SANGUINE are an Alternative Rock Metal band from Exeter in the UK, led by singer Tarin Kerrey and guitarist Nick Magee.

The band released their first Album, Black Sheep, in 2016, co-written by Jesper Stromblad from Grammy Award-winning band In Flames. It gained incredible reviews, and Sanguine went on to tour the UK and Europe with many notable acts including Fear Factory, Megadeth, Skindred, MushroomHead, Hellyeah, Cancer Bats, OPM, Zebrahead, and many more.

“Save Me” single from Black Sheep 

Following the tour cycle, SANGUINE returned to the UK to record the follow-up album. They tried various producers, but found the energy wasn’t really connecting and wanted it to feel right. At the same time, they had been playing around with the free version of PreSonus Studio One—Studio One Prime. They found it incredibly intuitive, and as their skills improved they began making higher and higher quality demos. They started showing the recordings to the labels, sponsors, and their inner circle… and the feedback was extremely positive.

When it came to the final decision of who to record with, SANGUINE mixed up the recordings with versions of the same songs from professional producers done in other studios, and asked people to choose their favorite based just on sound. The majority of them picked the band’s version recorded in Studio One.

This inspired the band to fully embrace the program and learn as much as they could in a very short time.

The result is Cold Blood, which like its predecessor has received stunning reviews from both mainstream and underground press/blogs/fanzines.

“Ignite,” single from Cold Blood

In a modern climate where music makes very little revenue compared to the cost of making it, getting the cost of an album down is crucial. The average cost of a rock album is about £10-£20K. Cold Blood cost under £500 to make in total because of Studio One. SANGUINE only used the plug-ins that came with Studio One—as there was plenty to work with!

Perhaps one of the most impressive things about Studio One is its user-friendly interface. Nobody in the band was particularly computer-minded. None of us had any previous experience engineering at all. That alone is a testament to how logical the layout is. The only regret SANGUINE have is not going down this path earlier, because the benefits have been so instant and rewarding.

PreSonus: What PreSonus products have you used and which do you currently use? 

SANGUINE: We actually have a really simple and achievable setup. We use Studio One Professional, Tannoy monitors, and a range of mics. We have brought additional plug-ins like Izotope and VSTs, but to be honest 90% of what we ended up using for the album came free with the software. It’s a seriously comprehensive range of sounds to get started with. You could spend weeks alone exploring just them!

We are looking at buying more expansion packs for the next round of recordings. We compensate for our lack of outboard studio gear by using VST plug-ins and extremely high-quality instruments and mics. Nick uses a Manson MBC-1 with Pro Sustainiac Sustainer and Ross uses a Fender Precision bass with Nordstrand Audio custom pickups. Changing to Mansons and Nordstrand gear changed our game quite a bit both live and for the studio. We have learned that having high-quality source sounds, good quality microphones/pre-amps, and a decent soundcard is absolutely key to the end product sounding good.

PreSonus: What led you to Studio One? Was it the company’s reputation, audio quality, ease of use, specific features, price, other factors?

SANGUINE: To be honest it kind of found us! Producer Daniel Flores introduced us to the program during the recording of the Black Sheep album. We had never heard of this DAW before, but Daniel is a true pro, so the fact that he was using it alone was a big validation. You could tell he was excited by the functionality of the program and throughout the recording, he would often show us some of the cool things you could do with it. This sparked our interest.

Studio One has a really intuitive layout unlike other DAWs, things are where you would want or expect them to be rather than hidden away in obscure menus. Studio One is easy to use; we rarely have to look up where to find functions and that is a big advantage to the writing process.

We knew that Studio One was being widely used by studio producers but we were uncertain about its capacity to record a live band… we were wrong, it’s just as good as Pro Tools and we would now recommend it as the only option for musicians.

PreSonus: What Studio One features have proven particularly useful and why?

SANGUINE: There is so much included with Studio One, features include everything that their competitors are offering and MORE!

We started the Cold Blood album recording process by recording a live demo of the songs in our band room. We then used Studio One to help us make a decision on which ones to record for the album.

