Several years ago, our own Mad Zach kicked off the sound pack trend here on DJ TechTools, and it’s been growing a steady following ever since. Sound packs are a plug and play modern DJ/producer tool that allows you to play great music with nothing but two hands and a 16 button grid. In today’s article we will tell you what they are, who makes them and how to get these amazingly fun DJ tools.
What Is A Soundpack?
Sample packs, production templates, and soundpacks. What is the difference?
Sample packs: A collection of genre specific samples, loops, and one shots that can be used in productions (royalty free). These need to be loaded into a sampler and don’t have any inherent musicality to them.
Production Template: Usually an Ableton Project File that contain the tools needed to make up a song. For producers staring at a blank project window, a production template can serve as a guide to help form their next track. These kinds of templates are great for studio use but they’re not really designed for live performance.
SoundPack: A soundpack has elements of both sample packs and production templates but with a song naturally built in. It’s a collection of sounds laid out in a 4×4 grid that are designed to be played together in a live performance. Similar to production templates, soundpacks are usually setup with effects, choke settings, and all the programming done for you. Since soundpacks are built around a 4×4 grid, they’re perfectly suitable for pad controllers such as the Midi Fighter 3D, Maschine, Akai MPD controllers or any other controller with at least 16 pads.
Sound packs are exceptionally fun because there is very little in the way of just sitting down and playing music. It has the accessibility of DJing, because all of the music has essentially already been written, but the flexibility of production because the possibilities are endless. With a single well crafted sound pack, you can explore it for hours and find new ways to play and manipulate the various samples and textures.
What’s So Special About Soundpacks?
Soundpacks are essentialy a song’s DNA expressed in a universal format that anyone can learn and play with common tools. Think of it like the Ableton Live version of sheet music for the Piano. Once you learn how to play a soundpack, then you can download anyones music in that format and re-play their creation with your own unique flair.
Minimal, but powerful. With only 16 sounds, producers have to be focused and clever with their packs and do not have any room for bloated compositions of 32 tracks. This reductionist environment ends up being a nice creative forcing mechanism that tends to keep these creations simple, and easy to understand.
Consistent layouts and structure are a very important element of soundpacks. With a consistent layout, producers will be able to create soundpacks faster since they’re not starting from a blank slate, it’s simply a matter of filling in the blanks. They can also be very beneficial for practicing. If the layout is the same for all soundpacks, then patterns or rhythms that can easily be carried over to any soundpack and it will still work even though the sounds may be different. Another benefit of a consistent layout is that it makes the soundpacks modular and remixable. Once producers have built a number of soundpacks they can swap out different drums or different risers on soundpacks simply by loading them onto the appropriate pad/button in their soundpack.
Finally soundpacks are designed for live playback so that producers and DJs can give their audience a very hands on performance. It’s a new way of performing that can surprise an audience and change their perception of what a DJ/producer can do live. When the audience sees the performer playing their controller like an instrument, it breaks the stigma that DJs and producers are just turning knobs or “pressing buttons” to make it look like they’re performing.
How Do I Start Using Soundpacks?
Performers can download soundpacks made by other producers or they can create their own (learn to make your own with Mad Zach’s Ultimate Soundpack Tutorial). Soundpacks are still fairly new compared to sample packs so there aren’t as many places to get them, but their availability is growing. The first place to go for soundpacks is the DJTT newsletter free for all techtools members, which is sent out weekly and includes a free soundpack from popular soundpack creators such as Mad Zach, ill.Gates, and Apoth Music. Don’t want to wait? You can also purchase Mad Zach Soundpack Volumes or the ill.Gates Performance Soundpacks.
In addition to the Mad Zach and ill.Gates soundpacks, there are communities and groups online that are dedicated to soundpacks. There is the Soundpack 4 Soundpack Facebook page and an active community of soundpack creators in the DJTT forums. Another great source for soundpacks is in the DJTT Maps portal (Choose “Soundpacks” from the controller dropdown menu to see all the soundpacks).
