Monthly Archives: September 2021

Samples From Mars Soviet Synths From Mars MULTIFORMAT

Esoteric and Characterful Synthesizers from Behind the Iron Curtain
In the 70s and 80s, the Soviet Union produced dozens of funky, raw, and wonderfully characterful synthesizers. Because the USSR was detached from the West’s exploding synthesis technologies, these machines bore their own mark that made them uniquely different than anything else produced in that era.

We’ve always admired the unique, aesthetic beauty of these synths from afar, but were hesitant to try them, since their reputation for being heavy, finicky, hard to service, and expensive to ship has made them an intimidating purchase for the average electronic musician.

Putting our hesitation aside, we bit the bullet and ordered six classic Soviet Synths, and three drum synths. Some took over four months to arrive and others arrived needing repair, but luckily, their sound did not fail to impress. What we found is that, despite their cold exterior, these synths are capable of warm, deeply analog, characterful tones, and of course: meaty and cold psychotic mayhem.

A History of ADSRs in the USSR
In the 1970s there was no real audio industry in the USSR; the state controlled almost all aspects of production, and there were no bespoke music technology companies to create instruments that Russian electronic musicians could use. Instead, state-owned plants simply manufactured equipment as part of a broad program to increase the overall volume of goods produced for the people. A plant would manufacture anything from military grade radios to, you guessed it, synthesizers! As a result, many of these synths are built, literally, like tanks—cold, heavy and able to take (and give) a beating!

Fortunately, many of Russia’s brightest engineers were quite passionate about music technology and designed their own versions of synths to contribute to the state’s quota of manufactured goods, despite the lack of demand for them (the average Soviet citizen simply could not afford them).

Since American and Japanese gear was hard to come by, these engineers would borrow synths from touring western bands in order to learn new technologies and incorporate them into their synth designs. This explains why some Soviet synths, despite their unique nature, have some shared electro-genetic traits with western counterparts.

The Sound
Not surprisingly, this unique time period resulted in synthesizers that sound like nothing else in the world. Each of them has its own distinct sonic trademark – from militant acid bass to retro pads, warbly, and soft chords, to dusty strings, lo-fi clarinets, psychotic modulations and so much more.

The Formanta Polivoks: Dirty and Menacing
The Polivoks is by far the most popular Russian-made synth, and for good reason. It features two hefty oscillators, with pulse waveforms, cross FM modulation and a noise generator. These are held together in a massive aluminum case, is controlled by massive knobs.

The oscillators on this thing are insane; they’re reminiscent of a Memorymoog and Prophet 5’s bastard love child—menacing, unstable and pissed off. Add some modulation and together they make for a sonic nuclear explosion, which is probably why it was chosen for the creepy sound design of Doom (the video game).

But above all its other unique features, The Polivoks is best known for its massive, unapologetically dirty and fat filter. Give it a little push and it howls like wolves during a hunt.

The Aelita: Cold and Deadly Resonance
The Aelita is a three oscillator synth with basic but pronounced features, housed in a massive metal case that’s juxtaposed by colorful, horizontal sliders. Make no mistake – if you drop this thing, it will split the earth in two.

Birthed in a Soviet radio manufacturing plant (it has radio buttons), the Aelita has an unparalleled, aggressive and sharp sound, shaped by its deadly resonance and “timbre control” (cutoff). This, coupled with its “strings” FX feature and a subtle vibrato, can generate some very disturbing basses, chord stabs and epic leads.

Altair 231: The People’s Minimoog
The Altair 231 is a three oscillator mono synth that sports red, white and yellow knobs (all of these color schemes are so cool). If you can read Russian, you’d notice that the signal flow and features are nearly identical to a Minimoog.

But whether it’s the unique Russian-made circuitry or military grade engineering, the Altair 231 does not sound much like a Moog at all. Instead, it expels a vibey sound somewhere between a 101 and a drunken 2600. It is a deeply vintage sound, and, because the samples can be used polyphonically, it can produce epic strings and pads.

Estradin 230: The Zangief of Soviet Synths
The Estradin 230 was the predecessor of the Altair 231, and it’s technically identical in features and functionality. However, the Estradin 230 differs from its younger brother in that it is one of the largest monophonic synths of all time (certainly the largest we’ve ever played). It is basically a massive suitcase, with storage compartments embedded in the lid, and knobs that are big and trustworthy. Thankfully, the parameters are labeled in English!

