AudioLove

Serious analogue feel from the Boss Dr. Rhythm

Cool claps, snazzy snares, bopping bass and hissy hats… what’s not to love? Every kit piece can be adjusted for pan and level, and have its Accent altered for a more nuanced feel Velocity Retrofit for humanised beats!

Yamaha’s RX21L Latin drum machine

Lilting early digital Latin sounds from 1986, with randomised round-robins for accuracy Cuicas, agogos, congas, timbales, claves, tambourine, COWBELL (yay!) Sixteen sampled sounds ideal for adding some South American shimmy to your tracks Bongos, whistles, high and low variants of most sounds… oh, and did we mention the COWBELL?

Cloned from the groovy little Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55

“Rhythmic Robot have sampled every percussion voice at every accent level and have also provided a ‘Velocity Retrofit’ button, so that you can play with nuances no genuine DR55 could match. The neat and recognisable UI is the perfect setting for this recreation of the oldest Dr Rhythm” – Sound on Sound magazine

The second 32 factory patches from the warm and characterful Korg PolySix Simple but powerful control set including Tilt EQ, Filter and Amplifier so you can craft your own sounds Velocity-to-volume and Velocity-to-cutoff retrofitted so you can enjoy expressive, responsive patches Classic sounds for 20p per patch!

Vintage chip music tone synthesiser

A grungy little chiptune synthesiser based on the onboard sound chip of the Sinclair Spectrum Perfect for chip-based musical styles, or for blipping up your electronic tracks!

This PatchVault collection is a custom set of patches, programmed here in the lab by Mongo on our lovely Korg PolySix. There are 34 patches in total, many of which have been specifically designed not just to sound good on their own, but to offer excellent starting-points for your own tweaks and modifications as well. For example, unlike the two Factory Sets, most of Mongo’s custom sounds start with an instant attack which we’ve then tailored as necessary using the PatchVault interface’s envelope sliders – leaving you with more control than, say, a fixed slow attack which can never be speeded up.

48 classic DX5 internal memory presets

All 48 factory patches from the DX5’s internal memory (less the piano patches… get them in DX Keys Deluxe) – plus the necessary Program combinations free of charge! Four velocity layers, AET Morph, tons of multisamples: 1.6Gb of FM goodness Custom-created twin patches designed from the ground up to work in layered, detuned pairs for a rich, warm sound Signature DX5 convertors bring surprisingly ‘analogue’ weight to digital technology

Early digital goodness from the Ensoniq ESQ1

The full 40 factory presets from Ensoniq’s wonderful early-digital synth Aggressive pianos, shimmering stereo synths, thick chewy basses, airy pads Simple but powerful control set including Tilt EQ, Filter and Amplifier so you can craft your own sounds Velocity-to-volume and Velocity-to-cutoff retrofitted for even more expressive options Classic sounds for 20c per patch!

20 digital tones from the Casio HT6000 pro synth

All 20 factory presets from Casio’s big-league HT6000 Digital hybrid sound: digital waveforms plus analogue filters Simple but powerful control set including Tilt EQ, Filter and Amplifier so you can craft your own sounds Velocity-to-volume and Velocity-to-cutoff retrofitted for even more expressive options Classic sounds for 20c per patch!

The Ensoniq SQ-80 is one of our favourite digisynths (at least from the more affordable end of the spectrum… we’re not saying no to a PPG Wave any time soon). In many ways straddling the analogue / digital divide, the SQ80 and its forerunner the ESQ-1 make a virtue of combining digital waveforms, short digital samples, and analogue resonant filters, into a very warm and rich-sounding package that nevertheless has that unmistakeable early-digital sheen to its sound. Grafting little attack samples on to grainy digital sustain waves and then running the whole lot through the filter leads to instant gratification time and time again – it’s a lovely synth to program (love that big vacuum-fluorescent display!), has a ton of really useful modulation routings, and its velocity capability and full stereo output make it a responsive and rewarding synth to play, too. We have a real soft spot for this machine.

The marvel of PatchVault brings you more classic synth patches for 20c a pop!

Hurrah for the Korg PolySix: an affordable, portable analogue polysynth with nice simple controls and a surprising amount of sonic potential. On the surface it’s a one-oscillator machine, but there’s a very useful sub oscillator for beefing up your patches, plus excellent Bucket-Brigade style effects for thickening the sound (the standout here is the Ensemble effect, which is wonderfully sweet and sweeping)… plus the awesome Unison, which stacks all six voices for massive leads and basses.

As you’ll know if you’ve taken a glance at our PatchVault DX5 sounds or our DX Keys Deluxe EPs, the Yamaha DX5 is one of those instruments that’s a good deal more than the sum of its parts. Nominally, of course, it’s two DX7s in one big box – which would make it on a par with Yamaha’s later DX7IID, for example. In practice, though, the DX5 and the 7IID sound distinctly different: the 7IID is cleaner, crisper and shinier, while the 5 is thicker, richer and somehow “more brown”. This is the result, largely, of the hand-picked 12-bit DACs used in the 5, which bring what we feel is a welcome dose of warmth to the FM synthesis on board.

A friend of Jay Dee (aka J Dilla)’s and a mainstay in the Detroit house music scene, legendary producer and drummer Dez Andrés created a groovy pack worthy of his collaborator's legacy. Check out his companion pack to the Fantastic Sounds of Jay Dee.

'Migo Thangs' by Big Citi Loops brings you nothing but the most innovative Trap, Hip Hop, Gangsta and Urban loops, plus MIDI files. This pack is inspired by artists such as Quavo, Future, Lil Pump, Murda Beatz, 21 Savage, Drake and many more.

We’re big fans of Ensoniq: the ESQ-1 and SQ-80 combine a lovely early-digital tone with a simplicity of programming that leaves most other 80s digisynths in the shade. Add in that big vacuum-fluorescent display and a ton of context-sensitive soft buttons, and you’ve got something that’s fun to play, fun to program and sounds fantastic.