Results for Atari

Sebastian Tomczak of little-scale has released the Atari 2600 Percussive Sample Pack, a free collection of samples from an Atari 2600 console.

This sample pack features 28 short percussive samples recorded from an Atari 2600 Jr PAL console.

Previously, people have requested dry, direct recordings of these samples as a pack – this is why the pack is being posted.

The Atari 2600 Percussive Sample Pack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

More information: little-scale

Earlier this week, Dusted William Sounds released Dirty Dose, a collection of samples from various lo-fi 8bit sources.

The Dirty Dose is a sample set made up of over 500 one shot hits from an Atari 2600, a Commodore 64, and a vintage analog Tama Techstar electronic drum set, all recorded onto 2 inch master tape at ekadek studios. Then finely cut up and sampled, ready for you to drop in your tracks and start living again.

The samples are available in .wav format and kits are available in Guru, Battery 3 and Live Drum Racks formats.

Also included is a collection of 100 MIDI files, which are categorized for the various kits.

The Dirty Dose is currently available for the introductory price of $21.99 USD until June 1^st, 2009 (regular price will be $29 USD). This includes all the formats and MIDI files.

A demo pack of samples can be requested here, and the product page has some mp3 demos and a nice video demo as well. Make sure to check those.

So what do I think?

I have a soft spot for the bleepy sounds of old game systems, so it’s no surprise I’m digging this Dirty Dose pack, a lot. Even though many of the sounds aren’t necassarily ones you would consider for drum kits, Dusted William Sounds manages to create some convincing kits with these samples.

There’s a nice variety of sounds and the recordings sound lovely. The combination of percussion samples and game type sounds works well for that lo-fi 8bit experience. In short, quality vintage samples for a decent price.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a sudden urge to go play River Raid!

Visit Dusted William Sounds for more information.

Sony Creative Software has released 8 Bit Weapon: A Chiptune Odyssey, a massive collection of chiptune style loops and samples created using vintage computers and video game consoles.

The library covers Apple II, Commodore 64, NES, Gameboy, and the Atari 2600. Each system library has everything from drums, bass and synth to special effects. Both 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer have featured demos built into the collection.

The library features 462 (537 MB) original, royalty-free WAV files.

8 Bit Weapon: A Chiptune Oddysey is available for download now for 29.95 EUR ex VAT.

Visit Sony Creative Software for more information and demo sounds.

Dusted William Sounds has released the Dirty Dose, a sample set made up of over 500 one shot hits from an Atari 2600, a Commodore 64, and a vintage analog Tama Techstar electronic drum set, all recorded onto 2 inch master tape.

Do you have 8 bit fever? Is your life too perfect? Do you feel like your lo-fi desires just aren’t being met? You probably have lofi deficiency syndrome, or LFDS

Dr. Williams recommends the Dirty Dose!

Dirty Dose features

• 500+ one shot samples in .wav format, split up in various categories (kick, snare, clap, hats, etc.)
• 100+ MIDI files for a sudden rush of euphoria. Later you can make your own beats if you’re up to it.
• 20+ kits in Guru, NI Battery 3.0 and Ableton Live drum racks formats.

Dirty Dose is available for the introductory price of $21.99 USD until June 1^st, 2009 (regular price is $29 USD).

Visit Dusted William Sounds for more information and audio demos.

Sebastian Tomczak has posted an Atari POKEY Noise Sample Pack.

I have created a set of samples that have been recorded directly from an Atari POKEY chip. I have created all of the sounds myself on the hardware (as in, these are not sounds or samples recorded from games or demo programs). The output from the sound chip has been recorded directly.

The sample pack includes 316 samples, covering a variety of frequencies and noise characteristics. Pure tones are not included.

There are two versions available for download:

1. Uncompressed audio: 16 bit, 44.1KHz mono .wav files.
2. Compressed audio: 96kbps, mono .mp3 files.

Sebastian has normalised and trimmed the audio only (no compression or eq) and fade-outs have been added to each file.

Check little-scale for more details and links to download the sample pack.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Indamixx Laptop is First Pre-Configured Music Netbook, Running Linux, $499 – CDM has more on the Indamixx Laptop, a sub $500 laptop pre-bundled with energy XT, a bunch of samples and over 260 plugins and effects.

Oh, and you get a free T-shirt.

The Indamixx Laptop is now available for pre-order ($99 deposit, pay another $400 when it ships).

# Buddha Machine 2 released: Ambient device – The Buddha Machine is a small audio-gear, some kind of "multipurpose ambient device". It is a small portable device with batteries, a speaker and some build-in audioloops. You can select the soothing loops and they keep on playing. With two controllers you can select the volume and (this is the special part) the pitch of the loop. Nothing really special, compared to the things you can do with audio-software, but this device is very charming and inviting to some nice uses.

# quiet_channel: analog MIDI drum machine — R Scott's DIY analog MIDI drum machine:

The drum sound circuitry was taken from a broken old Farfisa organ. I removed the entire rhythm accompaniment assembly and later built a power supply for it, turning it into a stand-alone drum machine.

# Guthman Musical Instrument Competition (submissions open) – The first Guthman Musical Instrument Competition presented by GTCMT and Harmonix (makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band) will award $10,000 to the best novel musical instruments as judged by a panel of experts from Harmonix, Wired, and Georgia Tech.

# Processing 1.0 – Version 1.0 final is out!

Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing quickly developed into a tool for creating finished professional work as well.

# THE SPRINGATRON 3000 — a DIY spring reverb from Nick’s World of Sythesizers:

This is basically a giant spring reverb made from 10 slinkys. I was trying to make the best sounding spring reverb possible, I think I achieved this but it is probably the most inconvenient spring reverb ever made. The reverb time (sustain) is so long that the springs need damping and I found that the best material for doing this is a slice of cucumber wedged under the end of each spring, other materials like foam or rubber tend to kill all the treble.

Many other cool things on Nick’s website, like this interactive flash version of The Beast.

# Module Glitch Pas preview – Luigi @ NUSofting has put up a preview of some kind of glitch pad plug-in. It's an early beta but it already looks very promising.

# MIDI Retrofit Kits: MIDI2600 — MIDI-to-Joystick / MIDI-to-Keypad Adapter for Atari 2600. Translates incoming MIDI notes to joystick or keypad control signals for any Atari 2600 console MIDI-controlled.