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Somewhere Sounds

FREE SAMPLE PACKS FOR ABLETON LIVE USERS

Somewhere Sounds is an ongoing collection of free sample packs for Ableton Live users. Curated by artists and producers operating across a range of genres, Somewhere Sounds (formerly Sydney Sounds) aims to become the largest collection of audio representing the passions that a diverse range of artists thrive on. 

The packs are created alongside artists chosen by Happy Mag. Each creator chooses a location, spends a day armed with field recording gear, then drops back into their studio to catalogue the sounds.  

Each Somewhere Sounds pack contains at least one drum rack, a selection of longer ambient or melodic samples, plus more. 

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – CHARLOTTE ADELE

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – KASE AVILA

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – IJALE

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – LIYAH KNIGHT

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – SETWUN

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – JONTI

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – CHELSEA WARNER

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – MR RHODES

ableton somewhere sounds

Music producer Charlotte Adele went to her sanctuary Maroubra Beach, but this time to capture the ambience to make the year’s first Somewhere Sounds Sample Pack.

Sydney music producer Charlotte Adele holds Maroubra Beach (AKA the Bra) special in her heart. It’s where she goes to chill after a long day working on music, letting a feeling of tranquillity wash over her as she’s immersed in sound.

The sounds of the environment like the fizz of the waves, the birds, and the wind were high on her agenda to record and transform into snares, percussion and ambient loops. She wanted to use these textures from the beach and its surroundings to create a beat that’s a sensory experience.

Using a field recorder and a shotgun microphone (with a good wind sock), Charlotte headed down to her local beach to explore the area more than she normally would. Heading back to her home studio she dived into Ableton to start creating some samples. We’ll show you how she recorded the sounds, processed them, and made a beat from them.

ableton sample pack

“When Happy Mag asked me to be part of Somewhere Sounds I was VERY happy. I’ve been following Somewhere Sounds and seeing different producers that I follow do it and I think it’s an awesome initiative.

It’s a really creative way for producers to go to a space they connect with, sample it and then share it with the community.

I think it’s awesome!”

Download Charlotte Adele’s Somewhere Sounds sample pack below:

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – CHARLOTTE ADELE

For more on Charlotte Adele head over to her Instagram page.

Strapping on kicks and heading down to a Basketball Court in Western Sydney, Producer Kase Avila had a unusal agenda — to make a Somewhere Sounds Sample Pack.

Avid basketballer and music producer Kase Avila merged his two passions on the court as he sampled all the sounds that one might expect (and not expect) to hear when shooting hoops.

Every sound imagined in an outdoor, Western Sydney Basketball court was recorded, sampled and processed from net swishes, to sneaker squeaks, to the poles that hold up the ring to make a well-curated sample pack from one of Sydney’s best music producers.

Working with some very simple field recording equipment and Ableton in his home studio, Kase Avila was able to get a lot of drums and percussion, and some found-sound synths that will make your production far more interesting that using the usual suspects. We’re going to go through how he recorded the sounds and how he processed them, just for you to download.

“When Happy Mag reached out to me I was super stoked! They’ve done some really cool videos in the Somewhere Sounds series in the past with other amazing artists, so to be part of that roster is an honour.

My music is feel-good hip hop and boom bop, and i use found sounds in a lot of my drums and percussion to give it more ambience and texture.

We’re going to a basketball court today. I’ve always loved basketball, growing up watching the sport, I wanted to be an NBL or NBA star, but I’ve got the Filipino gene — so it didn’t happen. But I still hold basketball dearly to my heart.”

Download Kase Avila’s Somewhere Sounds sample pack below:

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – KASE AVILA

For more on Kase Avila head over to his Instagram page.

For the first time in the Somewhere Sounds series, we headed to Melbourne to meet with producer IJALE. He created a sample pack inside an African Percussion store and from curious objects around his home — like his partner’s impressive loom.

To start creating his sample pack IJALE chose the Melbourne music store African Drumming. Being very familiar with African percussion instruments, he was very clear on what he wanted to sample at the music store from goat’s toes shakers to Dunun drums (West African drums) to deep low Djembes.

Leaving behind the music store, he then took inspiration to sample objects around his home like lamps, a huge array of books, singing bowls, some of his partner’s trinkets and her loom — a device used to weave cloth and tapestry.

