We’ve got a new round up of scorching sample hits for you to check out. Our top picks for the month of August include club-ready techno and tech house loops, soulful female vocals, nostalgic lo-fi synths, found sound and world percussion, and a whole load of Reese bass.

READ MORE: Best free plugins and freeware of the month: July 2023

BandLab Sounds – Found Sounds & Foley

• Free
• Download Found Sounds & Foley

Adding found sounds to your beats can be a great way to give them an organic flavour and make them stand out from the crowd. Our free pack from BandLab Sounds this month includes 104 one-shots of scrapes, motors, clangs, doors, engines and more.

A portable Zoom recorder was used to capture a range of sources including a wine glass, a tractor engine, a toaster, a tap, a large spring, some scissors, an oven door, a gas lift chair, an extractor fan, a car door, and a bike bell.

Editor’s note: BandLab Technologies is part of Caldecott Music Group, which is also the parent company of MusicTech, NME Networks.

ModeAudio – Symbolism

• £18
• Download ModeAudio Symbolism

Although it was released 25 years ago, Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children album still sounds fresh due to its characterful sound design that blends woozy analogue synths, crunchy hip hop beats and lo-fi ambiences.

ModeAudio’s Symbolism takes its cues from this sound along with that of other artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre, who also released on Warp Records around the same time. The pack includes 156 loops from 74 to 104 bpm, and 75 drum one-shots, plus 89 MIDI files, and 69 synth tails that bring the loops to a smooth conclusion. It’s an atmospheric collection of drum, synth, guitar, vocal, FX and field recording sounds that feels both nostalgic and futuristic at the same time.

Loopmasters – Latin House Bangers

• £29.95
• Download Loopmasters Latin House Bangers

This new Loopmasters pack fuses weighty house beats with Latin musical elements to create an intoxicating mix that draws influence from artists like Hugel, Classmatic and Andrugss. It includes 151 loops and 217 one-shots of driving synth bass, syncopated drums, mixed percussion and FX, plus guitars, pianos and keys.

Arguably the best part though, are the 25 live trumpet loops that have been captured via a Neumann TLM67 mic. Although it’s designed for Latin house music at 128 bpm, these loops could be relevant for a range of house sub genres.

Thick Sounds – Tech House Oscillations

• £24.95
• Download Thick Sounds Tech House Oscillations

There are a lot of tech house packs out there, but this one especially pricked up our ears because of the tight production and infectious grooves. Tech House Oscillations is inspired by artists such as Mark Knight, D. Ramirez, Carl Cox and Dusky, and includes 725MB of club-ready content.

In detail, there are 136 loops, 132 one-shots, 10 bass and synth multisample kits, and 3 construction kits, with 6 stems each. On top of this, you also get 71 MIDI files and 10 preset files for NI’s Massive synth.

Loopmasters – Lovers Rock Vocals

• £27.95
• Download at Loopmasters

This beautiful pack of sultry female vocals draws inspiration from the golden era of lovers’ rock reggae and artists such as Carroll Thompson, Janet Kay and Luisa Mark. It features six distinct song kits from 90 to 130 bpm and in a range of keys.

Each features expertly captured dry female vocals, covering lead lines, and a handful of adlibs and spoken loops. Although these parts were written for over lovers’ rock backing tracks, the excellent, soulful performances could make them useful for a range of genres. Each song kit is also available to buy separately for £5.95 each.

Industrial Strength – BHK Samples Golden Age Drum & Bass

• £49.95
• Download Industrial Strength – BHK Samples Golden Age Drum & Bass

If you’re looking to craft forward thinking drum and bass but with a nod to the classics of the genre, then this new pack from Industrial Strength is well worth a look. It includes 117 expertly crafted breakbeats, top loops and basslines from 171 to 177 bpm.

Of more interest though, is the massive collection of 461 one-shots that cover bass hits, drum sounds, FX, leads, synths, atmos sounds and pads. There are even 67 different Reese bass sounds, which says a lot about the detail of the pack.

Spitfire Audio – BBC Symphony Orchestra Piano

• £149 (Pro), £79 (Core), Free (Discover)
• Download at Spitfire Audio

It’s been a long time coming, but Spitfire Audio has finally added a piano to complement its BBC Symphony Orchestral library. It faithfully captures the sound of a pristine Steinway Model D grand recorded at Maida Vale Studios.

There are 15 mic positions to choose from and blend, including specific close mics, plus pedal and hammers volume for added control and realism. There are also two bespoke mix presets that offer an all-purpose orchestral sound, or a hyped, more vibrant mix for cinematic music. Other features include 4 round robins, 6 dynamic layers, reverb and tightness controls, and velocity curves, with the full library weighing in at 35GB. It’s also worth noting that you can get stripped back versions for the Core and Discover editions.

Mind Flux – Hypnotic Techno

• £29.95
• Download at Mind Flux

Mind Flux know a thing or two about techno music, and this latest sample pack release is no exception. Hypnotic Techno blends entrancing synth patterns, driving and powerful sounding beats, and deep atmospheric loops inspired by artists such as Drunken Kong, Slam and KiNK, and labels like Moonshine, Soma and Hypercolour.

This concise but captivating collection includes 65 drum loops, 9 bass loops, 10 synth loops, 10 atmosphere loops and 10 FX loops. You also get 11 FX one-shots to help punctuate big moments and smooth over transitions.

Organic Loops – KV Bala Master of Percussion

• £39.95
• Download Master of Percussion

This massive percussion pack sees multi-percussionist K.V. Balakrishnan performing a wide range of instruments, with a fusion of traditional Indian rhythms and popular western music across 60 construction kits.

There are 1365 loops in total, which include Afro Shakers, Bongo, Cabasa, Dholak, Ghatam, Kanjira, Maracas, Finger Cymbals, Tabla, Egg Shakers and more. Tempos range from 80 to 100 bpm, and you get both individual loops, and mixed percussion groups for a fuller sound. You’ll also find 76 male vocal loops that can be layered in to create more intricate rhythmic textures.

Crazy Sampling – Pringles Kit

• Free
• Download Pringles Kit

We thought we’d end with something a little different. This unique free sample instrument has been crafted using only the sounds of a Pringles tube. It includes 2 octaves of percussive sounds that have been performed by tapping, hitting and scraping different parts of the tube. There are also 3 octaves of tuned percussive sounds so that you can play melody parts.

It’s a simple but fun and effective instrument for adding some organic sound to a track, and the GUI includes controls for Cutoff, Volume, Reverb and Distortion.

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