We set up our album project at 96kzHz and recorded the drum stems in a professional studio with an acoustically treated room, and brought the tracks back to our studio to edit, quantize and process. This was nerve-racking for us, as we had never quantized drums before, but again PreSonus delivered by making the drum quantizing and triggering process a breeze. We then laid all the other instruments in our studio using Studio One; it was easy to try something and undo it if it didn’t sound right. We used a mixture of real sounds and plugins to achieve the final result.

For SANGUINE we have found the VSTs, sound packs, synths, and loops included with Studio One Professional inspired us to create and record our new sound. We downloaded a few plug-ins and VSTs but mostly used the free Add-Ons provided by Studio One. SANGUINE always felt like it needed an extra sound in some songs, not enough to warrant a full-time extra member—more just the odd effect, ping, or some other sound to pick up the ear and keep it interesting. Lots of bands do this in our genre like Linkin Park, Slipknot, Skindred, Bring Me The Horizon, etc. The Studio One sounds were exactly what we were looking for, there is a huge range of sounds, but also the ability to forge, combine and bend the audio to pretty much anything you can think up. We now run our extra production sounds live.

PreSonus: How does Studio One compare to other DAWs you have used?

SANGUINE: We played around with Cubase in the early days but it just felt like climbing a mountain. It’s not very motivating as an artist if you can’t get into a good writing flow. We personally didn’t find it intuitive at all. We tried Logic but didn’t find it very logical! After seeing colleagues spend thousands on Pro Tools, we saw a cycle of money going out but never coming back in! In an industry where it is hard to make money, it seemed to us that Pro Tools was only for people with more money than sense!

For an untrained eye, most DAWs look complex and difficult to use. None of the band are qualified sound engineers, so usability was the first priority. Studio One offered an interface that was easy to use and a high-quality sound.

Originally we just intended to record demo’s on Studio One – but after a while, we started to prefer our versions of the songs to the other Producers we were using. We found that you could use Studio One to experiment quickly with new ideas. It’s changed how we write – writing used to take place in the room but now we often have Studio One running so we can try different beats quickly or see how a section sounds if you add strings. Everything has improved as a result.

In simple terms, Studio One has made it easy for an everyday person with no previous engineering experience or ability, to create professional studio quality recordings without having to spend thousands hiring a traditional studio. That alone blows our minds. We used to spend around £1000 per song. So an album could chalk up £10K pretty easily. The modern music industry just doesn’t provide the economy of scale to make sense of those numbers. Hundreds of thousands of Spotify plays will earn you about £50 for example – so you would have to have millions of streams to earn that back.

By learning Studio One we have essentially eliminated that cost and empowered ourselves to have the freedom to write and release anything we want, whenever we want. As artists, we can’t think of what could be better than having 100% autonomy over our output. Most artists play for the love of music, but due to the towering expense involved with being in a touring band, at some point they have to turn it into a business to continue doing what they love. We have seen so many amazing bands who have exhausted themselves and essentially burnt out trying to make sense of the money side of the business. The bottom line is that eliminating cost makes it easier to return a profit and survive.

PreSonus: Which Studio One feature or concept isn’t talked about enough in your opinion?

SANGUINE: A BIG feature for us was the ease of adding ISRC codes. We had friends who were releasing records at the same time as us who were struggling to get theirs embedded for a sensible price—can’t say that we didn’t feel a bit smug knowing we could do ours within the session—it took us about an hour to sort out. Again, we learned and executed a new task in an hour using only free internet tutorials. That is one of the many examples of how Studio One makes our life easier and cheaper. It’s another process that we previously would have paid someone to do.

Also, I think the depth you can go inside a sound is slightly overlooked—when you start really playing with the parameters of an effect, layering them up/combining you can approximate virtually any sound within reason. Initially, we assumed that we would need to keep topping up the extension packs more frequently – however the deeper we explored the program the more we found. I would advise anyone using this program to spend at least two weeks just exploring the sounds and how you can manipulate them. At first, we grouped sounds that we liked and made notes of their location— after a while though we started using sounds that we never thought we would ever need—for example, sounds that sound irrelevant on their own but amazing within the context of a mix.

We heard that Studio One is very popular with EDM Producers—it’s easy to see why because of the quality of recording produced, sound packs and ease of use. However, we are a rock band, so 90% of the sound we record is played on drum/bass/guitar/vocals. We think if more rock/metal bands knew how radically Studio One could impact their output, many more would jump on board. Our advice would be don’t wait to be told, spend time on it, try it for yourself… and most importantly trust your ears!