This synth is capable of snappy, funky madness, but also excels at lush soundscapes and slow, juicy bass:

The Maestro: Digital Heart with an Analog Feel
The Maestro was the first hybrid digital/analog synth manufactured in the USSR. With a digital microprocessor at its core, it’s capable of faithfully reproducing your favorite preset sounds, like “Flute,” “Harp,” and “Clarinet”… oh and “Bass” !

But despite its primitive and slightly cheesy digital processor, the Maestro’s filter, effects, and arpeggio sections more than make up for its sound generator’s shortcomings. The tremolo and vibrato tastefully soak the synth’s output in just the right amount of sonic vodka. Its simple analog filter can generate some squelching Russian acid, and the arpeggio has a slight Crystal Castles (the Atari game) feel. It can generate some nasty pad-like glitchy textures when the rate is bumped up!

Tom 1501: Gulag Orchestra Synth
The Tom 1501 is a five part analog orchestral synthesizer with Piano, Clav, Alto, Violin and Brass sections. We’ve played a lot of these types of synths over the years, but the 1501 has something very distinct brewing in its electronic orchestra pit. It sounds like a warm and fuzzy sonic pie baked with Arp Solina, Crumar Performer, and a touch of Moog Opus—familiar but at the same time distant.

To enhance our favorite section of this synth (the strings, of course) we recorded to tape, at both regular speed and pitched down varispeed. The result: classic, lo-fi strings you can play your favorite melodies with.

From Russia with Drums
The USSR also made some weird percussion synths, and we felt we needed to include some of these. We focused on three: the Formanta UDS, LELL UDS and RMIF ELSITA. These machines have Simmons-style synthesis sections and architecture, but with an aggressive and lo-fi sonic twist.

To enhance the raw sonic quality of these funky little beatboxes, we ran them though some choice outboard gear. Two desks, the API 1608 and Studer 962, allowed us to achieve some needed clipping, and an assortment of compressors and saturators were used for additional punch and coloration. This allowed us to build an assortment of Drum Synth one shots, thus completing our Soviet sampling session.

In the End
After admiring these synths for years, too nervous to pull the trigger because we had no clue what they sounded like or whether they’d get broken in shipping, the consensus is clear: despite their cold, machine-like exterior, these synths have a wonderful amount of warmth, soul, and characterful drift. But make no mistake – they are still capable of ice cold bass, psychotic leads and downright strangeness.

The resulting sample pack captures the charm, grit and diversity of the Soviet electronic sound in the most musical and useable way possible. By focusing on each synth’s specific strengths (and neglecting their weaknesses), you get the best of everything. From basic waveforms to bizarre pads of disarray, we hand sampled 50 presets (many with multi-sampled synth parameters) and created a drum instrument loaded with meticulously curated Soviet one shots.

And now, comrades, we are at last ready to share them with you. May the sounds of the soviet synths take your productions to new, cold war-inspired heights!

Contents:

• 50 multi-sampled synth presets from six vintage, Soviet era synths
• 1 Drum instrument featuring 100 Soviet Drum one shots
• Basic waveforms, chaotic leads, militant bass, retro pads, warm strings and more
• Synths sampled: Formanta Polivoks, Aelita, Altair 231, Estradin 230, Maestro and Tom 1501
• Drum synths sampled: Formanta UDS, LELL UDS and RMIF ELISTA
• Clean and processed recordings with a variety of Class A gear
• 100% hardware processing
• Extensive modulation and FX routing on all instruments
• Hand trimmed and looped to perfection
• 1.8 GB Unzipped

Ready For:

• Any 24 bit WAV Compatible DAW or Sampler
• Ableton Live 9.7+ (Not Intro)
• Kontakt 5.6.5+ (Not Kontakt Player)
• Logic 9+
• Reason 8+
• FL Studio 20.8+

Links

Demo Preview:

Samples From Mars Sid From Mars MULTIFORMAT

Raw & Eccentric 8 Bit Synthesis
The Sidstation is a three oscillator desktop synthesizer based around the infamous 8-bit SID chip. Back in the day, the SID (Sound Interface Device) produced all of the lovely music and sounds of the Commodore 64, one of the earliest mass-produced home computer and gaming systems of the 1980s. In addition to its uncanny ability to emulate the sounds of frogs evading traffic, the Commodore had a desirable, raw and aggressive sound and featured extensive modulation capabilities for its time.

