Hey guys, slight delay on the next freebie mag. RL duty calls. Just gotta fix the draft, so next edition will be out by the 20th! Thank you for reading!

Hey guys! It's that time again! No, not Pride Month -- though it IS that time, when every corporation and its mother temporarily becomes rainbow logos and everyone is gay, including you.

Yes, it's THAT time of the month, the season to be jolly -- because several gigantic blocks of words about free music production stuff are now here.

PS: Don't miss this year's upcoming NGADM (Newgrounds Audio Deathmatch), organized by @AED-4, auditions opening July 1st!

The NGADM is going on its 15th anniversary and WILL BE A BLAST. I've judged several of 'em, and this year I'll be seeing you on the panel again! If you want a thicc track review from me, come audition!

Now, jolly gay period jokes and cool music comps aside, I'm PROUD to present another installment of ADR3-N's Music Producer Freebie Mag - June List 2024!

The last several mags have covered maybe a terabyte of content in a TINY amount of time. I'm still digesting it tbh, but I promise I'll make it up to you with buckets more lol. If you find you still need more snacks by the end, you can check out previous editions here!

May List 2024, Aprillist 2024, Marchlist 2024, Februarylist 2024, Januarylist 2024, Decemberlist 2023, Septemberlist 2023, Novemberlist 2021, and finally Octoberlist 2021!

This month's narrative focus is, *exaggerated drumroll* *BadumTiss*, UNSOLICITED BUT TOTALLY HELPFUL ADVICE AND COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF MUSIC PRODUCTION IN POOR FORMATTING!!

But before that, let's drop into the plugins!

Vinyl Guitar (video) - This baddie is a quick dirty vinyl guitar, plus a time saver if you ask me. Good for lo-fi "chillhop" and modern laid back hip-hop beats. If you're looking for instant vibe, a synthy feel without being corny, it's a good choice.

Would Cymatics Origin on Ample Sounds' Acoustic Taylor get a similar feel? Probably, but beatmaking is 110% workflow. Whatever gets you the fastest, cleanest result is the best choice! And you can't knock free.

Grammy Nominated Producer KXVI's "Essential" Free Plugins

I guess you can call this a producer reaction. But before your eyes glaze over, I promise you it's worth it.

I saw this video by a guy styling himself as Grammy Nominated Producer KXVI and thought to myself, SURELY this is an excuse to name drop a load of sponsored, expensive, unnecessary azz plugins none of us can afford, but I was pleasantly surprised! He not only hypes up several FREE plugins; he understands the struggle of making trials go to work!

He does talk fast and doesn't link the plugs, so I'll be doing that below with explanations of what they do and how to use them. You can watch the video and/or scroll down for the list!

The ONLY VST’s You Need in 2024

Cymatics Free Downloads

Cymatics have released boat loads of free samples and plugins: delays, tape emulators, percussion processors. I totally agree with KXVI when I say they are swiss-army lifehacks for producing music.

The first must have on the list is Cymatics - Deja Vu

Deja Vu is a quick, easy, "better version of halftime," with extra bells and whistles. You can drop the speed to half, make it smooth or choppy, change the speed and pitch, and completely flip the vibe.

The last halftime plugin I recommended btw was VYBE. In comparison, Deja Vu has never crashed my DAW, but if halftime is something you need, take your pick! The perfect result is just a bounce away!

Cymatics Origin

Origin is a bit-crush, vinyl tape emu, detuner, saturation, and chorus FX bundled into a sleek, simple interface.

If I haven't recommended it enough times, I'll do it again. It's super easy to use and so intuitive, to the point I use it almost everywhere, sometimes on the master like I did here (No Propeller).

KXVI admits Origin replaces and maybe even exceeds the utility of his longtime BFFs Decimort 2 and RC20, both sizable investments at ~150 euros plus tax. He's not alone.

Reason being, unlike with other vintage-y downsamplers and multi-FX, in Origin sample rates are easy to approximate, sound good out the box, and the pitch wobble is more natural than RC20.

It's true there are other plugs that have these functionalities separately. They might even sound better, but for workflow, nothing beats Origin. Absolutely SOLID pick for your arsenal.

Moving right along, next Cymatics freebie is Memory

Memory is a chorus and detuner to get some extra warble going behind Origin. Instead of having a fixed rate, you can really modulate these parameters around for a wobbling record, tape on its last legs type effect.

Is it my favorite plugin of all time? No, but upon hearing those presets swapping and that delicious wobble in the video (19:10), you'll know what I mean.

And that's the last of the Cymatics Freebies.

Next we have Spitfire LABS.

I promised myself I'd only say this once, LABS IS AWESOME. But I'll probably say it again, because, it's awesome. Perhaps the best free libraries of orchestral and live instruments, voices, etc. to this day.

