator.

“Most musicians do not want to make music that way, but AI will enable [artists] to do things they could not do today,” she said. "They could use string quartets from Spitfire, but you might want to invent your own instrument. You can start with a particular sound and merge instruments together to get a novel sound that has never been heard before... we are still figuring it out.”

Read our 2024 interview with Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava.

Today's edition of SampleRadar dives deep into house music's most nebulous subgenre: deep house. Characterised by a slower tempo, atmospheric sound design and jazz-influenced harmonies, the style was pioneered by Chicago producers Marshall Jefferson and Larry Heard.

Three basic drum kits have been used to craft an array of drum loops at three tempos, split into kick/snare and topline versions and processed through various effects chains; we've thrown in the drum hits individually for good measure. These are joined by three bass instruments and three synth leads we used to write a handful of melodic loops - you'll find multisamples and Kontakt instruments for these in the pack too.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Deep house samples: click to download

Deep house samples (199MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

In this edition of SampleRadar, we're getting our funk on, and it's all about the keys: organs, electric pianos and synths.

The collection is part loops, part chord hits. The loops are in the laid-back tempos of 85, 95, 105 and 110bpm. The chord hits feature six chords in four spaced keys (A, C, E & G) across eight of the ten instruments (the other two are monosynths - not much good for chords!).

The organs are modelled around the James Brown 'Grits' sound (classic B3) and the early Funkadelic tones. As with most of the instruments here, there is some prodigious use of tape simulation to get us in the right decade (UAD Studer A800 and ATR102). The Vox Continental style organ (SlyConti) goes for the early Sly and the Family Stone vibe.

The electric pianos delve into the Funkadelic/Parliament style with the WetEpi envelope filter and phaser treatment, whilst the ThickEpi goes for the more natural/classic stage piano sound (basically everything in the 70s!).

Monosynth-wise we're again in P-Funk territory, though without the nifty fingers of Bernie Worrell (RIP). Think Flashlight period - Minimoog and ARP all the way. Add a little echo, some light harmoniser wobble and some tape fizz and that's you're ready to roll.

We're moving the '80s with the polysynths, and the all-important vibrato is pushed up on the long notes, just how Prince liked it. It's not all faux-brass, though - BendPoly just goes for the wobble and bright poly punch, though there's plenty of single note lines in there too.

The chord hits are either stabs (for the organs and FizzBrass) or sustained chords of around 5 secs. The chords are classic funky types (dominant 7th, min 7th, minor 6th, minor 9th, 9th and minor 7th/flat 5th) with voicings adjusted to suit each instrument.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Funk keys samples: click to download

Funk keys samples (186MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Re-amping synthesizers - playing recordings through an amplifier and then re-recording the results - is a powerful technique that can bring an illuminating dimension of organic texture and character to your synth patches.

If you don't believe us, just ask Aphex Twin, who sang the technique's praises in a 2014 interview with Pitchfork: "It's real, it's something in the air," he said. "That's the magical ingredient - when something moves through the air, it's automatically going to sound more interesting [...] It's been in the real world and put back in the computer".

It's this sentiment that serves as the inspiration for British creative sound studio Noon Instruments' latest sample instrument: Vessels. Billed as an "exploration of object resonance and sonic materiality", Vessels is based on an extensive library of samples of both analogue and digital synths that have been re-amped using a variety of creative and unconventional studio techniques: the result is a stunning and diverse library of sounds that spans cosmic pads, soaring arps and distorted textures.

Vessels' presets are categorized into three banks: Divergent, Convergent and Relics, each characterized by a different approach in the studio. The sounds in Divergent lean towards traditional re-amping techniques, having been passed through two 180-watt cabinets and recorded with multiple microphones.

Convergent has a more experimental bent, its discordant recordings run through surface transducers attached to metallic objects, while Relics' samples were run through tape machines and effects pedals to achieve a warm and evocative sound.

The instrument's GUI features four squares representing the four sound layers comprising each of the instruments' 460 presets. These can be blended, soloed or muted, before the mix is shaped via the ADSR envelope, filter and EQ.

Four additional menus reveal a variety of effects that includes multiple types of distortion, compression, delay, reverb and chorus, while two tempo-syncable LFOs can be used to modulate eight of Vessels' key parameters.

Vessels requires Native Instruments' Kontakt or Kontakt Player, versions 7.7.2 or later. The instrument is available now and is priced at £99. Find out more on Noon Instruments' website or check out a sound demo below.

Our latest free sample pack is a collection of glitched-out and experimental drum loops: 345 of them, to be exact, across nine different tempos. The beats are on the whole, dense and twitchy (triplets mixed with dotted, swings against straight beats, that kinda thing), though there's plenty of groove available too.

The beats were created with multiple sampler layers (all electronic, either from drum machines or synths), though only 3 or 4 were used simultaneously, and the sum was sent to eight effects groups. The output was then edited down into highlights, and then the groups and sampler settings tweaked again to produce a second batch, i.e. 16 groups stripes across the tempo ranges.

The highlights were, again, edited out and then chaff discarded. The groups ranged from Stutter Edit effects, through bit reduction (UAD OTO Biscuit) and distortion (iZotope Trash2), to randomised extreme filter effects (Arturia Minifilter V and UAD Moog Multimode XL), with plenty of compression and tonal tweaking along the way.

These samples are just in their first iteration, so we recommend making them your own with filtering, stretching, pitching, mangling, chopping and blending.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Glitch drums samples: click to download

Glitch drums samples (125MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Note: This opinion-based, long-read format allows a range of writers a platform to speak about the topics that are important to them. Their views are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of MusicRadar as a whole.

What would you think if I told you your favourite song used loops lifted from Splice? Would you think it was cheating - or would you want to know what the pack and sample were so you could hear it for yourself and try to figure out how they manipulated it in the song?

If you’re the former, you’re not alone. Producer Afrojack railed against Fred Again.., who used Splice loops in his song Ten, in an interview with podcast XLNTSOUND, "It's based off three Splice samples," said Afrojack. "To me, that was disappointing when I found out. I love Fred Again.., and he's super talented but when I found out that was a sample, I was like…"

Fred Again.. is not the only high-profile artist to use samples. According to the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology, 20% of all songs on the Billboard Top 100 featured pre-made samples in 2018, with the number escalating to 66% when looking at albums in the Billboard Top 50.

While these figures doesn’t differentiate between samples taken from pre-existing records and sample packs, it’s fair to say that the use of pre-made loops is more ubiquitous than you might realise.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso is a big one. There’s also Friends by Marshmello & Anne-Marie, So U Know by Overmono, DJ Snake’s Taki Taki featuring Selena Gomez, and on and on.

It’s not a new phenomenon either. Love In This Club from Usher was made out of Apple Loops back in 2008, while underground techno classic LFO by LFO features a 909 loop pilfered from a Simon Harris sample record.

Afrojack is presumably disappointed with Fred Again.. because he used readymade loops as opposed to samples - Afrojack after all, has been known to sample a record or two in his time - (Who Sampled has the current count at 36).

What’s the beef with loops then? “The fact that I did not design these sounds makes me feel like I'm cheating,” lamented a Reddit user on the r/edmproduction subreddit. “Whether I am using a drum fill or a synth designed by someone else, I feel like because I did not make it, I must be cheating.”