Once you’ve downloaded some soundpacks, it’s time to start playing. When watching a soundpack performance it can be easy to think, “I could never do that, I don’t know how to finger drum.” Learning to finger drum will take time but there are resources that can help you get started. The important thing is to start with simple patterns and overtime you’ll develop your muscle memory to start playing. To help you get started check out this free finger drumming lesson from Mad Zach:
Make Your Sets Unique: Build Your Own Soundpacks
For producers or performers that really want to make their sets unique, creating their soundpacks is the way to go. Soundpack expert and DJTT friend, ill.Gates, was kind enough to do a workshop at DJTT HQ to share his own creative process for soundpacks. Learn about different soundpack layouts and ill.Gates soundpack philosophy in the video below:
Join the Soundpack Movement
There are some incredible performers doing amazing things with soundpacks. We wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge individuals such as Mad Zach, ill.Gates, Shawn Wasabi, and Apoth Music and share their performances with the DJTT community. These individuals prove that DJing and live performance can be a true art form that takes incredible skill and is more than just “playing other people’s music”. Let these performances inspire and push you to new creative levels with your soundpacks and performances.
Check out the DJTT Store for soundpacks from ill.Gates and Mad Zach
I came to this page because a new student of mine said he wanted to use “soundpacks” and linked me here. The marketing mixed in with advice always makes me cringe… There are an infinite number of options in between Djing and sample pad playing “soundpacks” – which is a term being used here like a new methodology but it is by no means a category to itself. For accurancy of playing MPCs have been and will continue to be the best medium for this because of the hardware latency. There are also options far more in the performative direction of electronic music than playing other peoples sound banks or even your own, for example programming your own audio generating tool just for one performance and improvising with it, creating all new timbres real time. This is done a lot in universities and within the Max community.
The fellow commenting about finger drumming becoming the norm is off in several ways. What those DJ’s are doing is not finger drumming. Deadmau5 for example uses Molar on a Monome, an app Steve Duda made which functions basically like the MLR by Brian Crabtree. The loops are indexed, quantized to the beat. This is a less fine resolution of timing control but allows more focus on macro level events and the relationship between track stems. Depending on genre this may be more important – so there can be no “norm”, because different genres have instruments which fit them better. For those who don’t have the cash for a monome and don’t want to learn finger drumming the Beat Indexer I made to promote the APC40 while at Akai could be one real time solution (uses a running buffer). That’s free on the maxforlive site.
Other options include using the session view itself to store the samples, which allows for mixed types of launch behavior. For example launching a loop quantized and one shots with no quantization. If you trigger loops or samples with internal rhythm from a drum rack you may have every transient sound out of place on an off trigger. Also you limit those type of sounds to only one tempo (the drum rack will not automatically warp them like a clip slot).
If you are interested in triggering sounds and working with a set but don’t have good rhythm – and I can say from teaching many years that some people DO have rhythm and other don’t, other solutions still might appeal to you. For example, I made something for my band mate who has great sense of melody but no rhythm that omits, real time, any notes which are off by more than a threshold. You might try using an arpeggiator who’s offset is indexed by a knob to read through samples – which guarantees perfect rhythm. Combine this with toggle behaviors and another knob for speed of triggers. So many options for all levels of control. I like pad performance, but it is suited for some genres more than others. Personally, for percussionists, I believe the Roland Handsonic to be the best and most responsive MIDI percussion controller. The large area of the pads, infra red continuous controller, and after touch on the pads allows bending or whatever you like to map for a high level of expressive control, probably over one instrument. Binary on off arcade buttons like all the videos featured here do not. If the intention is micro level expression, an instrument with many parameters that can be affected by the performer is desirable.
There will always be a play between macro and micro level control. If you play with other people and master your instruments, you can have a great level of expression while controlling one aspect of the unfolding composition. If you are solo and want to focus on combining tracks and need things to just go while you focus on say one section of a song or instrument, other options exist for that as well.
Hopefully it’ll stay there. Beeps and buzzes might be great for the geeks and nerds but creating new timbres in realtime with some max patch isnt going to get the ladies wet.
