Happy April! Did you catch the eclipse last week? I didn't. Too cloudy. But it did get cold for a solid 5 minutes while I sat inside a restaurant with a steak-stuffed mexican style bell pepper and a thicc side of nachos. I've been real busy with work this month, but it hasn't stopped me from doing some investigative cases on 90s synths and samples CDs, the kinds used to create my favorite classics, like the Goldeneye OST.

That lead me to Sonic Atlas and down a long rabbit hole. You'll see why.

If you're new here, dig into the last few issues.

Previous articles: Marchlist 2024, Februarylist 2024, Januarylist 2024, Decemberlist 2023, Septemberlist 2023, Novemberlist 2021, and finally Octoberlist 2021!

And if you still want more freebies, keep reading!

90s Baby Rompler Nostalgia - The Grant Kirkhope Kit

Grant Kirkhope was a prolific composer in the era of the N64, possibly best known for his work on Goldeneye. He extensively used two popular synths at the time, the E-Mu Systems Proteus FX (demos) and the Roland JV-1080 (history), as well as some sample CDs according to the composers on this making-of. There were also two expansions, the SR-JV80-04 Synth Expansion and SR-JV80-02 Orchestral I found elsewhere.

Ofc, all these sounds can be nabbed in their grungy compressed, single-shot form from the Goldeneye Soundfont, but I decided to dig deeper.

The Proteus Synth

The E-Mu Proteus synth has little known software options, alternatives that Sonic Atlas doesn't tell us about, presumably because abandonware doesn't pay sales commissions. Cough. (details) But enough shade. The Proteus VX is one of these options, dead now that E-Mu has become a reference headphone company.

Not to worry, Archive got us with the Proteus VX. (link) VX is nice and compact, works as a standalone and a VST, should load all the preset libs you desire. Or at least that don't require disc streaming. Apparently you have to "update" the libraries every time you load up the synth, but with my PC that took seconds.

Still, there are other options with less operator complaints. There's the Emulator X3. (link) It's compatible with the same sound libraries for the Proteus 2000, the final software iteration of its family. Full writeup available in that link.

This and the VX are my pick for software emulation -- from the original manufacturer, unmolested. However, there's more ways than that to format a cat. And by that I mean more downloads. For a simple workflow and expansive libraries, Cakewalk's discontinued Dimension Proteus pack is a solid option, and it's even been converted into SFZ format. (link)

Includes the Proteus 2000 Multi-Purpose Pro Sounds, Mo' Phatt Hip-hop/Urban, Xtreme Lead 1 Dance/Electronica, Planet Earth World, Virtuoso 2000 Orchestral, and PX-7 Drums & Perc -- everything the VX and X3 cover. That's over 3500 instruments and 3 ways to tackle it. And that's just the Proteus rack! I might be a little spoiled. Sweatdrop.

After checking these out myself, I'm digging the horn stabs in particular. Got some tracks lined up off the inspo. The SFZ is harder to navigate at first, since you'll have to import them to sforzando or your sfz player of choice, but I found it easy to run through the libraries first in Proteus VX, then select the patches I liked out of the converted Proteus pack.

Good hunting!

Roland JV-1080 Libraries

Next up is the JV-1080 libs. These might be a little trickier to find, since Roland is determined to make their old products into new ones, or otherwise lump them into subscription models.

That's exactly the case with the 1080. The purist will be hard pressed to find an emu, vst or otherwise. The only source that is readily available is the expensive Roland Cloud offering. BUT, that doesn't mean it'll be impossible. As I mentioned, a lot of these sounds can be found in videogame soundfonts, and the options don't stop there.

I did some more digging. Apparently, the XV-5080 contains all the patches from the 1080. Roland does love to recycle sounds. The 2080 is a curiosity I keep seeing mentioned alongside. They allegedly sound different, perhaps due to sample rate disparity, but I can't imagine it's drastic.

The patches of the JV/XP series are available here…. But no clear idea how to use them unless you were importing to a 1-1 recreation you made of the synth. There seems to be no other VST option, so that leaves free formats like SF2s and samplers. After all, the JV series has been derogatorily referred to as glorified romplers. I completely ran out of gas looking through dead links on dedicated Roland support/mod link lists. They were either dead or wrong.

BUT I did manage to find some JV-2080 samples at legowelt.org. (link, replete with a huge variety of samples) It could very well be this guy's own patches, but from a cursory look, guy is OBSESSED with retro synthesizers. Well worth a look. There's also a TON of other synth samples on there. Worth doing a dive!

There's a beta soundfont of the 1080 too (sf2). The author admits having trouble making it sound good on "fast notes" which might just be an attack release, or looping problem. That can probably be fixed in the free editor, Polyphone. For any offending patches, that's a start. I'm gonna check it out myself, and if that's the case, you'll be the first to know when I fix it (and upload my results).

There's also some drums to nab. Under the search tab at that link, jv-1080 yields some more results, keys, bells, etc. We're getting somewhere.

This archive has 500 soundfonts, including a Roland JV-1010 and several other old keyboards, but it's … over 30 gigs. Pain. But might be worth it.

Some more vintage synth samples here, including some Rolands, but I think we got a dud if you're looking for the JV series.

Apparently there were VST emulators in the past by Norsez, but those are gone along with his website. I can't find anything else, so we may indeed have a dead end, EXCEPT there are individual 2080 samples at freewavesamples.com, probably not all of them, but still. (link)

Note, you'll have to navigate freewave by hand. Recommend watching a product demo and finding the names of the patches you want for samples.

And that about wraps it up for the legal means by which you might come across these synth sounds digitally. I'd be shocked if anyone were giving away hardware like these, but keep your eyes peeled! Might just have to hit the Goldeneye sound font and check some alternatives. Onto the rest of the list!

More Analog Inspired Freebies

Venus Theory's Decent Sampler freebies are a goldmine! There's a lot of them. On each individual page, you can scroll down to the bottom and see three related (and probably free) instruments for Kontakt, DS, and/or sfz (sforzando). You can get Decent Sampler here! It's closest I'd say to sforzando but nice and simple, and yes, it's decent!

Freaking Wild Percussion Synth

TECHNICALLY NOT A FREEBIE, but the trial version of Forever89's VISCO percussion synthesizer is simply the coolest thing I've seen in years!

Here's the sound demo.

 I've seen people use this badboy to resynthesize kicks, snares, and percs from sample packs, overlap hits, create round robins for samples. Pretty gnarly if you ask me!

Think the secret sauce will be wacky metallic noises and modulating parameters for transitions.

The "full" version is a little expensive, but for an all in one percussion synth, not too shabby! I say full in quotation marks because the real kicker is the demo is completely unrestricted. And unlimited. Every so often a nag will pop up to remind you that it is in fact the demo, and that's it! That leaves one thing for certain, you won't get tired of trying to use it until you save up the cash! Now that's a company I can get behind.

VISCO is available for Mac and Windows. VST3 format. Negligible impact on RAM. Zip file is 3MB! I guess what they say is true, and big things do come in small packages.

Unbelievable Plugin Giveaway

Next up, courtesy @ kitikdub on X, Spectral Plugins is offering $200+ dollars of their plugins for free! Check out this post.

Here's a video from Weaver on the deal.

These 3 FREE Plugins are Actually REALLY GOOD

What this means is, we'll soon have a case of abandonware for Spacer, Pancz, and OCS-45, and I'm inclined to agree with Weaver. These are not your usual run of the mill freebies. They're good plugins that just happen to now be free, and they need to be kept alive!

Direct link: https://spectral-plugins.com/

You'll have to give your email for future updates. The company is not going totally belly up but shifting its focus elsewhere, and given their recent generosity, I want to know where that'll be!

KiTiK.dev (where I found this freebie!) also offers a selection of his own free plugs over at his gumroad!

More DNB "Essentials"

Caught this little baddie on Reddit. ROLLERS ESSENTIALS VOl.1 (Free Drum & Bass Rollers Sample Pack) by DnB Rollers

Available behind a social lock on toneden.io. Working!

Sample Preservation Alert! Aka the crux of my sample inquest

I won't say too much because these samples speak for themselves. The absolute SAUCE of their era, and thanks to internet preservationists, perhaps long after.

Over on Archive, MANY 90s sample CDs are available. More than you could ever possibly need. I found these while digging for some 90s drums for a project. You'll find over 320 gigs (if you want that much) of samples available in Torrent form, and several 7zips if that's not your thing! And in case Archive disappears, here's comfybox (so you can select the exact cds you want!)

