A BLUES JOURNEYFrom the swamps of Mississippi to the smokey bars of Chicago and ending on a well-lit stage in Mainstream, USA.Not many music styles resonate as brightly through our musical heritage and play such an obvious role in the evolution of modern music than the blues. Still today, its impact...
When blues guitar shifted from primarily acoustic to electric in the post-war 1950s USA, it was the beginning of a revolution. Since then, nothing has been more influential on the development of guitar-driven music than the blues. Pioneers like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed not only...
THE HEARTBEAT OF YOUR SONG Basic, sturdy grooves covering the essentials of country drumming. In a country song, nothing contends with the vocal. Probably more so than in any genre, it completely bathes in the center stage limelight. But just like in any kind of music, all instruments in a song work in each other’s favor.
COUNTRY SONGS THAT POP A contemporary fusion of country and pop playing styles for piano. Already back in the 1970s, artists started deviating from the traditional country mold by incorporating obvious elements of pop music, both in terms of songwriting, instrumentation and production. It proved hugely...
INSTANT DEATH50 guitar tones inspired by the past 30 years of death metal evolution.50 individually engineered guitar tones, all modeled after some of the most genre-defining albums and bands of the past 30 years of death metal. Welcome on board a wild round-the-world trip that’ll beam you back...
THE INSPIRATION STATIONEZkeys MIDI inspired by modern electronic dance music.This collection of EZkeys MIDI features 20 individual “songs” inspired by a wealth of modern and hook-heavy electronic dance music where the keys, naturally, have a dominant role. Each song was broken down in three...
AN OCEAN OF EMOTION Modern pop and rock ballads chock-full of drama and melancholy. From jazz to R&B, soul, pop and even metal – piano-based ballads have made lasting forays into all different genres over the years. It may be that the timbre of the piano adds another dimension of heart-wrenching...
YOU TOO CAN WRITE FUSION Ever wanted that awesome fusion keyboard player, just lining up song ideas for you to build on? Here you go. The Fusion EZkeys MIDI pack presents a diverse collection of keyboard MIDI, all inspired by fusion music from then and now. Expect a seamless blend of rock, jazz and funk that takes technicality.
THE SOLUTION FOR YOUR FUSION TUNES For songs where groove, technicality and that “session drummer” finesse is front and center. Fusion. “The process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity”. The general dictionary definition of the word applies...
THE POWER OF PRAISEThe melancholy of the blues, the heartache of soul, the subtlety of jazz and the uplifting joy of the boogie – all encapsulated in the power of praise.A lot of modern music stems from gospel. It’s a melting pot of root music. It has the melancholy of the blues, the heartache of soul.
BEAT IDEAS Three decades worth of hip-hop hooks for you to hone, mold and shape into your own music. Regardless of whether it’s new school, boom bap or trap – strip any hip-hop track of the vocal and you’ll notice that what often plays a central role is a keyboard part. Sampled or not.
THE BEAT OF THE STREETAnything from boom bap to Detroit offbeat, old-school rap, trap and much, much more.Regardless if the drummer’s before, on or off the beat – it’s never by chance. The art of playing hip-hop drums is all about the feel, touch and vibe, all equally intertwined in...
A MODERN MERGEEZkeys MIDI that merges hip-hop with that unmistakable soul-like flair of R&B.In today’s music landscape, the lines between genres keep getting more and more smudged – especially so when it comes to the likes of hip-hop and R&B. Collaborations, guest appearances, performing...
HOOKS ARE IN THE HOUSEParts, hooks and loops inspired by a wide range of house styles.The House EZkeys MIDI pack rounds up an impressive collection of material inspired by contemporary house music. While most of the pack’s general ‘song’ content is categorized in common parts, it also...
NO RULES APPLY From the Indiependent SDX comes a fearless collection of drum grooves. About True creative freedom is when only your imagination limits what you can do. When you dare go where no one else has gone and have no one to answer to but your own creative self. That’s the genuine, unbridled spirit of independence.
A METAL MELTING POT A versatile collection of drum grooves and fills by Animals as Leaders drummer Matt Garstka. Matt Garstka of progressive metal pioneers Animals as Leaders is one of the most technically proficient and versatile drummers in today’s metal scene. With a degree from Berklee and...
THE GOSPEL IS IN THE GROOVE.Drum grooves and fills inspired by the wealth of styles associated with gospel. The Gospel Grooves MIDI pack presents a broad collection of drum grooves and fills inspired by the enormous wealth of styles that commonly get sorted under ‘gospel.’ It was performed...
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED Picking up where Monster MIDI Pack 2 – Odd Meters left off, but focusing solely on fills! Once again, session drummer Peter Fredlander is back with a plethora of insanely well played and inventive fills, hierarchically organized by level of intensity and complexity, ranging...
A NEW WAVE OF IDEAS Piano and keyboard variations inspired by the new wave of synth-driven pop predominant in the ’80s. While stemming from the post-punk era of the late ‘70s but eventually becoming more and more synonymous with the budding synth-pop scene of the early ’80s, the catch-all...
