Carl Löfgren of Fingerpushers and Plughugger has released Freon Surfer FZ, a free instrument based on the Freon Surfer preset of the Sonic Charge MicroTonic software drum machine.
Freon Surfer FZ with custom Native Instruments Kontakt interface.
All eight drum sounds have been sampled by the mighty Casio FZ-20m sampler at 36 kilohertz, at crunchy 9 kilohertz and at 9 kilohertz too loud to capture the natural distortion of the analog converters.
Lastly, we did the old-school drum and bass trick of timestretching the samples back and forth a number of times, to give the samples a glitchy digital feel to them. For this we used our E-mu E4XT sampler.
Below are two short demo clips showcasing the various sound banks.
Freon Surfer FZ features
8 sounds recorded at 36kHz, 9kHz, 9kHz overdriven, and 9kHz stretched.
32 unique samples in total, 16-bit/44kHz mono Wav.
Instrument patches for Kontakt 4, Maschine, and Geist.
Custom Kontakt GUI with knob to select sound bank.
The Freon Surfer FZ sample pack is available as a free download.
Ever since recording some sounds a few years ago, I’ve been meaning to take the trusty Zoom H2 for another round. I finally took the time to capture another batch of ordinary, and perhaps some less ordinary sounds.
sound recordings vol 2 was recorded with the Zoom H2, a budget priced pocket recorder
For Rekkerd Sound Recordings Vol. 2 I found a number of interesting objects to hit, drop, slide, slam, press, etc. After a good amount of editing the pack ended up containing 90 samples. Various noises produced by light switches, fans, drawers, and lots more included.
The samples are in 24-bit/44kHz WAV format. Plenty of background noise is included, and those with a good ear might spot one of my kids in some of the recordings. 100% high quality lo-fi!
So why did I record these sounds? Well, I personally love create rhythms/percussions with unusual sounds so I figure I’m not the only one. Also included in the pack is a number of such loops that I did exclusively using the recorded sound and and a bunch of processing. You can listen to those loops below.
Timur Arynov aka MyOSS has released the “Dirty Kit”, a free drum sample pack for Native Instruments Battery.
This drumkit was made using the MFB-522 analog drum-module and Novation Ultranova’s internal overdrive\distortion effects.
Then I edited all samples in Audacity and made a Battery 3 drumkit. Also included are also one-shot samples for use in any DAW or sampler. Feel free to download and use it.
I have been planning to do another music production contest for a while now, but moving house and having a new addition to the family meant I have had very little spare time. So I am pleased to still get things going before the turn of the year.
The theme for the contest is “Expectations“. With 2012 around the corner I think it should be a good inspiration.
The idea of this “sample remix” contest is to create a song using the sample pack created specifically for this contest. No other instruments (virtual or real) are allowed, no samples, recordings, or other sound sources. Just the samples in the contest pack.
I know this is quite a limitation, but hopefully one that will spark your creativity.
All the sounds in the contest sample pack were made exclusively with Rob Papen plugins. I tried to provide a good variety of loops and sounds so you have something to work with.
The download includes a total of 120 samples (24bit/44kHz): 33 melodic loops and 87 single shot sounds (36 melodic, 41 perc & 10 sfx). The archive is in RAR format. If you experience difficulties opening this file you can try the slightly larger zip version here.
Note that the sample pack is *not* some kind of connect the dots construction kit so you are allowed (and encouraged) to chop the samples up, process them to bits with effects and make them your own.
The deadline for submitting your entry is January 16th, 2012, 11:59pm CET. Winners will be picked based on quality and originality. A few days later the winners will be announced.
So what can you win?
Since all the sounds you are going to work with were done with Rob Papen plug-ins I thought it would be fitting to have them as contest prizes as well.
I am pleased to say that Rob has generously donated the following prizes:
1st prize: Punch, SubBoomBass and Predator
2nd prize: SubBoomBass and Predator
3rd prize: SubBoomBass
Many thanks to Rob for offering these great plugins!
Contest rules
You may only use the samples provided in the contest sample pack. No other sound sources are allowed. However, you may process and manipulate sounds any way you want. Get creative!
Submit your entry in mp3 format (minimum of 192kbit) per email to contest@rekkerd.org before January 16th, 2012, 11:59pm CET. One entry per person is allowed, you will receive a confirmation of your submission.
Your entry should be composed specifically for this contest. By entering, you grant permission for your track to be published at the rekkerd.org website, through SoundCloud.
Prizes will be granted at the discretion of the rekkerd.org voting committee. There may be additional prizes for the runners-up.
Contest rules subject to change. If you have any questions feel free to contact me or comment on this post.
Contest entries
The submitted tracks will be listed here, ordered by date of entry.
Part 2:
Part 1:
The winners
I now remember why I prefer to let you guys pick the winners… There were so many great quality & original entries, it was almost impossible to narrow the shortlist of favorites down to just three.
Alas, in the end only a few can take away the prizes:
You can listen to some of Jackie’s music at SoundCloud.
Here you’ll also find his entries to the rekkerd.org music production contests, including Magic Wheels, the 4th place winning track in the recent Moving contest.
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