Beware, any of the Ensoniq CDs are probably in the proprietary Ensoniq format and will need TLC, or Tedious Labor to Cop. And by that I mean getting a program that can extract Ensoniq file formats/disks. Don't know if they're available in wav format elsewhere because I haven't tried them.

With all of these freebies -- I mean, we're at over 300 gigs now, come on -- you might think I'm about to wrap up and go home, but the party don't stop til you have a fully capable FX plugin suite for the price of free, dear reader. And with the next freebie I found, I think we got that covered.

To brokebois around the world, if you ain't seen this, get your reading glasses ready! Abandonware alert!

BlueLab made all their audio plugins free

I found them today, and some of them are really fab. For instance, Rebalance can replace what I currently use iZotope RX10 for all the time (music rebalance wink-wink). AutoGain is a cool little gain rider. And there are plenty of panners, spatializers, width-izers, saturators, and shapers to keep you content for weeks to come.

You can grab the plugs here as a bundle or individually. It's always sad when a plugin company goes under, but it's amazing when paid software becomes free, for all the things I just said you can do, which usually cost a LOT of money.

And for those of use who need drums, there's Drums In Your Face!

I found this kit on Reddit, looking for that New Jack Swing (aka 90s R&B) sound. Don't know where this one really came from, if it's from a famous producers' cellar or just a collection of old sample CDs, but it's got some truly ancient (in terms of sample content) sounds on it!

You know me, I love all things obscure, so we're gonna have a TIME crate digging over the next few months. I haven't had time to dig through the whole kit, but seen it recommended more than once. Worth a looksie!

Nice and thicc so will take a sec to zip up on the drive.

Next up, lil 90s Rave Oneshot pack from Sam Smyers. Those who love a little lo-fi grit and will appreciate this. Quick and dirty kleptomania. Will need to give a name and an email.

At this point, I'm rambling. But you get it. I don't know how many gigs of samples and FX we've uncovered in this issue. Let's wrap up the 90s obsession and move onto the usual suspects.

The gifts that keep on giving

PresetShare is still straight fire. Worth checking once a week for new free presets for your synthesizer of choice. As of today there are 8778 free presets available!

Looperman is another occasional mine of gems. I'm sure you've found it. But were you aware that there are professional artists like Nat James who dump their acapellas on site for non-commercial use -- or that you could do the same? Smart. Worth checking into this one when you're bored.

Proof is in the pudding. I made this track with his vocals!

Also, as an honorable mention, I found a selection of Roland themed free VSTs in their dedicated section. Let the supersaws and reverbs and drum machines warm your hard drive. (link)

As with other user-generated sample sites, your mileage may vary, but occasionally I find a gem!

If you're going for quality, you might try Splice or SampleFocus.

Splice does allow you to do a 2-month trial for free, with a given number of credits. If you're afraid of getting trapped in a subscription loop, you can sign up for it on a new account with a prepaid card. I usually do that anyway, so I can't be double and triple charged, or god-forbid perpetually subscribed despite attempts to the contrary.

You may find the limitation of 200 sample credits (200 samps per month) actually forces you to use what you download. This can be helpful if you're like me and, you know, have almost 2 TB and counting of samples alone.

If you're new to Splice, I do think they offer a cursory number of credits for free. I do like to explore their sample library randomly with the new stacks function. They also have a list of free plugins from Voxengo, Bluecat, and Xfer. 25 to be exact.

SampleFocus gives you some free download credits rather than forcing you to subscribe immediately. Always seems to be a couple there when I head back. If you sign up using this link, you'll get 10 free samples, and so will I. You can also submit your own samples to get more freebies.

Works like this: people submit samples, samples go through approval, and approved samples give points to get more samples. A paid membership is almost unnecessary, but if you don't want to bother with uploading, it's between 8-ish and 22-ish dollars a month for 100-600 samples per.

To get your samples approved, best practice is a detailed descrip, key, tempo, and relevant tags. Once your samps are approved, you get your credits to go shopping. You don't have to download all your samples in one go, as tempting as it is. Favorite what you'd like to stash for later, and the algo will serve you up similar content in your suggestions. Pretty noice little system, and samps are usually approved same day!

And of course finally, the motherlode. The Internet Archive -- for all your abandonware, free samples, and data-hoarding needs. Often comes with torrent links for the big collections, so you can keep 'em kicking. You've probably caught on, because every other link in this article has been Archive related.

Archive.org also has a GREAT search function. I found the 90s sample archives and probably about half of my sound library from gems uploaded here. Try the Samples section and see what you get!

That's it for this month's freebie mag. I've gotta run. If you've read this far, thank you! I told myself if even one person found these useful, I'd keep on writing. Another big thanks to my lovely supporters @Matrvg @CyberDevil @MariogD.

I'll see you guys next month!

Heads up, I'm dropping another issue of Adrean's music producer freebie mag tonight! It's in the final process of editing and cutting. Turns out researching on something a straight month can get a little out of hand lol.

This month's issue is going to center on samples and synthesizers of the 90s, classic sounds that are coming back around. And I hope you have a big hard drive. Might even have to cop an external, because I found over 360 GB of free sounds and lots of plugins!

Anyway I'm out and about. Be back tonight with the goods. Lmk if you want an @ and I'll see you guys tonight!

Happy Friday! You know what time it is, time for the much anticipated music producer freebie mag!

For my own personal pleasure (its ma birthday), we're kicking off this list with samples from some Newgrounds greats, followed by offsite samples, plugs, and finally a limited time opportunity to score a promotional plugin.

After hours we'll hit the good reads, odds, and ends! Stay tuned for what's new with yours truly all the way down! (ty @schoenerbeats for pointing out I missed the verb "hit" right here lol)

(FREE) SAMPLES FROM THE JOLLY FOLKS ON NG

I was actually inspired to drop my own packs by many of the great folks on this list, and I think I'll have to do a sample pack demo or two now that I mention it. Those are always fun! Just look at this list!

Each of these packs is certified from a producer on NG, who I think is cool. The sample pack links are either directly to their userpage posts about the packs, or to a place that has the descrip (if any)

@Sorohanro's bass loops!

@Quarl says: ^ Soro with a few authentic funky bass samples and some trumpets. I started a sample folder for his material ages ago, worth nabbing. Though it's specifically a big band jazz funk I have a feeling I'll end up dropping these on some random dnb at some point.

And I'm inclined to agree. @Sorohanro stays dropping fire!

@SnaresWorks Deathstep Pack - SHOTS FIRED, And a TEAROUT pack! (my favorite sounds)

@UnoriginalEntity Drum Loops & Breaks

@JohnMontoya's TR-909 emulation

@Demonicity's 1+ year sample pack!, aaaand a Christmas Pack!

@Dry's sample pack, breaks, synths, vox (Dry is also on X)

@Quarl's free drums <3

@VixageOfficial's Mayhem of Chaos Vol.2

@Dadush's quarantine sample playlist (One of my favorite stops during Quarantine for inspo was here)

@CDJeremy's Vol.1 pack & demo, 8-bit and beyond

@ALGOfficial's Christmas pack (but I would still use it in July)

@LerzyThings' freebies

Unlike a lot of other sites, on NG I think it's pretty easy to just swap over to the audio tab, hit a couple CD's from the year of the sample pack, and take a guess at what you may have inside! Was real convenient as I was archiving everything. More packs please <333

Off-site Freebies!

Free Samples

Solar 42 for decent sampler - a sample project by Venus Theory, of whom I'm a massive fan. The batch of 10 Decent Sampler patches is actually called Solaris, based on the Elta Music Solar 42, an ambient drone synth that's great for scoring.

Loop Stash Vol. 1 is free on Modern Producers, with tags like 808 Mafia, Quavo, Pvlace, Gunna, etc. But you can listen to the preview there yourself and see how you like it. To my ear it sounds great for contemporary hip-hop.

Anno Domini drum kit is another big Modern Producers freebie. Well worth checking out! It's big on size and quality. I would call it the flagship sample pack of the company.

Also, you can find the entire selection of free kits at the bottom of Modern Producers' site with a nifty little hidden link. Out of sight but definitely not out of mind!

Off the bat, there are omnisphere banks, melody loops, and all sorts of other files to be flipped. My personal favorite out of these is Nirvana Melody Loops, just waiting to be chopped. The first page alone is 4 columns, 7 rows deep of packs. That's 28 packs on page 1 alone. A steal!

