Virtual Instruments - 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…

22Sep 2025 by Jon

How to Create Your Own Virtual Instrument with Decent Sampler (Step-by-Step Guide)

Blog, Foley, Home Recording Blogs, Recording, Sampling, Sound Design, Techniques, Virtual Instruments

Are you interested in making your own virtual instruments for music production? In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly how I created my latest instrument — Cat Toy Drums for Decent Sampler. I’ll share the full process from concept and recording, to sound design, scripting, GUI design, and beta testing. By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap to start building your own instrument with Decent Sampler. And if you watch the video I’ll also share a special promo code to save 30% on my Cat Toy Drums virtual instrument. https://youtu.be/3gjkWspZfIE Step 1: Start with an Idea Every instrument begins with a concept. Mine came from a quirky inspiration: creating drum samples out of cat toys. I was originally inspired by Lofi Sounds, who built a sample pack from…

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

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…

09May 2024 by Jon

Free Funk Bass

Home Recording Blogs, Recording, Sampling, Sound Design, Techniques, Virtual Instruments

Want a FREE Funk Bass Virtual Instrument? Check out my latest video where I create a Funk Bass patch using the Behringer Poly D analogue synth. Download the FREE virtual instrument which works in both Decent Sampler and Logic Sampler / EXS24 Experience the warmth and character of an analogue synth bass and add some funk to your music productions. The Behringer Poly D is a modern recreation of the famous Moog Model D which retains that all-analogue character of the original synth. In my video I explain the settings I used to create this patch using the Poly D. Download my FREE Funk Bass virtual instrument and you'll be able to use the patch within your DAW. Just enter you email address below and I'll send you the download…

24Mar 2022 by Jon

FREE Cinematic Piano by Heavyocity

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

Free Cinematic Piano This week, Heavyocity announced the release of a free cinematic piano. The piano is the first instrument from Heavyocity's 'Foundations' range and works with the free Kontakt Player. In this video, I give the new instrument a full test and demonstration. https://youtu.be/wBJi9OB-fZY Heavyocity Foundations - Free Cinematic Piano Demo Heavyocity Foundations Piano If you are familiar with Heavyocity you'll know they offer a fantastic range of high quality orchestral, cinematic and hybrid instruments. Personally, I love their range of percussion instruments and own the epic 'Ensemble Drums' collection. The Foundations Piano didn't disappoint me. The interface allows you to blend the soft dynamics of a grand piano with an expertly crafted sound design layer. The instrument is highly customisable although the presets provide a great starting point.…

01Oct 2021 by Jon

Free Tools for Composers

Blog, Composing, Home Recording Blogs, Sampling, Sound Design, Sound Effects, Stock Music, Techniques, Virtual Instruments

There are many free plugins and sample libraries available if you know where to look. But what might surprise you is just how good some of them sound! As a composer for production music libraries and I use these free tools in my own compositions. So please try them out for yourself and have fun! In addition, check out my latest video. I'll show you how to create a cinematic percussion track using an amazing FREE sample library. https://youtu.be/kurh2D9Qh3E https://youtu.be/kurh2D9Qh3E Spitfire Audio, Labs. Let’s start with Labs by Spitfire Audio. This huge collection of high-quality instruments has to be heard to be believed. Labs covers a vast range of instruments from mandolins to synthesizers. Furthermore, the collection is growing all the time. So why not check them out! Kontakt Player…

Category: Virtual Instruments