Sample Libraries

The Anglo-Australian strings library returns with a radical version 2 upgrade.

Although very few of us will ever have top session musicians playing our music, sample libraries at least make it possible to create music using elements of their artistry.

Under review here is Keyboard Vault, which is made up of 24‑bit mono samples and requires a full version of Kontakt.

Tutti is a Kontakt-based library that Sonokinetic describe as an 'orchestral cinematic FX and textures' collection.

Rhythmic Robot are a small outfit dedicated to breathing life into the strange and the obscure via the medium of Kontakt.

Instant Orchestra aims to take the pain out of creating orchestral parts — but can such an affordable library still produce the goods?

The exciting thing about sample libraries that use words like 'ambient' and 'soundscape' in their titles is that you just can't predict what they are going to sound like.

This orchestral compilation focuses on full-range, multi-instrument ensembles, enabling you to play complete orchestral sections without having to laboriously program their individual components.

As a title, Beats From The East is slightly misleading, as this library's real focus is on delivering Western-style commercial loops for hip-hop, R&B, crunk, trance, techno and house tracks.

Big bangs, shattering impacts, unabated racket, sonic mayhem, deliberate destruction... Pass the earplugs, it’s Heavyocity’s new library!

Jazz Colors features 20 jazz-flavoured construction kits comprising over 3GB of sample data, spread across some 1400 samples.

Big Fish Audio's Pop Rocks! (their exclamation mark, not mine) is the company's latest addition to their massive genre-based...

According to its liner notes, the purpose of Urban Ballads is to provide R&B producers with "authentic” sounds.

West Coast samplists Cinesamples stay ethical with their major new orchestral brass library.

If BFA could make a TV ad for this sample collection, they would probably have it narrated by the late movie trailer maestro Don LaFontaine, saying something like, "In a world of laid-back percussion, Epic Drums II changed everything, forever!”

Forest Kingdom is another tour de force from developer Eduardo Tarilonte, once again featuring a generous 7GB of sample content, memorable artwork and wonderful presentation.

Although the main title of this sample collection from Big Fish Audio only mentions pop and soul, the content also covers R&B guitar styles...

Despite the 'real versus sampled' debate continued by Mellotron purists, G-Force's M-Tron Pro VST plug-in has earned a justified reputation as an authentic and effective recreation of that famous tape-replay keyboard.

Rock drum collections are plentiful, but as soon as something slightly out of the ordinary is required, such as a comprehensive selection of brush samples, the options die off rapidly.

Not content with the 'ooh missus!' title, Big Fish have based this new construction-kit library around the playing of a guitarist called Thomas Organ (thankfully, 'Tommy O' to his mates.)

No doubt inspired in part by the wealth of real-world imperfections captured for his historic Novachord library, Hollow Sun's Steve Howell has once again donned his boffin's garb for this ongoing Music Laboratory Machines series.