Create Digital Music » Free Tape-Recorded Samples of Roland TR-606, 808

Feb 18 2008

Free Tape-Recorded Samples of Roland TR-606, 808

Digital samples got no soul? How about digital samples of tape and cassette samples of classic Roland instruments? Huggie from New Zealand (and Goldbaby Productions) has been producing some lovely sample libraries from favorite gear, free and payware. He’s posted two of the best as freebies to the CDM forums. The hook: they’re recorded on analog before being sampled again.

There’s a TR606 recorded to an Ampex 1/2 inch 2-track tape machine, which appeared around Christmas. And this week, we got a superb 808 samples set recorded to a portable Marantz deck. (Funny, I’ve spent some quality time with both recorders, so that adds extra nostalgia.)

Less this all be chalked up to simple novelty, I have to admit you get a nice, warm sound out of the results. I’m dropping these on some Drum Racks in Ableton as we speak.

And here’s what it sounds like in action:
Cassette 808 Demo [mp3]

Free Tape606 sample pack… Merry Christmas! [CDM forums in December]

The Cassette 808 sample pack! Old skool and free… [CDM forums]

Free Stuff @ Goldbaby (other goodies, too, but for these scroll to the very bottom and look for Tape606 sample pack and The Cassette 808)

Thanks, huggie! Good stuff. Anyone else with soundware they want to share, please let us know.

Essential Keyboard Technique: Sun Ra

Hands-on, Interview: Stribe Multi-Touch Controller

6 Comments

(noou)

thanks a lot Huggie! looking forward to (ab)using them!

February 18, 2008 @ 4:32 pm

Gustavo

I liked these so much I bought the “Tape808″ kit, which is a very nice set of 808 samples recorded through nice outboard, to 2″ tape. I’ve been using them for a while, and it’s really the most useable 808 kit I’ve heard.

Far better than the muddy 808/909 kits floating around the ‘net for years. And inexpensive too.

February 18, 2008 @ 7:36 pm

Matte

Yeah those absolutely rock! We need more things recorded to cassette tape and then sampled, and we need them right now!

February 19, 2008 @ 6:26 am

Create Digital Music » Free Faux Bent Instruments

[...] sound-producing tech. Hot on the heels of Indirect-to-Digital - by-way-of-tape samples of the TR606 and 808, here are some digital recreations of circuit-bent noisemakers. Of course, I generally prefer to [...]

February 20, 2008 @ 11:36 am

JM

The Tape606 link doesn’t work. I must be the only one who tried it.

February 24, 2008 @ 7:30 pm

Create Digital Music » Free Samples: Lo-Fi Drum Machines, Fisher Price Music Box Record Player

[...] odd soundware keeps on coming — hot on the heels of faux bent instruments and a tape-recorded Roland 606 and 808, here are more sounds to satisfy your need for unusual [...]