For the past 5 years, RE:VIVE has been curating sample packs. Full disclosure, when we started, we didn’t really know what we were doing. We just picked sounds based on themes, not always considering their musical or sonic qualities. But as we’ve worked with more and more artists, we’ve learned what makes sounds interesting and useful. We hope that shows in the newer sample packs we’ve made.
But something we’ve never done, or even considered, is to have an artist curate a sample pack themselves. With their own musical ear, what will they be drawn to and what is it exactly that makes that sounds appealing to them and in what contexts might they use it?
So for the first time, we present the upsammy RE:VIVE Sample Pack! We invited our friend upsammy because field recordings and found sounds aren’t always directly apparent in her work. They’re deftly worked into her crystalline melodies that bounce around the sonic spectrum. In fact, we had no idea she used found sounds until she did her Do you even archive? interview.
Her collection of sounds leans more towards percussion and space than it does to melody. A balloon popping, the smashing of a mirror, a pneumatic drill are drum sample dreams, while gentle bubbling and drips in a bucket will serve as perfect textures underneath a new composition.
Download the sample pack here and read her thoughts on all the sounds below.
Het neerzetten en oppakken van een zinken emmer
A nice metallic and percussive sound that contains some sweet mid-low frequencies as well as crunchy high-end frequencies, giving you plenty of different parts to work with. The natural reverb of the bucket creates a interesting and condensed sense of space.
Nationaal Ballet: enkele sprongen van een danser
A sticky and subby sound, a little different with each jump of the dancer. The jumps sound as if they where recorded in a big space, creating a wide sound.
Het snel druppelen van water in een halfvolle emmer
A beautiful silky and crisp sound of drops doing the ‘plink and plonk’. The drops sound like they where recorded very close, creating the feeling of your head being the bucket into which the drops fall, with a short reflective reverb.
Het wegbreken van een muur met een pneumatische boorhamer
A quick repeating, compressed and percussive sound. The reverb is chamber like and reflective, creating an aggressive and droney vibe.
Het stukslaan van een spiegel
An intense, kind of harsh high frequency sound of breaking glass. Interesting as a texture, layer to time stretch/chop up or percussive sound.
PTT Museum: seinsleutel
A ticking sound with every once in a while a more sci-fi bleeping sound at the beginning of each loop. A nice reflective reverb creates a sweet sense of space.
Het vallen van een harnas en het uitrollen van een helm
A metallic and percussive sound consisting of multiple nice parts to work with. It mostly contains mid and high frequency material, slowly increasing in speed.
Het met de hand stempelen van post
A sticky and bouncy sound with some small talk in the background. It alternates between a short higher frequency sound and a short lower frequency sound.
Artis: Neusbeertje
A sci-fi-ish animal sound made by a bear, mostly high pitched, bending into different tones.
Het vaststampen van nieuwe bestrating
A low pitched sound consisting of a subby yet percussive sound and a sucking saturated sound.The sound sounds a bit distant and near at the same time.
Het stuk prikken en leeg laten lopen van een ballon
A super hard popping sound followed by the sound of air coming out of the balloon. You can also hear some rubbing of the balloon. Interesting as a texture, layer to time stretch/chop up or percussive sound.
Gestuurde schakeltikken in een elektronische schakelkast
A hard compressed rhythmical and industrial sound. You can hear different clicks and ticks pulsating at different frequencies.
Het hardlopen van een man op klompen
The sound of wood on pavement, both recorded from up-close and far away. A nice hollow sound rich of texture.
Het borelen van water
A very intense bubbling sound, super smooth and pleasing to listen to. Mostly low-mid and mid-high frequencies. You can hear different types of bubbles and thus different tones. Nice to use as a texture layer.
Storten stenen en bouwafval
An intense metallic and saturated sound that scratches but also has parts where it sounds very wide and spacious.
All sounds provided by The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision under a CC BY-SA license
Cover image via, Nationaal Archief, CC0