PreSonus: Any useful tips/tricks or interesting stories based on your experience with Studio One that would be of interest to our user base?

SANGUINE: This is probably the most relevant question to us out of all of them. Historically every time we tried to record ourselves the programs just seemed too complicated. We would spend hours on a recording in Cubase and obtain a very average result. We put this down to none of us being a qualified sound engineer, but when we moved over to PreSonus suddenly our recording quality went up! We realized it wasn’t our talent it was the usability of the program that was holding us back.

After you master a DAW system you realize that 50% of the songwriting is achieved via the recording and production process. You may have noticed over the last few years that producers are often credited before artists on songs. It’s like the guys that used to be kept in the backroom are now thinking ‘Hang on a minute—who’s the talent here?!’ Mark Ronson is a good example. We don’t blame them—after all the song is only 50% of the process—the production and recording are what makes it viable.

We see a future where the only artists who can survive are the ones who create and record their own music from scratch. SANGUINE have taken this DIY ethic to the extremes and for our latest album, Cold Blood, we literally created every visual and sound ourselves. It meant many nights of reading, trial and error, and a few headaches… but we are now in a position where we can create everything for almost zero cost. The bottom line for any recording is spending hours grooming through the takes until you have the right sound and delivery. When you are being charged in a studio you are “on the clock” and you don’t always achieve the best take or treatment of sound. By taking control of our own recording environment we can spend hours recording and playing around with the music until we have the exact sound we are looking for… I don’t think we could have afforded to pay an engineer or producer for that!

People can overlook how psychological the recording process is – we realised how much our insecurity over our ability to pull this off was impacting us as artists/writers. We had to really learn to trust our ears and what WE thought sounded good.

We blind tested this by recording the same song three ways:

1. record with a named producer from scratch
2. sending our own recordings to producers and asking them to do a mix
3. recording and mixing the song ourselves.

After a blind test listen of these three options we asked our fans and managers to chose which they preferred, surprisingly option 3 was the winner, so we decided to record the album ourselves with no help! Not because the other producers were bad at what they did, more that they simply couldn’t compete with the AMOUNT OF TIME we had to spend on it. Time is free after all, so it is one of an artist’s biggest assets. This confirmed our self-belief that we could do it and we found that energy very motivating—the more positive feedback we got, the more hours we put into it and the better the result. One of the frustrating things is that as you get better you find yourself looking back at songs and pulling them apart/finding fault. Having a studio at your fingertips means you can re-visit those issues and iron them out.

I haven’t met an artist yet who has left a studio being 100% blown away and happy with what they have created with another producer. In fact, it’s more often the opposite. Sure you can go back to a studio and make corrections but it isn’t very practical or spontaneous and you will always be working to someone else’s timetable. Why pay thousands for something you don’t even like that much? Studio One puts our entire catalog at our fingertips. It also means if we need to make alterations like removing vocals for a soundtrack, we can just fire up the computer and do it ourselves. Even a simple task like that would set you back £200 if you were to get a studio to do it for you.

We were joking recently that Studio One is our fifth band member—we feel so in tune with the system it almost feels sentient at times! We might start offering it coffee when we pull a late one…

Finally—something which we didn’t expect was that other bands started asking us to record them and mix their music after hearing ours. This provides an additional revenue stream that we didn’t account for. More money is never a bad thing and it’s a huge compliment to us that after two years we are being asked to do these things. If you had told us this five years ago we definitely would have laughed at you.

PreSonus: Any final comments about PreSonus and Studio One?

SANGUINE: Even if you have never been good with computers or tried a DAW system before we would urge you to at least play around with the Demo (full-featured Professional version, 30-day license). The gear we listed above is all we used for our record and the entire set up can be brought for a few thousand pounds. This relatively small investment for infinite recordings seems like a no brainer to us. We managed to learn how to record/mix/master and release a record in 2 years from scratch. If Studio One wasn’t as easy to navigate then how would that be possible? The proof is in the pudding.