Soft Piano and BBC Symphony Orchestra are two of KXVI's favorites, but there are many, many more.

Like him, before I could afford many Kontakts, LABS was my go-to. Even then, I still go back for goodies, like the choirs. Bc who doesn't want to make a franken choir of 15 different free choir plugs? (If you can't tell, I have an addiction, lol.)

LABS requires two things of you to get the goods -- make a Spitfire account, and download their manager.

There are tons of gigs of sample based instruments available. The best part is, they update them every so often to include more. Also, they do keep up with their software updates for bug patches!

The next great free plugin is Decent Sampler

Now I know for a fact I've probably rammed this and sforzando down your throat, but Decent Sampler is pretty much a "free Kontakt" style VST that, like Kontakt, supports graphic interfaces AND has a low memory footprint.

So, you've heard it from me, Venus Theory, and now a Grammy nominated producer, this one deserves a place in your heart.

See, Decent Sampler is not only cool and free, but as is true with sforzando's completely open format, developers can easily create patches and sample banks for it. It has many, MANY more free options than Kontakt as a direct result.

And I know you've heard the dreaded "FREE" instrument that only works with the PAID version of Kontakt, or the "free" pack that coincidentally only works with version 6.8 of Kontakt, when you JUST got Kontakt 6.7, update, update *eye roll*

None of that with Decent Sampler. The format is open; you can google "free flute DS instrument" and be reasonably assured you'll find a result. Nifty!

Speaking of googling for free instruments…

PianoBook, which you may remember from a previous issue or two, is another great spot to scope out new sounds!

That's pianobook.co.uk, and they have many, many free Kontakt, Decent Sampler, and sfz instruments, submitted by users according to a simple but effective rubric.

This is actually the site that got me started making my own sample instruments, like The CTK-2400 Project and Saudade Metal Drums Remastered (video demo, sforzando)

Many of the samplists are impassioned hobbyists, and of course YMMV, but I haven't found a pack I didn't like or at least find useful in the popular tab. I'll list some cool ones below.

Cassette Drums by Dan Keen for Decent Sampler is a favorite for the 70s sound (though the demo is long af and unskippable on PB, so open it in another tab and skim for a quick demo)

Hunter Rogersson has also made a free Kontakt lib called The Spellsinger which literally took my breath away. May be the #1 male-female distant-mic choir I've ever seen, with three separate, utterly jaw-dropping FX chains paralleled on top of the dry signal you can adjust with the mod wheel. Check it out! (video at 3:33)

There's also this sweet Discord Choir by Fred Poirier for Decent Sampler that functions brilliantly as a pad for backing other choral patches. Reviews state that it "has to be heard to be believed".

Complete with the LABS patches we discussed earlier, I can only imagine the possibilities, loading these up in a template, mixing, and matching.

In short, you're really shooting yourself in the foot if you think you have to shell out dollars for quality. Do some window shopping. You just might find something you can lift off the shelf, for free, to compete with its paid analogues if not make them utterly obsolete!

And after these, little commercial break; we have a cute little freebie vault locked behind a mailing list for Sonix Audio and a prompt with some upsells that *wait a minute, record scratch*

I just spit out my tea. Let me rewind. Matter of fact let's do some history.

Sonix.audio is an online music prod sample store founded by KXVI, the guy whose list we're going through up to now, "to supply his award winning sounds to the producer community. Since [its founding in 2021, he has] sold over 10,000 products and received 2 GRAMMY nominations for our loops."

The licenses to their samples are Royalty Free UP TO 1 mil plays. In other words, unless you're ridiculously popular or get a placement, you're covered. Then you clear the samples and split the royalties accordingly.

By the time you get 1 million plays, any track will have done its work, and so will you. I think that's fair. (Cymatics is launching free BETAS of their kits now and selling the licenses under the same kind of guise.)

So anyway, under FREE Kits, you're gonna hit that email marketing jig I just mentioned.

You'll put in your information, and an email will arrive in 3.5 to your junk mail. You're going to un-junk it and click the link to the sample vault, which will take you to Dropbox and/or an optional discord.

At which point your jaw will hit the floor. Because there, in the folders, are over 10 GB of content, loops, drums, vox, presets, PDFs on how to get your money as a producer, and probably more.

That is, if you aren't like me and put in your email, hit enter, immediately read the upsell that followed of "$7 for a sample pack from a guy who I just watched rattle on for 20 minutes about his libraries? Yeah I might just cop it." Copped said samps, and then was like wtf where is my freebie, before I remembered to check my email lol.

The cheapo multi-pack is Mini Stash II, the sequel to Mini Stash.

I figured why not. Shrug. I got $7. The pack came with an extra surprise video from KXVI on 3 separate loops from the pack and a little of his thought process as he's working.