Modern producers ofc is geared toward hip-hop and electronic producers, but genres are always converging. You never know when you may need something in this game.

DNBsamples.co.uk has TONS of samples for making drum & bass. Several artist packs, and a ton of others. Double check that you don't have some of them already, as most if not all of these are not produced by the site owner themselves.

Not ALL the packs are STILL available, but I found quite a few that did and made this worth mentioning! The (*) DNB Sample packs are behind simple SoundCloud and insta social lockers, but a simple 1 character and opening the instas (most are defunct) will unlock the drive links to get them!

Also of note on the site are the Free VST section (small), non-free Sample Packs, and mastering. All in all it's a pretty cool genre specific site! And you know how I feel about genre-specific. Genres are useful to quantify the type of sound I want, but they are not necessarily exclusive!

DnB Academy got some free samples AND some Vital presets! Plus a nice lil taster article for first timers.

Plugins

The plugin section we have this month is especially fire. We're seeing things on the free market that are blowing my MIND is even possible!

Coolest compressor ever, Spectral compressor -- throw chords on it!

Seriously, I saw this and was blown away. Those who love a colorbass sound but have been too intimidated to try it themselves will be shocked at how accessible this plugin will make those flavors for you. The only caveat I can see is some minor routing headache if you use a DAW besides Ableton. But you'd have to deal with that with a paid plugin anyway. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! The trick works with inverting the polarity of the downward compression.

Transpanner - Check out this article from BPB! In short, Transpanner is a poorman's Dolby Atmos for 3D panning. Definitely worth copping! (No windows version yet, but it is expected!)

Shoeless overdrive pedal by Resington on Youtube!

Plop this bad boi before your amp/cab for brutal guitar tone.

Demo video goes into all the specifics, full track and soloed!

DL Link, note there are some other plugin freebies including a cab sim!

Dynamic masking frequency compensation

SlimVerb - Limited Time Freebie - does what it says on the tin!

Limited Time Freebie! Soul Squash Funk Vibes Compressor

@AlbeGian: Initial Audio is doing a sale for its 10th anniversary. Among the several discounts you can find, one of the highlights is their Dynamic EQ plugin which you can get completely for FREE until the end of March.

@LD-W: LIMITED-TIME FREEBIE!

Softube throughout the whole of March are giving away their VCA Compressor for FREE! (RRP: $149). I'd 100% advocate grabbing this, as it's near enough the best dbx160-emulation on the market

Site is under high-levels of traffic due to the above right now. This one was also recommended to me by Schoener Beats over on X! Two witnesses that this is a pretty cool deal.

Limited time chance at a promotional plugin!

The developer of DistorK over on X, KiTiK.dev, is looking for folks to promo his new distortion and degradation plugin! Check it out.

 If you'd like a promotional copy, you can contact him on X! You might just get one if you show that you have a broad enough audience to make it count!

Good reads, odds, and ends

[REDACTED BY REQUEST] recommended this article:

I increased my Spotify follower count by over 20% in a month by posting every day on TikTok. Here is what I learned.

Perfect vocal fader automation, every time (YT)

DnB intros made easy (YT)

@Midnights-Ocean's list of music related companies (NG)

TapeStop in less than 1 minute, nuff said (YT)

An actual ethical use of AI - sample generator (YT) - Not your typical AI sample "generator" that really just scans and repacks some splice samples or whatever. It's... much weirder than that, and kind of cool!

And that rounds off this month's list of freebies! A metric TON!

---------

Artist News

As for me, things have been going pretty great! Picked up a side job, making some extra cash, got commissions going. SHATTER has been an absolute smash! We dropped to Spotify just yesterday and hit the Newgrounds frontpage! Even got a single comment on Beatstars. You know how rare that is!

Thank you all so much, not only for the FP but your words! The feedback I received pre-release and post-release helped a lot in my decision-making to distro-distro-distro. <3

Available on all your typical distributors.

SPOTIFY

APPLE MUSIC

YT MUSIC

Next up I'm working on a metallized remix of a RushJet1 remix of MM4 Sequel Wars Boss theme, Episode 4 of SE1 Legend of Korra fandub, and a slew of collabs with @SkankyMojo, and a commission for @Jozarto is in the mix for the culmination of the beloved Ultimate Dragon Ball.

Might have an internet band on our hands soon so I'm excited for what's cooking. Also, @FarFromSundown, @Trunotfals, hit me up if you ever have a musical itch. I got some wild ideas I'd like to lay down!

You can still expect in the next year:

-additions to Take My Cymbals in the form of small paquettes

-a full version of Adreanaline (see sample demo)

-Comms for F-Gents (Reduce Team)

-some tasty dnb and perhaps hip-hop beats

-Imma rap

-Maybe even a music video for SHATTER?

Time will tell, but we gots some plans baby! I got a cool riddim bass AI voice I'd like to sample for y'all too, since it was a big part of our last drop making a splash this week!

Special thanks to all my supporters @MATRVG @MariogD @Cyberdevil @JimmyTheCaterpillar. Another trip around the sun for me is soon to pass. Here's to many more together!

Ciao!

So a lot has happened in the past few weeks. We've got new singles. A collab with @SkankyMojo that makes me wonder will I ever find adequate genres. Take My Cymbals sample pack is officially live and FREE along with all my other sample packs on Beatstars, and we're officially up and running with a monthly mag of music producer freebies. I take that as a big success!

Also we hit the front page. Woot!

Other cool little projects

Up next I plan to drop some hip-hop beats, licensing to be available on Beatstars, a TON of MegaMan and Castlevania remix commissions for F-Gents (thank you @MATRVG for always sending me something inspiring!), and keep the expansions coming for Take My Cymbals and other packs.

Meantime I've been working on an upcoming Legend of Korra fandub, which is proving to be pretty awesome. I wish I had a sneak peek but it's supposed to be a surprise!

In the next month or so I'll also be doing my first livestream event ever with Amar Monroe on the Review Room's Hip-Hop & R&B competition. There will be over $150 dollars in cash prizes, maybe even some gear, free mixing and mastering, and a nice playlist of the winners when all is said and done. It's going to go down on X, so if you're interested, get at me! (@OGAdrean)

Also, I'm trying to do the most I possibly can for independent music. If you're a hip-hop or rock artist struggling to be heard, I can help!

Whether it's mixing, mastering, gear and samples, track reviews, or music theory, I've been around the block, and I'm always open to talk shop. I do professional critique, playlisting, and am happy to help with promo!

You can check out what requesting a review looks like here, or shoot me a comment on NG or X to get on a playlist! I'll drop my two big playlists here and a couple screenshots of my reviews.

Indie Hip-Hop Only:

For independent hip-hop with vocals. I'm thinking of seeding it with a few larger artists for the algorithm, but not so many that it loses its mind!

Independent Rock & Rock Adjacent:

I will never charge you for playlisting. Anyone who does is a shithead and a scammer.

No bots, so your songs are safe from stream auditing or Spotify takedowns.

Playlists are genre-specific, so you can grow along with others in your niche!

And unlike others, I will actually listen to your tracks! If I really like it, I'll share it to my Twitter, where I have a pretty nice following. If you're looking to network with other artists, shoot me your X handle! We'll find you some friends!

I also write pretty banging track reviews you can post on your socials or your website. I've been in the game for about 15 years now, and professionally for almost a decade, so I like to think I'm pretty good at it. Especially useful if you need that extra edge on your mix, want to know what you're doing right, or what's missing.

I do these free and paid, the only difference between the two being paid requests get priority, and you can request a specific length, promo and extras. That's it!

Also got some things you should know if you're on social media (NG included)

For one, the bots are INSANE. The impersonation accounts are out of this world. Just take a look at this.

This was on Twitter. Or X, or whatever you call it. Somebody tipped me off that these bots are actually STEALING our handles. So do yourself a favor and search yourself up on socials, and report whatever you find. Yes, it will be annoying, but for peace of mind? Worth it.

Also, some new deets about how X algorithm works, and why you should block the bots.

Apparently, your tweets only go to a certain subset of your followers at a given time, and despite how good an inflated follower number looks, more bots seeing your tweets means less people interacting with you -- because bots don't comment unless you mention nudes or shrooms, and bots obviously aren't really useful for anything except attracting other bots.

So, when you see that Chelsea Smith with a butt shot in her photo and a porn link in her bio, 4000 following and 20 follows, you know what to do!