It’s pretty rare for us to get this excited about a DAW but it has fundamentally changed everything from our recording all the way down to how we write and the business models that we use. We now have 1/10th of the previous outgoings and this has allowed us to scale the band much faster than previously. What was once by far the biggest expense a band has now reduced to practically zero. The more we use it the more we will improve which is also exciting.

Finally… artists need to understand that the music industry has fundamentally changed forever. The days of making millions from music are long gone and eventually, only those who can sustain will be able to survive. We predict a future where only producer/writer/performers will realistically be able to survive. It’s no longer enough to just be a musician. Recording is the bread and butter of any band so if you do one thing this year: try Studio One.

For us, it changed everything!

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What’s Mix The Music?
Mix The Music is a new online store specializing in multitrack audio files that allows producers, mix engineers, musicians, and… well, anyone to legally download, listen to, and re-mix songs using the original multitracks as recorded by major artists and film/game composers.

Who are multitracks for?
You! Music fans, amateur and professional audio engineers, DJs, teachers, and students can all benefit from multitrack audio. Once downloaded, you have independent access to the original individual recorded instrument and vocal tracks like isolated bass, drums, guitar, keys, and more. This lets you:

• Hear how classic recordings were created
• Hear every nuance of your favorite performer’s instrumental techniques
• Play along with legendary artists with exactly the mix that works for you
• Even record your own parts alongside the heaviest hitters in the music world

What styles of music are available?
We’ve got something for everybody—contemporary and classic hits, film scores, video game scores, and more. Even better, our content will continue to rapidly grow with more and more songs from top artists across all genres.

What labels/entities are participating in Mix The Music?
Major label tracks from Universal Music Group, Sony, Paramount, EA, and more are now available in a new .multitrack format containing the original stems. There are many more tracks on the way from dozens of labels and artists, the store is expected to grow rapidly.

How do I open up these multitracks and begin exploring?
Our files use the new .multitrack audio format developed by PreSonus Software Ltd., and as such are available to be opened and processed exclusively in PreSonus Studio One 4—Prime, Artist, and Professional editions. Mix The Music makes it easy and secure to access this never-before-available content—and now any Studio One user can listen to, explore, mix, and remix multitracks from major label artists!

Can I release my own re-mixes of songs from Mix The Music and sell them?
No. The music licenses in question do not allow for this. This is all about your personal learning and enjoyment.

Sounds great! When can I get involved?
Mix The Music will be launching in October, follow the link to learn more: http://www.mixthemusic.com/welcome

Your guitar is most likely mono. But sometimes you want a wide, full, stereo image. I can relate.

One technique is to send the guitar track to an FX channel, insert a delay set for a relatively short delay (like 25 ms), and then pan the original track and FX channel oppositely. But if you sum the signals to mono, then there’s the possibility of cancellation. In fact, I saw a guy in an internet video who said this was a terrible idea, and you should just overdub the part again and pan that oppositely if you want stereo.

Well, overdubbing is an option, assuming you can play tightly enough that the parts don’t sound sloppy. But don’t forget Studio One has that wonderful Channel Mode button on the Main output, so you can test stereo tracks in mono—simply adjust the delay time for minimum cancellation. You won’t be able to avoid cancellation entirely, but tweaking the time may keep it from being objectionable (especially once the delay time gets above 25 ms or so, because that’s more into doubling range). To make any phase issues even less noticeable, lower the delayed sound’s level a little bit to weight the sound more toward the dry guitar.

But I wouldn’t be writing this tip if I didn’t have a better option—so here it is.

1. Pan your main guitar track to center.
2. Send it to two FX Channels.
3. Insert an Analog Delay in each channel, with Mix set for 100% delay, Factor to 1.00, Mod to 0.00, and Width fully counterclockwise. Pan them oppositely. Set the damping as desired. The screenshot shows a good starting point for your settings.

4. Set different delay times, preferably somewhat far apart, for the two delays. I prefer prime number delays (3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41 ms) so the delay timings don’t interfere with each other. For example, set one delay to 11 ms, and the other to 29 ms.
5. Bring up the levels of the two delayed channel to create a pleasing stereo spread. It won’t be as dramatic a spread as using one dry and one delayed sound panned oppositely…but frankly, that “super stereo” effect sounds gimmicky compared to a full, robust stereo image. However, if you do want a more dramatic stereo separation, drop the center channel guitar by 6 dB in relation to the FX Channels that are panned right and left—you’ll still get most of the benefits of this approach. (You may need to group all three channels, and raise their levels a bit to compensate for the drop from lowering the center channel level.)