Note if you get the 10 GB zip, you're probably gonna have to extract it with WinRAR folder-by-folder. I tried to unzip it with 7zip and that gave me errors, despite there being nothing wrong with the file.

//end commercial break

With the Sonix.Audio self-plugs out of the way, we're looking at Baby Audio Free FX, which you can get for the low price of occasional email marketing.

Let's not take up too much of your time; they are in order: Magic Dice, Pitch Drive, Beat Slammer, and Magic Switch.

Magic Dice is a random multi FX plugin, which gives you random settings on a chain, good for oneshots and bouncing, but I wonder if you could modulate the hidden parameters with midi.

Pitch Drift does what it says on the tin. It's a one knob, or rather slider that might go nicely ahead of something like Cymatics Origin in a chain, or even on a master or tape stop for transitions. I can also see it being used for warbling effectively when modulated. It has a cute little visualizer too!

Beat Slammer, well, slams the input. But it has a makeup gain knob and output. ;)

And finally, Magic Switch is a cute little chorus plugin!

A fuller explanation of these awaits at the link provided. If any of these pique your interest, drop an email and wait 5 minutes, and your downloads will arrive shortly.

Moving on!

NOT FREE, BUT… you can use the trial for 20 minutes, bounce the audio, or save a preset, unload the plugin, reload, and repeat, so technically it's still free. - KXVI

Cableguys - Shaperbox 3 - Glitchy, warbly, reversing, and otherwise, Shaperbox has you covered. You can create fantastic paterns with this VST that just sound FIRE.

The only caveat to this one is price, and if not price, then the big bolded disclaimer up there. But I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who does that with trials, find a setting and bounce lol.

Thus ends the "Essential" half of KXVI's list.

Next up on the list are plugins that are still cool but with some more niche applications or a harder to understand interface.

Prisma - We've already gone through Prisma in a previous issue, but seeing this ugly ass UI in the hands of a professional gave me life. The free version just has a banner at the bottom if I remember correctly reminding you to support the developer. :)

Prisma is a multiband distortion with many different colors of hideousity to throw on top of your sound and make it gross.

Autochroma by imagi.ro is a glitchy granular FX plugin with an interface I'm almost completely incapable of understanding, but a completely usable set of presets that make these beautiful, percussive, delay-y textures. There's a short trial period, after which you can do the good-ol switcheroo with presets and bouncing audio.

what is autochroma? | walkthrough by @connermusic

One thing about Autochroma is that with the same preset, you can bounce multiple different versions of the same loop or sample. It's different every time, so you can 100% wet the signal and pan around multiple different renders for a granular cloud if you will.

Then there's Vital, with whom I'm sure you're all acquainted if you're like me, completely addicted to free plugs.

I disagree with KXVI's assertion that Vital is NOT in fact essential to any up and comers here, but I might be able to see his reasoning in that the free version is virtually bereft of good presets and a bit hard to get used to if you're coming from Serum, Nexus, or Massive.

Still, he makes the same point that I do that great presets are not at ALL hard to find on PresetShare.com or YT/Google, and neither are wavetables if you like to design your own synths, which we also covered in a previous edition of the mag -- think we got them off comfybox.

And back to the realm of squeezing the juice out of the trial, Guitar Rig 6 is great for running your leads through for, literally no reason other than to make them sound wild. (Oops that's Guitar Rig 7 -- we'll see if it works)

I've been running my keys through amps for a while now btw. These leads are not in fact guitars! (2:19)

Селена Гомес - Хочу Чтоб Ты Знала (2:19)

My point: You don't NEED per se Guitar Rig 6 or 7 to achieve this effect.

All you need is an amp, a cab, or an amp and cab all in one, and some kind of multi-fx you can modulate to get things cooking. Amps and cabs aren't just useful for the metal heads shredding. They have other applications!

Jacob Collier Audience Choir

I think this one speaks for itself. It's got some interesting colors, stomps, claps and so on. Not my cup of tea, but someone might love it, so appending a link to the video.

How to use the free Jacob Collier Audience Choir | Native Instruments

And that rounds out KXVI's list. He goes on beyond this to say which plugins he would whittle down to if he absolutely had to, but I think you can do that for yourself. Or just watch him. You do you.

Wow. I didn't think that I'd be writing so much for such a short list. Well, in the interest of saving time and touching grass some time this week, that's the last of the plugs we'll be covering this month.

But we do have one honorable mention!

@Czyszy's nice FREE guitar cab IR (Newspost)

The next thing on my list is things I wish I knew 10 years ago when I thought I knew what I was doing but obviously did not

AKA

The Unsolicited Life Changing Advice Column

So begins the torrent of pro tips you never knew you needed.

We'll start with a quickie from Alice Yalcin Efe of Mercurial Tones Academy, aka my favorite EDM production and mixing guru. It's short and sweet, and you should probably take notes, because we're gonna learn 19 different grooves in the time it takes me to remember what I was just talking about.

