They have interesting textures, unexpected loops, and many options to choose from. What They're Good For: This pack offers a wide range of different drum samples, all of varying tempos and genres, which is a great way to introduce wildly different sounds to your sonic pallet. While I find most of their samples to be very heavily processed I still find uses for their samples fairly often.
While their larger proprietary packs can run a bit pricey, cymatics has many GIGABYTES of free packs available on their website, many of which are either genre-specific or in the style of a certain artist. The Rundown: If you’ve been producing for more than a month or two, you’d be hard-pressed to not have heard of Cymatics (or their aggressive marketing methods). By layering more textured samples over the top (foley hits or gritty hip-hop percussions), you can add uniqueness to them while still maintain their power, weight, and quality.
Pro Tip: These free drum samples shine when you can find ways to make them not as recognizable.
And their distinctive punch and weight make them even more easily recognizable.Īnd because of their popularity five years back, many of their most popular and recognizable packs have adopted an almost dated quality. What They're Not So Good For: Their quality is a blessing and a curse, seeing as how 90% of all bass-music producers were using these samples heavily. They are quick to use and require little processing. Their percussion one-shots hit hard, making them a staple of genres such as G-House and Riddim for years. What They're Good For: Cymatics was all the rage just a few years ago and for good reason. So let's dive into the top 15 drum and FX libraries that the internet has to offer!
But when done right, it can open up a ton of creative doors and get you finishing music faster! It all starts with building up a drum library, but even that can get expensive. I haven't made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all." – An Anonymous Legendīut there is an infinite number of samples out there, and it takes time to developed an ear to recognize good samples from bad ones. I also thought that was cheating, but I'm not sure where to go from here. Then I thought that that was cheating too, so l began raising my own goats. then I thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. Then thought that programming was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. "I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. Hearing amateur producers claim that you need to be doing everything from the ground up always makes me remember a popular internet analogy that often circulates throughout the producer community online:
If you are not using samples, you are hamstringing your career as a musician: full stop. Samples are the backbone of music production and have been a vital part of almost every producer's workflow for the better part of four decades. They think that, unless you're creating your own synths from scratch and building your own drums from the ground up, you're not a real "electronic musician." There is a small corner of the production community that thinks using samples is cheating. While sample packs can be very expensive and having a large sample library of paid packs is amazing, there’s no reason you can’t get your collection going with free sample packs in 2021, and we’re here to show you some of our favorites. It was a hard lesson learned, but it forced me to take my drum samples VERY SERIOUSLY. I spent weeks crafting the catchiest and most compelling melody I could, and my drum sample selection was a second thought.Īnd I realized how much of a mistake this was when they announced the winner a young producer who submitted only a single drum loop (which I later learned he had sequenced and programmed using entirely free drum samples). I had been producing for a few years, enough to be past the beginner stage, and an incredible opportunity presented itself to the producer community – my favorite dance music producer opened up his demo box for collaborators on his upcoming album. So how did I learn this essential drum sample lesson? Well, I'll tell you. The lead could be mixed too quiet or the FX could be generic and predictable, but the drum samples had to be on point. Many years ago, I learned the hard way that the drum samples you use in your tracks must be absolutely amazing.