There's another reason you should block bots, besides the fact that they're dead weight. More impressions on your tweets with LESS interactions actually hurts your algorithm. This is the same reason you should avoid real spam accounts like so-called marketers and promo extraordinaires. They do follow for follow and spam, which decreases your metrics and makes you look worse on the platform.

If you're looking to grow your platforms organically, the best thing you can do is meaningfully comment on others -- not just people's tweets, but COMMENTS on those tweets. Try it. Just write 1 to 2 engagement tweets per day, or even per week, and do 150 of these little likes and comments in your niche. Say something valuable, and people will give you their attention!

This also applies to growing on Newgrounds!

I see a lot of creators here caught below 100 followers, with no solid plan to grow their audience. Did you know the single best thing you can do to start getting followers, reviews, and commissions is to go out, review, comment, and post in the forums? NG isn't driven by algorithms. It's engagement based. That means here, like no other platform, you have the opportunity to shine in your field.

What does that look like as an artist, animator, or audio producer?

For artists, the best thing you can do is post in the Art forum, of course, but also, consider where you can get outside your field to animators and musicians who might need a background or album artist respectively. Talk freely about your art. Leave links in your forum sig, and design a nice forum sig that attracts eyes to your art.

Animators, you never know when you might need an artist or music producer for your work. You should be actively looking for people who might need the type of exposure you have to offer, like I just mentioned, artists and musicians on Newgrounds are almost always thrilled to have their work featured anywhere. It gives them an extra boost and speeds your process to work with others on site. I almost guarantee anyone you work with will become a fan, or that their fans will become your fans.

You should be posting your WIPs to the forums, dropping track reviews, and indicating the type of people you want to work with, posting ads when you need it! This goes for everybody. Offer some services, ask for some services. Usually people are enthusiastic to link up!

And finally for musicians and music producers, the best thing you can do is collab. I've seen it myself, nothing is better for a music career than linking up with other artists, representing each other, and bringing a beautiful project to the table. Get on each other's profiles. Your partners' fans will almost certainly become your fans.

And the higher quality your work, the better chances you have of hitting the Newgrounds frontpage! That's at least 3000 views right there. The frontpage is curated by moderators and staff -- and you can't ask to get one, but that means you don't have to be a big popular so and so, hit an algorithm, and suddenly get popular. If you pop up in the feed at the right time, you can and will get noticed by staff. So work on that release quality, and submit often! Once a month is the sweetspot for me personally.

Also, make friends. Send PMs, drop comments on people's newsposts, hit those forums at least once a day. The more your name is showing up in feeds and communities on site with something valuable to say, the faster you will make fans and friends.

NG is a site unlike any other in that I've found more meaningful relationships, commissions, and genuinely helpful people willing to help bump me up the ladder and vice versa. You owe it to yourself to put in the work!

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Ciao!

If you wanna check out my last articles, that monthly music production freebie mag is up, next edition due Mar 15 adjacent! We'll be covering freebies from the creators here on Newgrounds, so stay tuned!

Previous articles: Februarylist 2024, Januarylist 2024, Decemberlist 2023, Septemberlist 2023, Novemberlist 2021, and finally Octoberlist 2021!

As promised, welcome to ADR3-N's free producer stuff emporium, aka the primo magazine of my data hoarding habits and sample projects! If you're new here, check out Januarylist 2024's producer giveaways -- it's basically the same thing, but last month. ;)

There's also Decemberlist 2023, Septemberlist 2023, Novemberlist 2021, and finally Octoberlist 2021. That's three years of freebies! Holy cow, I'm getting old, but still check them out. You never know what may still be around, or what you can find with a little googling!

This month's issue would not be complete without a million special thanks to the NG Audio Pub gang, audio forum recommendations, honorable mentions, and market research; check out the bottom of this page if that's your thing.

If you find this post helpful, please consider donating on ko-fi and Patreon. 💙 It's thanks to my supporters that I have the time to do music, samples, AND megalists like these. I owe you a lot!

Without further ado, onto the list!

Huge News -- All my best sample projects are now FREE!

Thanks to my wonderful supporters, I've been able to release Take My Cymbals AND all three of my big sample projects in one place! No longer do you have to dig through my newsposts and audio page to find ADREANALINE, CTK-2400, and Saudade Drums. I've repackaged everything and dropped them all to beatstars for FREE!

Get them here!

What's the catch?

Nothing. Just making these babies easier to find. You can check out the project details and demos for each right in the beatstars "store."

In short, I'm offering 4 sample libraries/instruments: a 503 sample cymbal library, metal drum set, key library for sforzando, and my flagship industrial samurai hip-hop pack, ADREANALINE (beta).

Anonymous downloads enabled for those who like their privacy. Samples are in wav format.

What's New?

3 things. CTK-2400 (lo-fi keys) is available FREE for the first time ever, unless you count giving it away to finalists of NGADM/NGUAC 2023. The full version was $15 when I first dropped it.

ADREANALINE has some new samples and fixes. This pack is the foundation for a lot of my greatest hip-hop tracks and my baby. I plan to expand it in the future. Open for requests!

Take My Cymbals is a NEW acoustic cymbal library, designed for loading up into your sampler and writing completely natural, expressive cymbal tracks. I intended it for Nu Metal and boombap but it ended up capable of much, much more. It has a wide variety of professional grade, rare, and niche cymbals -- with BONUS kicks, snares, toms, and even cardboard boxes.

Newgrounds demo

This project took a year of research, searching for cymbals of various weights, and milling through over 1000 recordings. Samples were sourced from a variety of settings, processed for uniformity and occasionally salvaged by release-extension using frequency selection from blueprints. (felt super accomplished when I learned how to do this!)

My original vision was 5 or 6 multi-sampled cymbals, and it was a lot of work, but I'm happy to say it far exceeds not only my expectations but many PAID libraries I own. Special thanks to @MariogD on for helping make this possible and being my top supporter on ko-fi!

Also extra, extra thanks to everyone who commissioned me for audio critique the past few months, @JimmytheCaterpillar, @LD-W, SparkdaPhilly, and Emcdouble. It was the extra push I needed!

More about requesting content reviews (free and paid) here.

Or if you're a rock/hip-hop producer looking to get playlisted, check out this post.

I try to help independent producers out in any way I can, including resources, advertising, discounts on distribution, mastering, etc. If you need something, let me know!

STILL MORE FREEBIES

POISE PERCUSSION SAMPLER - One of the coolest samplers I've ever seen. It has 16 percussion pads, with a catch, 8 samples per pad (including support for round robins!) Most samplers only support one sample per pad. Poise will support 156 samples, 16 x 8. So you could make a drum kit out of it with 8 velocity layers a piece. Sounds like a great stock plugin replacement to me.

On the same page as Poise, you can also check out Grace Sampler, made for a particular group of people in mind: those who like making their own patches. You can even import SFZ patches. How about that?

The caveat is that export function is locked to proprietary software by Chicken Systems (paid versions). If you're not looking to sell your patches, this shouldn't be a problem. If that IS an issue, TX16WX is your friend, and there's this handydandy usermade converter.

Little aside, if you're a fan of Cymatics, as I am, they have compiled a list of free kits and have some new ones on the market every few months. There's also a freebie list on their sample collections.

METAL PRODUCTION FREEBIES

Excuse the choppy writing for this section. I was really, really excited and figured I'd drop links to videos to let this section speak for itself. I came across some unbelievable free stuff for metal prod. You'll want to check out:

Death Dealer Drums

Free Metal Drumkit Plugin | Death Dealer by Fire Portal

Steve Terreberry (the man, the myth, the legend) has a lil amp sim that don't sound half bad!

Brutal Bass all in one, GROWLER from AugustRose Audio. Also check out their page for the Howler

ML Drums has a free version -- that you can cheaty-cheat into having more cymbals than it's supposed to with separate tracks and midi routing.

I've enjoyed TMKD's metal drums for years. They're still around. Check them out!

Aaaaand KRIMH Drums FREE Edition by Bogren Digital

Krimh Drums Free – Bogren Digital

Note all of these freebies are super relevant for a trend emerging in current hip-hop -- genre-fusion.

Hip-hop and metal have always had a lot of cross over, if you remember Children of the Korn. If you're interested in trying on a heavy metal flavor for your hip-hop, or you're looking to expand your library of guitars, look no further. There are plenty of free options for that too.

AmpleSound Freebies -- Bass and acoustic Taylor. The bass in particular can be pitch shifted before running through your amp of choice for a NASTY tone!