19 Techno Patterns Changed My Life in 4 mins

Ok, 19 is more like the amount of times I FORGET what I'm talking about in 4 minutes, but bookmark this one to the speed dial, steal some of these ideas, and get inspired!

Next up is a new episode of Myth Busters from Jesse Cannon -- I mean: Jesse Cannon DESTROYING The 7 Biggest Music Promotion Myths In 2024.

This video is long, so I've also written a condensed version. Feel free to skip and watch if that's your gig.

Fact: Music Production Twitter, Reddit, and YT have gone off the rails. Radio, TV and even biographies are saturated with wishful thinking, whining, and outright lying about how the industry works, or should work, or how to advance your music in the digital age.

Have you ever heard, "Good music simply promotes itself!"

I have. But does that ever happen to me? NO!

The only time my music promotes itself is if and when I get Frontpaged on NG, or I make an translation cover of something like Ne Ver Ne Boisya (things I know my YT audience searches for, which brings me to my next point)

It MIGHT be true that good music promotes itself, IF your music magically happens to sit in front of the exact audience who would organically share it. Chances are if you're reading this tho, you're dealing with the #1 problem of artists today: nobody knows who you are!

And problem #2, you don't know who your target audience is. You could be like me and discover it completely by accident with a passion project after years of inconsistency, but that's not the way to be. You need to determine who to market your music to and what they want. Make some videos or shorts or visualizers or WHATEVER to appeal to that want. And stop being shy about sharing!

If you don't know where to start, STUDY!

Stop scrolling TikTok and find some social media gurus for WHATEVER kind of content you can envision doing!

You might complain, "but GUYS, that's a LOT of work!"

But as Jesse explains, before the internet, artists did interviews, press releases, and shows over and over, touring, flyering, and phone calling to get their music heard. Ad nauseam.

The majority of our work today is online, tending to the audience you already have, focusing on quality over quantity. 3-7 pieces of content per week (promotional, videos, and otherwise) is ideal and totally doable.

What do you think I'm doing now? Writing a magazine for no one to read? Ofc not. I'm very vocal about it in my day-to-day convos here. I'm not shy to drop my own tracks as examples for a plugin or method I mention either, especially here!

Now, am I going to be that artist who releases a new video every week? No. I'm already pushing my limits, and I don't assume anyone reading this has time for FULL balls to the wall commitment. But you can do SOMETHING productive.

And you should absolutely link up with others you come across online and IRL musically or otherwise.

Find people who do graphic design, video editing, music videos, etc., things you lack; you can pitch them a song or commission work from them.

But don't just do this randomly with cold DMs. Strike up a conversation on their pages, comment on their work, then eventually seg-way into what you'd like to do together! It's like a date -- nobody wants to go out with the construction worker catcalling every girl who passes by, but a nice conversation and a business card might get you a callback. ;)

Ex: @Odd-Naw has done some really cool album art for me in the past, @Shayinator is finishing up a really cool graphic for my page as we speak. I have other contacts who I'm thinking of commissioning a music video from.

Ex 2: I've also done freakishly cool collabs with @trunotfals, @FarFromSundown, and @SkankyMojo that have resulted in not only more fans but FRIENDSHIPS. So give it a shot!

Never discount the importance of friends in music, people you can collaborate and and grow with. Not to mention inspire!

Other Online Producer Myths

For some reason, people think we're hopeless -- the labels control the charts, and daddy's-money nepo babies like Billie Eilish and Doja Cat are the only ones who can make it big.

Maybe so, but we're in the wild west era of music, where grass roots followings have more influence than you think.

Nepo-babies might have a lot more in terms of initial resources thanks to mom and dad, but if they aren't talented, they're not breaking out. Even with the financial freedom to work on music day and night plus their parents' connections, they can still end up screwed.

Editorial Playlists are STILL important

Not that you'll ever see me on them, but the benefit of these is self-explanatory. They do in fact convert fans and algorithm in your favor. One of these days, write a pitch or two. You miss 100% of the shots you never take.

You don't have to have a huge catalog to get big

Some of the artists on the top 200 have 30+ songs, but correlation is not causation. You don't need that many. You just need a few exceptional ones and a little consistency. I struggle with this myself, but hey. Garbage in, garbage out.

/end commentary

Whew that was a lot of text I didn't know I had in me.

Our next sub-section of Things I Wish I Knew Before I Wasted 10,000 Hours Acquiring DAW-Induced Hearing Loss covers mixing myths that I unfortunately fell for because some audiophile said so.

If you have at least 1 braincell left, and you still want to learn more about making music, read on.

Common Misconceptions of MusicProducerTube

So, you know how we're all our own harshest critics?

