Sample packs are tools that every producer uses,
this is why it is essential that you understand what makes a sample pack good.
A good sample pack is one that has ORIGINAL high quality sounds that are diverse and well formatted to make them easier to work with.
The internet is literally flooded with hundreds of sample packs all built to
serve a purpose and deliver value to the user.
Therefore this guide will help you filter out the good sample packs from the
bad ones,
so you can have a base of reference whenever you think of purchasing and
adding a new sample pack to your arsenal.
Popular Types of Sample packs
Loop kits
These kits generally have loops which are mostly melody loops created to
give the eventual end user a starting point for their project.
They are the most common now and you can find hundreds on sites like
Drum kits
Drumkits are essentially all encompassing kits that have all drum elements
like kicks, snares, hi-hats, cymbals and so on and so forth.
You can find a number of these on most popular websites like Splice.
but there exists a variety of websites that are just a google search away.
Full Stem kits
Full stem kits are kits that have full fledged songs or beats that are tracked
out to give you the stems.
They can be very effective and very useful to beginners to use and learn from
and you can find a variety of these types of kits online.
A great example of a site that offers full stem songs with clearance is Tracklib.
808 Kits
You’ll also find 808 kits that have a variety of 808s for you to choose from.
Splice is the go to site for such kits.
Guitar kits
Another popular type of loop kit is the guitar kit which usually features a
variety of guitar samples ranging from one shots to full fledged loops that
you can simply drag and drop into your DAW.
Piano Kits
Piano kits have similar characteristics to guitar kits, they have different
varieties of piano loops that in various keys, including one shots that you
can simply drag and drop into your DAW.
Vocal sample packs
Another sample pack type is the Vocal sample pack which has a variety of
acapella vocals, including one shots, phrases, vocal chops, hums and chorus vocals.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the types of sample packs that are available on the market,
it is essential that you understand that sometimes sample packs may be
broken down into individual element sample packs for example Kick sample
packs, snare sample packs, hi-hat sample packs, an so on and so forth.
Characteristics of a good sample pack
Description
A good sample pack will have a description of what you should expect to find
in the pack after purchasing it and opening it.
Avoid sample packs with no proper descriptions because you maybe led to
think it’s what you need when it is not.
Here’s an example of a good description:
Dusty Beats is one of our biggest packs to date, and one we are proud of, not sacrificing quantity over quality at and corner of the library, with every sample carefully processed and considered, to provide any authentic sonic aesthetic that we are sure will enhance your productions to no end.
What’s in the Pack?
120 Crunchy drum hits
20 Detailed drum loops (with stem bounce)
20 Extra percussion loops
10 Dusty bass loops (+MIDI)
14 Emotive chord loops (+MIDI)
28 Hooky melody loops (+MIDI)
10 Thick musical stacks (with 20 edited variations)
40 Effective musical one shots
30 Precise SFX
Tempos – 90, 100BPM
All samples are key & BPM labelled for ease of use
Original
A good sample pack should be one that contains original material and not
recycled material.
Therefore you should check the source of the samples and make sure you’re
purchasing them from a reputable seller.
The best sample pack providers online are Cymatics because they are
transparent and they have industry experience and expertise which has
made it easy for them to keep creating high quality original content.
Processed
A good sample pack should have high quality processed sounds that are
ready to be used and not all over the place samples that you have to start
fixing before use.
This is why its important to pay attention to the sample preview of the
sample pack because it will give you a good indication of what to expect in
the sample pack.
Variety
A good sample pack should be one that offers you variety and gives you
options.
Because not every sample will work for all producers and therefore it is
important that you have a good understanding of the number of samples to
expect in the pack.
this is why a good description is very important.
Labeling
Each element in a sample pack has to be properly labelled and categorized
the right way and this is very important especially for melodic loops.
Not every person is good at identifying the key of a sample by ear which is
why it would be good to label the samples by key and bpm to give them an easy and quick way to work.
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