Unless you’re doing everything yourself, the mindset goes, you’re not being creative. And yet this is largely at odds with pretty much the entire history of music-making, which has seen a huge range of artists borrow liberally from one another in all kinds of ways. Using loops, then is not cheating, it is part of a well-established creative process.

'Good artists borrow, great artists steal'

There’s a famous saying that’s often attributed to Pablo Picasso: “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Whether he coined the phrase or not is up for debate; what is not is that creatives have always taken inspiration from the work of others - and often boldly.

You might think of classical music as being precious and above things like plagiarism, but the contrafact is just that: a piece of music that is based on a prior one.

This goes as far back as the 16th century. Modern variations on it include John Cage’s 1969 composition, Cheap Imitation, which used randomness to alter Socrate by John Satie.

It’s a big part of jazz too, with new melodies being composed over existing chord progressions. Even The Beatles, those paragons of creativity, used it: Abbey Road's dreamy Because is based on Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (albeit played in reverse). Was John Lennon cheating when he flipped Ludwig Van? Very few would say so.

Taking things even further is Jamaican dancehall and the whole culture of 'riddims'. Basically the musical backing tracks for songs, riddims are the beats that deejays (dancehall vocalists) toast over. Instead of making new riddims for every song, producers would reuse not only the same basslines and percussion pattern but the actual backing tracks.

In the digital era, riddims were often based on keyboard presets, like the Casio MT-40 forming the basis of the Sleng Teng riddim. Want to steal a riddim? Just buy the keyboard.

Examples like this exist throughout the history of music, from folk standards to punk chord progressions. “Only 12 notes, well, a man can play,” said the Beastie Boys on their sample-crafted masterpiece, Paul’s Boutique, which is made up almost entirely of bits of other people’s songs.

You don't have to do it all yourself

It's well known that Prince was a genius who could play pretty much any instrument. Guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, you name it. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker is similarly talented. The band largely exists to translate his self-recorded songs into a live setting. But these musicians are the exception, not the rule. For the history of recorded sound, artists have brought in session musicians to flesh out arrangements with parts that they couldn’t play themselves.

One of the most famous examples of this is Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, widely considered one of the greatest records ever made. Brian Wilson used the crack team of session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew to play most of the (often unusual) instrumentation. It may have been credited to The Beach Boys, but they weren’t the folks playing the instruments.

As solo music producers, we can’t do everything - and nor should we be expected to. You don’t need to learn to play the flugelhorn if a song calls for it. Forty years ago, you’d call in a flugelhorn player. In the 21st century, you grab a flugelhorn loop. That’s what it’s there for. It wasn’t cheating in 1966 and it’s not cheating now.

Using loops is creative

Sampling is an established part of modern composition and music production. There are entire genres based around sampling, from hip-hop to drum and bass. While some diehard purists may call De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising or DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing… cheating, most would agree that they are high watermarks of modern music. Yet the same techniques of sample manipulation that make them creative can also be applied to loops.

Loop provider Splice talked about four different ways to use samples creatively on its site. You can apply these methods just as easily to loops lifted from dusty old records as to ones gleaned from an online sample pack.

The first method is using a loop as is. Sometimes you get lucky and the key, phrasing, and timing magically line up with the elements in your track. So where’s the creative part? Well, just recognising that a loop will work and choosing it is a creative act. In fact, both Splice and Loopcloud offer technology to assist with this.

Splice has a function called Create, which uses AI to suggest different loops called Stacks that match up. “Now that we can do that inside your creative workflow, you could imagine how that's just so much better, because you're in there, you're working with your own musical idea, your own track,” Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava told us in a recent interview, “and then Splice is right there, kind of assisting you with the next parts.”

Loopcloud, the subscription side of sample provider Loopmasters, lets you search for samples from a plugin inside your DAW while an editor allows you to alter the loop to fit your song. Leon Stephens, the VP of Sales & Marketing at Loopmasters told us that,“the built-in editor enables real-time pitch, tempo, and processing adjustments so producers can manipulate samples to fit their vision perfectly. The seamless DAW integration means users can audition and tweak sounds in context, saving time and sparking inspiration.”

This takes us to method number two for working with loops: manipulating them. Reverse them, chop them, flip them, and stretch them into new shapes and forms. This is how the Amen Break goes from funk breakdown to jungle percussion storm.

Another way to creatively work with loops according to Splice is to atomise them by turning them into a series of one-shots or even combining bits from multiple loops into a new phrase.

The last method is capturing the vibe of the loop and then deleting it altogether. Try turning melodic phrases from audio into MIDI information to use with soft synths or just remove the loop from the composition altogether after you’ve juiced it for inspiration.

Join the conversation

While working with and manipulating loops is a creative act. It’s more than that. It’s a collaborative one. This is because when you use loops expressly created by someone for use in another piece of music, you’re actually collaborating with them.

In 2021, jazz keyboard legend Bob James started working with sample subscription service Tracklib because he wanted his music to be available for track makers to use. In a conversation with producer 9th Wonder, he likened the relationship between sampler and original creator to a collaboration.

Leon from Loopmasters sees it this way as well. “A sample is more than just a sound; it’s an expression of the creator’s artistry, vision, and skill,” he said. “When a producer incorporates a sample into their track, they’re essentially building on that artistic foundation, adding their own interpretation and creativity. It’s a collaborative process that transcends boundaries and brings together two creative minds - even if they’ve never met.”

Splice CEO Kakul said a similar thing: “I … like to think about it as a conversation. I mean, you know, it's not like our samples are made out of a large manufacturing process or something like that. They're humans on the other side, they're artists who are crafting these samples. This is their life's work and so when someone is using a sample, they know that there's an artist whose craft this was. So I see it as a conversation between the creators on both sides.”

“This idea of a ‘conversation,” reiterated Leon of Loopmasters, “is central to the beauty of sampling. It allows for cultural exchange, reinterpretation, and the blending of influences in ways that would be impossible otherwise.”

Using loops is not cheating

There’s a music production meme that goes something like this: “I thought using loops was cheating so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded drums.” And on and on until you’ve completely forgotten what you were trying to do originally: that is, make music.

Using loops isn’t cheating. It may be a shortcut. It could even be lazy in the right context. But cheating?

“Using a loop or a sample and manipulating it within a sampler is no more ‘cheating’ than playing a pre-made instrument or using a preset sound from a synth,” agrees Leon. “Creativity isn’t just about inventing something from scratch; it’s about how you use the tools at your disposal to craft something unique and meaningful.”

Whether what you’ve created out of readymade loops is “unique and meaningful” is the real crux of the matter. And not just meaningful to others - but meaningful to you, the creator. You’re the one spending hours, days, maybe even weeks on a piece of music. If using loops feels right to you, if it helps you get to a good place with a song, then it can never be cheating.

Be true to yourself and your artistic vision. If that includes lifting a loop from a Splice pop guitar pack, then go for it.

It worked for producer Julian Bunetta when he put together the backing tracks for Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso - and now that everyone knows it, that unintentional collaboration has probably benefitted loop producer Oliver as well.

Or, to put it more succinctly (as a Reddit user did when answering a producer’s question about loops and cheating): “There's no such thing as cheating. Stop. Just make music you like and stop following rules.”