Junk Guitar by Junk Spider is no longer available, formerly my favorite guitar freebie, but you may be able to go down a rabbit hole and find it. In the case you can't, as I haven't yet (and I'm looking to find the licensing to see if I can just throw it up on drive) these reads are your friend.

Reddit (INSTR) // Guitar Clan (FX) // Unison (INSTR, writeups)

It may also be worth noting that metal and hip-hop ALSO love to incorporate big cinematic, orchestral, and choral elements. I'm sure I've written about these over the years, but don't just read up on me -- keep an eye out!

MORE FREEBIES (FX) for various, sound design

Thanks to coinxdaproducer on YouTube for these recommendations!

Red Bass - add some sub to your instruments/samples. And it sounds freaking great. The free version comes with a non-intrusive banner to remind you to support the developer if you really like it!

This freeware/pay-what-you-want plugin directly competes with paid plugins like Submarine vst (a $35-90 value!) If you're shopping around for sub-bass plugins, this KVR thread may be of interest to you.

Soundly Place it - useful for sound design, emulating spaces like basements, speakers like radios and earbuds, outside a club, etc. I can see this coming in CLUTCH as a master effect for transitions!

PRISMA - unprecedented 4 band multi-effect processor, gain, clip, width, distortion, folding, and all sorts of effects offered. Ugly interface, gorgeous effects.

Ruina - part of the Frequel bundle from noise engineering. Probably the most unique distortion and degradation plugin I've seen in all my years, and beats a lot of paid alternatives.

What makes it worth the registration, (simple) download manager, and probably password change to log in if you're like me and forgot yours, is the multiple effects this bad boy brings to the table. There is MASSIVE potential for modulating every effect for transitions. Just look at it!

Sorry if this image comes up with a big transparent chunk at the bottom -- I can't get it to go away lol. Moving on.

@Leavesz recommendations (INSTRUMENTS and FX), quotes in italics

These are some that I use very frequently:

synth1 : it is very basic and a little outdated but it does its job pretty well, aside from some old software quirks here and there. If you're scared of programming a synth patch you can check out this very simple preset pack for it, I used it a lot before I learned how to make my own patches.

kilohearts essential bundle : it has various effect plugins that might come in handy if your DAW doesn't already have them.

melda free fx bundle : same concept as the previous but a bit more advanced in some areas and you can't save presets.

TokyoDawnLabs : There are a couple of very useful mixing and mastering tools at the bottom of the page that you can grab for free. I don't do serious mastering very often but whenever I try to I always throw the slickEQ somewhere in the chain.

libjuicysfplugin : it loads sf2 files. There are a couple sf2 piano libraries that I found to be really neat when compared to other dedicated VSTs I've tried: Here are a couple nice sounding piano libraries, and a pretty nice rhodes sf2.

4Front Rhode : Here's a rhodes vst if you don't like soundfonts. It sounds nice with a bit of delay and distortion.

I had spitfire labs installed at some point so that gets an (un)honourable mention, but imo it's a bit of a waste of space and if you're working on an older and slower machine it will eat your cpu and crash your daw. I suppose it might be fine otherwise because the sound quality IS very good.

I don't know what your skill level is so you might already know about some of these but eh, I could not resist the opportunity to write a list lol.

From <https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1531869>

@Synami on the NG Audio Pub recommended Outobugi's freebies

There are a ton of goodies, a clipper, an all in one drum processor, a la Diablo, and even a Skyrim UI mod. Definitely worth checking out. Donation ware alert!

For a well organized, super helpful resource list, see @LD-W's blog - FREE Audio Resources List For Composers - 2022/2023

Also news from the NG audio pub Discord, we have this bad boy. Soundiron have released a FREE playable experimental organ called Aquae Organ!

"It's an interesting combination between parts of their £££-costing Alpha & Omega Pipe Organs together in unison, recorded with hydrophones in tall crystal vases. It also comes with basic waveforms to also merge with the Organ-stack for additional design-capabilities <@&883575627217780797> This is FREE Kontakt Player compatible"

Honorable mentions and old news

Producergrind search: free - I've mentioned this one before, but in case you haven't seen it, producer grind has free hip-hop kits, and lots of them. Grab 'em before they're gone. They start on the bottom of page 1!

CODEC - great for glitching and ruining your audio <30

TB-303 CLONE - Juce port of Robin Scmidt's Open303 DSP engine, modeled on the Roland 303.

Wursy - Sampleson is offering this subtractive old-school key synth for free, if you don't mind subscribing to their YouTube! Thanks to 300 LUFS on VK!

PNCH - From unplug.red, adds harmonics and a gating effect, without added pumping as with other gate plugins. Suggested use by the developer, removing amp hum from a guitar signal, like a stomp box. Also may be useful for drum breaks, for a "choppy effect"

The developer also has what appears to be a GameBoy sampler on his site, and several other plugins worth checking out. They are all provided for free with little unintrusive banners to remind you to support the developer.

Camel Crusher is back in town. Two types of distortion, low pass filter with resonance, and an interface so simple a caveman could do it. This link is a direct download. Thanks to Bedroom Producers Blog for the heads up it's still alive! Compatible with 32 and 64 bit win/mac. Discontinued.

MeowSynth - who doesn't like cats? Believe it or not, I tortured this plugin into the bass for "you're late for work"

DelayLama - widely regarded as one of the worst plugins on the planet, because people have been using it WRONG. Modulate all parameters but pitch, make 2 instances, apply pingpong delay, and you have a cool monophonic portamento bass/lead. It can also do dubstep wobbles when massaged well.

Used as a lead here in several places

And that temporarily concludes our list of freebies because I'm scared of the character limit and I gotta save some more for later! Moving onto our video category.

Videos 100% worth your time

The most hated FL Studio producer ever

How to make your reverb sound massive, the right way

How to mix better than 99% of producers -- session organization

Metal Drum Mixing, Krimh Drums

Market Research:

As a beat and samplemaker, you can't go wrong with checking out the competition. Here's some stuff I felt was interesting. Look at the presentation of the kits listed in the descriptions and do a little case study. It's worth the effort!

You Only Need These Drumkits 2023 | TOP DRUM KITS IN 2023

I selected this channel to find what the AVERAGE producer is thinking, not someone who may or may not be receiving giveaways for product endorsements or for whom budget is of no concern!

I also circled back to BWB on drumify -- note kits and similar artists.

Discussion time. I kinda hate drumify; it's overpriced, appears closed, and licensing is DUMB. But the kits are worth looking at to see what influential and upcoming producers are doing, the kind of presentation people think is professional.

Note before you think about buying anything, according to licensing, melody loops on drumify are NOT NECESSARILY royalty free. This is kind of an f-u to the customer. If I'm buying, it should damn well be royalty free to use, and cheaper if not. You might as well sell me an album otherwise -- don't be like this when selling your stuff, or don't make these terms fine print.

Still, BWB has some of the highest quality kits I've seen and the largest variety. This is who producers are looking up to and whose content they crave. He's also nice and familiar to folks listening to the radio.

In short, when you see stores like these, stop and take a look around. Take notes. Sites like this are good for getting ideas of how to pitch and pack your samples, titles and vibes -- and how to structure your website or store!

Discussion of paid kits for your references

Great market research for hiphop sample packs. As we know hiphop is full of sample recycling and loudness maximizing samples. Here are some of the must haves worth looking into, and what people think of them.

And that wraps up this giant article!

If you read this far, thank you so much! I hope you found something that you've never heard before, whether it was a plugin, FX, or a write-up, and I especially hope if you copped any of my sample projects that you enjoy them for a long time. I'm always looking for feedback, whether it be on the format of these articles themselves or the content served up, and I'm open for requests!

Big special thanks to my supporters this month for all you've done. @MATRVG @MariogD @CyberDevil @JimmytheCaterpillar, in case I don't get a hold of you before the 14th, happy Valentine's day, or single awareness day as it may be! Love you!

Ciao!

ADR3-N's Januarylist, 2024. AKA music production freebies for people with too much time on their hands.

Happy late new year, and merry late Christmas, beat bangers! Kicking off the new year with a little music producer magazine madness. We got 32+ kick-ass FREE resources to speed through, from audio production plug-ins and samples video editing apps, discussion videos, blogs, and one easter egg for the lulz.

Props to @LD-W for several fantastic recommendations this year. Thanks to you, we're starting off this list with an innovation in music production and FX processing to keep an eye out for -- GPU powered plugins like the ones due to drop any time from GPU Audio! Link to the beta suite.

