Sound Effects - The Home Recording Studio

22Nov 2025 by Jon

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…

19Nov 2025 by Jon

Black Friday 2025: The Hottest Deals on Plugins, Sample Packs & Libraries for Home Studios

Blog, Home Recording Blogs, Mixing, Recording, Recording & Mixing, Sampling, Sound Effects, Virtual Instruments

Black Friday has quietly turned into Black November for music producers. Deals are already rolling out across plugins, sample packs, and virtual instruments – perfect if you’re building (or upgrading) a home studio on a budget. Below is a curated roundup of this year’s 15 essential Black Friday destinations, including my own store Tangerine Sounds and a short “Ones to Watch” section for sales that haven’t fully launched yet. 1. Tangerine Sounds – Lo-Fi Drums, Guitars & Keys 🎛️🧡 https://www.tangerinesounds.com Boutique lo-fi hip-hop sample packs and virtual instruments created specifically for mellow beats, boom-bap and chillhop. Black Friday highlights: Cat Toy Drums sample pack + virtual instrument both discounted Lo-Fi Essentials Sample Pack reduced from £9.99 → £3 Lo-Fi Lab: free prototype instruments available alongside sale items Best for: Lo-fi…

03Jul 2025 by Jon

Convolution Reverb: Create Your Own Impulse Responses

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

Looking to capture the sound of your favourite hardware reverb and use it digitally? In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to create your own convolution reverb impulse responses (IRs) using free tools — perfect for bringing analog effects like spring reverbs into your DAW workflow with zero hassle. I recently faced this exact challenge. I wanted to use my Behringer 636 analog spring reverb in a more seamless way inside my digital setup. Routing audio in and out of a DAW every time? That gets tedious. That's where Convolution Reverb comes in. https://youtu.be/OJE0Iyht_Bg 🎛️ What Is Convolution Reverb? Convolution reverb is a powerful technique that uses a sample of a real acoustic space or hardware unit — called an Impulse Response (IR) — to recreate that reverb digitally.…

03Jul 2025 by Jon

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

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

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

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…

05Dec 2024 by Jon

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

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

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

Category: Sound Effects