More of a vibe than a genre, dream pop is a difficult concept to define. Adjacent to the similarly amorphous worlds of shoegaze and slowcore, dream pop conjures big feelings from hazy, effects-laden guitars and shimmering synth pads, accompanied more often than not by a silky and reverberant female vocal.

This is the focus of our latest free sample pack, which features a collection of loops and one-shots designed to be used in dream pop productions. Running our guitars and synths through an extensive palette of effects processors, we've put together 139 bewitching sounds that could be straight out of a Cocteau Twins joint.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Dream pop samples: click to download

Dream pop samples (406 MB)

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Tracklib's Sample Breakdown series is one of our favourite things on YouTube. Breaking down legendary tracks like Daft Punk's One More Time and Burial's Archangel, the series visualizes the sampling techniques used by gifted artists and producers to provide a fascinating insight into their creative process.

Tracklib has released a new bumper edition of Sample Breakdown this week that breaks down what they believe to be the most iconic sample flip of every year since 1990 in a single video.

Focusing specifically on electronic artists, the video charts the history of sampling from Deee-Lite's Groove Is in the Heart all the way through tracks from The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, and Moby to the modern day, breaking down samples from Four Tet, Jamie xx, Bicep and Major Lazer before ending on Fred Again's leavemealone.

Tracklib hasn't only put together the video to "celebrate the past", it says, but also "to find the talent of tomorrow", inviting music-makers across the globe to create the next iconic sample flip and win a cash prize of $10,000.

The winner will also get their track released on Ninja Tune, a record label that's home to Bicep and Bonobo, among many others, and they'll have a Sample Breakdown video produced based on their submission.

Tracklib is a platform that enables producers to discover, sample and license original recordings without the hassle and cost of the traditional sample clearance process. To enter the competition, you'll need to write and produce a track that samples a song from Tracklib's library of over 100,000 songs. If you're not a Tracklib subscriber, you can access a free 3-day trial.

"Tracklib is all about the art of sampling," reads a statement on Tracklib's website. "We aim to give sampling the recognition it deserves, and provide a platform for producers to be able—for the first time ever—to sample freely, without obstacles.

"Electronic music has, together with hip-hop, been the cultural foundation from which sampling flourished. That's why this video and competition exists: to pay homage to that evolution and its contributors, while also paving the way for future talents to shine."

Find out more and enter the competition on Tracklib's website.

Norman Cook - better known as Fatboy Slim - is a master of sampling: sourcing, slicing, processing and layering distinctive elements of classic funk and soul samples, he put together anthems that helped to bridge the gap between underground club culture and mainstream pop music in the ‘90s.

Cook has opened up about his approach to sampling in his early days in an interview with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt for the Rockonteurs podcast, talking about the difficulties of sampling copyrighted music in a time when the ethics and legalities of the practice had yet to be ironed out. 

“When sampling first came out, there was no mechanism to do it,” Cook says, recalling the success he found with the song Dub Be Good To me, which he recorded with the group Beats International in 1990 before the song hit No 1 in the UK charts. The track sampled the bassline from The Clash’s Guns of Brixton - a sample that Cook hadn’t cleared with the band or their label. 

Cook recalls going to see Big Audio Dynamite, a band fronted by The Clash’s Mick Jones, and realizing the band were using Dub Be Good To Me during the introduction to the show. “I went to see Big Audio Dynamite, and they walked on to that tune,” he says. “They played it as their walk-on music, so I was thinking, well… Mick’s alright with it.”

“Somebody probably at some point said, should we talk to The Clash about that sample? We didn’t know how big a hit it would be,” he continues. “But I just said, ‘they’re alright with it, because Mick played it’ - he’s heard it, and he never said anything… but I didn’t realize that [Clash bassist] Paul Simonon, that was his only writing credit. When it got to number one, he came and asked for some money, but it was alright.”

Cook says that he believes there’s an ethical difference between lifting an entire hook from a song, or sampling a single sound, such as a drum hit or a guitar chord. “My morals with sampling have always been: if it’s a hook, or I feel like I’ve taken their idea, then I would always try and pay for it,” he says. “But if it was just a sound - if I had to clear every snare drum, every guitar chord…”

“It was like the Wild West,” Cook says of sampling’s early days. “You didn’t know what you can get away with. So many of us had been putting out records for years, but no one really cared or worried about it because they weren’t hits… but when there’s money around, all of a sudden there’s lawyers, and over the next ten years, it went completely the other way.”

“My record company and my management absolutely hated it, but I kind of liked the thrill of the chase,” Cook admits. “On every record there would be like, 10 samples, and we would clear the two that I thought needed to be cleared, and then we would wing it on the other eight.”

Fatboy Slim is busy promoting his latest single, Role Model, which is out now on Southern Fried Records. 

Sampling platform Tracklib has announced the release of a new series of sample packs that feature authentic and original "vintage" recordings, repackaged and released as royalty-free samples.

Tracklib is a service that enables producers to discover, sample and license original recordings without the hassle and expense of the traditional sample clearance process. Its catalogue of 100k+ songs covers everything from obscure '60s film soundtracks to '90s R&B, and Tracklib has been used to find and clear samples by producers for Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Lil Wayne.

The newly-announced Actually Vintage sample packs will form part of Sounds, a royalty-free library of one-shots and loops that complements Tracklib's existing catalogue of full songs. Two new sample packs have been announced thus far in the series, both of which feature music from the Italian record label Sonor Music Editions, recorded in Rome in the 1970s.

By Italian composer Giuliano Sorgini, Ritmi Pecussivi Vari is based on a rare collection of percussion instruments, while the ambient-leaning Ambienti Spazio-Temporali, by Giorgio Carnini and Sandro Brugnolini, is made up of 36 archival loops and atmospheric synth pad samples.

"This is a game-changer for music producers, as it’s never been done before - while many offer 'vintage-sounding' samples, we’re offering the real thing," says Tracklib's Per Stenius.

"With Tracklib’s new announcement, it’s also all about resurrection," reads a statement from Tracklib. "Old, authentic music gets resurrected and repurposed into sample packs for a new generation of music producers.

"By doing so, they can release music with samples without worrying about clearance issues. On top of that, the original musicians and rightsholders generate new revenue streams through Tracklib’s fair model. Everyone wins."

Find out more on Tracklib's website.

Visit our archive of more than 90,000 free music samples.

Increasingly in 2024, discussions around what the future of music-making might look like heavily figure AI, and the haunting vision of creatives being supplanted by artless algorithms. While many key figures like Spotify’s Daniel Ek might suggest that the cost of creating content is ‘next to zero’, Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava is currently leading the counter conversation, positing a more human-centered view of AI.

In Srivastava’s view, AI will serve the next generation of creators as both compositional aid, and organiser of the vast repository of over 2 million samples that Splice has accumulated since its inception in 2013.

These aren’t just ambitious future-facing plans. Today, Splice has announced its first major DAW integration with PreSonus’ Studio One Pro 7. This integration allows users, in their project workflows, to ‘Search with Sound’. What this means, ostensibly, is that an invisible team of algorithmic assistants get to work rifling through Splice’s acres of digital shelves in search of suitable complementary material that would suit an artist's tracks. It's a matchmaker, for human-crafted arrangements with human-crafted samples.