I came to this page because a new student of mine said he wanted to use “soundpacks” and linked me here. The marketing mixed in with advice always makes me cringe… There an infinite number of options in between Djing and sample pad playing “soundpacks” – which is some term being used here like its a methodology but by no means is a category to itself. MPCs have been and will continue to be the best medium for this because of the hardware latency. There are also options far more in the performative direction of electronic music than playing other peoples sound banks or even your own, for example programming your own audio generating tool just for one performance and improvising with it, creating all new timbres real time. This is done a lot in universities and within the Max community.
The fellow commenting about finger drumming becoming the norm is far off in several ways. It won’t become the norm and what those DJ’s are doing is not finger drumming. Deadmau5 for example uses Molar on a Monome, an app Steve Duda made which functions basically like the MLR by Brian Crabtree. The loops are indexed, quantized to the beat. This is a less fine resolution of timing control but allows more focus on macro level events and the relationship between track stems. Depending on genre this may be more important – so there can be no “norm”, because different genres have instruments which fit them better. For those who don’t have the cash for a monome and don’t want to learn finger drumming the Beat Indexer I made to promote the APC40 while at Akai could be one real time solution (uses a running buffer). That’s free on the maxforlive site.
Other options include using the session view itself to store the samples, which allows for mixed types of launch behavior. For example launching a loop quantized and one shots with no quantization. If you trigger loops or sample with internal rhythm from a drum rack you may have every transient sound out of place on an off trigger. Also you limit those type of sounds to only one tempo (the drum rack will not automatically warp them like a clip slot).
If you are interested in triggering sounds and working with a set but don’t have good rhythm – and I can say from teaching many years that some people DO have rhythm and other don’t, other solutions still might appeal to you. For example, I made something for my band mate who has great sense of melody but no rhythm that omits, real time, any notes which are off by more than a threshold. You might try using an arpeggiator who’s offset is indexed by a knob to read through samples – which guarantees perfect rhythm. Combine this with toggle behaviors and another knob for speed of triggers. So many options for all levels of control. I like pad performance, but it is suited for some genres more than others. Personally, for percussionists, I believe the Roland Handsonic to be the best and most responsive percussion controller. The large area of the pads, infra red continuous controller, and after touch on the pads allows bending or whatever you like to map for a high level of expressive control, probably over one instrument. Binary on off arcade buttons like all the videos featured here do not. If the intention is micro level expression, an instrument with many parameters that can be affected by the performer is desirable.
There will always be a play between macro and micro level control. If you play with other people and master your instruments, you can have a great level of expression while controlling one aspect of the unfolding composition. If you are solo and want to focus on combining tracks and need things to just go while you focus on say one section of a song or instrument, other options exist for that as well.
I have no angle with this to sell anything – this is just information to inform
Hey all , i know theres been an article on this in the past, but is there somewhere to get traktor sound packs (remix sets) like these?
Here is where I ‘struggle’ with them, I’m a producer first, and finger drumming as a means of work flow has lead me towards DJing and live work (still a WIP). As a producer though, once I “hear” the samples flipped a certain way for a song, its hard to tear my ears away from simply replicating what I just heard someone else do. The originality just melts away. There are some GREAT sounding packs, and work I’ve heard, but often if I scour Youtube (as I do frequently) for vids of the MIDI Fighter and other finger drumming sets, when I see people using say a Mad Zach pack, I hear the same thing I heard Zach do when showcasing it. It’s not true, these guys are flipping it, but akin to people being disgusted with ‘stock’ sounds and presets, that’s sort of how I feel.
And Zach and ill.Gates do a tremendous job of making sure things blend together, its HARD, every time I sit down to make a song myself, I end up making my own soundpack – for work flow reasons in Kong (Reason user), I’ll even automate patterns using Redrum, but it always comes down to ‘for my songs’, feeling like I have to make my own. Maybe their should be exploration into how to flip the soundpacks made from others? Like change the sound without breaking the continuity already established?
Ok here comes the hater comment…
Great samples, very tight finger work…
But would that get people on the dance floor, or would it keep people on the dance floor.
Maybe true fans of your personal music but not the average clubber after some good vibes.
