Free Download: Electrophonic Sample Series Vol. 1 - Univox Drum Machine Rock Pack 1

It's finally here: the first volume in our Electrophonic Sample Series, featuring beats from a 1971 Univox SR55 Super Rhythmer. I've sampled the ROCK 1 and ROCK 2 presents and presented them here in WAV format. Some notes about the samples and the process of sampling them:

• The output is very noisy on this device. I have tried this unit with a variety of gear in a wide range of settings, and it's always been noisy. Rather than boost the signal and add to the noise, I tried to record at a fairly medium-low level to get as natural a sound as possible. The volume knob on the unit was turned up to well past the 80% mark, but still not particularly strong. You may want to use some kind of plug-in to deal with the noise, or you may like it as it is - like me.
• The tempo knob has 10 numbered areas with 11 ruler marks. Each beat was recorded at each of the 11 ruler marked spots on the tempo knob corresponding to the following BPM: 0=60, 1=61, 2=85,3=147, 4=170, 5=198, 6=231, 7=280, 8=346, 9=448, and 10=474. As you can see, this thing can go fast!
• The device also has a tone knob, with three ruler marks at the 3:00, 9:00 and 12:00 positions, in addition to turned all the way down (roughly 7:00) or all the way up (roughly 5:00). Each beat was recorded at each of these five tone positions.
• Naming convention: each file is named in the following manner:
  

  beat-xxxbpm-tonex
  

  ...where "beat" is the name of the beat (rock1 or rock2, in this case), the number of beats per minute, and the setting on the tone knob (1-5).
  
• That makes for a total of 55 samples per preset button -- 11 tempos x 5 tone settings = 55 samples.
  
• All beats are exactly 8 beats long -- two measures of 4/4 time -- and perfectly loopable. I have tested them all in Acid to verify their "loopability".

So, feel free to download these samples and use them for anything you like. Make a hit record with them! No license, no nothing, just enjoy these sounds. If you do use them, please give us a little nod if you can. And if you do download them, please toss us a donation if you can for the time it took to chop all this stuff up. And don't worry, there's much more to come -- there's still 16 presets to go, and then the mother load Swing/Foxtrot channel...

Where do I download them? Download link is in the comments -- enjoy!

(click images for full-sized cover art for download and printing)