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Top 7 Sound Libraries for Producers In 2020!
by Oracle Blog
TOP 7 SOUND LIBRARIES FOR PRODUCERS IN 2020!
Written By: Eric “Realistic” Michael
Whether you are a producer, beat maker, composer, or film scorer - having a variety of high-quality sounds is important to have in your collection. Your DAW already comes with a handful of instruments & sound selections - you can still make plenty of hits with those sounds - but after a while it may be time for an upgrade. When it comes down to it, nothing can beat a good melody & chord progression. We are not saying these sound libraries can replace that, but these libraries do have some amazing sounds & the quality of these are professional & top notch.
For this list we are going to talk about some VSTs, some sample packs, & some sound banks. None of these on our list are sponsored or paid advertisements; they are just libraries that we are big fans of & we use ourselves! This list is filled with sounds that are dominating the charts right now & for good reason; they all sound awesome! So, let us talk about our favorites!
1. Omnisphere 2
PRICE: $479.00
We are going to get this bad boy out of the way right away because it is a true beast! Possibly the instrument that dominates the airwaves more than any other instrument on the market, Omnisphere is filled with more sounds than you will ever need! Omnisphere literally has over 14,000 presets to choose from & each one of them allows you to tweak & change them. The possibilities are endless with this instrument. Omnisphere also has lots of useful features such as sound match, user rating, shuffle mode, & lock options that make browsing through patches an even better experience. Not only do you get an absurd amount of sounds, but they sound amazing & the quality is great. Make sure you have plenty of room on your computer or an external hard drive that you can store this library on; you are going to need it! Omnisphere weighs in at over 60GB! The price tag is a little steep, but the sound selection & quality truly is worth it. One tip we must save money on this one though is sign up for Guitar Center’s newsletter. They offer 15% coupons quite frequently that you can use on several different products. Omnisphere is one of the items you can use the coupon on! That is over $70 in savings! We have a full video on our YouTube Channel on “5 Omnisphere Features Every Producer Should Know!”
2. Serum
PRICE: $189.00
Serum is a great choice whenever you need lush pads, exciting plucks, fat basses, or energetic synths. This instrument has 450 presets to choose from & 144 wavetables for you to manipulate & edit. The different types of sounds are conveniently broken up in different categories as well making it easy to find plucks, pads, bass, or synth patches when you know that is what you’re looking for. Serum has plenty of knobs to tweak & edit for endless creative options. Sound designers love the wavetable & editing ability to make their own unique patches. Serum even lets you import your own audio files to edit & manipulate with their wavetable & tools. The price of Serum isn’t too bad compared to other instruments on this list & Splice.com even offers this as a rent-to-own option for only $9.99 a month. Once you have paid it off, you own it! You can cancel & start back up at any time too!
3. Nexus
PRICE: $250-$3,689
Nexus is easily the most expensive instrument on our list & this one might be best to hold off on until you have collected a few other instruments/sound libraries on this list. Nonetheless, though, this instrument is powerful & filled with great sounds! Nexus has plenty of sounds to choose from on their website & you can keep expanding the size of this instrument. There is a lot of FX & editing tools inside the instrument for all your tweaking needs. After you hear the quality of the instruments inside of this plugin, you will know why many chart-topping producers use Nexus in a lot of their productions.
4. Sounds from SoundOracle.net
PRICE: $9.99 - $69.99
At SoundOracle.net we take pride in our quality & selection and we think you will notice it right away! All our sounds are handcrafted to be original sounds & compositions that you will not find anywhere else online. For our live instrument packs, we bring in real musicians to record brand new melodies specifically for you to sample, chop, & flip. For our drum packs, Oracle creates each individual sound himself. We always try & find high-quality analog gear to process the sounds of unique hardware to add creative effects to our samples. Every sound found on the site is professionally mixed & mastered too - making them ready to go for all your beats. Producers find these libraries to be particularly useful because each loop is labeled with the key & BPM information - taking all the guesswork out. Our 808’s are tuned to the note “C natural” for easy playing & most of our melody packs come with the MIDI information as well. The MIDI info is clutch when you want to use your favorite VST patches to play along with the loops. We are constantly adding new sample packs & drum kits to our collection too, so there are always new sounds to choose from!
