If you’re not a part of one of the many Reddit communities around music production, you’ll know there are plenty of free resources that get linked.
Except, with the sheer amount of posting that goes on, it can be hard to find them.
To help, I’ve rounded up some of the best sample packs, preset packs, and more – all from various subreddits (with the original posts and sharers credited).
If you’ve been looking for a treasure trove of free content – here you go.
Let’s dive in! 👇
(All original posts have been linked to credit the original authors/sharers. Alternative links have been found if the original in broken. Click on the post to visit the full page.)
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Reddit’s Best Sample Packs
Sample packs are essential for both creativity and a good arrangement. Here’s our picks from the variety available on Reddit.
Recommended: Free Sample Packs
[Free Sample Pack] Unique Percussions and Textures with Water and Bubbles
I don’t know about you, but foley is such a great way to get an organic sound in your music. Here’s a post with some free unique percussion made with water, bubbles and other textures.
Valentine’s Day Care Package
A sample pack released on one Valentine’s Day a while back. Lots of gems here.
5GB Drummer Sample Pack
Want raw, organic drum recordings, chopped into a sample pack? This guy recorded a drummer and did it all for you. Here you go.
Future Vocal Chops 2
If you like bright, energetic vocal chops, don’t sleep on this pack. Great for styles like Future Bass or modern EDM.
Recommended: How to Make Vocal Chops
US Library of Congress Recordings
An archive of recordings from the US Library of Recordings. These range from the last 10 years and feature a large variety of different sounds. Check them out.
Philharmonia Orchestra Samples
Strings, brass, woodwinds and other various orchestral sounds – this sample pack has you covered. Although you might need to do some multisample mapping.
Drum Samples & Massive Presets
An older but still solid pack of drum sounds and massive presets – great for subgenres of EDM like dubstep, future bass, big room house etc.
500 Free Kick Samples
A nice variety of kicks, if you want that many.
78 Records
An archive of various vinyl rips of songs. There are a lot of cool things in here to sample, although a lot of them may not be royalty free. Use at your own discretion.
BBC 16000+ Sounds
16000+ sounds from the archives of BBC. These range from birds, to city recordings, to conversations.
White Noise Sample Pack
White noise is an essential tool in many genres of electronic music because it fills out space so well. Here’s a pack with a bunch of different types.
Reverb.com Free Vintage Drum Machine Samples
You don’t have to go spending 1000’s on old drum machines. Get the samples for free here instead. Includes the classics like the 808, 909 and a lot more.
Unique Percussion Sample Pack
As the title suggests, some unique percussion sounds. Great if you’re after something a bit different to layer up your drums with.
Markus Hakala’s 500 Free Kicks
More high-quality kick samples for free. These ones are still used by tons of producers across the world to this day.
High-Quality Synth & Effect Presets
These presets range from Serum, to Vital, and to Massive. There’s also a few other interesting bits and pieces, though.
30 Cyberpunk Sounds for Serum
If you like that ‘retro future’ sound, then these are a gold mine. Simply load these into Serum and you’re good to go.
Recommended: The Best Paid/Free Serum Preset Packs
38 Free Presets for Vital
Vital‘s the hot new synth. Here are some presets for it across different styles.
/r/edmproduction Vital Presets
More Vital presets – crowdsourced from contributors at r/edmproduction. A lot of variety in here.
514 EDM Presets for NI Massive
Massive is older and less visual than other synths, but doesn’t make it bad. Here are 514 presets for it.
Recommended: Serum vs Massive X
Custom Ableton Effect Racks
If you’re an Ableton Live user, effect racks can be a gamechanger for your workflow. I’m a huge fan of them in general, and these ones seem super useful too.
150 Pokemon Wavetables for Serum
Like Pokemon? Like Serum? Then this is a match made in heaven. Although they sound kind of weird out of the box, they are great tools for creative sound design. Go wild.
PORTR Worlds-inspired Serum Preset & Sample Pack
Porter Robinson is an insanely good producer. If you want some presets (and samples) inspired by him, check this out.
FL Studio Patcher Pad Creator
If you’re in FL Studio, this little Patcher device turns any sound into a pad. Neat.
MIDI Files for Songwriting
The Super Cool MIDI Chord Pack (60000+ files)
A lot of MIDI packs are floating around these days. This one is for free and is huge, so if you feel like sifting through them all, don’t sleep.