Formerly the Vice President of Creative Cloud Experience and Engagement at Adobe, and Vice President of Product & Marketing at GitHub, Kakul has helped shape much of the tech which is now pivotal to the modern tech world. We spoke to Kakul about both the new integration, and Splice’s vision for the future…

MusicRadar: Hi Kakul. Can we start with you giving us a brief overview of how the new Splice integration with Studio One works and, why you wanted to collaborate with with PreSonus in the first instance?

Kakul Srivastava: “Maybe I'll start with where we usually start, which is with our customers. I've been here as CEO of Splice for about two and a half years. Most of my career has been about building tools for creative people. I'm new to the music world, but I've been building software for creative people all my life, and for me, especially, being an outsider to the music world, my first thoughts were; ‘how do we spend time with customers?’ and ‘how do I get to know what their needs really are?’

"We've been building our AI technology around the Create experience for some time. And, as we started to put those experiences out there, the response was very positive. People love being able to start with any sample and build a whole stack of music around that.

“Our [AI] algorithm is clean, from a rights perspective. It's not trained on content that we don't have access to. What was missing for users was they want to be they wanted the Splice ecosystem closer to their workflow. The question was, how do we bring this content closer to our creative work? We've invested a lot in our own desktop application. It’s common to visit producers today and when they're working you'll see their DAW open, and you'll see Splice open right next to it. So we started trying to answer that question of how do we do it even better? How do we get even closer?

“I had a conversation with Andy [Mooney] the CEO of Fender on how we could potentially work together and what can could do. As we started brainstorming, we realised that perhaps we could do something with PreSonus. The teams got together, and they were really excited to work together.

“We're pretty proud of what we're launching. [It's great] to see the faces of our customers when they see how the integration works, and how we're able to sort of be part of the creative process, and almost be an assistant to the producer - right in their workflow. We can listen to what they're working on, we can 'Search by Sound' to provide them the right content, right in line with what they're doing. That's just incredibly powerful.”

MR: While that certainly benefits Splice subscribers, users without a subscription also get a batch of curated samples, right?

K: “Yes, we really wanted to make sure that with this integration, regardless of whether you have a relationship with Splice today, you would get some value, and you would immediately be able to see the power of the integration. It was important for both companies to deliver that right out of the gate. Of course, if you are a subscriber, you have access to our full library, and that just gives you so much more creative freedom.”

MR: While Studio One sound like a natural first integration, would you consider further integrations with other DAW-makers, like Ableton or Bitwig?

K: “That is definitely something we're going to be doing. The collaboration we have with PreSonus has been absolutely tremendous, but we know for sure that users really, really want this capability in their own creative workflow, wherever that is. I can't name names at this stage, but there are certainly other partners who are super interested in bringing this same power to their users. You will definitely hear some news from us next year…

“People often start their creative process with Splice, which is surprising, because you sort of think ‘Oh, Splice is just an ingredients place, right?’ But just like if you go to the farmers market, and look at the vegetables, you might not know what the vegetable is, but you decide you’re going to figure out how to use it.

“I think it's a similar experience where people will go to Splice and listen to some options, then they will maybe take their creativity in different directions based on what they’ve heard. That's really a great experience for them. We also really like the idea of starting with sound. We launched an experience earlier this year in which we basically allowed users to drop their own musical idea into Splice, and our software will build a Stack around that.”

“Now that we can do that inside your creative workflow, you could imagine how that's just so much better, because you're in there, you're working with your own musical idea, your own track, and then Splice is right there, kind of assisting you with the next parts It just feels like this is the right way to work.

MR: Driving Splice’s ‘Search for Sound’ integration are AI algorithms that are trained to find corresponding samples. AI is obviously a bit of a hot potato right now in the tech conversation, but as it stands, what you’re doing is using AI in the service of connecting real people with other people’s samples?

K: “100%. There is a lot of fear-mongering going on, and honestly, I think there's a lot of misuse of AI technology. I think there's a lot of irresponsible use of technology. As a technologist myself, I find it offensive. People should respect the rights of creators, and I think people should train [AI] responsibly. I think artists should be fairly compensated for their work and the model of typing some words and getting a song out is not helping the creative workflow – it’s replacing the creative workflow.

“That's not what our users want. It’s not what the people we serve want, they want their creativity to be front and centre. I just think that AI has such power to [do that]. It's just harder. It's harder to do it this way. It's harder to put creators in the centre. It's harder to give them more creative control. But it's worth doing.”

“I went for a run this morning, I don't want Nike to invent a robot that [runs for me] right? I want them to use AI to build a better shoe for me, because I want them to be able to understand that, you know, I move my knee in slightly the wrong way, and that's gonna hurt me.

“An artist was telling me the other day, that ‘I don’t want music to make my music for me, so that I have more time to wash dishes!’”

MR: I guess what you've said kind of implies the answer to this question. But would you say that yourself - and Splice - see AI more as a creative liberator, as opposed to an existential threat for music-makers?

K: “It's not even a liberator. I see AI as a creative empowerer. I see it as something that super-powers creatives. It helps them find the right sound faster. It helps them explore different artistic directions more quickly.

“I’ll never forget one of the pieces of user feedback that we got when we were first launching Create. The biggest button in the user experience was feedback. [Many people] wrote in to say that they didn't think they could actually work in a particularly genre, but they actually can, and it's been such an unlock for them.”

“That [gets to the nub] of my idea of what AI can do. It can unlock and enable you to explore these new creative directions that you didn't think you had permission to play in before, but now you can. You might be a hip-hop producer, you might not want to do lo-fi or a cinematic music, but the fact that you can explore it, the fact that you can learn it, and you can bring those learnings to your own work, I think, is really, really important. I like that it’s sort of enabling creators to do more.”

MR: How engaged are you guys with your community? and how important is nurturing that relationship?

K: "It’s central to everything we do. Every time I meet someone who says, ‘I have a nephew who does this’ or ‘I have a niece who's doing this, or have a daughter who's into music.’ I want to talk to them. I spend a portion of my day talking to customers, it’s really important for me to do it personally. We do a quarterly NPS survey. We look at every single comment through social media. We have a large Discord community that we work with very closely. We don't always get it right, you know but we want to stay responsive to our audience.

MR: Conversations around Splice and about the sample subscription ecosystem in general can kind of provoke a lot of vigorous conversation. There was some fiery debate recently around artists like Fred Again, and Sabrina Carpenter basing a few of their tracks on notable samples from Splice, what’s your take on that?

K: "Everyone has a different creative process. I also like to think about it as a conversation. I mean, you know, it's not like our samples are made out of a large manufacturing process or something like that. They're humans on the other side, they're artists who are crafting these samples. This is their life's work and and so when someone is using a sample, they know that there's an artist whose craft this was. So I see it as a conversation between the creators on both sides.

MR: With that in mind, would you ever consider using generative AI to build fresh sounds and samples in the future?

K: "I think there is power in these [AI] tools. But, I don't think the power in these tools is, ‘oh, we can generate a sample’. I think there's power in the human-generated samples that our users really appreciate.

“I do think that generative AI can be used to build better tools. We spend a lot of time with artists. I personally spend a lot of time with producers, learning about how they would want to use generative AI in their creative process. They've got some really powerful ideas. Are we working on it? Absolutely, absolutely, we're working on it. We're not going to use it to ‘generate’ a library of samples. We're going to use it to build better tools."