IJALE’s Somewhere Sounds sample pack is one of the biggest we’ve seen in a while, and it’s a huge world of interesting sounds for you to dig into. We’re going to go through how he recorded the sounds and how he processed them, just for you to download.

somewhere sounds

“When Happy Mag asked me to do this I was ecstatic, I felt like I was replying to the email before I even formulated the words to say.

Yes, just definitely yes was my answer. I’ve watched every single one and I’ve been fans of all the people who’ve done them before and I’ve worked with them before.

I sample music all the time, just for fun, to do it in this way — curated — is a joy”

found sound

Download IJALE’s Somewhere Sounds sample pack below:

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – IJALE

For more on IJALE head over to his Instagram page.

Artist Liyah Knight took over her mum’s costume workshop yet again, but this time to make a sample pack from the sounds of machines, beads of all sizes, and curious findings.

Choosing a space that she’s extremely familiar with, Liyah Knight, entered her mum’s costume workshop — not to make another outfit for a show — but to make a sample pack. Using a few Sennheiser mics and a field recorder she created her entire Somewhere Sounds Sample pack in the tiny room that was full of weird and wonderful things, including a cash register that had been in the family business for generations.

Being no stranger to manipulating sounds in Ableton, she was eager to create something interesting and unique for you, herself, and her demo beat. Knowing that the workshop would be full of very cool drum and percussion instruments, she made it her mission to try to get some melodic sounds.

For her Somewhere Sounds Sample Pack an overlocker sewing machine was transformed into a bass synth, a drum rack was created from another sewing machine, and some fancy hats — obviously made for stage — were made into a few different synths. And that’s not all of it. Read on to see what she captured and how she processed them.

somewhere sounds

“When Happy Mag asked me to be part of Somewhere Sounds I was honoured and a bit surprised cos the only music I’ve made that’s been shared, has been sounds I’ve made with my teeth and with pens and things like that.

I like to make sounds, I am a noisy person. I like to do that at my desk, record things and manipulate them until I like them and they sound like something different.

I do that stuff in my studio all the time, but to do it in front of a camera is something new and different!”

Download Liyah Knights’ Somewhere Sounds sample pack below:

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – LIYAH KNIGHT

For more on Liyah Knight head over to her Instagram.

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Setwun explored the creaks and cracks inside his home studio and the sounds of his suburb the created a sample pack. Watch his process of finding and manipulating samples.

Exploring the quirks of his home studio, Setwun armed himself with mic and field recorder to sample these sounds. Venturing outside with a mallet in hand he wandered the streets of his suburb of Chippendale to collect sound bytes of street signs, beer kegs and traffic.

No stranger to manipulating found sounds and samples, he already had creative ideas in his head of how he wanted to process them including some processing through guitar pedals. 

From a broken stair inside his studio being transformed into a kick drum, unusual samples from his piano, to a beer keg as percussion and a random skateboarder being sampled in the park, Setwun used these two spaces to create an original and fascinating sample pack.

music sampling

“I was very hyped when Happy mag asked me to be part of the Somewhere Sounds series. I love recording random sounds and making lots of music from them.

Today I’m going to be recording found sounds with this Sennheiser shotgun microphone. I’ve been using Sennheiser stuff for as long as I can remember to be honest. Headphones, mics, they’ve always been around me.

I use found sounds and samples all the time in my work. I think they add incredible texture and imperfection. 

I’ve been living in Chippendale for about 5 years now in this house and it’s usually lived in by lots of creatives and musicians and great people who let us keep doing that. My relationship to the space is incredibly important to me, as I can invite friends around from different states or countries to come and make music.

I chose this space and the surrounding neighbourhood because it’s where I spend all my time and I’m always making music right here and all the sounds from the street tend to bleed in on a lot of the records I make. 

So I figured I should lean into that and get those sounds as loud as possible.”

ableton sampling

Download Setwuns Somewhere Sounds sample pack below:

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – SETWUN

For more on Setwun head over to his Instagram.

Musician, Artist and Producer Jonti loves found sounds: watch as he creates a sample pack inside his favourite music venue.

Heading into Phoenix Central Park, without his guitars and synths, Jonti wandered around the remarkable venue armed with a field recorder and a microphone ready to create his free Somewhere Sounds sample pack.

Having performed in the musical playground that is this venue, Jonti already had his heart set on this space to collect found sounds for his Somewhere Sounds sample pack.

Phoenix Central Park is not just an empty space with a PA, it’s an alluring music venue that is also the host to two insanely cool and highly regarded pianos, a Fazioli grand piano and Blüthner PH grand piano and a chair that has a harp built into it!

