With NUKG's explosion in popularity in recent times, Garage (once a dirty word within the mainstream Dance circle) has received a fresh breath thanks to the efforts of a new generation - particularly some of the bigger names who've been able to transcend the underground scene & cross over onto prime time radio slots & big stages. So it's hardly surprising that - at a time when it's difficult to keep up with the new releases & young producers are coming through tenfold; the likes of Loopmasters & Splice are seeing an influx in aptly tailored content - geared towards artists looking to mimick the sounds they've been hearing.
If you're a regular visitor to the site you'll already have spotted a shortlist of some of the best UK Garage sample packs you can download, but - in the interests of remaining topical - let us look at some of the finest packs released recently: -
Loopmasters: Garage Kingdom (from £29.95)
There's a definite focus on the more minimal, bass-heavy side of NUKG within this pack. Both the drum hits & loops tend to be on the more sterile side, & so might be lacking in terms of helping give your pieces a rugged basis if we're brutally honest. The bass sounds are on the dated side as well, so might not be up to scratch if you're looking to mimick the grittier 2 Step flavas doing the rounds at the minute. There's some interesting synth cuts on offer though, as well as a plethora of useable MC-based vocal chops.
There are plenty of deep & emotive sounds within this pack, along with some surprisingly hard-hitting drums (the loops for which cover both the full & half-tempo side of things). If you're looking to build some interesting, forward-thinking Future Garage it's definitely worth having in your library - particularly with such a low price tag!
Rewind Samples: Skyhigh UK Garage (from £12.95)
Skyhigh's a name on the rise for sure, with recent releases via this very banner (also featuring on Garage Shared's ever-growing roster). This pack is a good example of his skillset, presented like one of Loopmasters' artist series - rather than one of the more generics pack which typically offer sounds to help you cover any style within the NUKG umbrella. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation: if what you're looking for is a truly diverse pallette of sounds you might start elsewhere. But if you can appreciate the high level at which Skyhigh works (& we can), you'll find ample ammunition here to create something inspired by him.
Black Octopus: Emotional 2-Step & Garage (from £23.95)
We're big fans of emotive NUKG &, to be brutally honest, there's not really enough of it about (in our humble opinion). This nice pack from Black Octopus hopes to address that, with plenty of reverb-laiden softly-played pianos, interesting stuttered synth sounds & deep drone-like basses. The drums aren't a strong point, but what it lacks there it makes up for in other areas for sure.
Producer Loops: Speed Garage (£29.95)
If you just take a minute or two to listen to the demo supplied with this pack, you'd be forgiven for questioning the name of it - as it's very obviously more geared towards the techy Bass House side of things for which the likes of Cru Cast, Yosh Bass & (to a lesser extent) Four40 cater well for. But Speed Garage it is not. Now, all that said - there are definitely some interesting & usable bass/synth sounds on offer; just don't be fooled into thinking they'll be much use for Speed Garage!
Samplestar: Nu Skool Garage & House. (from £14.95)
Samplestar present here a very rounded set of high-level sounds which we'd (somewhat ironically) strongly recommend for anyone more interested in making vintage H&G, for the most part (though tbf there are some elements which aptly suit the "Nu Skool Garage" tag in the title).
Wavetick: Garage Fundamentals (from £17.95)
One of the stronger packs listed here in terms of creating legitimate, authentically new sounding UK Garage - with a wide variety of bubbly popcorn synth sounds, heavy basses & snappy drums. If there's one complaint we might have it's that the drums are almost too snappy in places (if that's possible!), but prospective buyers ought not to be perturbed by that - as it's nothing a bit of compression or transient processing won't fix.
Ghost Syndicate: Somnium Dark Garage (from £9.95)
An exceptional pack of extremely well-crafted & forward-thinking sounds, sitting firmly on the darker side of NUKG - brought to you by a team that always deliver on that front. If you want to hop on board with the topical gritty 2 Step coming from the likes of Shall Not Fade et al., you could definitely do a lot worse than scoping out this one.
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