My Top 3 Expansion Packs from Native Instruments

When making a tune, the last thing you want to be doing is staring at your laptop, hoping inspiration will strike, which is why I love Native Instruments Expansion Packs – as I explained in details the other week. They provide a versatile selection of genre specific sounds and samples to give you the inspiration you need to get cracking with your music. Check out 3 of my favourite Expansions from the NI range and a quick beat I made with each one.

Timeless Glow

Why not kick things off with my absolute favourite then. Designed with house producers in mind who are looking for that early ’90s vibe, when much of the house music scene was moving away from the sounds of disco and experimenting with drum machines and synthesizers. The pack is drenched with eveything from melancholy vintage Rhodes pianos to lush pads and basses, however what I love the most is the percussion elements in the Construction Kits — great sounding hi-hat and snare loops which were so iconic to this old-school house flavour. PS: Lo-fi house producers take note – this one will have you buzzing.

Basement Era

Righto so turn the tempo down —  right down — to about 90 bpm (I see all you golden-era Hip Hop fans raising your brows) and explore Basement Era’s catalogue of dusty sounding jazz samples and hard-hitting drum hits. Pete Rock and Preemo fans will relish in these nostalgic sounds that defined the genre, but don’t get it twisted – a lot of what makes this pack so good is how nicely these sounds gel with more contemporary music styles of music.

Elastic Thump

All kinds of hybrid genres exist these days as we continue to blend new and old together, resulting in things like Melodic Future Funk.. The hell is Melodic Future Funk? I dunno, but you throw groovy ’90s RnB vibes in with the analogue creaminess of Roland Junos and Moogs, then up the tempo somewhat, throwing in some punchy kicks and cute vocal chops.. then I suppose that’s what you get. Suffice to say that the pack has some super-dooper lush sounds, but the stand out for me are the 20 fat bass and lead sounds for the Monark synth plugin. Get around it.

Check out these and the rest of the amazing range of Native Instruments expansions here, plus — for a few more days (May 1, 2019) — you can get free expansions with any Maschine purchase! Find your local authorised Australian dealer here.