Professional Samples: Out of the Box

While it’s easy to create sounds within any DAW, as dance music producers and artists, we often forget there is a multitude of sounds that can be found outside. Yet, sounds from nature can provide an entirely new sonic palette for any producer.

Professional artists in genres such as Tech House, Minimal, Drum & Bass, House, and Techno are already using “found” sounds to help create an atmosphere in their music and their use is growing beyond simple atmospheres. Sounds from outside the DAW are being used in samplers to create new leads and pads that couldn’t be created any other way. With this resurgence of sampling sounds, we came up with our latest sample CD “Out of the Box”. Over 2GB of samples were recorded from different locations and packaged into a single download. Using professional recording equipment (Tascam HS-P82 & Neumann TLM 107) we recorded samples from anywhere and everywhere including carnivals, nature, studios, living rooms, bathrooms, and gardens.

Samples were then compressed, EQ’d and edited using hardware such as the FATSO, API, and SSL to produce the best sound possible. What’s more, every sample we recorded was also treated individually through a variety of different effects to produce an alternate sound, showing some of the possibilities.