Twenty years later, the Sidstation attempted to pick up where the C64 left off. With an original (and quite rare) 6581 R4AR chip at its core, the Sidstation has all the bells and whistles of a modern synth, including 3 multi-waveform oscillators, an analog resonant filter, and four LFOs. But despite these additions, its heart and soul remain in the dusty and nostalgic past of the 1980s.

The Allure of its Flaws
Like the Commodore, the SID is known as being noisy – in fact, its oscillators never stop outputting, even when the synth isn’t being used! This inherent instability and unpredictable nature is where all of the SID’s character and sound is derived. From its pitch tracking to its envelope settings, every sampled note has a slightly different characteristic than its neighbor, making each key press dynamic and unique.

The resultant sound is no ordinary 8-bit machine, but a full-on synthesizer capable of producing all the waveforms of the C64 and further sculpting them with a 4 part LFO, and multi-mode analog filters. This gives us something much more musical than what you’d imagine is possible with only 8 bits – savage FX, Herbie inspired funk basses, drunken pads and more.

The Recording Process
To preserve the synth’s gritty, 8-bit integrity, we kept the signal path pretty clean. Alternating between an API 512C and NonLinearAudio Flexiguy mic pre, we incorporated some slight EQ and compression (courtesy of SSL and Tube-Tech) ending with a hint of saturation to achieve additional harmonics where needed.

To add some stereo width and the occasional (but subtle) pitch delay or shimmer, we employed the classic H3000. Both the Sidstation and 3000’s digital converters are known for their grainy, almost ‘analog’ sound and as a result they complement each other perfectly.

In the End
It’s doubtful that the Sidstation comes close to approaching the amazing sound of the SID in its native setting in a real Commodore 64, but that doesn’t mean it can’t produce some amazingly quirky, eccentric and musical tones, wrapped in convenient, modern synthesis.

And although digital at its core, the Sidstation’s brute strength and sonic flexibility are virtually impossible to emulate in the software format. By capturing the audio, note by note (with up to 11 seconds of sustain), we can get a lot closer to those wild but extremely musical 8-bit sounds in your own DAW.

Contents:

• 30 Multi-Sampled SID Instruments For Ableton, Kontakt, Logic, FL Studio & 24bit WAV
• Tight 8-bit basses, broken alien technology FX, rude leads, modulating patches
• Heavenly to hellish pads, razor sharp leads, retro-insanity experimentation and more
• Extensive multi-sampling, modulation and FX routing on all instruments
• Hand trimmed and looped to perfection
• Clean and processed recordings with a variety of Class A gear
• 3.96 GB Unzipped Per Format

Ready For:

• Ableton Live 9.7+ (Not Intro)
• Kontakt 5.6.5+ (Not Kontakt Player)
• Logic 9+
• FL Studio 20.8+
• 24 bit WAV Compatible DAW or Sampler

Links

Demo Preview:

Sounds To Sample Tribal House WAV

Here at S2S, summer means one thing: deep, dirty and driving tribal house! Capturing the sun-kissed vibe of afterhours fiestas around the world, Tribal House features 160+ dusky beat elements precision-designed to work together for that killer rhythmic workout.

Featuring a choice selection of subby basslines, twisted vocal loops and rhythmic music loops, your killer dancefloor hook is only a few clicks away.

The Beat Elements folder contains further subfolders for HiHats, Kicks, Percusssion and Snares. All loops are built from the ground up to work together – with precision sound design ensuring the fattest kicks, the tightest hats and the crispiest snare/clap combos.

Yet it’s the Percussion folder that delivers the meat, with 92 pared-down percussive loop elements begging to be layered for 1000s of unique grooves.

From floor-shaking toms to authentic percussive workouts, hazy shakers to slinky tops; from donked djembes to synthetic rhymatics – each loop is crafted with warmth, space and air to find its place in the sparsest – or busiest – of mixes.

Created by Spanish beat-wizard 6pod9 (Minimal & Tech House, Minimal Techno, Afterhours Techno), this pack marks a welcome, and triumphant, return to the fold.

Links

SOR FX Revolution Vol.1 MULTIFORMAT

Oliver Schmitt aka Sounds Of Revolution went out in the wild only to return with “FX Revolution”, an inspiring premium collection full of detail, groove and variation!

Packed with 939 state-of-the-art effects offering a huge variety of dark cinematic atmospheres, noises, sweeps, amazing LFO madness, ground-shaking impacts/explosions, percussive & processed stuff, a huge collection of one-shots (tonal & non-tonal) and 300+ cutting edge kick free fx loops (127 & 140 bpm) never heard before – everything royalty-free.