Sound packs, sample triggering and live looping is definitely the path we should be on but I think it is still early days for many situations.
I know you can drum out beats that people groove to (and record those on the fly) because I’ve done that, but you’re right, most of the time, when people bust out freestyle, people lose interest in dancing, and pay attention to the DJ.
Well, not a hater comment at all. Finger drumming is more live performance than Djing. It’s for listening and watching, not dancing. There might be some people who can move the crowd with this, but generally it is not the purpose of doing it imo.
i went and saw jeremy ellis, and no one was dancing, but everyone WAS jumping up and down and yelling and going generally bonkers…
so there is that
sound packs would not be great for dance floors – you are right.
However, they are so much fun to play with and super enjoyable to create and manipulate.
So in that respects this model is more for your fun and enjoyment and less for the crowd. That being said there are a lot of people do pull out fingerdruming in a set and wow the crowd big time.
the whole thing feels similar to scratching in that respect. Lot’s of musical skill required, and a meaningful hobby/project to take on instead of practicing pressing sync.
Exactly ????
As I said in my 1st comment I believe finger drumming will become the norm. It’s just going to take a bit of time. TBT my thoughts were about the music played in the video. Madeon, Bassnectar, Skrillex, Deadmaus, are all doing live drumming, sample launching at festivals and it’s great to see and the crowd are going crazy. 🙂
Great article! Truly inspiring! Thank you!
Mad Zack, Ill Gates and Ryan, can you elaborate an article or video explaining ideas on how can we incorporate samples on higher BPM music like drum’n’bass or psytrance (145BPM)?
I dont feel like doing kicks, snares and hihats at 145 BPM, also psytrance for example is a genre were the less drums variation the better it will be.
So how can I be creative on my DJ Sets on a such extremely busy genre like psy?
How can I add psychedelic samples and loops where all the sources like DJTT, NI, Beatport are so house/tech oriented?
Spinscott is a monster at DnB & Jungle beats. You can see he uses a lot of layering. Even if you just concentrate on his right hand here you can get the basic idea. The rest is a “simple matter” of enormous amounts of practice and talent. 😉
FWIW – I think that if you can nail it, this style can actually be danceable and fit into a regular set for the genre.
Thank you for the tip! gonna check it out!
For genres that require a more stable kick/snare/hat patterns I bust out the MF Twister and play over top of that. You don’t realize how off beat you are until you have to play with a steady rhythm. ha
That’s my problem hahaha I have a midi fighter 3d, but I’m just not figuring how can I work with psytrance
Sound packs are great, I use them enough to spice up things in long, otherwise uneventful parts of songs which I haven’t (for some reason) edited for the dance floor. I’m not as good as I’d like to be at finger drumming, but I noticed recently, I am getting better.
It’s so easy to fall into the “I’m not good enough to do this” trap, especially when you listen to the demo songs that come with a lot of packs to show off how these samples can be used. These demo songs are put together by some professionals whom have a lot of time to play with these sounds, and these professionals typically work in teams. So treat these packs like listening to masters of Classical music. Yes, those people make some awesome sounds come out of their instruments, but that tight, clean, awesome sound comes from years of practice. Learn from how people use these sounds and experiment as you like. Within a few minutes, you’ll be able to make something satisfactory within a few minutes.
I hope this helps at least a little because finger drumming is a very different mindset from DJing, even though it’s all related… musically.
This hits home, I have recently adopted the same thought pattern.
Once I heard all the demo songs on my drum machine, I was too stunned to even try to make my own patterns for at least 3 months. I thought “these guys are great, they make it look easy, and anything I try is shit.”, but I stopped eating myself against others and just started playing, and learning. The journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step.
“but I stopped comparing myself against others and just started playing”
PREACH!
Follow me on Soundcloud http://mikekraze.com
Came to DJTT for the first time for DJ info. Now I hang around more for the soundpacks. ha I spend the majority of my time playing soundpacks now and DJing is on the back burner.
Also want to add if anyone is on the fence about buying the instructional videos, they are well worth it. Mad Zach does a great job at explaining everything.