Well, if the shoe fits you as it does me, you've prob been researching all sorts of things to improve your music, only to find out a lot of the tips you learned were based on lies, circular snake oil, or outright bullshit. Right?

Like, someone please tell me why the majority of help videos are on mixing and mastering, yet the majority of problems in mix or master are plain bad production? But everyone says you need this or that $$$$ing plugin, and "don't do xyz, use this."

For instance - don't put reverb on the master, or kick, or bass. Granted, I'd usually agree (if you've seen reviews from me in the last decade, you know lol) bc it was the only advice I ever heard to keep a clean mix!

And that's because music prod gurus, where I got my info, were getting their advice not from pros, but from internet bros, leading us to the top 4 myths of music prod I used to believe.

MYTH #1. Reverb is evil

There's a widely held belief among audiophiles that reverb is the bane of our existence, creating resonances where resonances need not be and destroying n00b mixes before they leave the headphone jack with a nasty lo-mid wash.

Have you ever considered there ARE times using reverb "wrong" is the RIGHT THING to do?

Ex: a slow rock ballad with lots of space between the kick and other melodic elements -- you're not gonna leave that pillowy kick naked in a vacuum.

Ex 2: a shoegaze track, where that reverb wash is kind of the point?

There are genres and situations within genres where reverb is the tool for the job; you just have to use it intelligently. Watch for phase issues for your other instruments (re: bass and kick). Don't make it UBER noticeable or genre-inappropriate. STUDY.

This is of course not the safe-route n00bs are hoping for, nor something I expect them to get for reasons I will get into, but for the initiated, sometimes reverb is the secret sauce! I understand your initial revulsion too, bc the majority of the reason people tell you not to use it on a master or any low frequency instrument is the resulting wall of mud (wrecking your compression, phase, etc.)

The solution in most cases is to low-cut the reverb to 250 hz or so, roll off some of the highs if you don't want that shimmer, have a shorter tail, and turn the reverb wet down until it sounds suitable. (also, sidechain)

Send tracks are a godsend, so you can EQ and side-chain to taste.

Personally, I would never use reverb on three things: a fast moving bass instrument, a double-time kick on a metal track, or a master in general if the genre did not call for shoe-gaze. In fact, until recently I barely used reverbs at all due to the bunk advice I read online! Instead I used ping-pong delay, which… also causes its own mud and should probably be treated the same as verb.

Has it hurt me? No. There are plenty of ways to skin a skeever.

Things I WILL use reverb on: higher frequency instruments like keys and hihats because our ears don't care too much about the phase of those, snares because DSHHH DSSHHH means good, and vocals; a very slight amount of reverb properly managed is a beautiful thing.

Moving along.

MYTH #2. Choirs should be completely intelligible

I think this is self-explanatory. The purpose of a choir is to add a layer of EPIC, not to be UNDERSTOOD. Have you ever heard an actual choir perform? They sound cool af, but even in my own native language I'm lucky to understand a word or three of opera. Possibly bc I'm deaf-ish.

If you want your lead to be understood, have a lead vocalist mixed on top. Otherwise good luck. Choirs have soloists out front for this reason.

The only thing really important is that the releases and articulations of each individual vocalist are properly timed, not for intelligibility, but for cleanliness. Operatic singing manipulates vowels in a way typical every day singing does not, making them super open and resonant. They sound very different and may be hard to understand even with a soloist.

So no, your choir does not have to sound squeaky clean!

MYTH #3. You need this EQ for more color…

And that EQ too, and this parametric vintage three knob colorizer, and this 1982 mixer board vst for this and that and so on…

Um, no, and I don't expect you to take my word for it, since some of these EQs have popped up in my feed, and I myself once bought into the hype of this or that particular vintage-plug, but this is the digital age. It's… snakeoil.

I came across this sad truth in Russian actually, on Zvukar Bombit's channel.

КРАСЯЩИХ ЭКВАЛАЙЗЕРОВ НЕ СУЩЕСТВУЕТ?

You probably can't understand Russian (Eng subs are pretty ok) -- but if you can, you can skip the rest of this and just watch the video.

What I got from his frequency graphs is this: there IS no such thing as ANALOG COLORIZING EQ. Even if plugin companies believe the hype, the data doesn't lie. The difference in "color" when controlling for unique filters, boosts, cuts, and so on between "analog warmth" EQs is INAUDIBLY SMALL.

Too Long, Didn't Russian: EVERY plugin is digital. When measured for frequency response, they have little or no difference between them EXCEPT in EQ filter curves and how they might shift when you nudge knobs around.

The reason you THINK these EQs add analog flavor is actually the way they look. The human brain is affected by what it sees, so change plugin graphics, and you change the way it sounds. This is why music videos are great, and why batman skins were so popular for Windows Media Player in the 00's.

