Samples worth buying

#1

Hey all, we have free vst threads, and cheap vst threads, and I think there is a hardware related thread somewhere in here, but what I don’t see is a thread bout dem samples. So here is a thread bout dem samples.

I am not a super-sample guy, I actually use them more for a jumping off point, or for sounds I do not know/have like particular old drum machines. What bothers me though is that through the years I have bought some in super-sales and such and the quality varies a LOT. So share your knowledges: what collections/producers are worth buying? Which freebee sets are the worth the GBs on our HDDs? Any great sales out there?

#2

To start this off, and the reason I thought me make this thread in the first place, anyone with 40 bucks and 40GB of HDD space could do a LOT worse than picking these up. I did last year and they are super super cool about discounts and a freebee here and there when something new comes out:

#3

I bought that a few years ago in Black Friday for stupidly cheap and never used them.
The reason being that it’s too much. 40 gb will take years to get to learn and unless you know what drum machine you’re looking for, it means days of scrolling.
I use the below a lot
http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/dirtandlayers.html

Really nice tools to add that extra or to make your own sounds

#4

Odds are you have some great samples already in your DAW. I bought the complete Samples From Mars last month, been using it a fair bit since, for all my retro tinted stuff and most of my 808 and 909 duties. But for modern samples? I have a modeaudio folder in FL Studio that often has what I’m looking for when I need a slightly different flavor to add to the 808/909. Shakers, different rides and cymbals, hats, or just extra layers for the kicks and snares to add a modern edge. I picked up a limited time freebie from Cymatics around halloween and that has some nice modern snares and even more metallic timbres to mess with. With all that, I can’t think of a drum sound I want and don’t have off the top of my head.

So my recommendation would be:

  1. Check what your DAW came with.
  2. Get a decent 808 and 909, and any other real drum machine you love
  3. Add some good “doofy” modern snares, and any other texures you need to get the sound you want (good hats, shakers, etc.) Cymatics and Black Octopus are the brands I know of that do this best off the top of my head.

Or try loopcloud. I haven’t, but it looks really cool.

https://www.loopcloud.com/cloud

#5

yeah, those are some good points about drum samples, but what about other samples? Vocals, sound fx etc? I find those two catagories are where I go to samples the fastest, since some FX I just don’t know how to reproduce without hours of fiddling, and vocals are vocals…I cannot sing like a girl.

#6

When Akai added the Splice integration I enjoyed my 3 months free feature, as opposed my expectations I used that quite a lot, nice to be able to browse and preview samples of all kinds, the download/buy just what I needed.
Maybe worth having a look? I guess if you use lots of samples it’s a worth investment

#7

I also use samples sometimes as a jumping off point to spin inspiration for my melodies.

Here are some of the best samples money can buy. They aren’t cheap but they are VERY worth the money.

https://refx.com/samplepacks/

ReFX produces some industry standard plugins and samples. There exists nothing of higher quality, only equal.

I also love the samples included with Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Trilian and Keyscape. Spectrasonics products are absolutely the top of the line when it comes to music production, bar none.

#8

For gritty drums Gold Baby. So many good packs you cant really go wrong. I like the Tape series and Vinyl Drum Machines. Ghetto Drum Samplers is great too but not a pack of standard sounds.

#9

I’m about to sound like the oldschool old guy. Here goes.

I’ve bought sample packs in the past, and I’m actually still guilty of using VSTs that are glorified sample packs. To achieve a somewhat realistic drum sound, I’ve basically borrowed everybody else’s samples and VST samples to achieve my goal. This technology seems pretty great, on the surface.

But that’s the issue in a nutshell; everybody else is using this shit. I hear professional bands use the same shit, I hear shitty bands use the same shit, and I hear more ‘meh’ bands like me on soundcloud use the same shit (I know my place). Do you know what makes people like me even more mediocre? Using samples instead of using and sampling the drums they have stashed in their parents’ garage because they’re either lazy or just want to borrow shit.

TL;DR, I guess I’ve never come across anything good that was actively being used by somebody else. It’s just too obvious most of the time, despite all the layering and producing you can do to any given sample or set of samples. I hear it immediately on recordings and it just makes me want to turn it off. Sorry for the sad old guy rant, but it’s true for me.

#10

I think Santa has a point. Especially if you design your own sounds and presets, you get bored very fast by recycled sounds and patches you recognize. And it’s fun and also sonically flexible to make all your samples in a synth, in some time you have a big library anyways. But that’s a very biased production-focused perspective. Real (non-musician) listeners mostly don’t see it and wouldn’t care. And, for instance, most of DNB and other genres wouldn’t exist - well, in the current form at least - without very obvious sampling, especially of drums. It’s all in the context and the completed picture imho. Amen, Brother.

I bought and compared some sample packs by different devs in the past, mostly to check out what’s on the market, since I do some sound and preset design myself (that reminds me, have you seen my awesome… JK :wink: ) - my recommendation is to make sure that you know what you would like to work with and what you want it for and compare stuff. The stuff I’m still using nowadays is mostly vocal-based and instrument libraries, but also some traditional drumloops. In general, most more well-known devs these days have some quality stuff, but that doesn’t mean that it’s good for you.

#11

On the other hand it also depends on how good you are at treating the samples you get.
There is a video everyone has watched, about how Prodigy used samples for Smack My Bitch Up.
Lots of them were samples from other tracks, some came from sample packs.
Yet they don’t really sound the same as everyone else.
In general I agree that sample packs are a lazy way out but if I just want to bang out a tune on my Mpc, they’re the fastest way to get something going