3. February 2017 | Developers | Carl
Talk-Zone #51 Interview with Lucidsamples
Hi Wojtek, welcome to this interview with Lucidsamples. Please tell us about your company, what Lucidsamples is doing and when you started with it?
Hello Carl, thank you for your invitation. It is a pleasure to be your guest. Lucidsamples is a well known samples producer and provider from London. We collaborate with music makers and DJ’s from across the world. We also cooperate with some major DAW authors like Propellerhead, major blogs and websites like Rekkerd or Blend.io and House-Mixes.
Two years ago we have consolidated with another well established samples provider called Producer Pack. What connects us all is our passion for the music. We love music and we can’t imagine doing anything else.
How much guys are working for Lucidsamples, and what do they do? (e.g. sounddesigner, producer, graphic designers for the cover, marketing managers etc…)
We are not a large enterprise. The most important thing is to produce the best sounds possible. For that we have our own recording studio and several people work there under the guidance of our main Sound Engineer. He is also the Producer.
Besides that, we have an office where you can meet the rest of the team. Everything what is needed to run international company, we do by ourself. This way we could arrange a swift workflow. We divide all the tasks and we have specialists to do different jobs. Here you can find the webmasters, programmers. Hosting such large files as sample packs is difficult. And we want them to be downloaded from our website. It is safe for the people who can buy them. The whole Lucidsamples website is secured by SSL encryption. Our IT wizards also take care of the online shop, the website, blog, the servers and all the computers (including the studio computers). They are busy people! There is also a graphic designer and a team responsible for advertising, cooperation with other companies, media, musicians and clients. I work as a part of this team. We answer every email we get and every phone call. Right now we are setting up the last few things and soon we will announce several new cooperations with DAW developers and we are going to start some new, big projects.
This way everyone does his part and together we run the company like a band on its world tour. In fact, many of us work remotely and most of the time we work from several countries.
Which kind of electronic music genres does your products reflect?
As you look at Lucidsamples page, you will find „Styles“ category. You can find almost 40 genres there. Our samples fit in almost every electronic music style you can imagine, but our most successful and popular products are in House music styles. We continue to receive spontaneous emails with kind words about what we do. Sometimes we find an interview with a DJ who says that he uses our samples. This inspires us to work even harder.
Actually you’ve got released a nice sample-serie called Electronic House 1-3. Please explain what’s included in these packages.
Everyday someone new sits in front of his (or her) computer and says: „Today I will start making music!“ Many of them give up after they read that it is difficult, time consuming and expensive. But to be honest, all you need for start is a decent computer, a free or demo version of DAW software and a pack of half-ready sounds to experiment with.
The Electronic House series is a clever set of bricks to build your first tracks. To use them you don’t need much experience. It is a perfect starting point. You can learn much from these packs by checking which sounds or loops fit each other, which do not and why. And in the end you get a high quality tune as all elements of Electronic House are professionally sampled sounds and they can still be used as a base for new projects when you get more experience. These sounds are designed to grow up with their user in a very similar way as LEGO blocks are :)
The contents of the sample packs are divided into 5 folders: drum loops, misc loops, synth loops and fx sounds. Bass loops and synth loops with the same number will always fit each other. For example, if you put bass line #3 and synth loop #3 together, you will get a perfect match. Some loops with different numbers are also compatible and here is a field for your experiments. This way you learn faster then if you just read the theory and learn how to craft each and every sound. You will have the time for it later!
You can mix the contents of different Electronic House volumes to get even more results. And what is also important: You can get them for a price of beer in a pub!
Which kind of new sample collections could we expect next?
Right now I can say that we are working to release next parts of Electronic House. We are also reworking our older productions. We are constantly comparing the new and older releases and see what can be improved. And if you buy a sample pack from Lucidsamples you earn the right for its updates. We also pay much attention to all the suggestions and comments on our products.
In the next month we are going to add completely new stuff but I would like to keep the details as secret for now. Soon we will announce everything.
I’ve seen you’re not only offering samples, you’ve got also sound presetbanks (e.g. for Massive or Sylenth). Will there also be some banks for Serum, Predator2, Icarus or Spire in the next time?
It is possible if you tell us that you need such presets. The list of new ideas is very long so often we ask our customers: What do you need? And depending on the answer we add new features or support new formats.
With which kind of equipment do you produce all your samples and presets? Do you just have got a software based studio or do you also work with hardware outboard-equipment?
We don’t limit our ideas. Depending on the project we use different methods. Nearly every month in the studio we see a new audio device. Some of our sample packs are made by patiently recording key-by-key the sound of classic synthesizers or other instruments. And some sounds are generated entirely on the computer.
Different musicians and Djs have different needs and expectations. To satisfy them all we need to work in several different ways. Thanks to that we don’t offer only one type of sounds.
Do you also apply mastering-(outboard) equipment for the samples or do you renounce of a post production process before the release?
Again, by using these two methods you can get different results. Both have their limits. The most common solution is to combine them. We can say that what we do is a kind of hybrid production.
Additionally to the sample- and soundbank business, Lucidsamples has got an own Music-PR-agency, right? What can you say about that?
Urban Dubz is our partner. This is a serious PR Agency founded by a successful and experienced EDM Dj and Producer, Jeremy Sylvester. Our cooperation helps people not only make their music, but also in promotion. You don’t have to be your own manager. Just focus on doing what you love: make music. People from Urban Dubz will help you with all the rest.
I’ve heard you’ve got a special discount code for Noizefield readers, right? What can you say about the discount?
Yes, for this occasion we have prepared a special -10% code for Noizefield readers. During the checkout you will see a Voucher Code field. Paste NOIZEFIELD10334539 into this field and click OK.
There is no minimum amount of order and the coupon is valid until the end of March. You can use it for all our sample packs excluding Bundle Deals which are already in promotion.
Do you or your team also play and produce music as a DJ or in a band? (If you do, tell me that, than I can set a link to your band/project/soundcloud page etc..)
Lucidsamples has been established by a group of session musicians and music producers. Every member of our team has something to do with music. There is not enough place to name all the projects and some of us would like to remain anonymous.
But I can tell that we are honored to cooperate with real British and International Electronic scene veterans. Some of them started in early 1990s when the Rave and Jungle/DnB scenes were arising, giving the fundamentals for what the Electronic Music is today.
Now let’s tell our readers something that you always wanted to say.
I would like to thank you for reading this interview. I hope we will get to know each other better. Feel free to say Hi to us on our social media, email or Skype. Let’s keep in contact!
As I said previously, we answer every single questions.
Thank you so much for taking time to this interview.
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