TLDR: Don't buy the hype -- EQs are about workflow. The average listener and pros alike probably won't hear whether you used a digital-analog-bro EQ or a 31 channel digital freebie, IF you use it well! The analog-plugin craze can be summed up in two words, irresistible marketing!

MYTH #4 Resonances must be cut at all costs!

This is a pernicious myth I find hanging out all over ProProducerTube. So-called experts, including my past self, insist you must scan every element of your track for hidden "resonances". I'm talking cutting offending frequencies out of the bass, kick, snare, vocals, pads, all the FX, you name it.

I call this "producerizing," what you do when there's really nothing left to be done to a track, but producing is supposed to be hard, so you do what you have to do to make it hard.

Here's the thing. Cut too much, and your instrumental/leads are going to sound stillborn.

Why? I'm glad you asked. Every frequency, every note, has harmonics. You'll notice them if you open up de-hum in a FX suite like iZotope 10 and try to eliminate something as simple as a PC hum, outdoor ambience, or an air conditioner from an otherwise quiet recording.

You select the noise, learn it, and get a frequency back with the harmonics. Our own voices are chock full them too. It's how we make vowels, how talk-boxes, vocoders, and wah-wah pedals work, and why throat singing sounds cool. Cutting them should not be on your list.

There are some instances EQ cuts are useful and unpleasant noises are properly called resonances -- aka a constant treble hiss on your guitar, dissonant snare reso, room noise. But you should only cut what DOESN'T harmonize with your track, ex: snare ring and rhythm guitar mud.

Please, don't do it to lead vocals, bass, or kicks unless they REALLY sound GROSS!

/end rant

Anyway, that's about all I got for now. I dunno how many hours this took me to edit, but I hope you found something useful!

If you haven't already, check out SECRET AGENT, made with April List's star freebie, the E-Mu Proteus.

 https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/audio/5764518

Stay tuned this Friday at 09:30 NG server time for a fresh drop, then the following Friday, an interview part 2 with @Aalasteir coming up, and then July 15th, for the next issue of the Freebie Mag!

This edition would not be possible without my supporters. You can join the list on ko-fi or Patreon (sidebar left) for slick perks like priority requests for commissions and projects. Love y'all!

Brought to you by : @MATRVG, @MariogD, @Cyberdevil, and @JimmyTheCaterpillar

If you want to support me besides, you can subscribe to my YouTube Channel or follow me here on NG! Or like my stuff and vote 5. Every bit helps!

I also have a Beatstars. Everything there is free. ;)

Previous Editions: May List 2024, Aprillist 2024, Marchlist 2024, Februarylist 2024, Januarylist 2024, Decemberlist 2023, Septemberlist 2023, Novemberlist 2021, and Octoberlist 2021!

That wraps it up for this month. If you have any questions or requests, let me know!

CIAO!

Heya! So I was gonna post the latest edition of ADR3-N's Producer Mag RIGHT NOW, but due to complications related to # of memes, I mean images, it's gonna have to wait until I get a spare half-hour to edit it.

Now that that's out of the way, stay tuned for tonight, because I'll be going over SEVERAL free plugin favorites from a GRAMMY NOMINATED producer, plus the biggest music production myths holding you back from making tracks that are Sausage FAT.

Drop a comment and lmk if you want an @ when it's ready!

Love,

-AD

Hey guys, I'm back! This month's freebie mag is a little short because LIFE HAPPENED. TLDR I worked a LOT, did some home improvement projects, got a car, and lost power after a storm. And that seriously impeded my habitual data hoarding and list making, as I'm sure you understand!

I was charging my phone at work and sweating to death for a few days, writing in my notebook for shiggles by candle light, worrying how much food was going to go bad out of the fridge, and eating gas station tacos for a bit. There's still a tree just chilling on our power line as I write. I only just got back to business semi as usual and still have a lot of projects to get back on!

Anyway since I've been touching grass against my will, this issue is gonna be more like a midnight snack. If you're still hungry later, you can go ahead and check out the last several issues below. I'm kinda in disbelief the last one went over 350 gigs. I can't imagine anyone really downloading ALL of it, except me. But you're more than welcome to prove me wrong!

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

Now that the formalities are out of the way, onto the list. Dig in!

Samples - 3 packs

(EXPIRED) @Synami says: Cymatics is offering **11** of their paid packs for free (FX, a multitude of melody loops ranging from gospel, trap, general hip hop to guitar loops, some noise/textures too), if you fully watch one of their videos.

Unison Giveaway - If the endless emails from Sep haven't given you a headache, they're offering 3.5 GB of free samples over at Unison Producer Growth Hub. Caveat, you have to apply to join it, and answer all the questions... And not everyone will be accepted. For Christ's sake, I'm getting tired of Unison and their marketing, if you can call it that.