The wide range of SOR FX Revolution Vol.1 provides ready-to-use material to the club-/dance- producer, which still leaves enough free space for own creativity. All of these professionally named and sorted for maximum usability and efficiency.

Experience once again how state-of-the-art analogue gear delivers a deep low-end and crisp sonic character all the way.

This multi-format sample pack is not only suitable to ennoble Minimal, Electro and House productions, but can also perfectly be adopted for commercials, dubbing of movies and computer games as well as for web design.

Features

• 24 Bit Quality
• 1.46GB
• 939 Club Ready FX samples
• Atmospheres
• Noises
• Sweeps
• Explosions
• Percussive and Heavily Processed Samples
• Over 300 Kick Free FX Loops
• Apple Loops included
• Rex2 Files
• 25 EXS24 Sampler patches
• 25 Kontakt Sampler patches

Links

Demo Preview:

Samples From Mars Synare From Mars MULTIFORMAT

Analog Drums, Subs & FX From the Most Evil Drum Synth
The Synare is an analog drum synth created in the mid 70s by Star Instruments. It looks and sounds like the most evil, analog flying saucer you’ve ever heard. The oscillators are huge, and reminiscent of much more expensive vintage synths – colored and extremely characterful – and the filter has the meanest resonance we’ve ever heard.

And while it’s most famous for that classic disco tom (beew, beew!), the Synare was also the original reggae dub siren and remains the ultimate secret weapon for all things other-worldly: UFO sounds, cosmic FX, brash white noise, and ungodly analog sub bass, to name a few.

The Recording Process
It its original form (using a drum stick to hit the drum) the Synare can initially appear quite basic, featuring only 5 presets and a single pad. But with enough creativity you can coax the most evil, undying space creature from the 70s out of it. Combine its tough analog drums, demonic drones, soft synth leads and soul-sucking FX and you get the most wicked and evil psychedelia.

Classic Analog Drums

For drums, the Synare is quite expressive for a multitude of reasons:

• The filter is extremely characterful, and its resonance has a devilish tone unlike anything we’ve ever heard, especially when pushed into self oscillation
• The envelope amount of this filter is modulated via velocity, and when combined with varying decays, can produce very unique tones and “pitch
• modulation” when in self-oscillation (like the famous Tom preset)
• The oscillators are gigantic and extremely colored – reminiscent of pricey vintage synthesizers like old Moogs and EMLs
• The white noise is thick and, combined with the filter, quite brash
• The LFO, combined with frequency modulation, and the velocity modulated filter, can lead to truly tripped out madness
• To take full advantage of these velocity modulation features while recording, we sampled a gate signal from a synthesizer, popped it in an Ableton sampler, and sent that signal out at many different velocities into the trigger input of the Synare

This means that for the majority of drum and FX sounds, you’ll get heavily multi-sampled groups, featuring varying degrees of envelope modulation, tom pitches, frequency modulation, and more, capturing the flexibility and movement of the original Synare.

All drums were recorded through our trusty Tube Reddi, API preamp and Otari 1/4″ mastering reel to reel. Besides the Bass Drum (which does not exist on the Synare, and was created out of thin air with heavy processing), they are entirely unprocessed.

Huge Sub Bass and Chromatic Instruments
The oscillators on the Synare are comparable to the more expensive vintage synths, in both tone and weight. If this thing had a CV input it would be one of the most killer analog synths of all time. Unfortunately it does not, so we had to get a bit creative.

We took the same sampled trigger from above, this time *looping it* to create an infinite sustain, equal in amplitude to the attack (thus creating the huge size of the sub). We then sent this to the Synare, and hand tuned (with a guitar tuner) every single note on the oscillator, capturing this cleanly, but also through an extensive array of analog filters (Moog, Overstayer), Hard clipping and EQ.

Wild, Cosmic FX
In addition to the dry one hits, we ran the Synare through its best friend, an original Re-201 Space Echo, into an Eventide H3000, jamming, twisting and turning, achieving insanely psychedelic (and long) drones, Pitch shifted melodies, Industrial bells, screaming whistles, rabbit holes, UFOs (landing and taking off), effected toms, bit crushed percussion, space lasers, and UFOs. Recording the results to tape.