Now, here’s where the magic happens. Set the Main output mode to mono, and you’ll hear virtually no difference between that and the “faux stereo” signal, other than the stereo imaging. The reason why is that now, we have a guitar in the center channel—so choosing mono creates a center channel buildup. This raises the main guitar’s level above the delayed sounds, so there’s virtually no chance of audible cancellation, and it balances the level better between the stereo and mono modes.

Now you have a wide guitar that sounds equally loud, and is phase-issue free, in mono or stereo—happy Friday!

We recently welcomed a lot of newcomers to the PreSonus Shop! Here’s a round-up of all the latest additions.

First up, Sugar: The Ultimate Full Spectrum Enhancer.

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Sugar is designed by a team of award-winning engineers to offer their most useful and essential harmonic enhancement techniques in one centralized plug-in. The resulting color palette is a fast lane to pro-sounding records—Sugar is a full-spectrum enhancer that will add punch, thickness, depth, warmth, edge, and grit to all your tracks. Sugar is a shortcut to those punchy kick drums, thick basses, sharp snares, edgy guitars, airy and creamy vocals, warm mixes and wide masters and much more.

Add Sugar to your workflow here!

Next, from Cherry Audio, check out Voltage Modular Core and Electro Drums and Voltage Modular Ignite!

SynthAnatomy.com says Voltage Modular is the:

“Best Software Modular Synthesizer Plugin Release of the year 2018!”

Voltage Modular is a virtual modular synthesizer that delivers the sound quality and “hands-on” experience of modular synthesis for a tiny fraction of the cost of equivalent hardware systems. Patches ranging from simple tones to wildly elaborate evolving soundscapes are easily created with surprisingly light processor overhead requirements. Voltage Modular is designed to be the best sounding, most powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use virtual modular instrument available.

Shop Here!

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New from SonalSystem the Folktronic series and Dark Matter series.

Thoughtfully designed around electronic, left of center sounds and textures, Dark Matter was conjured for all types of users and scenarios: composers/artists/producers interested in cinematic style sounds and sequences, and anyone looking to add evocative modular and synthesizer based elements to their compositions.

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Organic meets electronic in the latest loop packs from SonalSystem. While it may seem like an unusual pairing on the surface, Folk-Tronic allows you the freedom to explore new sonic possibilities and stretch the limits of your arrangements. Take your audience on a journey to escape the noise of the world and dive into a pastoral plane.

Last but not least, check out what’s new from BingoShakerz!

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“Trap Kits” features 630+ MB (uncompressed) of prime-time Construction Kits and samples for instant beat inspiration.

Packed with five fully mixed and mastered Construction Kits and an additional selection of single 808, Clap, Hat, Kick, and Synth sounds.

Each Construction Kit offers full mixes, and all components are broken out into constituent parts for maximum programming ease.

Booming 808 sounds, lush pads, crispy snares, warm chords, nostalgic synth and choir loops…  “Trap Kits” delivers an expansive collection of sounds for any hip-hop and trap music producer.

JL & Afterman are back with their brand new package of essential production tools!

Soulful House is loaded with ten fully mixed and mastered construction kits and captures deep bass loops, funky beats, chunky guitars, soulful piano, Rhodes loops, no-kick top loops, driving percussion workouts, blistering pads, and string loops.

Each Construction Kit offers club-ready full mixes and all components broken out into constituent parts for maximum programming ease, including MIDI files.

Expertly crafted by JL & Afterman – Soulful House is a must-have collection for any Funky, Classic or Soulful House music producer!

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Bingoshakerz are happy to present their latest imprint – Afro & Melodic House, by Lowton Records!

This collection features ten fully mixed and mastered Construction Kits. Packed with 550+ MB (uncompressed) of tribal beats, analogue bass loops, ethno-grooves, melodic synths, native and organic vocal sounds, percussion, and FX loops!

Each Construction Kit offers club-ready full mixes and all components broken out into constituent parts for maximum programming ease, including MIDI files.