5. Output.com
PRICE: $ 199.00
When it comes to amazing sounds & quality, look no further than Output! Their Kontakt libraries are seriously some of - if not the best - Kontakt libraries available. Each library has its own unique engine that has tweaking abilities for sound designing, arp parameters for rhythmic patterns, & FX knobs & sliders. Output has a clever tagging system as well that allows users to select tags to find the sounds they are looking for. For instance, if you are looking for a dark wavy sound, you can literally click on those two tags & every sound patch that fits that description will populate. Output has a great reputation for pushing the envelope & developing sounds that you cannot get anywhere else! There are several different options to choose from on their site ranging from vocals, brass, strings, pads, arps, bass, etc.! They also have a subscription-based plugin for $10 a month called Arcade. Arcade is a sample & loop-based plugin that is constantly being updated. It is kind of like a streaming service for loops & samples. You can change the key & BPM to each sample too! You’ll need to download the Kontakt Player in order to use these libraries, but that’s a free plugin & it can be downloaded at no cost here!
PRICE: $ 499.00
If you need a mass collection of retro synths, then this sound library is perfect for you! Popular synth sounds from the ’60s, 70’s, & 80’s flood this library with old school joy. From authentic mellotron sounds to fat & beefy synth sounds, the V Collection is a vintage lover’s dream! There are plenty of sounds to choose from too! This collection comes with 24 classic software keyboards & over 8,000 sound patches for a total of 16GB! Just like most of the libraries on this list, there are plenty of knobs & faders to tweak the sounds for you to make your own sounds & preset patches. If retro is your thing, this collection is a no brainier. Even if it is not, you will be sure to find enough cool sounds in this collection to keep your beats sounding fresh & innovative!
7. Keyscape
PRICE: $ 379.00
If you need classic pianos & electric piano patches, then this is the pack for you! Keyscape comes from the same company that makes Omnisphere - Spectrasonics - & their high-quality beautiful sounds transfer over in this sound library. One of the things that makes this instrument so special is its custom control settings. Keyscape allows you to change the microphone positions, tone/color of the sound, & the effects like reverb, EQ, compression, & tremolo. The sounds in this library were brilliantly recorded & you will be able to hear subtle authentic tones like pedal & release sounds. You will want to make sure you have plenty of space on your computer or an external hard drive for this library. There are over 500 keyboard sounds taking up almost 77GB of storage space! Just like Omnisphere, you can use the Guitar Center coupon on Keyscape when they have their sales.
Honorable Mention!
EastWest Sounds - Composer Cloud
PRICE: $199 per year or $19.99 per Month (Annual Subscription)
When it comes to capturing the essence of real instruments, EastWest does an incredible job! They have some of the best libraries on the market for strings, piano, & brass instruments and most of them sound really close to the real thing! EastWest has an insane number of virtual instruments to choose from too. There are close to 40,000 instruments to choose from altogether. A lot of their libraries allow you to have tons of control over the sounds including mic placement/volumes, articulation, stereo width, reverb, & more! The price tag of $199 every year isn’t the most appealing, considering it’s an annual thing; however, $199 is relatively low compared to other sound libraries & it would most likely take several years of payments to cover the total worth of these libraries.
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ERIC MICHAEL
REALISTIC PRODUCTIONS
(Engineer)
Realistic is a Music Producer and Engineer located in the Twin Cities. He has been producing music for Hip-Hop & Pop music since 2004. In 2017 he graduated with an AAS in Music Production & Engineering. Real is the chief mixing engineer for SoundOracle.net where mixes all loops & sounds on the site & also provides mixing & mastering services on the site to artists & producers.