Atm, in-house beta is complete, but you can sign up to be notified when the plugins are released. There are also some goodies if you create an account: Impulse Response libraries, a drum library, and Make Your Audio Sound 3D stems.

Keep your eyes open for plugins like these while we wait. I missed out on the beta from pure ignorance, despite dreaming about GPU powered audio plugs for a solid week!

Now, onto the usual freebies! There are FX, VSTs, and samples that are making their first, second, and even third appearance over the years, because in the process of switching PCs, I've had to reinstall my entire library. If you recognize an entry on this list, it's because I still deem them useful!

Let's dive in!

Plugins, Instruments, FX, and Samples

Sidechainer2 - VST3. Does what it says on the tin. Allows you to draw a sidechain pattern and implement it. I've started incorporating it into most everything I make and recommend giving it a shot! Allows multiple sidechain note lengths and has a good selection of preset shapes.

Note: This was working in Mixcraft 9, but since updating to Mixcraft 10 it has disappeared from my library. If this happens to you, try to see where it installs to, and add that folder to your DAW's list of VST/FX locations. If that doesn't fix it, I have an alternative below.

Flux mini 2 - Basically the same thing, from Caelum Audio, but with a cutoff frequency, resonance, "amp" percentage, and a refreshingly dark interface. As a cool aside, the SYNC parameter allows you to draw a sidechain and stretch it out over 32 FREAKING BARS. Compared to Sidechainer2's 1/2 notes, that's pretty cool on its own!

ActionTremolo - Noise Ash. Pretty freaking cool little tremolo plugin, that can be used as a side-chain AND auto panner, as well as add drive to a signal! Get it by subscribing to NoiseAsh's newsletter. I used to use this one on every pad/lead I had and even backing vocals.

Vital Synth - a KILLER free synth for a multitude of genres, more than capable of competing with Massive. You can get extra presets, features and support for the price of a BASIC no frills plugin and install as many of your own as you want. It's pretty dope. I've used it for almost every synth on my latest cover track. Easily first place in my heart!

presetshare.com - where you can get tons of free presets for this awesome VST and many others ;) Preset Share also doubles as a space to share your tracks and presets of your own. People can subscribe to you for exclusive content/presets.

Micromusic.tech AI Vital Preset generator - Free alternative to Synplant 2's preset generation function, works best for mono and polyphonic leads <3 May not be best for dubstep growls, but the results can be very interesting, and I love it. Drop samples into this badboy and discover just how much wizardry Vital is capable of, even if you are a total noob at knob magic!

Filtron - The only high/low/band pass filter I've ever seen that doesn't just have a switch for filter type, but allows you to modulate between them seamlessly, no clicking or popping. You can also modulate each parameter from the audio output of another track. Perfect for acid sounds, and totally FREE! Just enter your email and subscribe to the newsletter, and check your spam folder.

JST Blackbox - pusher, stereo spreader, does what it says on the tin!

Geonkick - free percussion synthesizer for kicks, snares, claps, etc -- thanks for the ping, @LD-W!

Thump One - Deceptively simple drum synth that does much more than it says on the tin, with a very simple workflow that gets the job done. A lot of fun to experiment with and perfect for modern electronic music of all kinds.

DistorK - pay what you want distortion multi effect plugin by independent developer KiTiK.dev, aka @ kitikdub on Twitter/X. There are many other free plugins on his gumroad page as well! The developer is actively responding to bugs and would love to hear feedback!

Sting! - Drum pattern/rhythm generator (ableton max4live only)

Hatefish RhyGenerator One - SORT OF an alternative to Sting!, if you don't have ableton. Both generate rhythms and can be pretty fun to play with.

Bedroom Producers Blog - BPB Dirty Filter - Distortion, degradation, amplification and a really simple interface. Need I say more? Enter your email. Pay what you want and check out the blog!

Rare gems - abandonware, plugin rescue

From here down are instruments and FX you can't find anywhere else, whether they were always free, became free, or their developers disappeared off the face of the earth!

Give internet impermanence the finger and cop these bad boys!

Accusonus ERA Bundle - Declip, denoise, voice level, remove reverb, de-ess, match room tone, autoEQ voice, deepen voice, remove explosive p's, and auto-clean recordings with this abandoned pro suite -- MAC and WIN supported, perpetual license given by the developers after they were bought out by Meta (FB)

IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD EXPENSIVE PODCAST/FILM QUALITY AUDIO RESCUE PLUGINS, THIS IS A GOLD MINE! Before I had RX7, I used the freebies and trials off this bad boy in everything I ever made. They were also lower latency and CPU than RX6 and 7's DAW plugs.

Kjaerhus Classic Bundle - This legacy bundle originally came with Mixcraft. I use these plugins in EVERY single song I make and have for 10+ years. The chorus and delay are absolutely irreplaceable to me. They are well worth the 32 bit hassle. Help keep them alive! Kjaerhus died, but their plugs don't have to!

Beatskillz - Slampup a free two-knob tube drive and compressor plugin. No longer offered on Beatskillz, but you can find it here at freevstplugins.net. No need to enter your information. Just close the dialog box that pops up before the download starts. As always, scan 3rd party downloads with your antivirus before installing!

Smiley VST by Streaky - sort of like soundgoodizer, but can also be used the other way around, to make things sound flat and gross. It's hard to find, as the original download no longer exists, but if this link doesn't work, I'll see if I can find it in my dump files and provide a copy. You can safely ignore the email grab box that pops up -- tested it myself.

Saudade Drums Remastered - a metal kick, snare, and tom library rescued and remastered by yours truly (ADR3-N). This instrument was originally for Kontakt, but its creator, the metal band Vultures Overhead, disbanded and went offline, taking the instrument down with them.

I have cleaned the samples and made them into a sforzando instrument (sfz, the same format used by MuseScore), but included the wavs in case you want to use them in a sampler. Also seen in the demo are Adreanaline Sample Pack BETA and CTK-2400 Project (sforzando). Same link!

Improvements: removed white noise from samples so you no longer need to gate drums, expanded playable key range/pitches for each instrument and made them able to be played individually in sforzando. They're gorgeous processed samples -- highly recommend even the original!

DEMO: Saudade Metal Drums Remastered, CTK-2400 Sample Instruments, & ADREANALINE Sample Pack

NG Ver:

Video Editing Freebies

A short list of video editing resources you can use for free and descriptions of each.

CAPCUT - owned by bytedance, and pretty user friendly. Only concern is like tiktok, also owned by bytedance, it may scrape your personal information and send all your clips to the Chinese Communist Party, as all Chinese owned companies are required by law to do this for the CCP.

If you want to use CapCut but are afraid for this reason, you can sandbox your browser, use a VPN, create a new email for signup, and only use third-party clips for editing. There is some concern bytedance is taking biometrics from its users, like face scans, and scraping data from other apps on phones/PCs. The face scans I believe, but the app scraping may be unfounded.

I genuinely think CapCut is the best free video editor out there aside from these considerations. Looks very professional and TikTok ready. You can save your creations and post process them in other apps, including adding extra text, color correction and cropping, etc.

SPOOL - I wrote this in my notes and forgot what it was aside for offering visualizers, but upon googling it, it's a music video editing software that comes with access to visuals and 12 different FX -- tap the beats to your music. Seems intuitive and pretty cool tbh.

Vizzy.io - easy visualizer, totally free, and offers lots of effects, including green screening, importing your own assets, audio reaction jiggers, and particle FX. Online only. Type in vizzy.io and there you go.

Example made in vizzy.

Alternatives to Magix (Formerly Sony) Vegas Pro - AlternativeTo has a great list of free competitors for professional video-editing software Vegas Pro, with a list of features, pros and cons for each.

Great playlist adds - Videos 100% worth your time

Tracking guitars into FX plugins - you're probably setting your DI input way too high, because everyone and their manuals told you to. This can also apply to guitar vst inputs/outputs and routing your synths through amp sims. Check out the difference in this video, and some really nice guitar licks to boot.

Mixing: Top Down or Bottom Up? - Which is the best approach? Or rather, which is the best approach for what application?

Release Strategies for the Modern Music Producer - by Musformation (Jesse Cannon). This video is long but well worth the watch, covering the many pitfalls faced by music producers today. He details how to combat them effectively with a solid release schedule, understanding spotify and YT best practices, and leveraging social media to your advantage.

Highly recommend his channel in general to get a good grasp of music marketing!

