Comprehensive Guide To Free Vocal Sample Databases For Music Producers

The provided source material focuses on vocal sample resources for music production rather than consumer product samples. This article examines the available free vocal sample databases and voice datasets that can be accessed by music producers and researchers. The information is based exclusively on the provided source materials.

Overview of Free Vocal Sample Resources for Music Production

Free vocal samples have become valuable assets for music producers across various genres. The source materials highlight several platforms and collections offering these resources at no cost, though access requirements and usage terms vary between providers.

LANDR Vocal Samples

LANDR, primarily known for their automated mastering services, offers a collection of free vocal samples suitable for EDM music. Their sample pack contains 50 samples with a total size of 127 MB. According to the source material, these samples include one-shots, loops, and atmospheres that provide a healthy mix for various EDM genres.

To access these samples, users are required to create a LANDR account. The samples are tagged by key and BPM, making them easier to integrate into existing projects. The documentation notes that these samples work particularly well with glitchy and left-field track styles.

Black Octopus Sound Vocal Collection

Black Octopus Sound offers an extensive free vocal sample pack that stands out for its size and diversity. Their free pack, totaling approximately 1.8 GB, contains 1,038 samples. The source material describes it as a "huge mix of awesome samples hand-picked from Black Octopus' library" and suggests it is "arguably one of the best vocal sample packs ever created."

The only requirement to access this collection is signing up for the Black Octopus Sound mailing list. The samples span numerous genres, providing versatile options for producers. Additionally, the source mentions a separate Vocal Atmospheres pack by Amy Kirkpatrick that is not free but contains over 1.25 GB of samples with nearly 300 individual elements.

Cymatics Vocal Samples

Cymatics provides two notable free vocal sample collections. Their first offering, "Infinity," represents their most ambitious vocal project to date, featuring high-quality recordings suitable for remixing. This pack includes: - 2 full acapella tracks with stems - 61 various vocals

Cymatics' second free pack, "Euphoria," contains some of their best vocal samples to date, with most available in both dry and wet versions. This collection includes: - 2 acappellas - 48 ad libs - 26 chants - 12 pre-drop vocals - 44 sung phrases - 29 tonal one shots - 27 vocal chops - 12 vocal FX - 33 vocal phrases

The source material emphasizes that all Cymatics samples are 100% royalty free, allowing producers to use them in their projects without additional licensing concerns.

Additional Free Vocal Sample Packs

Several other free vocal sample packs are mentioned in the source materials:

1. EDM Vocal Samples Pack Vol. 1 by FLP Family: Contains 25 free vocal samples, primarily pre-drop phrases suitable for club anthems in the style of Swedish House Mafia or Major Lazer.

2. VOX Reloaded by FunctionLoops: Features super-glitchy and weirdly-pitched vocal chops, though specific details about size and content are limited in the source material.

3. Free Vocal Kit II by GhostHack: Exclusively contains female vocal samples, with 60 samples ranging from simple breaths to chants and one-words. Each sample includes different versions with added reverb or pitch modulation.

4. Ultimate Female Vocal Samples Pack by MusicRadar: Offers an extensive collection of 1,337 female vocal samples, each supplied in different variations with two distinct harmony parts.

5. Antidote Audio X Takeaway Sound Free Vocal Samples Pack: A multi-genre pack exceeding 300MB with BPMs ranging from 100 to 174. Samples include adlibs, loops, acapella, and shouts.

Research-Oriented Voice Datasets

Beyond music production vocal samples, the source materials also mention several voice datasets designed for research and development purposes. These collections serve different functions and come with varying levels of accessibility and licensing.

Freesound Datasets

The Freesound platform hosts several specialized datasets:

1. BPM-annotated Loops Dataset: Contains approximately 4,000 user-contributed loops with tempo annotations. These were identified by searching Freesound for sounds with specific BPM-related tags in filenames, tags, and descriptions.

2. One-shot Percussive Sounds Dataset: Comprises 10,254 percussive sounds from Freesound with corresponding timbral analysis. This dataset was used to train a generative model for Neural Percussive Synthesis.