All loops are ready for instant drag & drop action into Studio One.

This is a prime-time collection of sounds for any Deep, Afro, and Melodic House producer!

Explosive underground beats, industrial vibes, and analogue melodics: Melodic & Dark Techno 2 is here!

Packed with 630 MB (uncompressed) of analogue bass loops, dark and moody textures, stripped beats, pounding kick drums, tech-twisted percussion and top loops, modular synths, pulsating melodics, and FX loops!

This collection also offers a massive stack of single drum hits including kicks, claps, snares, percussion, and synth shot sounds!

Expertly crafted by Dominik Saltevski, (Autektone, Reload Black) Melodic & Dark Techno 2 is the definitive collection for any modern techno producer.

Melodic & Dark Techno 2 delivers the essential track building tools which are ready to be instantly loaded into Studio One.

ALL this for less than $20 US:

• 10 Atmosphere Loops
• 15 Bass Loops
• 15 Clap Loops
• 11 Song-starting Drum Kits (77 loops in total)
• 30 FX Loops
• 15 Hat Loops
• 15 Kick Loops
• 15 Melodic Loops
• 15 Percussion Loops
• 15 Synth Loops
• 20 Top Loops
• 75 Single Hits/One-Shots

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Introducing the SPARK Collections!

Hit the ground running with the new Spark Collection of loops and add-ons from PreSonus! These low-priced loop packs are a great place to start making music for less. These professional, royalty-free tracks are a great source of inspiration for starting a new song, learning how to mix, or adding a little flavor to your existing compositions. We’ve launched Spark Collections with a whopping 35 packs… with many more to come!

Everything from trap, reggae, pop, and sound FX are available in the Spark Collections – for just $4.95 USD each!

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Tailor make your ATOM!

Express yourself with these custom vinyl adhesive skins for your ATOM! Exclusively available at shop.presonus.com, you can pick a skin that best suits your creative mojo.

Available in seven stylish styles and for less than $10 USD!

It’s been a busy week. Let’s rehash the important stuff you may have missed.

This is a fun one going on with our friends at Splice. Mix “Nobody’s Gonna Love You” into a radio-ready track to win hardware and software from us, the Mixing University course from Recording Revolution, an Eyeball microphone cover, and a call with Briana Tyson.

Continue reading →

New at shop.presonus.com… Add-ons from Bingoshakerz! This is the first batch of add-ons we’ve received for the shop from this formidable production team… and from the sounds of things, we’re looking forward to more! These add-ons cover some diverse sonic territory—from contemporary, soulful vocals to late 1970s funk—and don’t overlook the Afro House Collection!

But enough talk. What you really need to do is hear these, am I right?

Click here to listen to the demos and shop!

These Add-Ons are compatible with Studio One Prime, Artist, and Professional (Versions 3.5.5 and higher.)

Jonathan Penson is the Norwegian Refugee Council Regional Education Adviser for East Africa and Yemen. We recently learned about his experience with the Mtendeli refugee camp in Tanzania, where a youth music program is using Studio One Prime to teach digital music skills to young Burundian refugees. Jonathan was able to spend some time with us to answer some questions about Mtendeli, its beneficiaries, and the students involved in this incredible story.

First of all, for readers not familiar with the situation affecting the youth in your program, please tell us how Music for Mtendeli came to be.

Mtendeli refugee camp in western Tanzania hosts close to forty thousand refugees fleeing political violence in Burundi. A high proportion of the refugees are youth. But, without the opportunity to work or leave the camp, there is very little to do, and frustrations run high. In addition, many youths experienced traumatic events in their home country. So we started a music project as part of a creative arts program, with the aim of providing a positive outlet for youths’ energies, and music therapy.

The Norwegian Refugee Council started the youth center in the camp in 2017. We run the creative arts program alongside vocational skills training and literacy and numeracy classes. We train youth in the creative use of ICT, as well as for business, and the youth organize clubs for music, theatre, and modern and traditional dance. We are hoping to start photography courses.

The music program combines traditional skills such as drumming – for which Burundians are famed – with cutting-edge technology. We want to nurture refugee youths’ talents, and the plan is to start a modest music studio that will help them to record and share their music.

How many of the youth are involved in the Digital Music program? How many staff? How long has the program been running?