 

phoenix music venue

“I was very excited when Happy mag asked me to be part of Somewhere Sounds. I’m a big fan of the series and I love every opportunity to make a sample pack.

I love using Ableton and exploring Sydney and I am just very grateful to be part of the series.

My relationship with Phoenix Central Park started during the pandemic. I perform with an artist called the Die Youngs, and he said man you gotta check this venue out. We were like man, one day we gotta perform there.

Then Phoenix emailed me about doing a Jonti show and we performed that show, which was a dream come true!

The venue also portrays the sounds of Sydney, as most of the new bands I see perform at Phoenix Central Park.”

phoenix central park chair

Download Jonti’s Somewhere Sounds sample pack below.

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – JONTI

Listen to Jonti’s latest release here and find out more on Instagram.

Chelsea Warner took a literal stroll down memory lane sampling the Art Gallery of NSW and Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music.

Chelsea Warner is no stranger to found sounds and sampling, as she leans heavily on creating interesting and new sounds in her productions both for herself and for other artists she produces. Looking back on her childhood, she was inspired by two places for her Somewhere Sounds sample pack.

When Chelsea signed up for Somewhere Sounds the worlds of visual art and music met. Upon trips with her mother to the Art Gallery of NSW she fondly remembers how those events inspired her to create. Being a student of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Chelsea wanted to create music in a much different way from the usual internal setting.

Her goal for the sample pack was quite simple — find sounds with a tone or pitch so she can make a synth or keys rack to start the beat, and find some percussion from foliage to make drum sounds.

ableton sampling

“When Happy Mag asked me to be a part of Somewhere Sounds I was so thrilled. I really love all of the artists that have done this previously. So inspiring!

I work a lot with found sounds in my music. I love making my own samples, I love messing with things in Ableton. Stretching things and warping things are already a big part of what I do.

I chose the Art Gallery fo NSW because visual art has a big place in my heart. When I was growing up my mum would encourage my brother and I to do a lot of different creative things. We would go to the art gallery together when I got older so that holds a special place in my heart as a my creative roots and what initially inspired me to create.

The Conservatorium of music is where I’m doing my bachelor of music and where I had a lot of my first musical experiences outside of school. It was where the world opened up to me and I feel like I blossomed into a creative person and musician through being with and seeing a lot of amazing musicians around me.”

how to make a sample

Download Chelsea Warner’s Somewhere Sounds sample pack below.

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – CHELSEA WARNER

Listen to Chelsea Warner’s latest release here and follow her on Instagram.

For 2022’s first Somewhere Sounds pack, Mr Rhodes samples a wrestling ring and more inside a Sydney boxing gym.

Mr Rhodes is a rapper and producer originally hailing from Lismore who moved to Sydney in early 2022. He’s been dropping tracks since 2018 and 2020 saw him win a Create NSW Generations fellowship. As a producer who works with sound design in Ableton and on his Push 2, he was a perfect choice to launch the Somewhere Sounds sample pack series in 2022.

When Mr Rhodes signed up for Somewhere Sounds, his passion for wrestling (that he shared with his cousin) and sound sampling collided as he found a gym in Forest Lodge, Sydney called Padded Gloves that features a full-sized ring, boxing bags, slam balls, and skipping ropes.

His imagination ran wild with percussion samples from body slamming, hitting boxing bags, sounds from the ring, and Mr Rhodes even found a few unsuspecting sounds in skipping ropes and the chains that suspend items from the gym’s ceiling.

Mr Rhodes and Muhammad Ali

“When Happy Mag asked me to be a part of Somewhere Sounds I was super excited. I was a huge fan of their Sydney Sounds series and I use the sample packs regularly.

The thought of being able to create something to share with the rest of the producer and artist community, that they will be able to use for themselves, it makes me very full of joy and very keen to see what they do with it.

I chose the ring to create a sample pack because I’ve been a massive wrestling fan since I was nine. Me and my cousin — who has cerebral palsy — couldn’t do much sport so we would hang out and watch wrestling all the time and it’s how we connected. I thought it would be an awesome way to tell the story of my connection to wrestling and my cousin through sound.” 

Mr Rhodes boxing gym

Download Mr Rhodes’ Somewhere Sounds sample pack below.

DOWNLOAD SOMEWHERE SOUNDS – MR RHODES

Listen to more Mr Rhodes on Spotify and follow him on Instagram.