Sample and Sound Pack Vendors…???

Chew_Bear

New member
I have noticed that there are different ‘levels’ of vendors/retailers where you can buy your samples/sound packs from the internet…

The way I see it…you have…

A. Major / Prime Time Retailers

PrimeLoops, Loopmasters, PlatinumLoops, Vengeance, BeatPort…etc

B. Minor / Middle Man Retailers

Splice, SamplePhonics, GoldBaby…etc.
Sample packs from your own DAW’s website/blog.
Sample packs from music magazines/blogs/websites.

C. Third party / Low Time Retailers

Small time studios with a crappy looking website with a couple tabs for buying sample packs.
Guy making sample packs out of his bedroom/garage.
Samples you get from other producers…like Reddit, music forums, google searches.
Other producer’s websites.

For analogy’s sake…..let’s say a coffee metaphor…

A. The major/Big Gun retailers…..is like a coffee from Starbucks / Tim Hortons (i.e. Deadmau5 coffee run).

B. The middle man retailers…..is like a coffee from McDonalds / Burger King / Jack In the Box.

C. The third man/lowbie….is like a coffee from a gas station / 7-11 or the “Folgers” / “Maxwell House” that you buy from the grocery store.

So…For a newbie just starting and trying to figure out which sample or sound pack vendor to buy samples from…

How do you determine which vendor has…

A. The highest quality (sounding) samples
B. Gives you the best variety of samples
C. Samples packs that could be labeled as a “diamond in the rough”.

Help...???
 
Because I will read threads about which websites/sample packs are the most popular and which ones actually work…And in the end…I am still confused…

Because….what I want to know is…Say I want to buy an 808 sample kit/pack…

Well…
1. Do I buy an 808 kit from a middle man like Splice or GoldBaby…???
2. Or should I buy from a BIG GUN retailer like Beatport….or….Loopmaster...or...Primeloops….???
3. Or Should I just do a google search for a third party/small time studio and buy an 808 sample pack there…???
4. OR....should I just buy from a DAW or music blog website…???

In Conclusion…

Is buying samples kind of like buying/eating a “box of chocolates”. Hence…”you never know what you’re gonna get”…(Forrest Gump…I know…Cliché) (i.e. even a major retailer like loopmasters/beatport/vengeance...can have bad samples too)

Therefore…it doesn’t matter where you buy your samples from…as long as they sound great to you and is the kind of sound that you want and/or are after…correct…???

Even a sample pack from a lowbie producer’s crappy looking website….can have some ‘potential’ in the right hands…right…??? Or…do you think this can never be…???

What’s everyone’s experience and/or results of buying sample/sound packs online over your music production career…??? Pros & Cons…???

Tips and Suggestions Please.
 
Well, you kind of should know what you're gonna get from the demos and reviews. The specs should tell you something about the meticulousness of the kit you're getting. Or you can try to find stuff that other users of the product have done.

You've done a lot of these categorizing-the-hell-outta-stuff questionnaires, and nothing wrong with that...but the answer to this, like many of the other similar threads, is that trying to put these sample producers in pre-determined boxes simply isn't useful. Some small companies will have exceptional special sample sets. Some big companies will have uninteresting yet expansive sample sets. Some people will like the predictability and mainstream-ness of Vengeance; some will hate it. So yes, it doesn't matter where you get your stuff from as long as it does what you need it to do.
 
If not going the sound design route, or doing both then it'd be a good idea to just research that.
Generally though if there isn't a preview of what the noises are, might as well not mess with it :p
 
Sounddesigner here.

Those levels/measurements aren't really accurate. You can find amazing sounds and junk sounds from all of the stores/brands.
I've made sounds for Loopmasters, of which I received another pack from them to use as reference - and it was utter garbage (listening to the demo of it you can even hear the sound of a Facebook chat notification in the bacjground haha) - but at the same time they have made amazing sounds in other packs (like mine hihi).

Likewise there are small labels that make amazing sounds here and garbage there. Of course is there a bigger risk to go with a smaller label, especially if they're new, but the risk is always there.
I run my own label as well, which is pretty small, but I've received feedback from my label manager at one of my resellers that I make some of the most finely tuned presets on their store (which is one of the biggest stores if you count the number of brands they sell) - and I'm one of the favourites on another reseller.

If you're looking for sounds and are "afraid of buying in case it's junk", go with the products of which you can hear a large number of sounds in the product demo - that's why we make them.
And don't lean too much on comments from buyers on the product page - sometimes buyers don't know what to do with the new sounds but suddenly blame the designers (probably because they're not that experienced).
I've seen people highly like products which I thought were horrible by listening to the demo, while I've seen people disliking other labells' products that I as a designer would highly recommend people to buy because I hear the quality in the programming.
However if there are dozens of comments and all of them are bad, then be careful of buying it.

PS. Samplephonics are HUGE
 
Interesting question. These days Big Vendors got some quality too.

Anyway, here is a new small vendor for underground electronic music only. Quality over quantity: loops.directory
 
Well, as an official supplier of Reason ReFills to Propellerheads and having created sample packs for Elektron as well as selling on our own site Biome Digital - Audio Sample Packs, Synth Presets, Sound Design and a few carefully selected partners, I would say that you can get amazing quality from large and small sample companies. I have downloaded quite a few packs from the largest in the business and have not been impressed by a lot of the content. Some others are great quality.

I disagree with your league table too and the thing to consider is that the bigger companies have all different people (of varying skills and knowledge) making the sounds while smaller companies often have just one or two people making the sounds. My advise is to try the demo packs before buying and once you find someone making great content, buy from them! :)
 
Hopefully someone can answer my question but how do you find/know what a good sound is? And, will these sounds give you a "bigger sound"? I'm having a hard time get my beats to sound full (they sound lifeless and dull most of the time). I know a lot has to do with mixing but still could this be because of the sounds or loops I'm using?
 
Back
Top