These are perfect for ambient intros, outros, or adding instant cosmic energy builds, and dry versions are also available. This section of the Synare From Mars comes in at just under a GB on its own.

In the End
More than any other product, the Synare is truly “From Mars”. And If you can’t tell, it’s been a personal favorite for at least the past decade. Honestly I have no clue how many people know about these things – but to me the Synare is one of the most unique and evil sounding synths of all time and all should submit to its demonic power. Its heavy, analog sound is something that just cannot be achieved with any other synth or drum synth (none of the clones come close).

The Synare From Mars is by far the largest and most in depth offering of Synare samples available – aside from the classic drum one hits, it’s really these huge, multi-sampled subs, and wild FX / drones that set this pack apart. So whether you’ve been searching for high quality samples of this guy or you have no clue what a Synare is or how to pronounce it, you should definitely be able to find some crazy cosmic snacks in here for your favorite sampler.

Contents:

• 1900+ 24bit WAV Synare Samples
• 10 pre-made 16x hit kits for instant jamming
• 8x multi-sampled chromatic Synare synths
• Drum one hits, chromatic instruments and evil FX
• Analog Bass Drums, White Noise Snares, Classically Cosmic Toms, all presets
• FM Toms, spiraling LFOs, lasers, sirens, brash noise sweeps, UFO babies, blips, and rabbit holes
• Crazy Synare twists and knob turns, long drones recorded through an original Space Echo & H3000 (includes dry versions)
• Ableton includes (4) drum racks with extensive sample selection, hardware parameter and FX mapping and (8) chromatic instruments
• Kontakt, Logic, Reason & Structure include: (40) individual hit instruments, (3) kits instruments, and (8) chromatic instruments
• Maschine, Battery & FL Studio include: 10 pre-made kits
• MPC1000 & MPC2500 include: 10 pre-made kits on 3 MPC Programs
• 2.06 GB Unzipped

Ready For:

• Any 24 bit WAV Compatible DAW or Sampler
• Ableton Live 9.7+ (Not Intro)
• Kontakt 5.6.5+ (Not Kontakt Player)
• Logic 9+
• Structure 2+
• Maschine 2.6+
• Reason 8+
• Battery 4.1.5+
• FL Studio 20.8+
• MPC1000 or MPC2500

Links

Demo Preview:

KookUp Melancholy Guitar Samples Vol 8 WAV

The eighth volume of “KookUp Guitar Samples” is now here!

This pack includes 17 compositions all BPM labeled in a variety of styles and genres.

Links

Producer Loops Manana WAV MIDI

Sit back and relax… Let ‘Manana’ take you on a tour of the Mediterranean coast as we explore the warm evening climes of Spain. Manana merges the exotic and sensual sound of Flamenco with soothing Balearic Chillout beats. This inspirational pack from Producer Loops and ‘The Sound of Merlin’, delves into the mysterious and seductive world of the Spanish guitar. Everything was recorded, produced and mixed to perfection. Includes Audio, MIDI and an OMF arrangement.

Featuring audio loops in various formats, full arrangement in OMF format (wet version), as well as individual MIDI files, this pack will let your imagination visit those warm evening climes of Spain and the Mediterranean coast. This sensational product has been produced to perfection and it includes everything heard in the demo track.

OMF format (Open Media Format) allows you to import a complete arrangement of audio loops into virtually any sequencer. Once loaded, you will see all parts on screen exactly as originally seen when exported, with chunks of audio data on separate tracks, all named by instrument. This format will allow you complete flexibility when re-mixing the arrangement.

By muting or soloing tracks while looping a specific section you will soon find the exact combination of instruments you want to use for your project. Keep in mind that it might be best to use the same file-naming system when exporting your favourite sections as you may want to add or change things at a later point in your creative process. Please note, the OMF file sums all the volumes of the individual tracks while all faders are set to 0 db. Therefore, please set the master fader to around -7 db to avoid clipping and take it from there.

Royalty-Free 
All of the loops in this product are 100% Royalty-Free, so once purchased, you can use these loops in your commercial releases without having to pay any hidden costs.

Product Specifications:
 ACIDized WAV Loops Files

•  Open Media Format – OMF Arrangement – (Wet)
•  Key And Tempo-Labelled
•  48.1kHz/24-Bit High Quality
•  Complete Fully Mixed And Mastered
• Compatible With All DAWs
• PC & Mac Compatible
• Royalty-Free – (No Exceptions)

Links

Demo Preview: