Sample Libraries

The duo behind Cinematique Instruments have been composing music for films and documentaries for 10 years and have more recently extended their talents to the sampling of rare and strange instruments. 

Dance Drum Samples is a bargain‑priced sample pack available to download from Original Music. It's a healthy 658MB in size and contains 116 WAV loops, of which 103 are presented in REX 2 format with accompanying MIDI files.

This set of 40 hip‑hop backing‑track construction kits is the work of producer Soul‑G and includes Apple Loops, Acidised WAV and REX formats.

Symphobia's sequel probes deeper into the psyche of the sampled orchestra.

Sanctify your soundtracks with Tonehammer's new choral library.

I first saw Vocaloid demonstrated by Yamaha at the 2003 Frankfurt Musikmesse, and even though the chap presenting the demo spoke few words of English, the product's impressive capabilities were obvious.

This is the first in a new series of libraries for Tonehammer, relying on field and instrument recordings instead of synthesizers.

Martin Walker examines the 49 Kontakt instruments of Crystal Glasses Vol 2.

Distortion, filth, grime and grit abound in EastWests new library. Rubber gloves at the ready, we go in search of splendour in the dirt.

John Walden examines the new collection of 62 construction kits from BFA.

Simon Langford explores the Middle Eastern vocal library from Sonokinetic.

The Vitous brand has a great reputation in the world of orchestral samples. Does this brand-new library live up to it?

Acoustic Toy Museum is one of the more bizarre offerings from Ultimate Sound Bank, and is volume 10 of the UVI Soundcard range.

Zero‑G's Disco Gold provides over 800 loops presented in a 24‑bit, 44.1kHz stereo format, with some 1.7Gb of sample material in all.

Toontrack's EZ Drummer and Superior Dummer have proved hugely popular, in part because of the availability of expansion...

You wait 70 years for a Novachord, then two come along at once... 

Toontracks new sampling software instrument is simple to use, but also far deeper than it initially appears to be...

The Viennese maestros celebrate 10 years of sample creation with a foray into the world of vocals.

Regular readers of our sample library reviews might be forgiven for thinking that Ueberschall's Score FX II is just the same...

As any craftsman will tell you, if you get the basics right you can build with confidence. In this case we're not talking...

Windchimes consists of 20 Kontakt instruments in all, between them featuring two soprano, two alto, three tenor and one bass set of windchimes, a set of horizontally mounted chime bars, small temple bells and a bonus set of rainsticks.