2018 FROM MARS

Everything From 2018, Including Future Releases This Year

2018 has been a big year, to say the least. We built an entirely new studio from the ground up, centered around our new API 1608 console. Not surprisingly, all of our releases this year sound better than everything else we've ever done.

There were a lot of firsts this year - we finally got our hands on one of the most rare drum machines of all time, recorded our first acoustic drums and instruments (through a classic vintage sampler), and unleashed our first collection of Modular Drums hits.

We also sampled a bunch of vintage, Soviet synthesizers, completely re-did the 808 from scratch, updated older releases with our favorite samplers, and developed the most comprehensive collection of drum machine midi grooves in existence. 

Essential WAV From Mars

To top it all off, we've developed a new product called Essential WAV From Mars that is a collection of only the most essential samples from every single product we've ever released. Essentials is the quickest and easiest way to browse our sample catalog to date. 

The purchase of 2018 From Mars includes all of these releases in 2018 and free updates for the next year for any of these products. 

The LM1 From Mars

The LM1 is one of the most rare and sought after drum machines of all time. Since starting Samples From Mars, we have been on the look out for one. This year, we acquired *two* of these legendary beasts, and created the most comprehensive LM1 sample pack in existence.

Multi-sampling the pitches for each voice, and round robin hi hats at various decays, we recorded both the 100% clean and deeply colored drum hits through the API 1608. The results are FUNKY, and with so many pitches to choose from, it's easy to dial in those classic LM1 breaks. You can read more about the LM1 recording process here. 

The DMX From Mars

The DMX is an 8 bit eprom-based drum machine developed in 1981, featuring acoustic drum samples and a warm, analog filter. Some of its sounds are surprisingly close to the LM1, but it features additional sounds you will not find on any other drum machine. With two pairs of hard hitting toms, the driest rimshot of all time, ride, and crash, the drums are punchy and funky. Oh, and every drum voice is fully tuneable via internal trimmers (accessed by lifting up the front panel). You can read more about the recording process here.  

Modular Drums From Mars

After so many vintage drum machine samples, it's really refreshing to synthesize a bunch of modern drum hits from scratch, and that's exactly what Modular Drums From Mars accomplished. With such unique and seemingly endless modulation possibilities, modular synthesizers are extremely expressive, and capable of creating sounds that transcend what any single drum machine can offer, and that is exactly what we set out to do with this pack, by creating a SERIOUS collection of 1400 ones hits synthesized with a Eurorack modular system. 

With 16 sound categories and 24 16x hit kits, modular drums is more than just blips and beeps - it is a well organized pack of everything from analog bassdrums, to sinewave subs, synthetic impulses, complex stabs, melodic congas, syn-toms, lasers, obscure snares, bells and whistles, analog lasers, wavetable bongos and even classic TR sounds (with a modular twist). Coming in at about 1/100th the cost of a basic Eurorack setup, it's a cheap and easy way to inject the addictive insanity of modular synthesis into your tracks. Click here to read more about the detailed recording process. 

Soviet Synths From Mars

Soviet Synths From Mars is a collection of multi-samples from six vintage, analog Russian synthesizers and 3 drum synths. We've all seen these synths kicking around various websites but they are intimidating to purchase - we don't really know what they sound like, they are a nightmare to ship, and they have a reputation for being finicky. 

Nevertheless, we put our fears aside, and ultimately found that the sounds of these rare synthesizers matches their aesthetic and unique beauty. The Russian circuitry Each of the synths has its own personality, and this made for quite a diverse sample pack. With everything from cold, cutting and sterile acid bass, to these synths are capable of everything from deeply analog, vintage strings to warm bass, meaty chords, cutting leads and general psychotic mayhem. You can read more about the history and sampling of these synths here. 

The S612 From Mars

The S612 is a massively underrated 12bit sampler from 1985 that yields endlessly inspiring transformations of whatever you put into it. Its features are simple but powerful: a selectable sample rate from 4 Hz - 32kHz, a sweet, analog filter, input clipping, old school pitching (with LFO), looping, reversing, and best of all: front-panel sliders for adjusting start, end and loop points. With these parameters the 612 is capable of everything from thick, juicy bass, to silky leads, overdriven drums, and lo-fi glitched out madness. 

