Free Ableton Sample Pack | Vision Magnet Lite Synth and Space Echo
A lot of producers, both beginner and advanced, inevitably ask the question of whether or not it's a legit technique to use other people's samples and commercial sample packs.
What about all the free ableton live packs out there? Is it ok to use sounds that literally the entire internet has access to?
We might be biased, but of course its legitimate and encouraged!
We wouldn't have entire genres of music like hip hop if it were not for sampling and sampling culture so we think contributing a bit to sampling culture is an important part of any music project whether you're doing it as an artist or a music technology company.
Yes, cool instruments like analog synths and quirky drum machines are great, but sampling as a practice is still a huge influence and even part of those branches too.
You can build some really interesting instruments by layering samples and synthesized sources under the hood of an instrument.
Ableton Live Packs Loops & Racks For Your DAW
Today we're going to be discussing some of the philosophy behind what we do and cut through a lot of the noise people like to make about sampling.
Much of the sampling debate is counter productive for artists so our main opinion basically comes down to taking sounds from whatever source you prefer and finding something original to do with them.
It's less about where you get sounds and more about how you can find ways to flip them and make them your own.
Enter into the World of Ableton Sample Packs!
If you've spent any time at all on the internet and you're interested in music production, you've likely been bombarded with offers for sample packs, both paid and free for good reason.
They're a big part of a modern music producer's workflow. Everything from drum samples of acoustic drums, to rare analog synths that are hard for most people to get access to.
Your sample pack collection becomes as much a part of your workflow as your DAW, whether that's Ableton Live or something else entirely like FL Studio or Logic Pro (or one of the many other options).
Ableton Live Packs: Drums & Synths
This is where we chose to jump in with Glitch Magic, a recording hybrid kit called GRITMATTER and sounds made with analog synths called VISION MAGNET.
GRITMATTER Sounds
We're always using live presets and looking for new drum samples, drum loops, and interesting audio effects to make our next track really feel fresh and different.
VISION MAGNET Sounds
Why Not Just Make Your Own Sounds?
You can and should! That's how we made our first Ableton pack.
A good place to start is to take the drum samples you already have, spend time making drum loops or processing your drum sounds, then when you have some loops you like, flatten them into new drum loops and start collecting them together in a folder somewhere.
Congrats, you are on your way to your first Ableton live pack of your own!
Use them in your own music as is, cut them up and process them again into your own drum kits, or release them with your next album as bonus content.
The last one is especially a good idea if a lot of your audience makes beats or would be interested in using your samples.
In certain genres, particularly hip hop, swapping samples is a huge part of the culture of the number of people who make music as a hobby or part-time is exploding. We don't see this slowing down any time soon.
Developing your own sounds and style (with sample packs)
The other side of the coin is using external sample packs in a way that is unique to you. It's easy to slap together a pre-made sample pack and say you wrote the track, but if you don't put your own spin on it, it's going to sound more like a remix of the sample maker's work than yours.
You don't have to do it all yourself, but finding ways to make the sounds you download feel like your own sound is key as a music producer.
What Is Vision Magnet Lite?
Vision Magnet Lite is one of our free sample packs, which is also available in a huge version with way more sounds.
The free pack alone is over 1 GB of samples that includes synth loops in every key (the paid version has one shots too), both major and minor.
The whole idea is we want you to be able to drag and drop these into your drum racks, drum machines, compile them with found sounds, build melodic instruments, mix them with other free packs and generally be really flexible so you can make them part of your own production style.
Maybe you don't want to use them as melodic elements at all and you just stack them with a reverb plugin to make ambient textures to layer drum sounds over.
How Were The Samples In Vision Magnet Made?
Everything in the Vision Magnet Sample Pack is done with a Dave Smith/SEQUENTIAL Prophet 6 and a Roland RE-201 Space Echo.
Why?
We love analog synths and the Prophet 6 is a "modern classic". The Roland Space Echo is unquestionably a timeless classic. Some would even call it a legendary instrument thanks to its role in shaping Dub music which influenced most major genres of modern electronic music.
What special recording techniques does Vision Magnet use?
Every one of the audio clips is labeled with a number and there is a Dry clip and a Wet clip with the Space Echo effect. This allows you to position them any way you want in the stereo field
You can use them separately, pan them apart, or keep the dry clip in the center, then use a Haas effect or other stereo plugin to widen the Space Echo clip.
Does Vision Magnet include MIDI Clips?
The Lite version of Vision Magnet Does not include midi clips, but the full version does! You the get MIDI files we used to create and trigger every sound in the pack.
Why Not Just Make Your Own Sounds?
You can and should make your own sounds.
This doesn't necessarily mean synthesizing all your drum samples 100% from scratch or only using hardware analog synths instead of sampler instruments.
Developing your own sounds and style
The important part is having some sounds that you really make your own and have your own fingerprints on them. We would argue that this includes techniques like how you process drum samples, breaks, or foley and found sounds.
This is really what developing your own sound and style is all about and that's exactly what we hope you do with any Glitch Magic products you download. They're set up to be used this way!
Why we don't have many genre-based packs designed for Trap Music, Jungle, Hip hop or other popular genres?
The short answer is everybody does that and its not very interesting to us. We'll probably do a few, but it's not the main priority.
Search "free sample packs" + any genre and you'll find all kind of stuff of varying quality. Also we think it's pretty silly to try to compete with websites like Splice or Native Instruments or Ableton.
They all have various collections of melodic loops, analog synths, synth presets, and more. The genre focused pack is a very well covered area.
All of these places have more than a single producer would ever need, so we're constantly thinking about ways we can do something a little differently that the big companies are not.
We're also more interested in experimental sound design that will help you find inspiration quickly so you can innovate within the genre of music you work in.
There are too many sample packs that are just copying whatever style is popular and compiling sample packs that are fairly generic.
Can you make money doing this? Sure. No hate if you do this and you're happy! Do you.
But that doesn't get us excited about making sounds and exploring new territories.
The exciting part about electronic music of any genre is finding new sounds and inventing genres, not painting by numbers.
If we wanted to just copy things and make money, there are much more profitable things we could do, but our real passion is searching for amazing sounds.
In Conclusion, Take Our Sh**!
Seriously! We didn't decide to make free ableton live packs so they can collect dust on a server somewhere.
Download the free version of VISION MAGNET and start making some tunes and don't ever apologize for using a sample pack. As far as we're concerned the fun of the game is all about how you shape your sounds and tracks and less about what you're using for source material.
You can use just about any sound for musical purposes if you know what to do with it.
Stay creative!
