Freeware: PakBytes, 606, Thumb Piano, Bittersweet 2

Good times for freeware lovers. Our July picks are three new sample libraries (mostly percussive stuff) and a not-new but definitely valuable tool, that can help managing all those transients. Enjoy!

Puremagnetik has just introduced their PakBytes. PakBytes are quick downloads that include hand picked instruments from Puremagnetik’s Micropak catalog. They are available in Ableton Live, Kontakt and Logic formats.
I’d say Pakbytes are a nice way to discover Puremagnetik’s world of sounds.
Plenty of interesting stuff, from Casio Phase Distortion and VL-Tone synthesizers to modular analog stuff, from the Atari 2600 vintage beeps to more complex wavetable-based synths, and more.

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Get PakBytes here.

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The guys at Wave Alchemy, with their 606 Drums have captured (through an API pre-amp) the heart of Roland’s sought-after TR-606 drum machine. It looks like they didn’t cut corners: multiple round robin variations, accent and velocity layers. Four pre-mapped drum kit patches for use with Kontakt 2, 3, & 4 and Battery 3.

Get 606 Drums here

One of my fav instruments, the Thumb Piano (or Kalimba, or Mbira) has just been made available through Boldersounds. It’s a 2 octaves plus a major 3rd and “it was sampled with both plucks from the flesh of the thumb as well as the finger nail of the thumb for a brighter sound. Also each sample zone has 3 round robin samples assigned to it”.
Kontakt and EXS24 versions are available in this case.

Get the Thumb Piano here

So now that you got lots of percussive sounds with lots of transients to manage, a tool like Flux’ Bittersweet II could come in handy.
BitterSweet also features a control for processing the signal, using the MS technique.
It’s definitely not new, but worth checking out. It’s available as VST, AU, RTAS for both OS X and Windows.

Get Bittersweet II here