Where the drums at?

August 11, 2006 5:35 PM

Where can I download royalty-free percussion loops for Cakewalk?

I just started recording some music in my basement. All I have is a Shure SM57 to record with, so it's pretty tough to close mic the drums. Has anyone out there had experience using a free file library for some very basic, stripped-down percussion tracks? Bonus points for diversity of instruments/styles!
Also I have to be able to load the clips into Cakewalk, so I would prefer that they were downloadable as Cakewalk Project Files.
And please don't recommend any of the file libraries out there for purchase because I'm broke.

posted by Demogorgon to media & arts (5 comments total)

You can get a few freebies here. But mostly the best way to find freebies is to grab the samples from all the loop sites. For example, the fine folks at Sony Media Software (makers of Acid) have free samples for each of the content CDs that they sell.

They all come in .wav format. That's what you want. Those will drop into Cakewalk quite nicely.

It's work to get them all, and you won't have the kind of selection you want, but it will after all be free. :)
posted by hillelc at 10:11 PM on August 11, 2006

Hip hop breaks sites like this would be a good route.

This DOA post has a ton of links to try. Might be something useful to ya there...
posted by First Post at 3:15 AM on August 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

I just want to jump in here and try to clarify something. Do you mean royalty free or simply free? They're two different things.

Free (as in beer) means you download it for free, but does not necessarily mean that you have any rights to it beyond that. Royalty free means you have to pay for it once but don't have to pay royalties when you use it later.

This is one of those cases where it's important to read the fine print. Some loops you find online are not licensed for reproduction, in other words, you can play with them at home but you can't use them on an album.
posted by lekvar at 6:34 PM on August 12, 2006

By free I mean being able to download it for free, and then when my album drops and everyone is enlightened I won't have to worry about coughing up to anyone.
Clarified?
posted by Demogorgon at 2:50 PM on August 14, 2006

Well, off the to of my head, there's Opsound. It's free as in beer and free as in speech, you can download and use the samples there with (AFAIK) no restrictions. Some of it's crap, some of it's pretty good.
posted by lekvar at 5:50 PM on August 14, 2006