THE ONE-STOP POP SHOP Playing variations inspired by modern pop songs where the piano stars in the leading role. The piano has always been an efficient vehicle of rhythm and melody across the genres. However, in a lot of contemporary pop and rock music of the past decade, the guitar has been at the focal...
IN THE POCKET A melting pot of styles – perfect for any modern track or beat. Description The verse may have a tight hip-hop loop, the pre-chorus a subtle crescendo and, ultimately, the chorus may break out into a bombastic, full-on funk groove. This is just one scenario, but in a lot of modern music production.
IN THE POCKET Tight, in the pocket drums, perfect for anything from hip hop to dance, classic pop and uptempo rock. The Pop! MIDI presents an impressive collection of inspiring beats and fills played by Toontrack veteran Per Mikaelsson (Claustrophobic EZX, Nashville EZX, Funkmasters EZX). Covering styles...
THE RHYTHM OF THE WILD Mario Duplantier of Gojira delivers a violent piece of drum art. By molding disparate elements of classic, progressive and extreme metal, the brand of sound that Gojira represents has lent them a position as one of the forerunners in today’s metal scene. One key ingredient...
This disc contains: Toontrack SDX New York Studios Vol.1 MIDI v1.4.2 Toontrack SDX New York Studios Vol.2 MIDI Recorded at Avatar Studios (formerly The Power Station). Superior Drummer is the award-winning, professional drum production studio aimed at the user looking for total control in any aspect...
STRAIGHT UP SHUFFLE A broad palette of piano and keyboard playing styles – all with that unmistakable shuffle feel. The shuffled groove has been immortalized in numerous timeless songs over the years. In more modern contexts, though, it’s become somewhat synonymous with genres like AOR and fusion.
INSTANT INSPIRATION Piano playing variations inspired by some of the most iconic singer-songwriters of the past few decades. For decades now, the piano has been a natural vehicle to help songwriters voice their craft. There’s just something about its expressive range that speaks on a fundamental...
NO FILLERS. JUST FILLS.The perfect addition to the Songwriters Drumpack series – more of what you can never get enough of: fills.Are you a songwriter, do you program your own MIDI or do you use one or more of the amazing packs in the Toontrack MIDI Line? Are you short on some pro-played fills or...
BACK TO THE FOUNDRY A versatile collection of grooves and fills for progressive metal and heavy rock. This collection of drum MIDI comes from The Progressive Foundry SDX and presents a comprehensive collection of grooves and fills specifically intended for use in progressive metal and heavy rock songwriting.
LONDON CALLING EZkeys MIDI inspired by modern British pop. Description Adele, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Sam Smith, James Bay, Ellie Goulding – the modern British pop wonder is more than a fact, it’s a force in motion, unstoppably charging through the worldwide charts. Inspired by this wealth of music.
THE BRITISH BEAT One of UK’s most in-demand session drummers lays down the groove. Having played with some of the most noted artists in modern pop history, performed on best-selling records like Adele’s “21,” recorded 52 Top 20 albums, resided as the house drummer for UK’s...
Nano Musik Loops Top of The Pop and Deep House Vol.1 [ACID / WAV / MIDI] "Top Of The Pop & Deep House Vol 1' from Nano Musik Loops is a stunningly well-produced collection of ten authentic Pop House Construction Kits. This is guaranteed to fuel your next dancefloor hit and is packed full of expertly mixed loops.
Zero-G TOTAL DANCE Refill [DVD] The TOTAL DANCE REFILL combines 4 of Zero-G's original and award winning huge audio/wav 'Total' series libraries - Total House, Total Drum & Bass, Total HipHop and Total Funk, into one unbelievably huge and explosive Reason Refill package: - TOTAL DANCE REFILL provides...
Zero-G Total REX [2 DVDs Set] The world's largest collection of professional REX files in a single product, Zero-G TOTAL REX, featuring OVER 15,000 of our best loops selected from over 40 different Zero-G products. Over 10 GIGABYTES of groove inspiration! Zero-G bring you a First Choice rhythm loop...
The latest in our extremely popular TOTAL SERIES, 'TOTAL TRANCE' offers the value-for-money and usability you have come to expect from titles in this series, with over 1200 ultra-desirable loops and samples. The audio CD runs to 79 minutes and the included ACIDized WAV CD-ROM contains over 680 megabytes of data.
Dusty Projections is a journey into the astral psyche of a producer on a mission. This full fat, unadulterated yet beautiful collection of wonky Hip-Hop and 'Beat Scene' inspired samples, loops and one shots provides an up front and personal insight into the workings of one of the underground...
The official TR808/909 Library on Akai CD ROM ! With these programmes you can emulate the user interface of these cult machines right on the display of your sampler. "K909-A0-D2-T6" stands for a 909 Kick with the attack parameter set to 0, a decay setting of 2 and a tuning of 6. You have access...
