I'm working on the next installment of S950 Magic. I will document my process from soulful sample making, my personal sample making workflow, running them through the S950, then bringing them back into FL Studio to be mixed for soul sample processing and then out for you to purchase. This pack's theme is Late Night Soul so if you want those laid back, chill, late night soul samples that are 100% all original and easy to clear then this pack will be for you! If you want S950 Magic Vol. 1 you can purchase it here.

I just got a new expansion for MPC 3 that has some pretty sick sounds. I chose this Rhodes patch because if you want that late night soul vibe that's pretty much a must have. I played very simple chords nothing crazy. This will be the foundation of this entire soul sample. For soul samples a basic piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes or Clav will be your baseline for everything you do in the sample.

Since you can only use one instance of MPC 3 inside of FL Studio I went ahead put the pattern in the playlist and right clicked and chose consolidate. This will print what I just did in wav and put the loop back into the playlist so I can reuse MPC 3 again for another instrument. Before I did that I loaded up a basic sampler in step sequencer and cut and pasted the midi into that sampler. That way when I create the midi files inside the pack I won't lose what I just did.

After that I just put in a basic rimshot. No other drums on this one.

This trumpet patch inside of Philharmonik Orchestra is perfect for making authentic soul samples. It is natural and when it's all put together you can hardly tell it's from a plugin. Still something was missing and I needed to beef up the brass section. Since I got the new sounds from MPC 3 I went ahead and went through the brass sounds. I knew I needed either a saxophone or another general brass patch to bring the brass section to life. I found this brass patch and just copied and pasted the same melody that I did for the original trumpet. Consolidated it into the playlist and saved the midi before moving on to the next instrument.

Just to add a little bit of flavor I loaded up a French horn from MPC 3 and just had it play at the end. Sometimes you need just little things like this to make your samples more interesting. I could've chose a tuba, contrabass, tremolo strings but for this particular soul sample I chose this French horn patch. Consolidate the track and moved on to the next sound.

This Motown Bass patch inside of Sampletank is so damn fire! I use it pretty much everytime I make a sample. It's warm and a little distorted with a hint of spring reverb. For samples like this you don't have to do a crazy sounding bassline. Sometimes simple is better. So I went with that - a very simple bassline. Following the root note I just created a basic groove that sat in pocket. Since there is no other drums besides the rimshot the bassline will take care of the rhythm section.

I have a secret plugin from Soundpaint that has some really dope disco sounding strings. I pulled up a sustain patch and went to work. Nothing too crazy here you just need something sitting at the top of the frequency field. If you listen to any Motown, Philly Soul, or Memphis Soul record from the 60s and 70s strings are perhaps more important than a brass section. You need it in practically any soul sample you want to create. Now there are exceptions to the rule but generally you need to have a violin, viola, cello, or contrabass.

Preferably I wish I had a guitar I could play or someone to play a guitar for me because it's a hit or miss with plugins. Sometimes I add one but if it doesn't sound right I leave it out and replace with another sound. This one didn't turn out bad. Since the rhythm section at this point is just the bass and rimshot I need some more groove. That's why I added this guitar. Nothing too fancy, just playing an arpeggiated riff of the Rhodes chord. If you have access to a guitar or guitar player that is what you should go for instead of a plugin. But of course, I'm always making something happen with less.

Since I will be running these samples through my Akai S950 I don't make them anything over 16 bars. If you don't plan on doing that you could stretch it out 32 bars. The S950 has very limited sample time so to avoid issues I just make my arrangements simple.

For this one I just had the Rhodes, Bassline and Rimshot play for the first 8 bars. Then for the remaining 8 bars I play everything. The Rhodes, Brass, Strings, Guitar, Bass and Rimshot. You don't have to complicate this just make it sound good and something you want to sample. After all that's one of the main points of creating your own soul samples.

I'm not going to go into large amount of detail in this post about my mixing process for each instrument. Maybe one day I will dedicate and entire post or cheat sheet for EQ and compression for your instruments. For now I want to cover the crucial part. Making it sound like and actual sample!

On the master bus load up a parametric EQ and roll of everything below 20hz and roll off everything above 10khz. That's already going to make your composition sound vintage. Here's the real trick though.

Get yourself the Abbey Road Vinyl plugin from Waves. It's not that expensive and it will do wonders in terms of making it sound like an actual record. You have knobs on the top right that say noise, crackle and clicks. Mess with these and season to taste. Usually I just leave crackle on but sometimes I want a little bit of noise and clicks.

Next the Wow and Flutter knobs at the bottom left. These are your key effects. These are going to make your sample sound like a warped record. To listen to what is actually happening turn the depth knobs up and mess with the rate knobs. Once you got it the way you like it then turn the depth down. It should be a little bit in the middle depending on how you want it to sound.

If you enjoyed watching this sample come together, every melody inside S950 Magic Vol. 1 is created using the exact workflow shown above. No recycled loops. No clearance worries. Just authentic 12-bit soul textures ready to chop.

If you would like some ultra dope, 100% original soul samples and drums ran through an actual Akai S950 then I urge you to buy the S950 Magic Vol. 1 sample pack.

Inside you'll find warm soulful chords, dusty soul progressions, vintage brass textures, and gritty one-shots processed through an authentic Akai S950 to recreate the texture of classic 90s boom bap records.

✅ 5 Original Soul Samples

✅ 16 S950 Drum One-Shots

✅ Royalty-Free

✅ Instant Download