Good Reads

Articles for Music Producers to wrap their heads around

The Missing Link - Joey Sturgis Tones

What you might not have thought of before mixing your guitar with an amp/cab sim, AKA why your e-guitar doesn't sound right, when you spent 4 hours mixing it.

Waves blog - A lot of great little articles for mixing, including how to use serial compression, mixing with channel strips, and how to get your vocals front and center in the mix.

Remove Potentially Unclean Frequencies with Fruity Circumcizer - Is your track 8 days old and thereby ready to comply with God's covenant with Abraham? Do all your waveforms vaguely resemble phalluses? Are you tired of chunky residue from your old plugins clouding your mix? If you answered yes to any one of these questions, boy do I have the solution for you.

Schoenerbeats blog - A new blog surrounding music production, with advice on how to make money as a music producer, avoiding gear lust, and best practices.

And of course, the BEST blog of all, Bedroom Producer's Blog. As long as it's running, I'll stan it. Free plugins, music production news, and tons more.

If you're looking for free plugins, samples, and plugin sales, ask LD-W for an invite to the Newgrounds Audio Pub Discord server. In the "resources" channel, we FREQUENTLY post announcements for all kinds of promotions and giveaways!

Word of advice to new music producers like me who got a new PC!

I've written some guidance slash tutorial for migrating your music software, sample libraries, instruments, and effects to a new PC safely.

This may seem like common knowledge, but back up ALL your files -- and expect to reinstall ALL your plugins! Do not delete ANYTHING off of your old PC or disable it in any way; you will probably regret it.

I've broken down the general process of switching PCs into simple steps.

Ensure that you back up your boot drive to a cloud or removable media

Install your secondary drive to the new device if possible, but don't expect the software on it to work

Save all the installers, serials, emails, passwords, and product managers to removable media/cloud BEFORE you transfer anything!

Even if you have the program installed on your secondary drive, save the installer to it/elsewhere too!

Unless it is a small dll plugin, there is a lot more to installing vsts/fx than dragging and dropping files.

Do not delete any of your installers or files, unless you haven't used them at all in at least a year.

When you transfer over your files, expect that most plugins/FX/instruments will need reinstalling.

If you don't have installers for something, go download them online!

If you used to use 32bit versions of a plugin, you'll have to install that too!

It's ok to reorganize your plugins for the most part, but you should write down where you moved samples to, if you're reorganizing your library. Your old projects will call for them and you need to know where they are.

OneNote is good for saving junk info like this because you can easily search the whole contents by keywords.

AFTER the hard part is taken care of:

Set up your music production software as usual. You should have taken notes of what plugins you intended to save from your old drive, and where all your samples are.

Your kontakt libraries will need to be reinstalled on the new computer -- take stock of those and make sure you have the addlibrary.exe handy, as simply copying over kontakt and re-activating it may not be enough (it'll probably break if you moved it and you may even get license trolled due to # of activations, beware)

Make sure you ALSO check your audio driver and sound settings before you get back to producing! Set up your DAW as it was before in terms of audio driver and sample rate/buffer. Then check the audio driver and settings out.

Why you should check your audio drivers:

Most if not all new PCs come with "premium" audio drivers like Realtek with gross "enhancements" on by default for "entertainment" and "gaming". They hijack your sound output and give it the equivalent of an 80s hair metal blowout, but don't actually apply to the sounds produced in your DAW, meaning you think your song is mastered when you export it, but it actually isn't.

Producing with these settings on is like having an imaginary mastering chain on EVERYTHING that plays on your PC. Your unmastered mixes will sound great on your device but trash in the car/on the phone. This is every producer's nightmare!

The proprietary effects applied by these drivers are vague in the hopes you never learn to do the enhancements yourself and only listen to your music/games with their software. They make audio sound "better" at the expense of destroying what has already been mixed well, fully sabotaging you as a producer. Luckily, it's easy to turn them off on newer systems with a quick google.

And that's about all you should really have to worry about. I just had to do this and made some mistakes myself, so if you're planning to upgrade, don't take my word with a grain of salt. Take some notes!

Until next time, love and stank beetz,

-Adrean

Special thanks to my supporters and commissioners. Love you!

@CyberDevil, @MATRVG, @MarioGD, and @JimmyTheCaterpillar!

If you'd like to see more content like this, or you think my work is exceptionally useful, you can tip me over at ko-fi and patreon, linked over on the left hand panel of my profile!

Hey guys, this is just a quick little PSA, I'll be on a brief hiatus while I upgrade to a new PC and get my audio stuff back set up. I kept running into issues from having a 1060 Nvidia GPU, which if you're not initiated into computer geek stuff is ridiculously underpowered for the kind of content creation I do -- music and music videos. I recently got an Acer Nitro 5 and ported over all my files, dropped the new HDD in, so everything should be fine.

Tagging my favorite people so you know what's up!

@CyberDevil, @MATRVG, @MarioGD, @JimmyTheCaterpillar, @Mejson, @JT424, @Trunotfals, @FarFromSundown, @Rusecue, @lawiuslorric, @zeroizerozero, @g2961, @Odd-Naw

Cross your fingers for me getting everything back up and running!

ALSO, expect my next news post to be a list of music production freebies to round out the month! And thanks to all of you who took a gander at my last news post. The music video is blowing up pretty nice! 800 views in 4 days. That's a record for me!

Little Dreams and Nas Ne Dogonyat have been stuck in my head for years. One night, I had an idea I couldn't shake -- what if t.A.T.u wrote it? Then I made a gay ass fan video as accompany it. Here it is!

Watch it while you still can! The video is a complilation of the good old days of t.A.T.u, their music videos, their lives, and of course, the All The Things She Said kisses we couldn't stop watching as angsty teens.

I made this video for my Russian speaking fans. If there is demand, I will make downloads for this available on patreon/ko-fi. If our YT overlords take it down, I'll put it out on Drive/Archive))

2023 is almost over. Christmas has come and gone. The New Year is around the corner, but is it too late to say I come bearing gifts? Because if not, Backstreet's back in black, with a sack of goodies I found all over the internet.

That's right, it's Decemberlist 2023, so kick back and dig in as we dive into the best and the baddest music production freebies I could get my carpal tunneled hands on. We got samples, we got instruments and FX, and for the extra nerdy little trendsetters, the easiest AI vocal conversion you've ever heard of. Producers around the world rejoice!

Normally I write a giant post, but I'll save that for later. Onto the list!

Glaze Features recorded live vocalists for vocal textures and runs, promising to cover a LOT of ground in terms of genres, but I think this one is going to be essential for HipHop and R&B in particular. Check out the project video. Glaze is available for Kontakt 7.6 and higher.

Maim - lofi glitch, mp3 compression. This plugin promises to utterly destroy your audio in ways you can hardly imagine.

_efx Refract by Arturia is free until January 4th, after which it will… not be free. The plugin offers harmonic distortion and other cool little doo-dads. Must register, after which you will be afforded a license.

If you're registering, it will send you a funny looking email with a htm document. Don't worry, it didn't brick my PC or trigger my antivirus. You're safe. But it does come with an annoying software manager for licenses.

Producer Grind Sample Kits - Free drum and sound kits in the search bar ;) They come with licenses. The freebies start at the bottom of page 1. Must have an account.

The infamous Spinz 808 is on there. Name a vibe, they probably got it covered. There are enough packs that I had to start shoveling them onto an SD card, believe it or not. Multiple genres covered, and some of them are BIG.

Venus Theory - Noctua (requires registration, ilok)

I saw the announcement for this instrument on VT's channel. It has been in development for a year, shocker, and it sounds pretty damn good. I can see the soundscapes and quirky instruments like EMF Detectors being used in industrial, cyberpunk, and all sorts of genres. Perhaps hybrid filmscore and hip-hop.

Also unfortunately requires UVI's software manager to install, but that's really the only drawback. Personally I can't wait until music production software sites cut that out. If you want me as a loyal customer, one application I can't delete without losing access to your plugin is a surefire way to make sure I don't become one. Two is pushing it.

Steinberg HALion - Taped Vibes (free with registration)

Thanks to @Garf_Richards on X! This one is a HALion piano, which immediately sparks a nostalgia in me I can't put a finger on.

Versilian Studios Freeware - Versilian Studios has a variety of free instruments in sfz format, in other words, that work with the free instrument player Sforzando. There are pianos, orchestral instruments, a jazz drum kit, and legacy discontinued software you can dive into to your hearts' content.

