Are you on the hunt for some new sounds to go with the new year? Converse Rubber Tracks has an ever-expanding library of samples that include a wide variety of genres, styles, and instruments. You’ll find plenty of packs, kits, and mixes on the site, and the best part is: everything is royalty free!
Background
Converse Rubber Tracks (CRT) is a recording studio in Brooklyn, NY. What makes them unique is their community-based approach to recording artists. Anyone can apply for free studio time, and, if selected, record themselves at any of the partnered studios while maintaining the rights to their music. CRT is also partnered with Indaba Music, a web-based collaboration environment, to help build their sample library.
Packs
CRT Browser
The meat of the site, so to speak, is their collection of packs. Each pack is a studio session that has been broken down into one-shots, loops, and stems, with detailed information about the recording artist(s) and their performance. They provide a nice web-based browser that allows you to sift through the files in every pack, sorting, downloading, and/or favoring the samples that you like.
Kits
One perk of being community-based is all of the sharing going on. Members of CRT and Indaba Music can build their own kits (up to 8 samples) using any piece of audio on the site, and then share their freshly-made kits with everyone. You have the option of viewing featured kits only, or you can wade through all of the kits yourself.
Mixes
Another cool feature on the website is the mixes page. You’ll find a fair number of songs produced using samples from the Converse Rubber Tracks library. This is a good way to hear how others use sampling in their music production. The mixes, however, are not royalty free.
Tools
Sampler
Having a huge library of samples to play with is pretty neat, but it’s not worth a whole lot unless it’s accessible. Converse Rubber Tracks has implemented a few tools to make using and perusing their sample library easy. On top of the web-based file browser (mentioned earlier), there’s a Tinder-esque iOS app that lets you flip through samples, and a cloud connected plugin that imports your favorited samples and kits into Ableton Live.
With over 40,000 bits of sound, Converse Rubber Tracks is a sample library you definitely want to check out. The community-driven project promotes experimentation, creativity, and sharing in an easy-to-digest format. Once again, it’s absolutely free to use any of the samples in the library. All you have to do is sign up. Let us know what you think about CRT in the comment section below!
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