So, for this release, we set out to record a bunch of acoustic instruments and transform them through the 612 into analog synths and drum machine hits. We recorded a vintage 1960s slingerland kit, a bunch of percussion, Rhodes, Clavinet, guitars, bass, obscure records, vocals, dogs barking, and of course, analog synthesizers. 

The drums were completely transformed from traditional drum sounds into custom drum machine hits, with synthetic snares, sub kicks, gritty claps, glitched out tambourines and so much more.

All of the melodic instruments were transformed into 5 octave synthesizers, by pitching them in the 612, applying filtering, recording at various sample rates, crunched up by the 12 bit conversion and looping the results. The following track is made completely from acoustic instruments. You can read more about the in-depth recording process here. 

The 808 From Mars

The 808 is easily the most well known drum machine of all time and we decided it was time to re-do one of our most popular drum products, so that it sounded even better. We re-did the sampling from the ground up, and the entire process took around 1 month. 

There are three reasons the new 808 From Mars sounds so much better. 

1. The TR-808 itself. We now have the best sounding TR-808 we've ever heard - it was serviced by an original engineer who worked for the company in the 80s. It's tuned up, clean, and features a Bass Drum with an amazing 4 second decay
2. We're working out of our best sounding studio yet (thanks to your support!). We have an API 1608 Console, the cleanest possible balanced power (with hum eliminators), Otari MTR-12 mastering reel to reel, Apogee Symphony MK2, and a host of hardware saturators, compressors, filters, and EQs.
3. Our experience and ears. Because of the sheer amount of hours (tens of thousands) we've put into sampling since the original 808 From Mars, we are much more experienced than ever before - in terms of listening, processing, organizing - everything.

We recorded our new 808 both cleanly and with a healthy dose of color. We multi-sampled every voice where possible, for both clean and colored samples - this means we grabbed all decay, snappy and tone settings (these are controlled via Macros in Ableton). We also made sure to create a bunch of simplified, 16x Hit kits for people that don't want to mess with the multi-samples. 

Oh, and we tuned the Bass Drums through our trusty MPC60: 

The SP1200 & MPC60 Updates

Throughout the years we've tried many, many different samplers, and the MPC60 and SP1200 are our favorite sounding. I've found that re-sampling through an old skool sampler provides better results for coloring a sample than any type of traditional processing, be it EQ, compression, saturation, etc. There will always be something magical about the way they harden, distort, and add harmonics to samples. So, we updated the 505, 606, and 707 by sampling them through one or both of these samplers, at every pitch of course. 

We don't plan on stopping the product updates anytime soon - and purchasing 2018 From Mars will give you access to all future updates for products that are included here. 

Grooves From Mars

Grooves From Mars is something that we've been wanting to do for a while, but we had to wait until we had nearly all the drum machines in the world (OK not really but) to do it. It's also something that had been requested by a couple customers. So, what is it?

Grooves is the largest, most comprehensive collection of drum machine midi groove templates in existence. Created from 25 classic and modern drum machines, with one of the world's most sample accurate clocks, these templates will enable you to bring the unique feel and groove of each sequencer to your DAW. 

It's no secret that every drum machine has its own vibe - whether analog or digital, they rush, drag, swing, shuffle, and funk like no other. Some are extremely accurate, and others are completely off the grid. An MPC60 will sequence your sounds like a band is playing them, and the LM1 (responsible for the first sequencer shuffle of all time) will give you that incredible early 80s Prince feel. Whatever the machine, they all have a unique groove, and Grooves allows you to bring this to your DAW sequences, whether it's a drum line, bassline, or even chord progression. Click Here to read more about the process. 

2018 - A Recap

Needless to say, 2018 was a massive year for Samples From Mars. Thanks to our amazing customers, we were able to re-build our entire studio from scratch, turning it into the best sounding studio yet. This allowed us to develop even better sounding samples for you guys and gals, update older products, and create a bunch of new products that don't exist in the previous collection- acoustic samples, modular drums, soviet synths, and of course the illustrious LM1. 

But 2018 isn't over yet! Some of our best releases are set to come out in December, and are included with the purchase of this product.