fugwhump has uploaded a fantastic free kit of drum sounds, built with a Eurorack modular synth. It’s licensed as Creative Commons, so you can use it free. ccMixter even includes features for linking your own work (remixes, podcasts, videos, webpages, albums), in case you do decide to use it. It’s nice, fat, raw sounding stuff. There are a few loops – mostly useful for previewing – and nine single-shot samples. Enjoy!

Analog Kit Lite by fugwhump [ccMixer]

Found via Jacob Joaquin’s Twitter.

What are your favorite finds from ccMixter (or other Creative Commons samples sources)? Sample packs you’ve uploaded? Ones you’ve enjoyed using in your own work? Let us know in comments and we’ll do a round-up soon.

The excellent architectural resource BLDGBLOG reports that the ruined husk of the recently-demolished Cabrini-Green in Chicago has been transformed into an eerie wind instrument of sorts. Geoff Manaugh writes about the image we see here:

The old tower blocks of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green, transformed by demolition into totem pole-like wind instruments, flute-ruins, a musically-active wasteland whistling to itself behind security fences.

Chicago’s Inner Flute-Ruins [BLDGBLOG]

You know what this means: who in Chicago has a good field recording setup and time to stop by on a windy day? (As a former resident of the area, I know the city can live up to its windy reputation.)

And anyone know of other acoustically-interesting architectural sites from your part of the world?

(Architecture and urban planning buffs will want to stop by the site for discussion of the fact that the buildings were entirely demolished rather than being salvaged, reused, and refurbished.)

Creative Commons advocate and sound designer/musician Marco continues a stream of useful links at his blog Melodiefabriek. The latest: sample libraries composed entirely of Creative Commons-licensed material:

ccMixStar Sample packs
The Freesound Project, CC-licensed sound
via ccMixStar Sample Packs [Melodiefabriek]

What’s great here is that the remix site (ccMixster) is teaming up with sample sound libraries (ccMixStar and Freesound) to create an entire community built around sound, resampling, remixing, and music creation. The Creative Commons license ensures that that community will continue to mix new sounds from its members, in a big, communal, sound sharing universe. I don’t really see these as competition for commercial soundware libraries; instead, they offer a chance to share your music, get your sounds into other people’s work, and take advantage of an alternative sound library that would never exist commercially. If you make music using this stuff, I’m sure we’d love to hear it. Let us know.

While on the topic of locating yourself using sound, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point to Freesound, the fantastic community sound library (currently pushing some 17,000+ Creative Commons-licensed samples). If you’re not yet familar with Freesound, you can broadcast your recordings to the planet, free for use in music worldwide, and pull recordings without attracting the attention of intellectual property lawyers.

Rather than dig through samples by abstract categories, you can use Freesound’s geotags to pull the exact ambience of certain parts of the world. It gives you the power to soak up the vibe of the beach at Playa del Medio without having to actually suffer through . . . erm . . . being at the beach. Okay, bad example. But while there’s the expected bias toward the U.S. and Europe, field recordings are slowly finding their way from other corners of the globe, too.

Aside from samples, it’s not hard to imagine geotags being used to help find musical collaborators near you . . . especially as latency increases over longer distances.

Follow your ears! Yes, there was a time when aural senses were vital to location and geography. In the spirit of resurrecting that spirit, Spencer Kiser’s projects look at new ways of mapping using sound. Full details on his thesis page, but in brief:

Sound maps: Field recordings in Forest Hills, Queens (outside Manhattan) are overlaid with an interactive map of the area. Upshot: drag with your mouse, and you can hear how the sound changes from one intersection to another, rather than just look at the usual visual representation.

Geo-tagging with a phone: This “participatory sound map” (shown below) lets you dial in the soundscape of different locations (here, again, NYC). Vocal representations get the emphasis here; I can see non-abstract applications, like different pizzerias explaining their handicraft, or finally a detailed map of how accents change in the five boroughs of New York. (And yes, locals can tell the difference between someone from downtown Brooklyn and Flatbush, let alone the Bronx and Queens. Now us outsiders can practice.)

Guided by Voices: Wireless headphones lead you through an installation . . . hmm, too bad this isn’t Halloween season, or this could’ve gotten a bit more macabre.

This should give some ammunition to those of you who like using field recordings in your music. Now remix your geo-tagged sound recordings, and you’ve got a musical application for GPS devices, Yahoo Maps, and cell phones . . . why not? And it’s a good reason to listen to where you are; that iPod battery was probably going to run out anyway.