22Nov 2025 by Jon
Logic Pro Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Tutorial: Stock Plugins Only

Logic Pro Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Tutorial: Stock Plugins Only

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Logic Pro, Mixing, Sampling, Sound Design, Sound Effects, Virtual Instruments
If you’re a Logic Pro user, you probably rely on your favourite third-party plugins for saturation, reverb, tape wobble and all the usual Lo-Fi magic.But what happens if you take them all away? In this video, I challenged myself to create a full Lo-Fi Hip-Hop track and DAW template using nothing but Logic Pro’s stock plugins and built-in sounds.No FabFilter, SoundToys, analogue-modelled tape plugins. Just Logic. And as it turns out… Logic’s stock tools are far better than many producers realise. https://youtu.be/_PCNuw20JEk Why I Created This Stock-Only Lo-Fi Template I recently teamed up with Production Music Tools to design a Logic Pro Lo-Fi Hip-Hop DAW Template that would be: beginner-friendly affordable based entirely on Logic’s native tools easy to learn from and adapt To make it fully accessible, I could…
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03Jul 2025 by Jon
Cat Toy Drums: Lo-Fi Drums With Purr-sonality

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…
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25Apr 2025 by Jon
The Secret Sauce Behind This Hip Hop Track

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…
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25Apr 2025 by Jon
Creative Sampling Techniques Using Momentum

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…
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25Apr 2025 by Jon
Lo-Fi Vibes – FREE Virtual Instrument

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…
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27Nov 2024 by Jon
Lofi Sample Pack Black Friday Deals

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…
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31Oct 2024 by Jon
Free Lofi Essentials Sample Pack

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
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22Oct 2024 by Jon
Lofi Keys Sample & Midi Pack

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…
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17Oct 2023 by Jon
Analogue Synth Drums – FREE VST

Analogue Synth Drums – FREE VST

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Sound Design, Sound Effects, Techniques
When it comes to making music, digital tools are popular for their convenience, but there's something special about analogue synthesisers. My journey with the Arturia Mini Brute, my first analogue synthesiser, has been a rediscovery of its unique charm and creative potential. But the question is: Can analogue synthesisers make drum sounds? Read on to find out more and claim for FREE Drum Samples. My First Analogue Synthesiser Purchased around five or six years ago, the Mini Brute stands in stark contrast to its modern counterparts. There are no LCD screens or presets as most of us are used to. It boasts a single main oscillator, a sub oscillator, and an LFO. It has a mixer for the different oscillator types, a filter envelope, and an amp envelope. The main…
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27Sep 2023 by Jon
5 Best electric piano VST’s for producing lo-fi hip-hop

5 Best electric piano VST’s for producing lo-fi hip-hop

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sound Effects, Techniques
Bedroom Music Studio Computer Music Equipment Lo-fi hip-hop is a genre of music that is characterized by its warm, mellow sound and its use of vintage and lo-fidelity samples. Electric pianos are a popular instrument in lo-fi hip-hop, as they can provide a rich and atmospheric sound that is perfect for the genre. In this post I'll discuss the 5 best electric piano VST's for Lo-fi Hip-Hop. Watch my latest video to hear 5 of the best VSTs for Lo-fi Hip-Hop. https://youtu.be/24xqw9ybE4g?si=VblGikEsBAH4qOnR If you are looking for the best electric piano virtual instruments for producing lo-fi hip-hop, here are a few of my recommendations: 1. Lounge Lizard.Lounge Lizard is a great sounding electric piano with both tine-based and reed-based presets. The tine-based are mainly Rhodes pianos and the reed-based are…
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