MR: Looking at the landscape of the sample world, a few people have muscled into that space in the last few years, but Splice remains the market leader. What do you think has been kind of central to that position enduring?

K: “Firstly, I feel extreme gratitude to our customers, because they're the ones who are allowing us to have that market leadership. I think there are two things that we spend a lot of our time and energy on, but I think it pays off for us. One is the craft that goes into building our catalog of sounds.

"We're just about to send a team of people to Sao Paulo to do a residency there. We're going to be spending a lot of time understanding the music culture there, getting to know artists on the ground, you know, what sounds they want to use, what sounds they are creating and make that a core part of our catalog.

"We've done the same in many other places. We've sent teams to Germany and Korea and India, Japan. We're constantly sort of scouring the world for the most authentic sounds out there. And, the people who do this work care deeply hear things in sounds that you and I could never hear. That attention to detail is really important. I think the quality bar that goes into the catalog that we provide is high.

“The second thing is that we spend a lot of time on is really listening to our customers about the experience and whether it's how we make search better, the new AI tools that we're working on. Even more simple things, like the feature that we launched recently called ‘Rare Finds’, people want something that's unexpected, something that other people haven't found. And using Rare Finds, you can get access to these things that are sort of underneath all the crate digging. I like that we continue to invest in that. I think those are the two things that we are probably more geeky about than most people, and I feel proud of it.”

MR: Where do you see Splice in the next ten years?

K: "I hope in ten years time, I'm having a very similar conversation with you. I hope that what's made the difference for us is that we just listen to our customers more deeply than anybody else. I hope that we are building ever more powerful creative tools for our customers. I hope that we are still at the centre of the creative process. I think those things are going to be fundamental for Splice.

“They're fundamental now, and they'll be fundamental ten years from now. I'd like us to have built much better tools because of the investments that we're making, and I hope that we've helped creators expand the methodology they have for bringing their ideas to life.

“I actually have very specific thought in mind. DAWs have been around for decades, and there's something about that timeline-based experience that resonates with people, that's very, very deep. But sometimes I wonder if that's the best way to make music. Sometimes, I wonder if there are new ways in that I think we should explore this with our DAW partners. I wonder if there's a way to explore new modalities for music creation.

"Perhaps we start with a sound first. I come from Adobe, so you can imagine a scenario where you have something like Photoshop, where you start with a blank canvas, and you bring all the pieces together that you work on your image. You can imagine another scenario which is maybe more of a Canva-like experience, where you start with content first, and you build around the content with your own musical ideas.

"These are big ideas, but I think there's evolution that needs to happen. I hope that with this partnership and moving closer to the creative workflow, that we're learning more and we're on the road to bring these new ways of creation to life.”

Head to Splice's website for more info on Splice's new integration with Studio One Pro 7.

PreSonus has released the latest version of its flagship DAW Studio One, with a host of new features including first-of-its-kind Splice integration, stem separation, and a Live-style clip launcher.

With the release of its seventh version, Studio One Pro becomes the first DAW to fully integrate sample platform Splice, allowing its users to browse, preview and access its library of millions of royalty-free samples without leaving their project.

What’s more, Studio One users can make use of Splice’s AI-powered sample search feature; simply drop in an audio clip or capture a selection within a track and Splice will suggest similar sounds that are compatible in key, tempo and timbre. Existing Splice subscribers will be able to access the full extent of its library through Studio One Pro, while users new to Splice can take advantage of a collection of thousands of free sounds without subscribing.

Speaking to MusicRadar about the Splice integration, Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava said: "If you go to producers today and you look at their workflow, you'll often see their DAW open, and you'll see Splice open right next to it. People want to have that really integrated experience. So we started thinking: 'how do we do it even better, and how do we get even closer?'"

With the release of Studio One Pro 7, Srivastava says Splice is "able to be part of the creative process, and almost be an assistant to the producer – right in their workflow. We can listen to what they're working on, we can ‘Search by Sound’ and provide them the right content, in line with what they're doing. That's incredibly powerful.”

Splice's Search by Sound isn't the only AI-powered feature in Studio One Pro; the DAW now offers stem separation, letting you isolate instrumental stems by separating fully mixed songs into four separate tracks. PreSonus has also introduced an Integrated Launcher, a grid for launching MIDI patterns and audio loops on-the-fly, in a similar fashion to Ableton Live’s Session View. Unlike Live, though, the Launcher is integrated into Studio One’s arrangement window.

Studio One Pro 7 also features a new virtual instrument, Deep Flight One. Drawing on an extensive sound library made up of vintage synths, modular systems, vocal samples and field recordings, the multi-timbral instrument is capable of producing complex and evolving pads, drones and soundscapes, processed through a variety of integrated effects.

PreSonus has condensed the two previously available editions of Studio One, Studio One Artist and Studio One Professional, into a single, full-featured DAW named Studio One Pro that comprises all available extensions and virtual instruments. It’s also announced a faster feature release cycle that promises several major updates each year; previously, Studio One users have waited two to three years for new versions of the DAW to drop.

Studio One Pro 7 is available as a perpetual license for $199.99, with one year of updates included. Existing owners of Studio One Artist Edition and Professional Edition can upgrade for $149.99. PreSonus is also offering a Pro+ subscription that gives you access to additional content, priced at $19.99 per month.

For a full overview of what’s new in Studio One Pro 7, visit PreSonus’ website.

Initially opened in 2018, the BBC Sound Effects Archive is a remarkable and vast resource, incorporating recordings which originated as far back as the 1920s. Recently, the archive has doubled in size, and now offers over 33,000 samples in WAV or MP3 formats, completely free. The sounds originate from studio-manufactured SFX to field recordings from various global locations. 

Navigation is fairly straightforward, with smart tagging allowing users to search via a number of ultra-specific categories, including Electronics, Medical, Toys, Applause, Aircraft, Comedy and many, many more – users can also filter their searches via duration and continents (where the sounds were recorded).

The content of the samples varies wildly, spanning from the sound of a crow feeding its young to the 1989 FA World Cup final. From sonorous church congregations to the sound of vigorous hand-washing and distant reception hall muttering.

If you want to use any of these in your tracks then that’s all well and good – but don’t even think about trying to use it in a track you want to sell (read: stream). Due to the 'RemArc' (AKA, the whimsically-titled ‘Reminiscence Archive’) license that the BBC are providing these sounds under, you're legally unable to use them in any track that you want to make a profit out of. However, there is an option to buy the sound from partner Pro Sound Effects typically for a $5.00 fee.

If you don't want to pay, then you can still draw on these sounds to mash up a montage for a personal project, or experiment with using this most vintage of sample resources in the context of a mix. In that context alone, it’s a really superb repository.

Encouraging such experimentation, the BBC’s archive website provides a Mixer Mode which enables users to blend their own sound effects together in creative new forms. 

Since its foundation in the early 20th century, the BBC has collated one of the most sizeable (and nostalgia-inducing) sonic libraries in existence. They were created for – and harnessed across – its many radio and television productions, from the bucolic aural universe of The Archers to the extraterrestrial planet-scapes of Doctor Who.