More than 200 youths have benefited from the program since it began last year. This includes music students using virtual instruments and those who have learned to use DAW software to produce and edit music. We have one ICT instructor, Deo, who has a keen interest in digital music production.

What styles of music are the most popular for them to produce and record?

We find there are two distinct music ‘camps’ with the camp: gospel and non-gospel. In the non-gospel camp, R ‘n’ B and hip-hop are very popular, but you will also hear a lot of popular African artists, especially from Congo.

Is there any cross-pollination between the programs at Mtendeli? For example, do the music students produce music for the dance program?

There is direct cross-pollination between the producers and dancers, with the modern dance club using some music from the music class. They also use popular music downloaded from the Internet and other sources.

We would love to hear some of the music that has come from the program if you can send us links or files! Can you?

We would certainly like to do this in the future. For the moment, we need to build the skills of the students. They currently don’t have keyboards, headphones or mice to operate the DAW, making composition very difficult. We’re working on getting these to them – we’re talking to a music technology company about donating them. (The center has been generously funded by humanitarian donors, but this project might be a bit too left-field for them.)

What opportunities are there for our readers to support the program?

We currently have a fund-raising page open. We’ll use the funds to pay for shipping the music equipment to the camp. Logistically, this is complex and costly. We’d love for your readers to contribute that way

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?

We asked this to the dancers and music students in Mtendeli. They’d love to produce professional-sounding music and share it, but they need more musical equipment and facilities before they can really get going. They’d also like more teaching staff, and a more comprehensive DAW–they’re currently using the free version of PreSonus Studio One. All we have at the moment is the laptops, the DAW, the space–and the energy, creativity and enthusiasm of 200 young people!

But this isn’t about the fundraising – it’s about fulfilling people’s potential, raising awareness about refugees, and linking musicians. In time, we’d like a platform for showcasing our youths’ talents–so if any readers can support that, get in touch!

With kind regards,

Jonathan

Click here to donate to Music for Mtendeli!

Sample Magic is back! Well, they never really went away. But it has been a little while since they’ve had new stuff available at shop.presonus.com, and this time around they brought a whopping nine sample packs for your Studio One productions!

These loop and sample packs sound incredible, (almost magical, right?) and are compatible with Studio One Prime, Artist and Professional (Version 3.5.6 and higher). They also include Impact preset kits for making your own beats.

Indie Chill 2

Assorted live instrumentation, Tycho-esque melodics and processed beats are the foundations of Indie Chill 2: Over 700 MB of overdriven keys, live bass guitars, and palm-muted Gibsons—this collection comes stocked with euphoric sounds blending the best of chilled electronica to ambient and indie rock/alternative. Featuring even more sounds, drum hits and high-quality guitar and bass loops, Indie Chill 2 is the perfect toolkit for any and all types of electronica and ambient music.

Click here to shop!

Retro Future

Future beats with a distinct retro flavour… The ultimate oxymoron brings succulent synths together with machine-drummed beats in Retro Future – a 900MB+ assortment of era-defining pop sensibilities and epic synthesized landscapes. Dive into an action-packed excursion of soundtrack themed melodics, pumping arpeggios, Disco-drummed beats and Tron-hinged analogue heaven.

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Low End Theory 

An artful collage of west coast hip-hop, sample-heavy electronica and chilled trap – pulling in elements of jazz, funk and soul along the way – Low End Theory is a 799MB exploration of the influential LA beat scene made famous by the likes of Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer and Daedelus.

Spanning the edgy and experimental to the hazy and hypnotic, Low End Theory comes packed with punchy low-slung beats, thick and fuzzy bass, languid keys, kaleidoscopic synths, skittish percussion, wildly pitched vocals, heavily processed FX and stacks of characterful drum hits and melodic shots expertly crafted from over 100 hours of analogue jams, field recording trips and late-night studio sessions.

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Glitched Beats 

Fusing the leftfield sound of downtempo, trip hop, LA Beat and IDM; Glitched Beats delivers 390MB+ of futuristic rhythms, wavetable bass, abstract elements and glitched textures. Including an assortment of WAV and MIDI, Glitched Beats is produced using cutting-edge sound design software and processing to give instant, top quality inspiration-starters.

