Sample Libraries

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Rebuilt and sporting a colourful, musically instructive new GUI, Balinese Gamelan has been relaunched to tie in with the release of the Balinese Flutes collection.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. This sampled instrument takes the guitar sound and transforms it into something altogether more cinematic.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Sharing the same underlying sound‑design engine as 2023 release Strands, Folds is based upon samples of the human voice.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Giving users a perfectly synchronised double string orchestra, VSL have added three new titles to the series.

The Berlin samplemeisters link up with a Hollywood film composer to create two major string collections.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Drumbada samples a rare form of Andean bass drum that has apparently remained unsampled. At least until now!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. With Rosette Mandolin, Impact Soundworks have brought a touch of American folk music to their Rosette engine.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. The new Pan Drums II adds further content, bringing the instrument count up to seven including the original pair featured in Hang Drum.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. If atmospheric, textura, ‘music meets sound design’ piano sounds are of interest, Emergence Audio’s Infinite Upright is absolutely the right sample library for you.

Toontracks’ SD3 Expansion has drum sounds suitable for almost any jazz project you can imagine.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars. This symphonic strings library aims to adapt to your playing in an expressive, responsive and seamless manner.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. This loop library covers a range of styles, from straight through to contemporary jazz, and is all recorded to the same high quality as their many other offerings, with dry and processed options available.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars. Soniccouture's latest release is Kora, sampling a 21‑string harp‑like instrument emanating from Gambia.

Spitfire consolidate seven symphonic products into one bumper package.

EastWest get intimate with their latest orchestral string section library: Hollywood Strings 2.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Over the centuries, illustrious composers such as Mozart, Bruckner and Schubert have written for the choir — now it’s your turn!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Described as a “percussive workstation”, OneShot comes with a large collection of acoustic and electronic sounds in over 200 presets to get you started.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars. Mobilis is unapologetically a cinematic percussion library, designed for hybrid scoring where you might need some pace and raw power.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars. Northwest Passage is described as a “sea of guitars” and contains bowed electric guitar samples as its source material, enhanced by some very creative processing.

No room for a drum kit? No problem! Try one of these Virtual Drum apps.

Toontrack bring the world’s favourite organ to EZkeys 2.