What is the sound of one drum machine clapping? Well… that’ll be the bland sound you hear way too often. It’s time to layer up, get your claps out of isolation, and layered on thick. And Goldbaby’s latest might have you fall for the clap all over again.

I normally skip straight past the sound packs in a hurry, but Goldbaby’s stuff has long been an exception – oozing personality and immediately exuding a real passion for the eccentricities of vintage gear. It’s one of those sound pack designers who has organized things like you would — if you had more time and focus. (Sigh.)

And that’s what’s especially nice about this collection. Rather than be a lowest-common-denominator pack catering to a particular style, this opens up in an organized way that’s perfect for doing some actual sound design and customization and patching. (I find Goldbaby stuff is the first thing I load onto new gear with sample loading, plus the odd patch or code.)

Step one: tons of drum machines, more than you could probably beg time on, with a lot of the beloved MFB (seriously, go buy one of those if you can):

808, 909, 707, 626, Claptrap, R50e, MFB-522, LXR-2, MachineDrum, Nord Drum 2, Model Cycles, DRM-15, PO-32, Microtonic, Metasonix D1, DSI Tempest, MRX-185, PB-300, 4 In The Floor Perc Combo, Conn Rhapsody, XD5, Tom, Tek, RZ-1, RPM40, Kastle Drum, RX5, DrumBrute Impact, DDD-5, Tanzbär.

Step two – set this up for experimentation. Even the “PleaseRead” documentation encourages you:

The claps are grouped in similar-sounding groups. Sometimes it’s only subtle changes within the groups. This is deliberate. Using a few similar claps in your beat can add a nice sense of movement and groove.

Some claps have an initial attack that preempts the full clap sound. These can be played slightly early to give a nice loose feel to your beat.

Claps are great for layering under snares! Don’t be afraid to do some of your own layering with these samples.

That’s frankly what is missing from the mass-market soundware world and its over-designed presets. This is a perfect toolbox to experimentation – and gets you straight into the part of production that’s fun.

Product and more audio demos:

https://goldbaby.co.nz/ldmc.html

$9, 25MB, 24- and 16-bit WAV, 144 claps, stereo and mono for each, obviously works with anything.

Plus honestly some of their freebies are among my favorite sounds ever:

https://goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html

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