Make It Funky: 50 Fresh Breakbeats

After the success of last month's sample pack, we've done it again. This month we've raided the crates and found 50 hip hop and funk breaks for you - all recorded from vinyl and presented as 24bit 44khz WAVs for you to load into your weapon of choice.

Some will be familiar, others completely fresh and new. Loop, mash, slice, dice and splice them to your hearts content.

Choose your favourite host and get your download on:

Hotfile

Rapidshare

Megaupload

Mediafire

If you spot a broken link, let us know.

Peace.

The NuFunk.net Team

Make It Funky: DJ Spooky Talks About Remix Culture

When sampling first exploded in the late 80s and early 90s, the law was behind the evolution. But it didn't take long to catch up.
High profile cases such as Roy Orbison vs 2 Live Crew and Gilbert O'Sullivan vs Biz Markie soon put a stop to the 'open season' of sampling - putting lawyers at the centre of what would become a multi-million dollar copyright industry.

But the practice of sampling, remixing and mashing has not been stemmed by this tightening of the law - in fact it has mushroomed and as the tools became more widely available and affordable, anyone can now take parts of films, music and photography and reinterpret them to make something new.

This week in 'Make It Funky' we've got a talk by DJ Spooky, exploring the evolution of remix culture and looking to the future of the art form.

Make It Funky: Oberheim DX

This week we've got some wicked samples for you of a classic rhythm box - the Oberheim DX, courtesy of 'Calvin Cardioid' over at the CL516 blog.

You should check out his posts here and here.

The DX was a cut-down version of the Oberheim DMX, using samples of actual drum hits to program rhythms.

Its tight, punchy sounds made sure the unit was widely used in early hip-hop by artists such as Run DMC and later featured in the kit list of everyone from New Order to Daft Punk.

Calvin has uploaded a set of individual one-shots from this beautiful beastie here.

He says: "Feel free to use the loops. (Creative Commons License - Please give credit.) Also, I sampled some single hits so you can load'em up in your own MPC's. These hits hopefully sound pretty thick. They are mono WAV's in 16 bit 44.1khz."

And there are some downloadable sequences here:
Sounds from Oberheim DX by Calvin Cardioid

And a couple more here:
Oberheim DX Free Loop 118 by Calvin Cardioid

Oberheim DX Free Loop 106 by Calvin Cardioid

Oberheim DX Free Loop 180 by Calvin Cardioid

Oh, and if you use these samples anytime, drop the man a line and thank him!

Make It Funky: Plugin Round-Up

We've got some wierd and wonderful plugins for you to play with this week, some of which are modelled on vintage gear, others that come straight outta leftfield with a sound all of their own.

First we're going to look at a couple of VSTi that emulate the classic Mellotron - which famously featured on 'Strawberry Fields' amongst others.

Artifake Labs have two versions of 'Tron emulation. Their Redtron 400 features three violins, and eight-voice choir, flute, brass, string section and cello, each with loop on/off modes.

The Redtron MkV emulates one of the rarest Mellotron models, giving you access to what is effectively two Mellotrons working in tandem.

Both plugins are completely free and available from here. The developers also have a decent emulation of the Hohner Pianet N electric piano on the same page. Definitely worth checking out.

Elektrostudio also have a Mellotron plugin as part of their 'Oryg 10 Analog Pack'. It sounds pretty decent and allows you to blend the different voices into one another, which is a nice touch. The pack also contains the Rhythmus plugin, which emulates classic rhythm boxes, with samba, mambo, tango, waltz and rumba type patterns - great for getting some classic sounds out of, even if the full patterns are a bit naff.

You can download the pack, which contains 10 plugins, from here.

Some organ emulations are up next, starting with an excellent Hammond copy from Iliadis.

It's a pretty detailed clone featuring "Clean Sine Drawbars for 2 Manuals and Bass Pedals, 2 Percussion Oscs with the 9 "Standard" Harmonics, a Key Click Imitation, Vibrato/Chorus and Overdrive."

You can download it for free here, along with a superb rotary speaker emulation to complete the vintage effect.

For a slightly different take on the organ sound - veering into Doors territory, how about a Combo Organ emulation?

Combo V from Martinic is a fully-modelled (no samples) clone, with 32 presets and lots of tweakable controls. You can download it here.

Finally a versatile emulation, capable of everything from church organ tones to Farfisa sounds, how about the B8 from Autodafe? This is another freebie, available here.

Finally, we've got a couple of random percussion units for you to try: Shekrs from spacedad accurately captures the sounds of yoghurt pot, loo-roll and paper cup shakers, while Beatvox from Knobster is a beatbox/human percussion instrument.

Both are a bit madcap, but well worth checking out.

Make It Funky: 150MB of free samples for NuFunk.net readers

We've had a great response from some of the samples and resources we've shared over the past couple of months, but this week, it feels like we've outdone ourselves.

We've been delving into the NuFunk.net crates to find some awesome samples for the producers amongst you. Some may be familiar, some are a bit more obscure, but they all come dripping with funky flavour.

We are proud to present the 'NuFunk.net Sample Pack: July 2010', containing nearly 150MB of free samples including breakbeats, percussion hits and loops, instrument samples, vocals and full grooves - all recorded from vinyl and presented as 24bit 44khz WAVs.

It breaks down like this:

29MB (19 Files) of Drums and Percussion including bongo lines, claps, snares, breaks and unusual stuff like finger cymbals.

68MB (25 Files) of Instruments and Grooves taken from some of the hottest funk, soul and disco tracks. Includes stabs, flute lines, guitar lines, bass and full funked-out grooves to chop and play around with.

52MB (15 files) of vocals including hip hop snippets and cool spoken word phrases.

Hey, we're not saying it's everything you need to produce a track, but combine these samples with your own arsenal and you've got a recipe for some banging beats.

We've uploaded to a bunch of places, so choose your favourite host and get busy. Hit us up if you notice a broken link.

Mediafire

Rapidshare

Megaupload

Hotfile

Enjoy!

Make It Funky: In The Studio With Mr Scruff

Spend and hour in the studio with the brewmaster himself, Mr Scruff.

Learn how to sample a stapler in an echoey stairwell and much, much more in this one-hour video from Computer Music magazine.


Mr Scruff - Producer Masterclass from Mat on Vimeo.

Make It Funky: Remix Chicken Lips

Legendary UK producer Chicken Lips is offering his track 'Sweet Cow' for remix - with the winning entry going for sale alongside the original on the DJHistory download store.

Have a listen to the original on the YouTube vid below and get hold of the download parts here.

Read more about the competition and how to enter over at the DJHistory blog.

Make It Funky: Copyright Criminals

Featuring Chuck D, George Clinton, Hank Shocklee, De La Soul, Mixmaster Mike and many more speaking about the art, science and law of sampling - the Copyright Criminals vocal pack is a goldmine of funky snippets for producers and DJs.

Download the sample pack here. (Alternate link here.)

The vocals come from the voiceover of a documentary called 'Copyright Criminals: This Is A Sampling Sport', which explores copyright, remixing and sampling culture from the heady days of their birth right through to the 21sdt Century. Learn more about the movie here.

And watch extracts from the movie below:









Copyright Criminals Extracts from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Make It Funky: Bonobo

We're going to sit back and let the videos do the talking this week, with an excellent production masterclass from Bonobo, courtesy of Computer Music magazine.

The Ninja Tune legend talks us through the making of an entire track from start to finish - inspiring stuff!


Bonobo Producer Masterclass Pt.1 from NJF on Vimeo.



Bonobo Producer Masterclass Pt.2 from NJF on Vimeo.

Make It Funky: Sound Like Herb

Want to sound like Herbie Hancock? Well this week we've got the best free and paid for tools, from VSTi to sample sets.

And to get you in the mood, check this video of the man himself showing off his Fairlight CMI to Quincy Jones:

So, if you want  to capture the classic sounds of Herbie Hancock, where do you start? Well after that video, why not start with the Fairlight CMI digital sampling synth.

If you don't mind dropping a bit of cash on it, there's a superb emulation from Best Service called Cult Sampler, which retails for 99 Euro and uses the Native Instruments Kompakt engine.

They say:

"This library includes the sounds of the late 70s to the early 80s. Because the samplers at that time suffered from severe limitations in memory capacity (RAM), excess artistic high level sound programming was a must. Pitching and stretching of sounds was obligatory and 8 bit sounds were mostly the standard. This resulted in sounds with very special character. A character that nowadays is missing in our hyper-clean 24 bit / 96 kHz world of almost unlimited RAM.

"The 2000 sounds and multi-samples are perfectly laid out to play on your keyboard. Sounds of early vintage samplers like Orchestron, EMU II, Akai S-612, Ensoniq Mirage, Fairlight, Synclavier, Linn, Mellotron, Master Studio Coll., FZ-1, DSS-1. Each sound and multi-sample was produced on a highly professional level with the original samplers. Also on board are all these classic factory sounds."

Get yours here.

There is an alternative way to get your hands on those tasty vintage sampler sounds - gcoudert over at the EmusOnAcid forum has posted his full collection of Fairlight samples. Go here to download, the packs contain everything from percussion to FX, analogue synths to strings.

Herbie also famously used the Arp Odyssey synth.

The daddy of Odyssey emulations has to be Oddity from G-Force, which retails for 99 Euro. But once again there is a free alternative, in the shape of the remarkably good sounding Oddy-Free, which you can download here.

And finally, to complete the legendary keyboard collection? Well you're going to need some smooth electric piano and sharp, biting clav sounds.

Mr Ray VSTi from GSI does a great synthesised piano, and you can get it as part of the free donationware pack here. It includes: four types of pickups for Rhodes Mark I, Mark II, Wurlitzer and FM (DX7) simulation, adjustable pickup symmetry and distance, mallet hardness and hammer noise, a wah-wah effect, distortion and other effects.

If you take your electric piano seriously and have a few quid to spare, you should also consider the highly aclaimed Lounge Lizard from Applied Acoustics. It costs just over $200, but the sound is an incredible emulation of Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos. You can read more and buy it here.

E-Piano from MDA is another good freebie, which uses a carefully sampled Rhodes to devastating effect. You can find it on their VST synths page here.

Finally, the Big Tick Ticky Clav is great for all your Clavinet needs. You can get it for free from here, all you need to do is give them your email address.

So get in the studio and get creating. Send your tracks, WIPs and studio kit recommendations to blog@nufunk.net

Make It Funky: Bass

A solid bassline is the foundation of funk, be it Nu, Old or merely middle-aged.

So here at NuFunk.net we're going to point you towards some of the best free resources to keep your bottom end super phat.

First up some very nice multi-sampled electric basses.

Soundsnap has a mean Fender Jazz set, lovingly recorded by 'Soundgram Post'.

Over at the Freesound Project, jdstarrett has put together a nice set of contrabass sounds recorded from an 'Electric Six' bass. Grab it here.

Also on Freesound, there's a nice fretless pack compiled by FaireDesVagues, which you can download here.

But electric bass is only one way to skin the cat - how about some synths for those hard-hitting trouser-flapping b-lines?

De La Mancha's 'Subfreak' is a great freebie - simple interface, not too many controls, but a solid little sub-bass generator. Grab it and check out his other excellent plugs here.

Andreas Ersson has created the 'Iblit' synth, which is monophonic with 3 oscillators, pulse and sawtooth waveforms, a noise generator, a 24dB/octave LP/HP filter, two LFOs and loads of other features. But most important of all, it sounds great. Grab it here.

Cakewalk's Triangle 2 is another great sounding synth, capable of some really funky 70s-style Moogy synth basses. Get yours here.

Finally, if a mad wobble is the flavour you're after, why not try Angular Momentum's 'Analog Warfare'? It has two analog-modelled oscillators, three independent amp envelopes three filters each with their own envelope, two BPM-synced LFO's with many sources and 2x78 destinations.

With a total of 234 routing options, it's a semi-modular monster, capable of some devastating sounds.

Check it out here.

Make It Funky: KPM Project

No huge post this week, just a reminder about the ongoing KPM project we have going on.

Head here to read more about it, here to get some inspiration from how others have sampled this legendary label and head here to grab some sample material, listen to the first couple of project tracks and get involved.

Make It Funky - Let's re-funk KPM

This week we've got a very special 'Make It Funky' for you. Rather than offering samples or other resources, we're setting you a challenge - to Re-Funk a track from the legendary KPM library music series.

Sampled by everyone from The Freestylers, Skeewiff and Fatboy Slim to Jay Z and Gnarls Barkley, KPM produced library music for film, TV and radio - from gentle classical themes to lowdown funky car chase tracks. One of their tunes even featured in Tarantino's 'Kill Bill'.



So, think you can add a fresh NuFunk twist to some dusty old grooves? Then get involved! Whether you're re-editing an existing track, mashing several KPM joints together or building an entirely new track from a KPM-inspired starting point, we want to hear it.

If you don't have any in your collection, you will find KPM records at loads of second-hand vinyl shops, some CD versions are available and a lot of the catalogue is even online at Junodownload.

Any questions? Why not come along to the 'Studio & Production' forum at NuFunk.net and ask there, or comment below.

And if you're missing some brass or drums for your track, or need some vocal bits and pieces, why not check out our previous 'Make It Funky' columns for some free sample material.

If we get enough good music together off the back of this, we could put a free release out in homage to the legendary musos that made KPM great.

EDIT: Madwickedbadman over at the NuFunk.net forum has offered up some sample material to kick things off - go check out the samples and see what you come up with!

Make It Funky: Soul Voices

Brace yourselves, we have nearly 200MB of soul acapellas for you this week. With more than 50 tracks, this pack is one of the definitive soul vocal packs.

Featuring classics from Diana Ross, The Four Tops, The Jackson Five, The Supremes, The Temptations and many more, you need this in your life whether you are a producer or a DJ.

It's got soulful 'oooohs', funky grunts and catchy hooks aplenty. So slice them up, loop them up, mash them up or just chill out and listen to some acapella soul.

EDIT: Due to mad traffic on this pack, we've had to upload to Upload Jockey: NEW LINK.

Grab them here.

Or at this alternative link: Clickety click.

Make It Funky: Two, Three, Break!

Another wicked and bad freebie for you: this time we have an incredible encyclopedia of drum breaks lovingly sampled, bounced and sliced by Cyberworm over at Rhythm Lab.

Available in both Rex and Wav flavours, this mighty collection has everything from 5 Stairsteps to ZZ Hill.

You need it in your life.

Head over here and grab them!

Also, those superb folks over at Salad Records.com have posted some awesome links to John Bonham's drum out-takes from 1979 album "In Through The Door".

The legendary Led Zep skin-basher's percussive stylings have been sampled by everyone from Eminem to The Prodigy. Now you can get in on the act too.

Grab the files here.

Make It Funky: Gives Me The Horn

Shortly after our launch we got a request from Ryan Wells for some horns & brass samples.

Who are we to refuse? Here's the links to more than 100 samples and loops.

It's the best the web has to offer in terms of funked-up brass for your Nu Funk productions.

First up, and I really shouldn't be letting you in on this one - it's almost too good - more than 80 wicked horn section riffs from the New York Brass group.

This bunch of talented session musicians has put together a brilliantly recorded pack of stabs and horn lines, all in 320kbps MP3 for your listening pleasure. All they ask in return is your email address and a credit if you use one of the samples in a track.

Grab it here before I change my mind about letting this one out.

Next up, the incredible Freesound Project, always a good spot to look for free high-quality sounds.

There are a number of brass samples available - notably those of Simon D’souza who has posted a load of brilliant packs including: New Tenor Sax D minor, Tenor Sax D major 110bpm , Tenor Sax D major 90 bpm and Tenor Sax multisamples.

Get your filthy mitts on them here.

Another Freesound user, Synapse, has posted a couple of tasty trumpet riffs with a Latin flavour here.

Andrea Biondi has posted some excellent sax melodies here. As has Fred Galist, here.

With all these Freesound packs, it is worth checking the license at the bottom of the page, most are released under Creative Credits copyright agreements and may be reserved from commercial use or require crediting the creator.

Enjoy.

Any more suggestions or requests, get in touch: blog@nufunk.net

Make It Funky: Give The Drummer Some

Welcome to 'Make It Funky'. Each week we're going to be providing resources, links and tips for Nu Funk producers. Hopefully there's going to be something for everyone, from noobs to pro's, so stay tuned.

First up, drums. Without them there is no funk.

So here's some links to all the drums you'll ever need.

First up, a well-recorded live drum kit. Sadly the legendary NS7 kit is no longer free, but there is a really rather tasty alternative - the Analogue Drums Big Mono kit.

Analogue Drums say:
"Big Mono is a roomy rendition of a lovable Ludwig, a Rogers Dynasonic snare drum, some tasty Zildjians, and a Sabian ride for good luck. Tracked through a '75 Neve desk, and as always onto a nice thick roll of tape. Recorded in mono using a decca-tree configuration, this kit sounds retro with plenty of space."

Each drum has been multisampled at loads of different velocity levels, for realistic sounding drum sequencing.

You have to register to get your hands on it, but you get 254 discrete 24-bit, 44.1khz mono wav samples, a quick-reference card (PDF) and sampler mapping files for Battery, Kontakt and Logic's EXS24 - all in a handy 135MB package.

Download the kit here.



Now for all the drum machine samples you will ever need. From Acetone Rhythm Ace to Yamaha TX16W, taking in 200 different machines on the way, including the seminal Roland TR-505, 808 and 909.

Simply go to this page, hosted by netlabel Hexawe.



"But what about the breaks?" I hear you cry. Well don't get pissy, we've got that covered too.

Phat Drumloops does exactly what it says on the tin, provides phat breaks from some of the most distinctive drum tracks ever recorded.

It's got yer 'Amen Brother', yer 'Think', yer 'Apache', yer 'Funky Mule' - but it also has some more obscure and unexpected freshness. For example: 'Atlanta Boogaloo' by The Inclines and 'Oh Woman, Oh Why' by Sir Paul of McCartney.

With 580 entries, their beats archive is definitely worth a look for fresh faces and dust-fingered diggers alike.


And finally, you lucky, lucky people, a NuFunk.Net EXCLUSIVE: a massive sampled vinyl kit, with 50 snares, 50 kicks, 50 hats, plenty of fills and percussive hits. There are more than 180 individual samples in this pack, lovingly sourced and sliced ready to load into your weapon of choice.

Grab it here. Don't say we never give you anything.








Now get busy - we want to hear your demos, tracks and WIPs. Use our Soundcloud Dropbox on the right of the page to send us some hot shizzle.

And if you have always fancied making tracks but aren't sure how to go about it, why not start by downloading the Free Portable Music Studio? It contains everything you need to get you up and running.

Peace,

Mat
(tOtALcULt)