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.

What's That Sound? Black Market Breaks

A wicked documentary for you this week: Black Market Breaks looks at sampling culture and hip-hop - exploring different producers' approaches to sampling and digging culture.
Presented by UK hip-hop legend Mark B and featuring interviews with DJ Marley Marl, VIC, Dilated Peoples, Bubba Sparxxx, DJ Greenpeace, David Holmes, Tommy Koi of Mr Bongo Records, Andrew Mason of Wax Poetics & Jared from The Sound Library record store.

Watch it below, or download in audio form from here.









Until next time, keep your fingers dusty and your grooves clean.

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.

What's That Sound? Edwin Birdsong

Deeply funky Edwin Birdsong played keyboards and organs with a deft touch and an inimitable groove - making him a hot pick for samplists everywhere.

You may be aware of Daft Punk's wholesale rip of his track 'Cola Bottle Baby' - if you aren't you'll either be impressed by their breath-taking audacity or disillusioned when you hear this:

Edwin Birdsong - Rola Cola

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The break from the Chemical Brothers 'Morning Lemon' is also an Edwin Birdsong riff, taken from his track 'Rapper Dapper Snapper' and pitched up to energising effect.

Chemical Brothers - Morning Lemon


Edwin Birdsong - Rapper Dapper Snapper


Until next time, keep your fingers dusty and your grooves clean.

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!

What's That Sound? Evil Knievel

A golden-era bigbeat sample for you this week, from Fatboy Slim favourite 'Evil Knievel' by Ceasefire & Deadly Avenger.

This tune completely rocks dancefloors. It did then and it does now. Relentless tough breaks, raw wah guitar, uplifting vocal shouts, growling bass and a storming main groove.

But where does that groove come from?

Well, in 1972, Quincy Jones worked on the soundtrack to a movie called 'Dollar$', also known as 'The Heist' or 'Le Coup'.

The soundtrack was classic blaxploitation fodder: moody, suspenseful, rugged and funky. The standout tracks were called 'Money Runner' and 'Money Is', which were released together on a 45, and it was the former that went on to become the blueprint for Evil Knievel.

Ceasefire & Deadly Avenger - Evil Knievel


Quincy Jones - Money Runner


Copies of the Money Is/Money Runner 7" still change hands, and the soundtrack to Dollar$/The Heist/The Coup is still available after a re-release in 2001. Neither of them are cheap though. Expect to pay US $15+ for the single and around $30 for the full soundtrack.

Until next time, keep your fingers dusty and your grooves clean.

What's That Sound? Lulu

Just a quick column this week, sharing a discovery I've only just made but that may well be OLD news to the rest of the world.

Remember Lulu? The one your mum liked? Yeah, that's her!

Well, what does she have in common with Norman Cook? More than you'd imagine.

I'll let the videos do the talking.

Lulu - Love Loves To Love


Fatboy Slim - Santa Cruz


Until next time keep your fingers dusty and your grooves clean.

What's That Sound? Harlem Shuffle

One of the most famous sounds in the world this week.

In 1969, Bobby Byrd and Earl Nelson recorded one of the greatest duets of all time: 'Harlem Shuffle'. The track made it into the top 50 of the 'Billboard Hot 100', but today it is more familiar not for the vocals but for the distinctive horn fanfare that opens the song.

Listen below:



Makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up, doesn't it?

Of course it featured in House Of Pain's 'Jump Around' and has been sampled by many others, including Million Dan, whose track 'Mic Chek' can be heard below:



You can still get your hands on 7" vinyl copies of this classic track, look here for some Ebay action, and the tune appears on loads of soul compilations too.

Until next time, keep your fingers dusty and your grooves clean.

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.