Who Is Black Octopus Sound
Black Octopus Sound is a go-to Sample Library Source for producers looking for good sound quality and lots of it. The majority of the Top Black Octopus Sound Libraries are large in terms of size, with lots of additions including, but not limited to, MIDI Files, Preset Banks, and Comprehensive Loop Organization for ease of use.
The company was founded by Toby Emerson in 2011 and has shown no signs of slowing its momentum.
What’s to love most about the sounds from Black Octopus is they come mixed well enough for you to drop in your DAW without additional processing but have enough room and flexibility for you to tweak and further design if needed.
In an industry full of sample packs, sounds, and preset designers, here are some of the best bang for the buck sound libraries you can grab today.
Best Royalty Free Black Octopus Sound Libraries
Black Octopus Sound – Leviathan Bundle (Vol 1-4)
Make sure you have a huge drive because this bundle is MONSTER!
Main Sample Library Features
- 15+ Gigs Of Sound Content
- 20,000+ Samples
- 575 Serum Presets
- 5000+ Drum samples (Kicks, Snares, Percussion, Hihats, Fills, etc.)
- 2000+ FX (Risers, Fallers, Impacts, Atmospheres, etc.)
- 450+ Glitch FX
- 1700+ Loops (Music, Drums)
- 200+ MIDI
- 2100+ Bass (Sustains, One-Shots, 808s)
- 1100+ Synth (Chords, Sustains, One-Shots)
- 195 Vocals (One Shots & Loops)
“Leviathan is one of our top series – Black Octopus Sound”
Overall, Leviathan is massive, has a lot of quality sounds, and is versatile enough to be used in a wide range of genres from Hip Hop and Trap to Progressive Pop and EDM. Regardless of the genre you choose or like to create, this sample pack has something for everyone, and you can get a lot of mileage out of it.
Black Octopus Mega Vocal Bundle (15 Vocal Sample Libraries In 1)
Mega Vocal Bundle is a collection of 15 professionally recorded vocal sample packs that you can use for a variety of genres including but not limited to, EDM, Hip-Hop, Lo-Fi, Chill, Trapstep, House, Ambient, or ‘insert whatever your favorite genre is here’. There’s a lot that can be used from a production standpoint.
Vocal Sample Titles Included In Mega Bundle
- Siren by Veela
- Cory Friesenhan Vocal Sessions
- Cory Friesenhan Vocal Sessions 2: Banshee
- Cristina Soto Souls
- Amy Kirkpatrick Fortune
- Ill-esha intonations
- Street Styles Raps
- Battle Rap Vocals
- 300 Vocal Shouts
- Positive Flow by Everyman
- Vocal Atmospheres by Cory Friesenhan
- Vocal Atmospheres by Holly Drummond
- Latina House Vocals
- Chants & Shouts
- Zara Taylor In Pieces
Totaling 15+ Gigs of Male and Female sung vocals
All of the artists are skilled professionals resulting in great-sounding vocal performances that you don’t have to further process (unless you want to). You have access to acapella, one-shots, harmonies, and ad-libs, which can be used to make quick phrases and melody runs, as well as short phrases, fx, and vocal atmospheres.
Bonus Tip: Take the vocals and layer them with one another to create unique vocal samples.
Reel to Reel Vintage Lofi
There’s something about the way vintage instruments and tape machines affect us as both consumers and creators. Al Hug’s vision was to create a versatile sound library that was nostalgic with a modern twist. With this idea in mind, Al used real instruments and processing to capture the right tones, characters, and vibes.
Al is an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist whose genius has been sought after by chart-topping music producers such as Timbaland, !llmind, Marshmello Sonny Digital, and more.
Reel to Reel is a breath of fresh air, being organic and nothing short of high quality. All sounds in this lofi sample library were recorded/processed with Classic Tube Mics, Reel to Reel Tape Machines, and other analog recording devices, giving a truly organic sound and meshing eras from the 50s-70s soul as well as Jazz.
Reel to Reel – Vintage Lo-fi is Inspired by artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, James Blake, H.E.R., Rosalia, J Cole, JID, Cozz, SZA, Drake, A$AP Rocky, Denzel Curry, Chance The Rapper, ScHoolboy Q, Ari Lennox, Ty Dolla $ign, Vince Staples, 6lack, Childish Gambino
– Black Octopus Sound
Favorite Black Octopus Sample Folders
1. MIDI:
Here’s where you can kick start your own creative ideas or alter melodic phrases, riffs, and melodies from the sample library making them your own.
2. One Shot Samples:
Drums, Percussion, and melodic. Drum and percussive one-shots are ideal for redoing or creating your own rhythm patterns. The melodic 1 shots (Plucks, synths, tones) are good for creating melodies and saving your CPU.
3. Impacts:
These are great for making tracks sound more interesting, huge and adding more emphasis to sections of your song.
4. FX:
This is a collection of risers, downers, and other fx that are good excellent for creating build-ups and breakdowns of your tracks as well as adding ear candy to keep the listener interested.
5. Loops:
Depending on the genre of music you create and the production style, loops can be a huge part of the music production process. They’re an amazing source of inspiration and, at times, perfect for using ‘as is’ within your production.
6. Presets:
There are times when you’ll hear some sounds that you’d like to alter a little bit. Wav File manipulation is possible but not as flexible as the preset used to generate the wave file (synth or pluck etc.).
Presets come in proprietary formats of commercial samplers or synths like Serum, Ana 2 or Massive, etc.
7. Production Tips:
Oftentimes Black Octopus will include a document with tips on how to use their samples.
Getting The Most Out Of Sample Libraries
As if they don’t supply enough sounds and flexibility to begin with. Here are some things I do to further manipulate samples, to make them my own, and create a signature sound.
1. Chopping Loops
Using a loop is great for starting out and, in many cases, might fit the exact sound you’re going after. However, if you want to stand out and get more out of the sample packs, chop the loops up and rearrange them. You can even take this a step further and chop loops from various sample packs (in the same key) and merge them together to create something truly unique.
2. Layering Samples
Take samples that are in the same key and layer them together. For example, vocal chops and phrases layered with other vocal phrases, pads, synths, and other sounds. This is an easy technique to use when the samples are ‘key’ labeled.
3. Writing & Production Based Applications
Using applications like ReMidi 2 to chop and rearrange MIDI files like MPC users did with samples. Also, Sample Logics Animation Station to create instant rhythmic patterns and arpeggios from samples, thus creating new and unique melodic ideas.
4. Re-processing Samples
A must for creating unique sound textures and characters. This can be done using any processing application: EQ, Compressor, Reverb, Delay, Tape Emulations, or Multiple FX plugins (or hardware if you have it.
That being said, to add more Crunch to your Drums and Drum Loops, Loc-Ness is very good. For adding more warmth and color samples, I’ll use a Tape Emulation Plugin like Magnetite or a combination of Tape, EQ, Compression, and Reverb (very little).
There are a lot of ways to process samples, but these are my favorite techniques. Hopefully, you find them helpful, and I hope you enjoy these Black Octopus Sound Libraries.
About the Author: Greg Savage is a music composer/sound designer with 20+ years of sync licensing experience. For info on the music biz, check out https://www.diymusicbiz.com/