50 EDM Chord Progressions From Well Known Songs
Someone found a few popular EDM songs and transcribed their chord progressions to MIDI. Great to help teach music theory. Here you go!
Recommended: Songwriting For Producers
Daft Punk Discovery MIDI
If you’re a hardcore Daft Punk fan, then this MIDI is super helpful to analyze.
Gimme All Your Chords Vol. 1 MIDI Pack
A MIDI pack with just the basic chords for you to drag and drop into your DAW.
The Best Books, Tutorials, Cheat Sheets & Reference Materials
These are all educational resources you can watch, read or reference.
HUGE List of Common EDM Drum Patterns, Rhythms, and Fills
Getting your drums right is a huge part of music production. These pattern illustrations can help a lot.
Recommended: The Ultimate Guide to Drum Programming
74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers – Free PDF from Ableton
I personally own this book physically and it’s great. But last year during the initial COVID-19 wave, Ableton made it free for the eBook version. Here’s the PDF version available on the Ableton site.
Recommended: The Producer’s Guide to Workflow & Creativity
Music Production Workflow Map
If you’re a visual person, having a good order of tasks can be helpful. Although it may be better to make your own, here is someone else’s workflow mapped out visually.
10 Hours of Professional Producers Breaking Down Hit Songs
A good place to see big name producers in the DAW.
Basics Of Synthesis & Sound Design
A nice little primer on synthesis.
Recommended: 100 Sound Design Tips
Organic Drums With Samples
A nice tutorial on how to turn foley sounds into drums with processing and chopping.
Tennyson On Writing Jazz Solos
If you like jazz-inspired EDM, then you won’t want to miss this. Tennyson are one of the boundary-pushers of jazz meets electronic music.
Reverb Infographic
Struggling to understand and use reverb? This infographic is for you.
Some Useful Websites & Tools
If you’re after some interactive tools for music production, check these out. There’s a lot of variety, and you might find something you’re looking for.
Slapper.io
This tool is like an ultimate playlist creator. You can link songs and audio from Spotify and YouTube, and highlight specific segments while adding notes. Great for getting creative and coming up with ideas.
Film Speech Searcher
Like film dialogue? This search tool can help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Note that to sample these may still require getting the rights.
Ableton Live/FL Studio Project File Convertor (Dylan Tallchief)
It’s finally here. The ability to convert project files between FL Studio and Ableton Live. A dream come true.
12 Colour Serum Skins
Using Serum? Like colours? Here’s a great pack of 12 skins.
Note: these are no longer free. They are $3 though and are available in light and dark versions.
Online Chord Dashboard (link in comments)
An online resource for finding chords. Very well laid out.
Trychords.com
Another chord website with a built-in chord generator. Great for instant inspiration.
Freesound.org
Perhaps one of my favourite Reddit resources on this list for music production. Freesound.org is a website where users can share audio samples for free. There is so much great stuff on this site, so don’t sleep.
iZotope Pro Audio Essentials
A great training website to develop your mixing and engineering ear.
ChordChord
Yet another chord finding website with a generator. This one is very nicely laid out.
Some Tips & Tricks From Users
A few tips and tricks posted by Reddit users that they have found useful. Some are short and sweet, and others more in-depth.
18 Years of Music Production Experience
This guy has learned a lot over his time as a music producer. Maybe you’ll find some helpful advice.
Writing 52 Tracks in a Year
I’ve done this challenge before too (linked below) and can say it’s very worthwhile. Here’s someone else’s takeaways from their experience.
Recommended: Why I’m Making 52 Tracks This Year
Everything You’d Ever Need to Know About Reverb
This is a great, in-depth guide about reverb, the different varieties out there and how to tweak different parameters.
Audio Engineering Workflow
Some quick tips about how to approach a mixdown from a pro audio perspective.
Recommended: Mixing EDM
Some Things I Learned
A roundup of experiences with music production from an anonymous producer.
Beginner’s Guide to Plugins
Someone explaining the different types of plugins and devices you can use as a producer. Great for beginners.
Vocal Sampling Tips
Recommended: Vocal Samples: 11 Tips For Getting Creative
FL Studio Shortcuts List
If you’re an FL Studio user, this list is great to reference.
Did I Miss Anything?
That’s a wrap for this article. If there’s something you’ve come across on Reddit that would make a great addition, hit me up at [email protected].
Want more free stuff? Check out our resources below:
