Blog - The Home Recording Studio

03Jul 2025 by Jon Chapman

Cat Toy Drums: Lo-Fi Drums With Purr-sonality

Blog, Composing, Foley, Home Recording Blogs, Recording, Sampling, Sound Design, Sound Effects, Virtual Instruments

If you're a Lo-fi Hip-Hop producer looking for something fresh, characterful, and a little unexpected — Cat Toy Drums might be your new secret weapon. This unique drum collection was created using recordings of actual cat toys, food bowls, litter bags, and other feline-related objects. These quirky foley sounds were carefully crafted into usable kicks, snares, claps, hi-hats, rimshots, shakers, and cymbals — perfect for mellow Lo-fi, Boom Bap, and downtempo beats. 🥁 What Is Cat Toy Drums? Cat Toy Drums comes in two formats: 1. Virtual Instrument for Decent Sampler (Free Plugin) The Decent Sampler version gives you a playable instrument with built-in effects and tweakable controls: Individual control over pitch, decay, pan, and reverb send Convolution-based reverb featuring spring and real-world spaces Lo-fi Speaker Mix knob using small…

25Apr 2025 by Jon Chapman

Analogue vs Digital Guitar Effects: Which One Wins?

Blog, Home Recording Blogs, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sampling, Sound Design, Sound Effects, Techniques

It’s an age-old debate that continues to divide musicians and producers: analogue vs digital guitar effects. Does analogue truly deliver a warmth and character that digital can’t replicate? Or have digital effects come so far that their convenience, flexibility, and quality make them the obvious choice? https://youtu.be/vKmwvrjAGqY While working on my latest sample pack, Vintage Vibe Guitar Loops, I wanted to put this question to the test. So, I processed the loops with some classic vintage gear: the Behringer 636 Spring Reverb and an Akai X360D Reel-to-Reel tape recorder—the latter used as a tape delay. How I Used Analogue FX in My Workflow To create the tape delay effect, I routed audio from my DAW through a hardware mixing desk into the Akai tape machine. By putting the tape recorder…

25Apr 2025 by Jon Chapman

The Secret Sauce Behind This Hip Hop Track

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sampling, Sound Effects, Stock Music

I recently released a video about a track that brought me some real success. As a composer for Motion Array, I can tell you—it’s a tough marketplace to crack! The bar is already high just to get accepted as a composer, but once you’re in, each track you submit goes through a strict review process. There is one genre, however, that never lets me down. In the video (linked below), I break down my Upbeat Funky Hip Hop track, which earned Motion Array's highest stamp of approval: "Staff Pick". https://youtu.be/Ef-ZdSMNUyU This style of Hip Hop thrives on chopped sampling, so you'll need some sweet-sounding samples to pull it off. That’s where Vintage Vibe comes in—a sample pack loaded with over 50 soul and jazz-inspired guitar loops. These loops are perfect for adding warmth, groove, and authenticity to your beats. You can…

25Apr 2025 by Jon Chapman

Creative Sampling Techniques Using Momentum

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Sampling, Sound Design, Sound Effects, Techniques

If you're into sampling and looking to spice up your sound design, this post is for you. Today, I’m diving into some creative sampling techniques using a completely free plugin that could seriously enhance your music production workflow. https://youtu.be/hWMtTHFirJE Let me introduce you to Momentum by Big Fish Audio — a powerful, intuitive tool for sample playback and manipulation that won’t cost you a penny. Why Creative Sampling Matters When working with samples from libraries, it’s always a good idea to add your own twist. Not only does this help you avoid issues with content ID systems on platforms like YouTube, but it also ensures that your sound is unique to you. Whether you’re making beats, scoring video content, or building full tracks, personalizing your samples adds that extra layer…

25Apr 2025 by Jon Chapman

Recording Acoustic Guitar – Which Mic is Best?

Blog, Home Recording Blogs, Microphones, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Techniques

In this video I test out 4 microphones for recording acoustic guitar in your home studio. All mics are budget friendly, with the cheapest just $200 and the most expensive $650. Listen and decide which one you prefer from the Shure SM7B, GAP R1 MkII Active Ribbon Mic, AKG C451 B, and the Rode NT2 https://youtu.be/rOcj9Ds7ZnQ I've been recording a lot of Acoustic Guitar lately and its something I think lots of people struggle with in home studios. Our environment can sometimes be challenging and most of us don't want to spend a fortune on microphones. Therefore, I only wanted to test budget friendly mics. It's very tempting to just give in and buy a new microphone. However, I wanted to try out my existing mics first and see if…

25Apr 2025 by Jon Chapman

Lo-Fi Vibes – FREE Virtual Instrument

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sampling, Sound Design, Virtual Instruments

Introducing Lofi Vibes: a free virtual instrument designed to elevate your Lofi, Chill, Ambient, and Synthwave productions. Lo-Fi Vibes was created after I sampled a Yamaha PortaSound 3 vintage synthesiser. The PS3 is one of the first portable home keyboards from the 1980s. I then decided to blend these sounds with my Behringer Poly D analogue synth. The result is ‘Lo-Fi Vibes’, a synth with a nostalgic character that is still useful in modern production. https://youtu.be/Zxw0acuti5g The following voices were captured from the PS3: Organ, Flute, Brass, String, Clarinet, Piano, Harpsichord, Guitar, Vibraphone. For each voice (where appropriate) you get the following patches:- – Short note (staccato)– Long note (sustained / looped)– FX (with various Lo-Fi effects added)– Hybrid (blended with analogue synth) I also created a 'Bass' patch which…

05Dec 2024 by Jon Chapman

FREE Plugin: Vocal Menace

Blog, Home Recording Blogs, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sound Effects, Techniques

When it comes to music production, achieving the perfect vocal sound can often feel like chasing a moving target. We stack EQs, compressors, saturators, and other plugins, tweaking endlessly in pursuit of "that" sound. Enter Vocal Menace by Chris Liepe—a game-changing, all-in-one vocal processing plugin that simplifies the process without compromising on quality. And the best part? It’s completely FREE! So read on to find out more about this FREE Plugin: Vocal Menace. What is Vocal Menace? Created by Chris Liepe, a seasoned musician and vocal coach, Vocal Menace is designed to help producers and vocalists quickly dial in an expressive, high-impact vocal tone. Whether you’re working on lead vocals, harmonies, or even spoken-word content, this plugin provides an intuitive interface and powerful controls to take your vocal tracks to…

27Nov 2024 by Jon Chapman

Lofi Sample Pack Black Friday Deals

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sampling, Sound Design, Sound Effects

Black Friday is the perfect opportunity to expand your sample library with premium lofi sounds at unbeatable prices. We've scoured the best deals from top producers like Tangerine Sounds, Lofi Sounds, Tamuz Samples, Cymatics, and Loopmasters to help you find the ultimate Lofi Sample Pack Black Friday Deals. 1. Tangerine Sounds Deal Highlights: Up to 50% off selected lofi packs, including exclusive drum loops and one-shots perfect for warm, nostalgic beats. Notable Offer: Lofi Essentials – a comprehensive pack blending ambient sounds with crisp lofi percussion, now FREE! Explore their deals here. 2. Lofi Sounds Deal Highlights: Lofi Sounds is offering discounts up to 70% on their Everything Bundle which includes over 1,500 handcrafted sounds in one bundle! Bundle Deal: 3-4 packs = -40%; 5+ packs = -50%. Get multiple packs for…

31Oct 2024 by Jon Chapman

Free Lofi Essentials Sample Pack

Composing, Sound Design, Sound Effects

To celebrate the launch of my new website, Tangerine Sounds, I'm giving away a FREE, yes FREE Lofi Essentials Sample pack! The FREE sample pack contains all the essential ingredients for any Lofi music producer, including drum loops, one shots, percussion, guitar, keys, vocals and more. Go check it out at: Tangerine Sounds You can find out more about Tangerine Sounds and my new Lofi Keys sample pack: Here More from the Blog: Here

22Oct 2024 by Jon Chapman

Lofi Keys Sample & Midi Pack

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Sound Design

I'm excited to announce the launch of my new website and my first Sample Pack: Lofi Keys Sample & Midi Pack. Tangerine Sounds tangerinesounds.com has now launched along with my first sample pack: Lofi Keys Check out the promotional video below:- https://youtu.be/BiC7WhWypYU Act now to take advantage of the Launch SALE prices for a limited time only. PLUS I have a SPECIAL DISCOUNT only for my email subscribers so make sure you sign up to my mailing list if you haven't already. The Lo-Fi Keys sample & midi pack is a collection of 50 amazing chord sequences inspired by jazz and soul, perfect for Lo-fi Hip Hop. Look no further for dusty, vintage keyboard and piano samples, processed with wobbly and saturated tape effects! Furthermore, the Premium version of the sample pack also incudes over…