Many of these sounds previously were released as standalone records, and generated an army of devotees in both collectors and creatives over decades. In an article for Record Collector back in 2017, journalist Richard Bradley reflected on the importance of the BBC's hefty archive: “Though these sounds were recorded to serve a utilitarian programme-making purpose, many have a social history value as well. We are conditioned so that the visual becomes the dominant sense. We take cameras on holiday to record the sights, but taking sound recorders to record the sounds is more of a niche pursuit – yet just as evocative. When we revisit a familiar place after a spell away, it is the visual changes we notice – a building demolished, a new flatpack block of flats. Changes in the soundscape are far more subtle.”

Head to the BBC sound effect archive to browse sounds HERE 

Afrojack has weighed in on Fred Again..'s use of loops from sample packs in his productions, saying that he was disappointed to find out that Fred's track Ten was made primarily from loops available on the popular sample platform Splice.

In a recent interview with XLNTSOUND (at the 22:50 mark) the discussion lands on the pros and cons of sample-based music, before the host points to Fred Again..'s track Ten, released in 2023, as an example of a successful track based primarily on loops. 

"It's based off three Splice samples," says Afrojack. "To me, that was disappointing when I found out. 'Oh my God, that's four Splice sample loops on top of each other!"

"I love Fred Again.., and he's super talented," he continues. "But when I found out that was a sample, I was like..."

As far as we can tell, the song makes use of two loops from Capsun Pro Audio's Lofi House: Sweet Sedation sample pack, which is available on Splice; Fred used a chord sequence taken from a melodic loop and sped up a drum loop for the beat in the intro. We're unclear on the origins of the other samples.

Afrojack goes on to discuss Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso, another popular song made primarily from Splice loops. "When I saw that I was like, so a guy took the beat that you produced, and then he looped it and played bass on it, and now it's his publishing, his intellectual copyright," he says. 

"I'm like, whoa - all due respect to the guy, no disrespect, he used samples and the guy made it a sample - but you made a composition. The composition is the talent. The people appreciate the melody and the composition, they don't appreciate the guy that put four samples on top of each other!"

While Afrojack makes a fair point, neither Fred Again.. nor Espresso's producer have simply dropped a few loops into their DAWs and called it a day. Espresso features an original bassline, additional synth parts and - of course - Sabrina's all-star vocal, while Ten clearly benefits from Fred's deft sample chopping and effects processing, along with vocal contributions from Jozzy and Jim Legxacy.

Not to mention that, while it's admittedly easier to lift a loop from Splice than to write an original melody, the process of picking out samples that work together and combining them in a successful arrangement still requires creativity. Artists have been using samples for decades, and whether that sample comes from Splice or from a dusty old vinyl record, the only thing that really matters is that the final track sounds good. 

If you're looking to inject a little funk and soul into your productions, but you can't quite afford Cory Wong's session fee, we're here to help. The latest edition of SampleRadar collects a bumper pack of funk-laden guitar lines, tempo-labelled and ready to be dropped into your DAW. 

Here we have over 300 loops recorded with two guitars, a Fender Strat 1972 hardtail and a Gretsch Electromatic 5122DC. Each lick has been recorded DI, amped (both virtual and real) and through a variety of pedals, to provide you with plenty of options when it comes to shaping your sound. 

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Funk and soul guitar samples: click to download

Funk and soul guitar samples (171MB)

These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

What self-respecting music-maker doesn't love a portable synth or sampler? There's perhaps no greater joy than being able to pick up an instrument, throw it in your backpack and get your groove on in the park or on the train, sans wires and mains power, unencumbered by the headaches of the home studio. 

This explains the explosive popularity of the Korg Volca series, a line which features prominently in our next sample pack, a collection of samples produced by handheld noisemakers. 

Along with well-known instruments like the Volcas and the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator series, we've also sampled rare and hard-to-find DIY synths like the Bugbear Board Weevil and Chimera Synthesis BC8, resulting in a diverse array of samples spanning bleeps, bloops, loops and beats, all ready for use in your next track. 

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Handheld noisemaker samples: click to download

Handheld noisemaker samples (698MB)

These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Everything’s gone a little fuzzy with our latest free sample pack, focusing on a distorted sound palette drawing from old-school sci-fi FX, ‘60s garage psychedelia and fuzzed-out stoner rock. 

We’ve got psych-tinged guitars, basses, synths, and drums in both loop and multisample instrument formats and with the exception of a handful of drum loops, everything in this collection has been passed through a fuzz/distortion pedal or two… or three, or four! 

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Fuzzed-out psych samples: click to download

Fuzz psych samples (252MB)

These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

SYNTH WEEK 2024: It's Synth Week 2024 here at MusicRadar HQ, and we're celebrating the gloriously diverse world of synthesizers, with thousands of free samples, straight through from ASM to the OP-Z.

In recognition of this momentous occasion, we've put together a special edition of SampleRadar, our regular free sample pack giveaway. Fittingly, it's centred around the sounds of synthesizers in all their forms, capturing the sonics of everything from classic analogue noisemakers to futuristic modular rigs and serving them up royalty-free and ready to use in your own projects. 

Scroll down for a tidy description of each sample pack, or simply hit the links below to download. Happy sampling!  

• Don't miss it: The SampleRadar Time Machine is a collection of four sample packs that spans four decades in music

438 free cheap synth samples 

High-end, expensive synths certainly have their place, but sometimes you just get a craving for the crunchy, distorted and lovable sounds of cheap and dirty noise-making machines. Before you set out to raid the car boot sales, though, check out this free sample pack, which features loops, sounds and hits from some classic affordable synth hardware, including the Casio SA-1, Casio VL-Tone, and the Gakken SX-150.

Cheap synth samples (307MB)

162 free synth orchestra samples 

In the early days of the synthesizer, its sounds were often used in place of orchestral ones, which couldn't easily be emulated in the studio. Sample libraries have changed that, of course, but electronic string and wind sounds still have their place, and this free sample pack offers plenty of them.

Synth orchestra samples (361MB)

149 free FM synth samples

Loved, derided and then loved again, it's been a rocky road for FM synthesis, but its sound now has the classic status that it deserves. This installment of SampleRadar gives you a little slice of FM heaven, so download and dive in.

FM synth samples (156MB)

181 free synth chords samples

Barely any of the audible frequency range is left undisturbed by this sample collection. Individual synth patches were created for fatness and then layered up through an FX heavy group bus to produce synth loops and chord hits, perfect for dropping into your productions and bringing some harmonic richness to any track.

As these sounds are quite full they are also great fodder for further processing, from filtering and modulation to heavy pitching and distortion. Make 'em your own.

Synth chords samples (349MB)

976 free classic synth samples 

Here's a selection of classic synth sounds - these come from ARP's Odyssey and Solina instruments, and Roland's System 100. As a further bonus, you can also download single hits from some of history's finest drum machines, including Roland's TR-909 and 808 beatboxes.

Synth samples (287MB)

170 free psych-rock synth samples

With an ear to the mid-late '60s origins as well more contemporary psych-rock incarnations this sample set provides tempo-based lines, loops and hits stuffed with phasey, wobbly, springy, crunchy, fuzzy synth and keyboard sounds. 

Though the title is 'synth' many of the original '60s sounds came from processed electric keyboard instruments, from Hammond organs to Farfisas to electric pianos... and of course the Mellotron for those that could afford one. 

With this in mind the sources used have been selected from emulations of these as well as some era-relevant synths (if we stretch into the early '70s too) such as the EMS Synthi, the Buchla Easel and the Solina String Machine. We've run these through a truckload of fuzz, distortion, delay and reverb to bring that signature psych-rock sound.

Psych-rock synth samples (264MB)

713 free robotic synth-pop samples

The is Kraftwerkian edition of SampleRadar collects old-school robotic synth-pop samples directly inspired by the German pioneers. The likes of drum machines, FX, speaking toys and vocoded vocals (some in German) are all included.

Robotic synthpop samples (185MB)

275 free micro modulars samples

For this sample pack, we've recorded loops and one-shots from the Bastl Kastle, Bastl Kastle Drum and Volca Modular. Each of these micro modulars is a nifty little modular synth capable of producing surprisingly big sounds. 

The Bastl Kastle Drum gave us some crunchy, glitchy drum hits perfect for peppering into your rhythms, while its older brother the Bastl Kastle produced some gnarly drones and sci-fi FX, as did the Volca Modular. 

Micro modulars samples (307MB)

505 free classic synth-pop samples

This free sample pack contains everything you need to put together a track in the style of classic synth-pop à la Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. Dig in and download to find drum hits and loops, synth FX, bass and synth loops, and FX from the Roland SH-101 and Yamaha CS-5. 

Classic synth pop samples (300MB)

• Read more: All the latest synth news and features at Synth Week 2024!

E-instruments Desolate Guitars: What is it?

Desolate Guitars is weird Americana guitar – David Lynch at his best – or the deepest shoegaze, post-rock ambience you can feel, all in an easy-to-use Kontakt package. It is both very specific and very expansive, both a soundtrack to a desolate, cold, post humanity sci-fi time, and an emotive, warm atmospheric and optimistic future. And all of it’s been wrought from four guitars. 

We never thought we’d open a review with a conclusion, but that’s kind of what we have done. That’s because Desolate Guitars makes you rethink your music at every turn.  

E-instruments Desolate Guitars: Performance and verdict

And the deception starts as soon as you open up Desolate Guitars, because you might not expect very much, as it all looks just a bit too simple. Sure the artwork is amazing – that weird, main image just about sums up everything DG is about – but on screen all you have are a couple of amps to play with, a Tremolo dial (with Speed knob), a Spring reverb effect and an Effects dial. On top of the Kontakt keyboard, that’s it. 

Then there’s the presets, such as they are. 23 grouped over four different banks. You’re kidding right? However, luckily we took note of the download size – this library is a not  inconsiderable 34GB in girth, so there must be something at play here behind this admittedly great looking but very simple screen, right? 

Yes. There is.

Just like the best David Lynch film, all is not what it seems with Desolate Guitars. You start with four guitars on the left. Call them ‘presets’ if you like, but e-instruments labels them ‘starting points’ or ‘snapshots’ instead, because that’s the secret, which we’ll come to. And thanks to E-instruments’ exquisite recording of every amp and effect combo and every eventuality – OK, within a fairly narrow ‘atmospheric guitar remit’ – this thing sounds incredible. It’s important to stress here that very little (just the Tremolo section) is emulated or modelled; the lion’s share of sounds were captured as a studio sample, hence the download size.

The four guitars, Chime, Desolate, Baritone and Mellow, can be your full instruments and sound beautiful on their own without effects. But take them through the Tremolo and Spring reverb and you’re suddenly transported to desolation or jubilation. The rest of the few presets are then examples of what happens if you use said guitars as chords, swells and textures using the visible effects and – this is the crux of DG, really – a bank of hidden effects (see box, right). Once you bring these in, you suddenly get the point of DG. This isn’t just about those initial guitars, as good as they are; it’s about where you take them and what you can do with them. These few presets really are ‘starting points’, designed to start you on that journey, to catapult you into whichever film soundtrack you like. 

But there’s more. As we said, many effect and audio routing combinations have all been recorded by E-instruments, but so have different velocity layers for nuanced playing. But the real bonuses are the mod-wheel transition effects and the odd key switch, which can bring in reverse sounds, tremolo, legato and, with the chords, transitions from major to minor. Simply push the mod wheel up to transition between one and another and you suddenly have a new dimension in your playing. Get some automation in, and this is a sound design dream.

The ‘secret’ Desolate Guitar effects 

The main UI in Desolate Guitars shows the stripped down setup, which can take your guitar sound on wild journeys as is. But the not so well-hidden feature in the library is the effects section, brought into play by hitting the three dot button next to the Effects dial on the right-hand side. Here you open up the main effects chain controlled by that large Effects dial, and it’s a super flexible and great-sounding set of tools to sculpt your sound with. 

Click on the search icon in each tab and you can choose from five delays (including Tape and Diffusion); four Reverb (like Hall and Algorithmic); four Dynamics (three compressors and a limiter); five Tone (filters and EQs); and finally four Modulation (including Tape Flutter and Phaser). The Spring Reverb and Tremolo are probably still worthy of being on the main UI on their own, but this group of six is not far behind. These effects can take the already amazing DG sound into even wilder, and more ambient territories.

Desolate times? 

As we started with a conclusion, maybe we should finish with an intro, but we’ll conclude some more anyway! Desolate Guitars won’t be for everyone – but what Kontakt instrument is? The best of these libraries aims at a niche and fills it, but the best of the best brims over the niche into other areas and Desolate Guitars does just that. If you’d always yearned for atmospheric ‘proper’ guitar but lacked the playing skills and banks of effects, this is it. 

MusicRadar verdict: Desolate Guitars might well be the library we turn to for inspiration for the foreseeable future. Never has the guitar sounded so good.

E-instruments Desolate Guitars: Hands-on demos

e-instruments

Production Expert

HIFIMIDI

Simeon Amburgey

E-instruments Desolate Guitars: Specifications

• Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 11, 12 or 13 (latest update).
• Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11, 12 or 13 (latest update).
• Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack), Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU, 2GB RAM.
• Supported formats: macOS (64-bit only): Standalone, VST3, AU, AAX. Windows (64-bit only): Standalone, VST3, AAX.
• CONTACT: E-instruments

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IN PRINT

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OR DIGITAL

Zinio Digital issues 

iOS Digital issues  

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*copies of the issue in question are available for purchase in shops from 15th May 2024, early mailing for subscribers from 8th May 2024 (subject to postal delays).

While some songs have been sampled so many times that you're more accustomed to hearing elements of them on other people's records than you are the original tracks, others seem less likely candidates to be have breaks, vocals and hooks lifted from them.

However, sample-happy hip-hop and dance music producers have long shown that no record, movie or TV/radio broadcast is off limits, resulting in some rather obscure lifts on all kinds of records.

Evidence of this is provided below, as we countdown what might just be the ten most unlikely sample sources of all time.

1. Congo Natty samples Aled Jones

Michael West - AKA Congo Natty and a whole other host of pseudonyms - is one of dance music’s unsung heroes. After taking British hip-hop into the charts in the late '80s as Rebel MC, he made a slew of influential hardcore rave records that would be instrumental in the development of the emerging jungle sound.

One of them was X-Project’s Walking in the Air, which juxtaposes Cutty Ranks’ rudeboy ragga chat with the angelic vocals of everyone’s favourite prepubescent schoolboy: Aled Jones. The result is a track that perfectly encapsulates the “anything goes” atmosphere of the early '90s, and makes a great Christmas record for the discerning raver.

2. Nas samples Toto

Hip-hop has a long tradition of recycling obscure album tracks and B-sides into exciting new music, but crate digging was the last thing on the mind of producer L.E.S. when he replayed the ubiquitous pop rock classic Africa, by Toto, for Nas’s Nastradamus LP.

Hardly one of the native New Yorker’s finer moments, New World is a surreal luddite Y2K paranoia fantasy that reveals that the rapper has both a terrible diet and difficulty distinguishing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from real life: “Say goodbye to the toasters and Pop-Tarts / Yo, it's real / Swallow a little pill, there's a four-course meal”.

3. Burial samples Metal Gear Solid 2

The enigmatic overlord of atmospheric dubstep, Burial is in a league of his own when it comes to creating the soundtrack to 21st century urban alienation.

To call him good at sampling is something of an understatement: not only does his classic Archangel twist RnB sex enthusiast Ray J’s crooning vocals into eerie, alien melodies, but it also throws Harry Gregson-Williams’ Opening Infiltration from the score to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty into the mix without skipping a beat. The tea-loving Londoner even slips some Beyoncé into Untrue’s titular track, albeit with a software-assisted gender reassignment along the way.

4. J Dilla samples Singers Unlimited

Since his untimely demise in 2006, J Dilla has become something of a metaphor for the lost art of sampling. A man of eclectic taste, his MPC was fed everything from Giorgio Moroder to Queen, but it's the Slum Village track Players that contains the oddest sample of all.

The Singers Unlimited’s Clair is the source and, unless we’re missing something, the jaunty love song appears to be about a babysitter who has fallen in love with his underage niece and supplies her with alcohol.

5. Essence of Aura sample Disney's Cinderella

Dons of intelligent DnB, Essence of Aura were one of the many acts producing forward-thinking ambient jungle for the UK’s legendary Moving Shadow label during the mid-'90s. However, they were the only one to use a sample from a classic Disney movie in their work.

Their Amen Brother-based breakbeat workout So This Is Love takes the vocal from the song of the same name from Cinderella. However, it’s entirely possible Essence of Aura had no idea of the original source of the sample, as it’s likely a second-generation sample via Mental Cube’s identically-titled rave banger.

6. Tech N9ne samples Falco

Independent hip-hop darling Tech N9ne definitely has some interesting samples up his sleeve, as demonstrated by the vintage cartoon-sampling He’s a Mental Giant. However, his finest/most ridiculous moment must be 2002’s I’m a Playa, a replayed recreation of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus that's so faithful that it even includes a version of the original timeline introduction.

Unbelievably, the adaptation of “Amadeus, Amadeus” to “I’m a Playa, I’m a Playa” isn’t even the track’s highlight, thanks to featured rapper Calico dropping what may be the best internal rhyme of all time in the form of “I’m in hot pursuit of a prostitute”.

7. Nero sample Steve Reich

Before they became world-straddling dubstep superstars, Nero were big in the DnB game, and released some great records. These included their 2008 slammer Solid Air, which samples minimalist composer Steve Reich and the Kronos Quartet’s Different Trains : After the War (Movement 3).

It seems the pair were heavily into Reich at the time, as the intro to the flipside Choices is rather similar to Steve Reich feat. Pat Metheny’s Electric Counterpoint - Fast (Movement I), which was also sampled by The Orb for Little Fluffy Clouds.

8. Remarc samples Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone

Another original junglist with a fondness for strange sample sources is Remarc. The title track from the Ricky EP featuring Lewi Cifer famously samples gangsta classic Boyz n the Hood to unsettling effect, and Cape Fear strikes a similarly sinister tone with its oppressive horn samples and screams from the film of the same name.

However, on Sceptic the mood is lightened somewhat, with Macaulay Culkin’s character Kevin McCallister from family favourite Home Alone warning the listener that “This is it! Don’t get scared now”. Remarc isn’t just a great producer - he's clearly got a formidably eclectic VHS library to boot.

9. The Prodigy sample The Shamen

1992 saw the release of the Prodigy’s debut album Experience, a sampled-packed affair that borrowed from psychedelic rockers The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, UK hip-hoppers Hijack, and reggae stalwarts Aswad. It’s Out of Space that had the biggest sampled hooks, of course: Max Romeo’s Chase the Devil and Ultramagnetic MCs’ Critical Beatdown.

Less well-known is that the track’s break is sampled from the Meat Beat Manifesto remix of The Shamen’s slow jam Hyperreal from their 1990 album En-Tact. By this point, Mr C, Colin and co had released the chart smash Ebeneezer Goode, and were about as far from underground as it was possible to get.

10. A Guy Called Gerald samples Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

There can be no doubt that A Guy Called Gerald’s Voodoo Ray, from 1988, is one of the most important dance tunes of all time, and helped forge a blueprint for the nascent UK house sound.

The vocal snippets in the track are sampled from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s comedy album Derek and Clive (Live), specifically the sketch Bo Duddley (NSFW) which satirises upper-class ignorance and racism in a manner that seems shocking to modern ears, complete with liberal use of racial slurs.

One part describes a Harlem woman flying into a “voodoo rage”, which Gerald truncated to just “voodoo ray”, and the rest is history.

It took us decades to reach the pristine, unblemished quality of digital audio that we enjoy in the 21st century, but - as is often the case - now we've got it, we're not so sure that we want it, and many of us seem to miss the crunchy, characterful sound of days gone by. 

Hence the popularity of lo-fi music, which deliberately uses outmoded equipment - or emulates it through modern software - to capture a low-fidelity sound beloved for its soulful grit. That's the vibe we're on for our latest sample pack, which features a variety of lo-fi samples, including drums, synths, stabs and bass sounds.

In putting together this pack, we've run an extensive selection of loops, one-shots and multi-samples through three samplers (the Casio SK-1, Akai S900 and Bugbrand BugCrusher) to achieve varying levels of lo-fi goodness. Dive in and get your hands dirty.

What you need to know

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

Example sounds

Lo-fi sampler samples: click to download

Lo-fi sampler samples (303MB)

These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Song Athletics is a new(ish) company launched by former Spitfire Audio CEO Will Evans. Late last year, it launched with Some Drums, a sample pack featuring drum loops recorded by drummer Marc Pell on a '60s Ludwig kit. 

This week, Song Athletics returns with another drum-focused sample pack, Sloppy Drums. Inspired by the laid-back, off-beat stylings of J Dilla, Madlib, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, the pack is said to capture the sound of "studio drums that will give your music a lazy complexity". 

Performed and recorded by drummer Chris Boot, known for his work alongside Lone, Daughter and Georgia Anne Muldrow, Sloppy Drums features a Rogers USA '72 Fullerton kit. As is typical of Dilla and Madlib, the drum patterns found in the pack are loose and lazy, hanging behind the beat to create a heavily swung and rhythmically flavourful feel reminiscent of hip-hop and neo-soul. 

Priced at £25, the pack is comprised of 40 loops, 30 stems and 60 one-shots, all royalty-free and ready to use in your productions.

Find out more on Song Athletics' website or listen to a demo below.

• Read more: How J Dilla and his MPC changed beatmaking forever