Pianobook - This site is more than just what it says on the tin. User created sample packs, kontakt instruments, sfz instruments, and more. I couldn't possibly name how many drum sets, pads, keys, guitars, and more that I found on here. It was even the inspiration behind my own projects, Saudade Drums Remastered and the CTK-2400 Project

Unison Audio - Zenmaster

Likely released as competition for Cymatics Origin (which I also recommend) If you're looking for some quick vinyl flavor, might as well cop it. You can't really knock free!

Cymatics also has OODLES of free samples and plugins, including an analog chorus, déjà vu, Diablo Lite, and Space Lite.

Although many sites promising free samples and plugins are absolute junk, Cymatics has delivered year after year, and I'll be the first to cop. No, this is not a paid advertisement. This is my honest opinion. I have Origin myself and the paid version of Diablo. I use them religiously in my productions.

And finally, I promised you a thicc write-up somewhere in here. Figured I might as well go in on the tangential project I've been working on all week, because I think the next app I'm about to talk about is SO cool.

Replay Vocal AI

Got a little how-to video for this completely free application, allowing you to turn your acapellas into entire choirs of different vocalists in minutes, or in my case seconds! It will take multiple models and takes for a true choir, but the conversions themselves are quick, and the applications for use in your music don't end there.

To show you I mean what I say, I've recorded an entire 19 minute script on my webcam mic and converted it into studio quality using a model based on my own songs and voice acting. Basically, it's a MASSIVE spoken word demo.

You've probably seen my AI voice covers and originals, which I recorded in realtime with so-vits-svc, one of the most popular methods out there. Well, this has been a game changer for me, and here's why.

So-vits is great for converting your voice in live chat, not so much in the studio because it requires big brain programming, virtual audio cable wizardry, and tons of editing takes. It eats up so much data, and it's a freaking hassle.

Replay RVC offers the ability to record your best takes beforehand and process them without any programming knowledge or complications. It comes ready to use after install and prompt access to models from weights.gg. There's everything from Hatsune Miku to a literal trumpet you can use. You can convert instruments to voice and vice versa too. It's super convenient and ready to get wacky.

So, I finally bit the bullet and paid for monthly Colab to make this video popping. I got my new voice models running in a matter of hours, converted all the takes in a few minutes, and converted them again for the other models I tested, some of which I also made.

If you'd like to attempt this yourself and upscale your bad recordings or experiment with turning an actual instrument like an electric guitar for a WILD ass vocoder, I'll be happy to train models for you for a small fee (to cover the compute costs -- I only have so many hours!) I'll also prep datasets and troubleshoot models/installation.

Hit me up if interested here, on X (OGAdrean), or Discord (ADR3-N). YT comments also get my attention.

That wraps it up for our end of year freebies. If you've seen any more lying around, feel free to drop them here. You can also ask @LD-W for an invite to the Newgrounds Audio Pub server, where he regularly posts free and discounted audio production resources. Really great place to stop in and recharge your batteries, as well!

Onto more pressing matters, like how many couches I've had to move this week, and whether or not I've finally broken a nail. The answer is 3 and no respectively. But I am still running playlists for Spotify and other platforms -- so if you're an artist looking to get playlisted, check in here!

Other news, Lyudi Invalidy has made its way to Spotify and YT safe and sound, no issues with my cover license whatsoever. You can stream it below.

And I am still doing free and paid track reviews for music producers and audio engineers both here and on X. If you're looking for quality, unbiased feedback on your compositions from the perspective of an experienced audio critic, tailored to your budget and individual needs, reach out to me via PM, X, or Discord. Paid items go to the top of my list, but I usually am able to get to all but the thickest albums in before a week is out.

I also do track writeups and album analysis, if you're looking for someone to write articles on literally whatever.

Other projects I'm working on include F-gents' Line of Work series voice acting, a free metal cymbal project I do in my spare time, several, several singles including one coming to us all the way from the annals of 2016, and finishing off Adreanaline sample pack. Now that the bulk of my audio engineering work is through and I have all my fancy new models in place, I'm free to get back to doing these little writeups every so often, collabs, and catching up on my mails.

While I'm here, I wanted to say it's been great being with you all this year. I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas and will soon have a very happy New Year.

I won't append a long list of @'s, but I'd like to thank all of my supporters, patrons, and commissioners. You have made it possible to continue to focus on what matters to me most, music and the vast content creation community we have cultivated on and off of Newgrounds.

I can't imagine a better decade to have been alive doing what I love. The possibilities are endless.

Thank you again, and if I'm not the first to tell you, I'll see you all next year!

-Adrean

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Couple new developments, y'all, so I'll get right into it.

Firstly, thank you all so much for your responses to my last post. I got so many tracks to my inbox, it kept me busy for days! Big thanks to @JimmyTheCaterpillar for my first commission for professional audio critique and the most interesting pieces I've ever heard out of Audacity and BeepBox!

It took about a week to get through the DMs, sharing to twitter and in the case of Spotify playlisting everyone. I'm ready for more, which brings me to my next point.

If you've been following me on Twitter/X, I've been on a mission to connect with as many independent artists as possible, hip-hop artists, one man bands, indie rockers, and literal digital artists.

In particular, I'm looking for album artists and tracks to playlist on YouTube and Spotify.

I have a few playlists ready. If you see one you like, drop a track here and tell me where to put it! If it fits, I'll throw it on here, and if not, I'll start another playlist.

HOP ON THE PLAYLIST TRAIN BABY:

For independent hip-hop with vocals. I'm thinking of seeding it with a few larger artists for the algorithm, but not so many that it loses its mind!

I will be making genre specific playlists strictly for instrumentals as well, so feel free to drop your tracks, even if they don't fit, and bonus, I'll follow you on Spotify.

YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS

JAMMY BOIS - edm and hip-hop bangers - What it says on the tin and then some. Primarily Russian Hard Bass, rap, and EDM for cleaning the house, dancing when no one is watching, and setting fire to the club. Vodka is not an option. Anything hard, danceable, and liable to get the cops called when the beat bang, put it here.

Chill vibes. Slowed and Reverb. Lo-Fi welcome. Ear worms and songs that can be played on repeat. Featuring lots of Doja Cat, Jenny Darling, you're my best friend, and so much more. If I can kick back and play Borderlands to it as well as sit and talk to the girls, it goes!

Awesome Music - This one's an oldie of mine with all the classics. We got power metal, memes, absurd lyricism, mashups, and yes, more memes. If your music is epic, I'll probably add it to this playlist anyway.

Just Producing - YT for all you producers out there who like to show off your beatmaking skills.

My personal t.A.T.u playlist in case y'all make a cover or a remix. I watch this one a lot, so you'll be getting streams from me. It does a great job of serving me recommends off of this one since my last couple tracks, Ne Ver Ne Boisya English and All About Us Russian blew up!

And finally, INDEPENDENT ARTISTS ONLY!!! This playlist is actually a dinosaur from back when I made beats to sell on YouTube (2015???). No rules apply. Not genre specific. If you got a download link in that description, stick that bad boy right here.

If you got something else in mind, drop your track and tell me what kind of playlist you think would fit. I'm always looking for a reason to start a new one!

Give me a few days to sort out all the replies and playlisting. Going through that Spotify playlist up top took about a week to get through 80+ replies and threads, minus some other commissions work, and besides that, I'll be judging the semi-finals of the Newgrounds Audio Deathmatch, as well as working on "Rock and A Hard Place" for @JT424 this week. You can catch the first episode on Spotify here!

Still working on themes for @MATRVG's animations over with Reduce Team, expecting a release or two within the week. Expect a return to retro with some SNES Castlevania remixes!

Oh, and I almost forgot, for all the boys who are dumb af and the girls who fuck with them anyways, BOUNCE is now out on Spotify! We made a splash here on Newgrounds, so I figured I'd drop it. Now you can go on TikTok the next time some fuk boi slides in your DMs and become a memegod.

Get it here!

In other news, we have some images that belong squarely on weed twitter. Witness the napalm and cannabis induced AI wet dreams of Xena the Warrior Princess!

And that about wraps it up for this week! Thank you all for your support. If you want to help keep this train wreck afloat, you can do a few things. I got a ko-fi over here for donations, a Twitter you can follow, and a YouTube that could always use comments. I am not a bot, I reply, share, and follow back! :)

Special thanks: @CyberDevil, @MATRVG, @MarioGD, and @JimmyTheCaterpillar!

Sick album art by @Odd-Naw is now finished. Show him some love! (and check out the previous versions!)