Free Roland SH-101 Ableton Instruments

After the success of last month's "What Synth Should I Sample?" poll, I decided to do it again for the 12k milestone on my Facebook page.

This time, you wanted me to sample my beloved vintage Roland SH-101.

There's a ton of web info on this historic synth, so you can read about it here and here.

The Simpler instruments in the file are as follows:

SH101 Saw - Basic single oscillator SH-101 sawtooth.

SH101 Square - Basic single oscillator SH-101 square wave.

SH101 PWM - One of the truly classic SH-101 sounds lies in the character of its pulse width modulation.

SH101 Saw+Sub - Another signature sound from the 101 comes from its sub-oscillator. Here, I blended it with a sawtooth waveform.

SH101 ResSweep - The SH-101 shipped around the same time as the legendary TB-303 - and many producers have used the 101 in similar ways. The resonance on this synth is exceptional, so here's a taste.

SH101 Resonant - This is another example of the SH-101's resonance, generating a whistling tone over a square/pulse wave.

SH101 Noise - Lots of 80s tracks used the SH101's midrange-heavy noise generator for synth drums, so I included a sample of it here.

SH101 Bass - Gotta have some bass too, right?

As with the all of the other Simpler packages on this blog, I left the devices in their default state, with filtering, LFOs and envelopes off, so you can use them as starting points for your own sounds.

That said, I did some quick-n-dirty looping on these patches, which was tricky due to the nature of Simpler and the slight inconsistencies of analog-derived waves. Fortunately, the samples are long enough that many users will be able to switch it off if they choose. 

(For those who create cleaner loops for these presets, please send them my way and I'll update the package accordingly.)

Here's the Ableton Live file containing the presets.

Download:

Francis Preve - SH-101 8-pack 

(compatible with Ableton Live 9.7 and higher)

Note 1: If you like any of these sounds and want to keep them for future tracks, just click the little save button in the upper right corner of the Simpler and add it to your library (it will copy the waves too).

Note 2: If you don't use Ableton and just want the C3 samples, you can download the file and fish the waves out of the "Samples" folder, then use them in your DAW or sampler of choice.

Cheers!

Free Prophet 08 Ableton Instruments

To celebrate hitting 10,000 fans on my Facebook page a couple of weeks back, I took a poll to see what synth in my studio you wanted me to sample next.

The overwhelming response was my beloved Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08.

So… Here ya go! :)

The Simpler instruments in the file are as follows:

P8 Saw - Basic single oscillator Prophet sawtooth.

P8 Square - Basic single oscillator Prophet square wave.

P8 Pulse - Basic single oscillator Prophet pulse/rectangle wave.

P8 2x Fifths - Two octaves of fifth intervals. Super thick and Mau5-ish.

P8 Big Octaves - Four octaves of a basic dual-oscillator patch. "Undertaker" and "Ghosts-n-Stuff" fans are gonna love this one.

P8 Detuned Saws - One of the hallmark sounds of ALL Prophets.

P8 Deep Drone - Big, throbbing detuned bass drone.

P8 Sync Sweep - Long slow hard sync sweep with tight short loop at the end. If you want to have a lot of fun with this patch, start by adjusting the sample start point. You'll see ;)

P8 Res Sweep - Resonant sweep with a touch of white noise and a tight loop at the end. As with the Sync Sweep patch, try tinkering with the start point.

As with the Minitaur and Doepferheim packs, these Simplers in their default state, with filtering, LFOs and envelopes off, so you can use them as starting points for your own sounds.

I did handle the looping tasks myself, because several friends commented that it's rather tough to get them right if you're inexperienced with the process.

Here's a fun aside: The "Marina" lead sound is in this collection, but it requires some additional programming. See if you can find it.

Here's the Ableton Live file containing the presets.

Download:
Francis Preve - Prophet 08 6-pack 
(compatible with Ableton Live 9.7 and higher)

Note 1: If you like any of these sounds and want to keep them for future tracks, just click the little save button in the upper right corner of the Simpler and add it to your library (it will copy the waves too).

Note 2: If you don't use Ableton and just want the C3 samples, you can download the file and fish the waves out of the "Samples" folder, then use them in your DAW or sampler of choice.

Much love, kids.

Free Oberheim/Doepfer Ableton Instruments

Fans and friends of mine know that my studio consists of a ton of analog gear, arranged in a semi-modular configuration - and I'm constantly experimenting...

One of the cornerstones of this rig is a baby modular, created by pairing a Doepfer Dark Energy Mk 1 and an Oberheim SEM CV-edition.

You can find all of the tech specs in this article I did for Keyboard Magazine last year.

A lot of people have asked what this beastie sounds like, so I decided to whip up a new Ableton six-pack that showcases some of the sounds it can generate.

Free Moog Minitaur Ableton Instruments

The Moog Minitaur is one of the most buzzworthy hardware synths of the year.

It's an all-analog bass synth, with a knob for every function, that costs around $600 (US).

To honor the release of this synth - and commemorate hitting 3000 Facebook likes for my Official page  - I whipped up a four-pack of Ableton Simplers that demonstrate how amazing this synth sounds.

And yep, they're free and you can use them in your tracks - royalty-free.

Free Ableton Instrument: Sharkjumper

Wubwubwubwubwubwubwub. Urp.

I swore I'd never make a straight-up dubstep bass patch, but since that train shows no sign of stopping this year, it's time for me to jump the shark.

Of course, I couldn't resist calling attention to that fact, so the preset is named... Well, you KNOW what it's named.

Free Ableton Instrument: One Trick Pwnage

Alrighty then!

I promised I'd release a preset once my new "Official" Facebook page hit 500 friends, so here ya go.

Some of you may recall the nifty video for Swedish House Mafia's hit with Pharrell Williams, "One". In the video, the intro (0:10-0:35) apparently used one of Teenage Engineering's white hot OP-1 synths to morph a kick drum into the lead riff.



Well, as cool as the OP-1 is, you can also do this trick rather easily with Ableton Live, so I created an Instrument Rack based on one of the free kicks from Matt Lange's isoRhythm packs (Thanks, Matt).

There are three macros that duplicate the programming and effects used in the intro part for "One" - Loop Rate for the kick sample, Reverb amount and a touch of Flanging at the end before the riff begins.

To make everything crystal clear, I created a passage in Live's arrange window that uses automation to duplicate the process SHM used in their track (but of course with a different riff, so no one gets annoyed with me).

Here's the Ableton Live file containing the preset. If you dig, just click the save button and add it to your library.

Download:
Francis Preve - One Trick Pwnage ( compatible with Ableton Live 8.1.5 and higher)

The next preset comes when my Facebook page hits 1,500 - so get clicking :)

Where's Francis?!?

Oh god, where do I begin? My last entry was in August 2011, FFS!

Since then, I've decided to focus ALL of my energy on Academik Records. Not that I don't love making and giving away free sounds and tech tidbits, but between music, DJing, running a label, writing for Keyboard Magazine (and soon, a very cool EDM blog you may have heard of ;), and being a college professor, something had to go.

So it's this blog. Don't worry, I've actually been working on a few cool goodies for Live users. That's coming later this spring.

But for now, I'm all about Academik and making killer tracks with heroes, colleagues and protégées. When I take a break, I'll get back to blogging regularly. Promise.

Until then, friend me on Facebook, like Academik on FB, and follow me & the label on Twitter. I assure you, I'm making a LOT of noise in those channels.

Much love and thanks for the support last year.