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Deep Garage

Deep, contemporary garage beats and lush melodics for ambient and evolving tracks. Classic vocal vibes combine with experimental electronics and modern sound-design for a diverse and slamming collection. Get to grips with over 500MB of shuffling acoustic rhythms, booming subby basslines, lush chord stabs, hooky vox shots and more.

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Lo-Fi Electronica 

From the creators of the best-selling Chillwave Trilogy comes Lo-fi Electronica, an 840MB+ collection of dusky beats, polaroid-tinged music loops, and beach-hazed melodics. Inspired by a leftfield approach to chillout, indie and synth-pop, Lo-fi Electronica is the product of a love affair with thrift store synths, garage-sale guitar pedals, and tape machines.

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Future Pop 2

Modern beats, warm subs, and club-ready melodies: Future Pop 2 blends the best of the digital era’s hip-hop, R&B, and trap scenes. Processed through the finest hardware, we’ve once again gone all out with this 550MB+ futuristic collection of fat one-shots, pulsating loops, and ethereal FX.

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Organic Techno

Powerful, deep, and emotive – Organic Techno is an energetic and vigorous assortment of the very latest in modern techno production. Armed with analogue sequences, fluttering arps, harmonically-intriguing mallets, hypnotic percussive drums and immersive atmospheres, this collection is guaranteed to get the inspiration flowing and the mind creative.

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We’ve got two tremendous new sample/loop collections from SonalSystem, the brilliant minds who brought us the lauded “Biscuits and Gravy” drum loops a while back. Now, they’ve got a killer hip-hop pack and an indie guitar pack, and each is available in three editions: Gold, Silver, and Platinum and are compatible with Studio One Prime, Artist, and Professional (Versions 3.5.4 and higher). Click here to shop!

Echo Park – Indie Pop Guitars: was meticulously sound designed with contemporary genres in mind and features a blend of inspiration from the vibrant Echo Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, CA.

Crafted with a focus on composition, this library is a perfect companion for producers, film/tv composers and songwriters across genres who are looking for inspiration along with studio quality sounds to complete their vision.

• Silver: Mono/Stereo FX Loops
• Gold: Silver edition plus 300+ Dry Loops
• Platinum: Gold edition plus 300+ DI Loops and 100 Ampire XT Presets

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Music City Drums vol.2 – Boom Bap: These hip-hop drums were recorded using an extensive collection of vintage drums, classic mic pres, and choice microphones. Because Sonal System took an old-school approach to recording and sampling, the timeless and gritty vibe of hip-hop’s golden era can now be a bold, colorful addition to your sonic palette.

• Silver: A collection of 500+ Stereo Loops
• Gold: Silver edition plus 3000+ Multitrack Loops (presented in sessions for added convenience)
• Platinum: Gold edition, plus  three Impact kits and 100+ MIDI Loops

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Explore 250 exciting presets for your Mai Tai synth engine in Studio One! EDM Synth Classics is the follow-up to our hugely successful Analog Model Machine from Ari Ahrendt.

Take your Mai Tai sound library to a new level with EDM Synth Classics, the follow-up title to the hugely successful Analog Model Machine! Modern, club-friendly, extreme and aggressive—these 250 presets are tailored for classic and contemporary EDM, electro house, minimal, psytrance, dance hall, chill, progressive, and hardstyle. These versatile presets include basses, mono and poly leads, pads, drums and effects that are right at home in clubs, festivals, soundtracks, videos, or radio spots.

EDM Synth Classics are made for ultra-fast editing and expressive live performance. Use the modwheel for drastic sound-shaping and morphing and create completely different sounds by saving a fixed modwheel position within your song. All presets are volume-matched for added usability and compatibility. Drum sounds are tuned to the General MIDI (GM) map (kick drums on C, snares on D), making it easy to create entire drum kits from either multiple instances of Mai Tai on separate tracks or inside a Multi Instrument (Studio One Professional only).

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• Compatible with Studio One Prime*, Artist, and Professional (versions 3.5.4 and higher)
• 250 Exciting New Presets for Mai Tai
• Explore the full range of Mai Tai’s powerful synth engine for all sorts of EDM synth patches

*Studio One Prime Compatibility  – Mai Tai Add-on required*