Max Sansalone - Max released a free drum loop pack. Max is a funky drummer, to put it lightly. I'm talking filthy, in the pocket, booming and bapping, and pretty much sonically destroying his drums. I've been following him for a few years now, and he has a cool little website where he has taster packs and paid samples. Found this in my feed and thought I'd share! (Link is a video so you can see for yourself!)

Plugins by category

Vibe, for lack of a better word

Major cool factor here. Vybe is, well, a vibe enhancer, a purely transition focused plugin that allows you to do tape-stop like effects, low and hi pass, and half time effects with a dry/wet knob.

No more spending 10 minutes setting up a bunch of automations, dropping an octave or rendering a track, then playing it at half speed before crossfading back into the drop. It sounds great to my ears. Check out the demo!

Note: Unstable in Mixcraft 10. Recommend saving a backup of your project!

Guitar Plugins

I was completely blown away by this, but AuroraDSP dropped a plugin I would have DIED for back in the late 2000's, an emulation of the Line6 Pod. The kidney bean amp FX sim that every Myspace band on the planet knew and loved.

You'll have to scroll through the rest of their free plugs and create an account to download, but it's well worth it. Also got a sick little pre-amp over there, a guitar tuner, April Fools' Invisible Reverb (perfect for when your client says the vocal track is just missing something), an IR Loader, and Goblyn, the nasty guitar plugin.

Synths

@Synami says: ExtraBold from nakst is a free subtractive synthesiser with 3 oscillators, 4 filter modes, 3 effect slots with 5 different categories and offers 2 envelopes alongside 4 LFOs for modulation. It has 64 builtin patches and no copy protection/DRM (!!!). CLAP, native FL, AU and standalone formats are supported.

Verbs

Endless Reverb - What it says on the tin, a unique mono-stereo, pitch-bend capable, granular and pre-delay customizable reverb that is sure to make any sound tantalizingly spacious. Something to consider adding to your spice rack if you haven't found your favorite flavor of reverb just yet.

DDMF also has a small selection of other freebies, like a resizable BPM/time-signature display, a 10 band high IIEQ with a hi-lo shelf built in, a beloved tube pre-amp, and a fancy ColourEQ.

Utilities (exe)

Riffstation was made free in 2018. It's a great chord analyzer that unfortunately could be lost forever now that the website is down. You can find it at the link above and preserve a piece of music history uwu

Riff station was intended to help practice any song of your choosing. Pop in an mp3 and you can speed up, slow down, transpose, see analyzed chords, and even fretboard positions/chord shapes for guitar. It also can separate L/R/Center/lo-hi pass to help you hear rhythm and lead at a glance so to speak. Really cool software. But typically I use it to chord analyze loops and melodies I intend to sample.

Loved it for years, and going to continue doing so! Now that it's free, I couldn't resist sharing!

Misc Reading

There is legitimate reason for concern that one of the most popular communication platforms for music producers may be spying on your every move (DISCORD cough)

Friendly reminder you should not use your professional communication platforms for personal purposes, no ASL (90s kids know what this is), and make sure to use a different email for each in case of a breach.

The TLDR for this one is Discord tracks what apps you use, tracks all your communication, and stores it for govt inquiry. Since all of that is searchable don't do or discuss anything you wouldn't want daddy govt to know! And be advised, it's probably best to close it on your browser until you want to use it. Who knows if it's got a keylogger popped in there that we all agreed to in one of their many million changes of terms of use!

Random facts no one asked for

AI generated music - As you know, AI generated music is starting to flood the Audio Portal. It's becoming harder to recognize for the average user due to increases in quality, leaving the task of identifying it up to us music aficionados and otherwise hard nosed snobs.

Mission: You owe it to yourself to get to know SunoAI, Udio, and other AI generation platforms; learn to recognize the signs of their use (not to submit music, because I'll personally ban you lol). I don't want to be the mythical Paul Bunyon against the tunneling machine, and I don't know any other producer who does. This shit is coming straight for our jobs.

Right now, the tracks coming out of these are easily spotted by their 192 kbps bit rate, artefacts in the vocals, hard to hear hihat patterns, and strange pronunciation/song structure/phrasing. I'm sure they'll get better over time as more models come out. Keep your eyes peeled and start a-flagging.

Archive.org - Archive.org is facing some legal trouble after the covid pandemic for their open library's book-lending function violating the copyrights of various publishers. Who knows if the greedy fooks will be satisfied with that portion of the site being taken down, so just a friendly reminder to visit often, back up your favorite content, and potentially move toward more decentralized sources like torrents, especially if you don't want said content to turn into lost media. (not inciting copyright infringement -- there is plenty of user-generated/open-source content on Archive that deserves preservation!)

