Zebralette Synth

I'm not one to utilize synth all too often (although I feel I could probably benefit from using them more), but there are a few exceptions, and this is certainly one of them. Created by u-he it's Freeware which is intended to persuade you to buy "Zebra2" which is the "full version" if you like, but Zebralette is more than a freebie trial, it's fully functional and has some amazing sounds in itself.

Some samples of the sounds are available for you to hear here:

Sample

I find that "Atlantic swell" and "Castillo" are great pads for ambiance, "Brahmaputra" is very unique sounding and adds a very subtle vibe, "El Piano" is a very chirpy, elevator-sounding pad but I see it fitting in well with some proggy songs. "Finlandia" has a very nice sound and is useful for a range of styles, and last but not least my favorite which has to be "Skyrail" because it's so unique and the control is amazing, allowing you to subtly add a air of urgency about a piece.

I've yet to finish a piece with this synth, they're all either works in progress or only a subtle use of it so no link to a piece of mine on this one.

Here's the download link for Zebralette

Hope this helps,
Gareth.

Roland Orchestral Rhythm

This is a simple but effective aid in making your orchestral pieces sound much more "full" and "fleshed out". Featuring Tam tam, gong, sleigh bells, chimes, tambourine, timpani, concert bass drum, snare, stabs and plenty of other percussive bits and pieces, it's definitely worth having for anyone who's writing orchestral music.


Here's a little sample of my work where I used this pack

Here's the download link for Roland Orchestral Rhythm

You'll also need this program to decompress the file into a .sf2 file

Hope this helps,
Gareth.

Squidfont Orchestral

This is another orchestral pack, the first orchestral pack I ever used in fact. I discovered it a little while after getting into orchestral writing and it's a vast improvement on fl's in-built string/piano/brass sounds, it really helped propel my writing ability. While the sample quality isn't quite as high as that of sonatina symphonic orchestra for example, it does have a place, e.g. the staccato instruments such as strings and woodwind are useful. The following is a sample of a song written using squidfont orchestral:

Sample

The string sounds are good, with good sustain and staccato, and even pizzicato, and the woodwinds sound quite nice too. The brass is a little weak, as seems to be the trend with free brass samples. However, many aspects remain very usable, especially in conjunction with other orchestral packs to add depth to the sound.

Here's a little sample of my work where I used this pack

Here's the download link for Squidfont Orchestral 

You'll also need this program to decompress the pack into a .sf2 file

Hope this helps,
Gareth.

Amen Drum Kit

Quite possibly the most sampled drum loop of all time, and one of the founding blocks in the drum n bass movement of the mid-1990s, the amen kit is easily one of the most classic and sought after drum sounds of all time. Originally a break in the track "Amen brother" by the Winstons in 1969, it has been sampled and re-sampled hundreds if not thousands of times since.

The beat can be heard here at 1:25 in the original 1969 song

This kit is one of the most iconic sounds in music history, and it can be used in a variety of different styles, from Funk (like the sound of the Winstones themselves), Jazz, Hip hop and Drum n Bass. The version I provide the link to here features a fairly extensive range within the kit, with 4 kicks, 4 snares, kick snares, semi snares, semi kicks, a variety of hi hats and even some reverse samples. I've used it myself a fair few times for hip hop and funky songs, and if you get the mix right it sounds amazing.

 Here's a little sample of my work where I used this pack

Link to the free download of the kit (you'll need to make a freesound account, which is 100% free)

Hope this helps,
Gareth.

Cinematic Synthetic Drums

Finding good quality free drum sounds can be a bit tricky, especially ones with the "massive" and "epic" sounds involved in most modern cinema and game soundtracks. CSD is by far the best set of free cinematic drum sounds I've ever come across. The sounds range from massive bass crashes and snare hits to smaller toms and glitches. Some of the sounds can be heard in the following youtube video:

Sample

These are not actually samples, but are made entirely digitally, but the quality and variety is so good that it's almost impossible to tell in a good mix. The sounds can be used for electronic production right the way through to cinematic scores, and everything in between, its' scope really is that wide. I use it for almost all of my songs nowadays in one form or another, I can't stress how much better my pieces sound since I discovered this, it's just phenomenal.

Here's a little sample of my work where I used this pack

Here's the link to the official website where you can download Cinematic Synthetic Drums for free

Hope this helps,
Gareth.

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

I'll start off with what I consider to be among the best in the free orchestral sample library category. Sonatina has samples fitting what you'd expect from an orchestral pack, including:

Strings (2 violins, violas, celli and basses all in pizzicato, staccato and sustain), choirs (male, female and mixed);
Brass (horns, trombones, trumpets, tubas all with staccato and sustain);
Woodwinds (flutes, clarinets, oboes, piccolo, cor anglais, bassoons and contrabassoon most with solo and sustain);
Various Percussion (such as timps, cymbals, tamtam, chimes bass drum, snare and more);
Concert Harp;
Grand Piano.

This pack's quality is really what makes it so great, all the sounds are excellent, with no weak links and a richness and realism to the sounds which you usually have to cough up for. Some examples of the sounds can be heard in this youtube video:

Sample

The strings in particular sound great, and even though I now use EWQL I still prefer to use the strings from this pack on occasion. The piano is a little weak and I feel I've found some better free pianos but there' nothing particularly wrong with it. The harp is a nice addition with a rich sound to it. The percussion is the same as the piano; good but could be better. The brass is also great for a free sample. I've always found brass to be the most difficult section to find good free samples for, as big epic cinematic ones do require time and effort to create and largely because of that good ones are seldom free. However, the brass here is quite good among the best brass freebies for sure with the horns especially being very effective.

Here's a little sample of my work where I used this pack (almost) exclusively

Here's the download link for Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

You will also need this SFZ player in order to use the library

Simply save the SFZ player as a VST plugin and use it to open the SFZ files from the SSO library. A common error is that adding more than one instrument creates static. If this occurs, copy and paste your SFZ player and save it as sfz1 sfz2 sfz3 etc. and then use a separate one for each instrument.

Hope this helps,
Gareth.

Introduction

This is my first post on this blog (or any blog for that matter), so I thought I'd write a little about myself and my intentions for, and reasons behind creating, this blog.

The aim of this blog is simple: To bring together as many free samples, soundfonts, VSTs and other musical compositional tools as possible.

Here's a little on my background: I have been writing music since the age of twelve, when I first started to learn the guitar. A natural progression from that was to learn to play the bass guitar and the drums, followed by (albeit very basic) piano.

Having played in bands for a few years I eventually decided to put all my focus on writing soundtrack music (movies, video games, trailers, you get the idea), however when I first started out with basic software I found myself spending hours and hours on forums and looking through dozens of pages of google results. Being on a tight budget I was mainly looking for free samples or plugins.

Having spent the last 2 or 3 years looking out for these elusive freebies, I decided to make this blog and share some of the best free music samples/plugins I can find, to save other musicians from spending the excruciating hours I did searching for them. I don't consider myself an expert, and I don't claim this blog/list to be fully comprehensive, there's a lot of stuff out there and I'm simply trying to save others the time it took me to find the free aspects of my current library. Some will be left out, either because I'm not familiar enough with them (yet), because I haven't heard of them (yet), or simply because I don't consider them to be worth getting a hold of.

On a side note, I'll admit I've started paying for samples recently but that's just because I had some money lying around and decided to put it to good use, but none the less I still frequently use many of the samples I'll be posting about here.

So feel free to subscribe if you're just starting out and want a good foundation to your sample libraries or even if you're an experienced writer who just wants to ensure you're not missing out on anything.

Thanks,
Gareth.