The 7 best sites for free Samples and Loops
With hundreds-of-thousands of samples available across the web it’s hard to find the best ones for your mix, so we’ve compiled a collection of the best places to get samples – Oh, and they’re all free!
Sample Radar
Sample Radar is a GIANT collection of packs from the digital music news site Music Radar. Sample Radar has a massive collection of packs sorted by type, for example acoustic guitar samples, drum and bass samples, analogue circuit samples, bitcrush, chillout, reggae guitar, deep dub and a whole lot more.
Overall Sample Radar has almost 60,000 samples, potentially more by the time you’re reading this as they are constantly adding more packs and sounds. No matter what sound you’re looking for you are sure to find it amongst Sample Radar’s mammoth library of royalty-free, high quality samples.
Looperman
Looperman is slightly different to Music Radar and Converse’s sample packs as Looperman is completely community-driven. Looperman has a ridiculous amount of samples that users have created and uploaded over the years for free use by anyone.
The best and worst thing about Looperman is you never know what you’re going to get with each sample. There’s a deep search function so that you can sift through the so-far 67,000+ uploaded samples. Take a look at what they have on offer for yourself.
Wavy
Wavy doesn’t quite have the gargantuan libraries of the other selections in the list, in fact it only has 18 packs, but give it a chance. It’s appropriately named Wavy for it’s wavy sounds and groovy vibes with each pack containing uniquely atmospheric sounds.
From ‘#hydroelectric’ to ‘#basaltic’ each collection of samples from Wavy creates it’s own soundscapes. Each pack also features a short and sweet description, not of the sounds but of the feelings the creator got from the pack. For example #hydroelectric is described as –
“A ten-story cherry red stratocaster swells with electricity at the epicentre of a lightning storm. Power lines gyrate in sinusoidal unison. Transformers explode for miles and miles”
BBC 1Xtra Sample Bank
Did you know that BBC offered their own collection of music samples for a free download? Nor did I until recently. Unfortunately it seems to have been forgotten about and is no longer updated, but the page is still there for you to explore and download their free .wav samples.
The BBC’s collection of over 1,000 samples are split up into genre and type, including Drums, Bass, FX and a collection of Instruments, pads, and others. There isn’t an outrageous choice but there’s enough to keep you busy for a long while, and it’s the BBC so you can trust each sample to be high quality and sound great.
Samplephonics
Samplephonics are an excellent source for high quality samples with enough range to make everyone happy, no matter your style. Whilst they primarily offer brilliant paid sample packs Samplephonics feature loads of “freebie” packs which are essentially scaled down versions of their full premium sample packs.
There are packs for everything from one shots to drum and bass clips, ambient noise to club grooves. With Samplephonics you know you’re getting some brilliant sounds and if you really love a pack you have the option to pay for the full version, but with the amount of free packs you should be satisfied for a while.
Function Loops
Function Loops also offer free packs alongside a giant collection of paid samples. They don’t have the largest free collection by any means but each pack is loaded with quality samples from epic glitched vocals to psytrance loops.
Function Loops packs are aimed primarily at EDM producers, showing which styles each pack is best for in the description, but that doesn’t mean with a little creativity you can’t use these awesome sounds. Just get creative with it!
HipHopMakers
HipHopMakers may just be the best site on the list. Whilst they don’t offer their own packs they collect together the best samples and sample packs that they find in regularly uploaded lists. Not just a source for high quality samples but also a constant source for new sites offering samples.
For an example of what they offer the latest sample collection features Kanye West and DJ mustard inspired loops and sounds. Other lists cover brilliant drum samples (like the 10,000 free drum samples in the video above), instrument loops, vocal samples and acapellas, and much more. Explore their lists for yourself and you are guaranteed to find gold.