Power outage prep - You never know when a power outage might be coming to a store near you -- or rather, your house. Since I just went through this myself, I highly recommend a solar phone/laptop charger, a small generator (even a handcrank will do!), tea light candles or your choice of LED flashlight, a battery or solar powered radio, a couple cases or jugs of water, a small gas powered cookstove, and some non-perishable food to survive your trip back to the 1800s! All these can be purchased in due time and will serve you well in case of emergency. Thank me never.

I also recommend an ice maker and several gallon ziplocs of ice or a trip to the store to buy ice ahead of T-storms to keep your fridge from going foul after 4 hours without power. And don't check the temp constantly, or it will go foul faster. Splashing the body with water if it's hot and opening windows is a valid option in the advent of no handheld fans.

Wikipedia - okay, so I don't have a link for this, but some time this month it came to my attention that Wikipedia, or rather the wikimedia marketing side of Wikipedia, is again begging for donations like it's the end of the world. But did you know that wikipedia's donation side makes over 180 million a year in funding, enough to operate in barebones capacity for 150 years? EVERY YEAR?!

This is just a PSA to stop feeling guilty that you don't contribute to them. None of that money goes to the volunteers who make those articles possible anyway. It would be more helpful finding the patreons of the individuals who write your favorite articles and donating directly to them, because the marketing side of Wikipedia literally has nothing to do with the media on Wiki, and without the contributors would be worth nothing. Just my 2 cents.

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And that's it for the list. Short and sweet, but life happens and we make the best of it. Before I catch y'all on the flip side, be sure to check out @Aalasteir's awesome interview series! I just recorded an episode with him these past 2 weeks. It took almost 6 hours to record between two sessions, and I can't imagine how much longer it took to edit. Be out ETA -- actually I don't know because I've been touching grass. Anyway, should be here by the 16th.

Edit it's here!

Anyway, I'll catch y'all later!

Adrean's Music Producer Freebie Mag is brought to you by viewers like you! Shoutout to my amazing supporters: @MATRVG, @MariogD, @Cyberdevil, and @JimmyTheCaterpillar. I appreciate you all so much. Love you!

Just gonna leave this here. @Aalasteir and I did our little interview jig on Thursday and got SO carried away chatting, we'll have to hit it again! So, new deadline for questions! And since I don't want to ruin my Front Page capability for the music prod mag, I'll drop a list of @'s below of everyone who commented/reacted to my last post. Ask me anything!

Besides the interview and trying to catch up on much needed sleep, I'm still alive. Slowly getting back to commissions. Think I just burned myself out working on several big projects at once, to the point it was getting in the way of my sleep. And sleep is something I realized I very much needed after completely crashing after work today lol.

Ofc, imposter syndrome kicks in when you overbook yourself and feel like you aren't getting enough done, but I'll live. Despite being tired all the time, I gotta say I recommend taking up at least a part-time as a music artist. It's a great way to get out of the house and feel like you're doing something (to fight depression), and it's WAY better than trying to make enough money for rent on commissions alone. Comms only amounts to lots of hours at less than minimum wage, and often no wage if you don't have a network of supporters already. Day job is the way to go.

TLDR, AMA before Thursday, and if you're an internet musician, don't be afraid to get a "real" job!

For real yall, I fooled myself into thinking you weren't a "real" musician if you weren't living off of what you love for years. You remember those days if you've seen my discography. So much stress. So much hustle, and for what? I went to school for music and basically lived off of scholarships I earned, or in mommy's basement, that is, until 2019.

Let me tell you a little story, about how once upon a time and probably against my will, I became a chicken wizard at Popeye's. Soon after I joined the military, where I realized I could afford all the software I wanted which was GREAT. I retired semi-gracefully; turns out the military is a great choice in terms of workers' compensation. But it sucks for reintegration. I went for a year without work. Job market sucked where I lived and I didn't have a car.

I almost forgot about how nice it was to work. Then I became a dishwasher and discovered all over how standing for several hours and constantly being tired sucks, but the lack of mental effort required to earn $$$ as opposed to spending all day on a beat someone might not pay for and still being tired is fire.

Hey, just leaving this here so everyone knows I'm not dead and yes, I intend on coming back very soon. RL is hitting me pretty hard tho. I'm picking up extra days at work to pay off a car, driving over an hr to get the car and so on, and my body is just not holding up to hours and hours of physical labor. I'm constantly tired, not getting a whole lot of outside work done, sleeping whenever I can, and I just want to bed rot for a minute tbh.

I'll still be on every so often to check up on super important things like resolving user cases and one interview with @Aalasteir, but besides that I'll be just taking a couple days to lick my wounds, go through sample CDs and live life or whatever. Touching grass is very underrated!

TLDR: Comms temporarily closed. I'm freaking zonked! I'll be back later for an interview with @Aalasteir and ofc the monthly music mag. If you miss me, check out my links in the left hand panel, or, I dunno, leave me an audio review lol

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!

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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!