Having grown out of the post-disco dance culture House music had hit the mainstream by the late 1980s. In Germany the fusion of this hard-beat style with Ambient and Hardcore had, by the early 1990s, given birth to a new style. Trance music had arrived. A decade later the continuing cross fertilisation...
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Sample types
Sample libraries are the collections of sound files that are usually organized in sets concerning musical instruments or environmental sounds categories used for compilation. They are widely used by composers, DJs, music producers and other people for making musical works. Usually, famous music composers are known for their own sound style they form using blends of various sample libraries and sound effects in their compositions.
Samples can be differentiated from regular sound records by few special features. They are short (length about 10 seconds) and are recorded using one note. That helps to make a qualitative instrument on their basis. High quality samples are usually professionally-cut. In such samples micro-pauses in the beginning and in the end of a sample are deleted and the stops for sound loop are marked. Samples without sound loop are called “one-shot” samples, which are reproduced from the very beginning to the very end of a whole piece. Such samples are ordinary used in making drum sounds, sound effects etc.
Samples with sound loops are called “loops”. E. g, one set of drums for four-eight time can be recorded as a loop. Special software that can work with pre-made loops has become widely-popular among the amateur musicians. These programs include SONY ACID, EJAY and many others. Sample libraries and single samples in WAV format can be reproduced with literally any PC sound playback software.
Sample recording
When it needs to digitize the piano sounds, one can guess, that it will be enough just to record every piano note. This approach was used in 1970-s, when sampling techniques just appeared. But the sound quality made with such a technique is rather poor and too far from the professional sounding.
For recording a full-quality sample it's inevitable to take into consideration all the trifles of sound, e.g, the velocity of key press, using a pedal, sounding with opened and closed piano top etc. Adding to it the sounding dependence from the place where sound is played and even from the furniture of this place we have a great bunch of factors that can notably impact on the sounding. So, the quantity of sounds can reach 100 per one piano note. The more sounds we record, the closer we are to the original sounding, but also the bigger are the recorded files. It enlarges the size of an instrument that is sampled.
Potentially, sounding of an instrument that uses sample libraries come close to original. But considering that there are a lot of peculiarities in the sounding of original instrument, digital instruments can't copy it with an absolute accuracy. That's why original pianos are still in use.
After recording desired sounds, we need to make an integrated instrument, which sounds will be then reproduced by digital or analog sampler. For that, we need to assign (map) the samples from our own sample libraries to each keyboard key. For getting qualitative sounding, we need to spend a lot of time assigning appropriate samples.
Clean and processed sound libraries
The most part of sample libraries present clean («dry») sounds without any sound effects applied. So, the musicians can put necessary effects by themselves choosing the right place for them in any individual composition.
Some sample libraries can have samples with special sound effects for particular purposes, e.g., imitation of cathedral choir reverb or heavy metal distortion. These samples are also called «wet» samples.
Sample libraries and music software for DJs and amateur musicians
Sample libraries are vitally important for a good DJ. If some time earlier Djs used analog devices for making cool sounds, now they can use their own collections of digital sounds to make a musical masterpiece. The quality of a synthesizer for a DJ or other musician's purposes is measured by the quality and quantity of sound samples it can reproduce. The best ones, for example, some Yamaha high-end models, have an impressive sample libraries in combination with perfect sound quality.
Sample libraries can be used not only by professional musicians and producers who buys a lot of expensive equipment. They can also be used by an amateur, who just starts his music experiments. Sample libraries are provided in the digital file-sets that can be easily downloaded from the web. Simple sets are usually free or cost not much. So getting them is not much of a problem.
There are a great variety of computer programs which use sample libraries and can substitute synthesizers. One of good examples is FruityLoops. It has its own collection of software synthesizers. There are more than 20 various synthesizers and 2 samplers available. They can be used for making one's own sample libraries. But it needs a lot of time and experience, so amateur musicians often use already-prepared sound sets, combining and mixing them together, adding some effects and environmental sounds. FruityLoops sample library can be easily expanded with other libraries. The friendly interface will help to make such an expansion easy and fast. FruityLoops is rather professional music production instrument with a lot of different options and possibilities. But there is another program to work with sample libraries that is called SoundForge.
SoundForge, developed by Sony Creative Software, is a suitable platform for an amateur musician. Its restricted version, Sound Forge Audio Studio, is a nice instrument to start with. It's price is pretty good and it has all the functionality to start home experiments with sample libraries. SoundForge has a set of instruments for fast editing and creation of new sound pieces. The program helps to remaster and clean old records, put filters and effects and create master-discs. This program will be a good start to making your own sample libraries.
Great collection of sample libraries for any taste
It's clearly seen that producing samples is not an easy task. Luckily, there is a great variety of special sample libraries available on the contemporary music market and there's no need to make them yourself. One can find practically any sound he or she needs.
Our site provides a solid collection of sample libraries in various formats, including WAV, AKAI, GIGA, SF2, Reason refills etc. They can be used for making industrial, house, trance and other kinds of compositions. Our library is being constantly developed and updated. We are glad to present you a variety of choice for making your own music masterpieces.
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