3. FSD-FS Database: A publicly available database of human-labeled sound events for few-shot learning, spanning 143 classes from the AudioSet Ontology. It contains 43,030 raw audio files from the FSD50K collection.

Speech and Command Datasets

Several speech-focused datasets are mentioned in the source materials:

1. Speech Accent Archive: Contains samples for various accent detection tasks.

2. Speech Commands Dataset: A substantial collection of 65,000 one-second utterances of 30 short words from thousands of different contributors. The dataset totals approximately 1.4 GB.

3. Spoken Commands dataset: A smaller database of about 10 MB containing 1,500 recordings of digits (50 per speaker) from 3 speakers, used for voice activity detection and syllable recognition.

4. Spoken Wikipedia Corpora: A massive 38 GB collection available in both audio and text formats.

5. Tatoeba: A database of sentences, translations, and spoken audio for language learning, featuring community-recorded English audio.

6. TED-LIUM: A corpus created from TED talks and their transcriptions, noted for noncommercial use.

7. TESS: Contains 2,800 recordings by 2 actresses depicting seven emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, pleasant surprise, sadness, and neutral.

8. Thorsten dataset: A German language dataset with 22,668 recorded phrases (23 hours of audio), with an average phrase length of 52 characters.

Specialized Audio Datasets

The source materials also reference several specialized audio datasets:

1. DBR Dataset: An environmental audio dataset created for signal processing education, containing 50 samples each of dog sounds, bird sounds, and rain sounds.

2. Synthetic Audio Set: Composed of 10-second audio clips generated with Scaper, featuring verified foreground events from the FSD dataset.

3. DESED Synthetic Dataset: The synthetic component of the DESED dataset, allowing for the creation of new mixtures from isolated foreground sounds and background sounds.

Access Requirements and Usage Considerations

Access to these vocal samples and voice datasets varies by provider. The source materials outline several common requirements and considerations for users.

Account Requirements

Many providers require users to create accounts before accessing free samples: - LANDR requires account creation for their sample pack - Black Octopus Sound requires mailing list subscription - Cymatics allows downloads after account creation - FunctionLoops and GhostHack appear to have similar requirements

Download Processes

The source materials describe different approaches to downloading samples: - Some platforms allow downloading individual samples or complete packs at once - Some samples are available in multiple versions (dry/wet, with/without effects) - File sizes range from small packs (127 MB) to very large collections (38 GB)

Usage Rights and Licensing

Usage rights vary significantly between collections: - Cymatics explicitly states that all their samples are 100% royalty free - Research datasets may have specific usage limitations, particularly for commercial applications - Music production samples may be intended for non-commercial use or require attribution

The source materials do not provide comprehensive information about licensing terms for all mentioned collections, suggesting that users should review the specific terms and conditions on each provider's platform.

Applications for Vocal Samples and Voice Datasets

The source materials suggest several applications for the vocal samples and voice datasets:

Music Production

Vocal samples are primarily used in music production across various genres: - EDM and club music often utilize pre-drop phrases, ad-libs, and vocal chops - Glitch and experimental music may benefit from processed and chopped vocal samples - Producers can use acapellas and stems for remixing and reworking existing material

Research and Development

Voice datasets serve multiple research purposes: - Accent detection and speech recognition research - Voice activity detection algorithm development - Audio event classification and few-shot learning - Environmental sound analysis and synthesis - Language processing and understanding

Educational Use

Several datasets are specifically designed for educational purposes: - The DBR dataset was created for a Bachelor's Seminar in Signal Processing - Tatoeba serves language learning communities - The Speech Commands Dataset provides educational material for voice technology development

Conclusion

The provided source materials focus on vocal sample databases for music production and research rather than consumer product samples. These resources offer valuable assets for music producers and researchers, though access requirements, download processes, and usage rights vary significantly between providers. Music producers can find free vocal samples through platforms like LANDR, Black Octopus Sound, and Cymatics, while researchers can access specialized voice datasets through platforms like Freesound and various academic collections. Users should review the specific terms and conditions for each collection to ensure proper usage and compliance with licensing requirements.

Sources

1. HyperBits - Free Vocal Samples
2. Cymatics - Ultimate List of Free Vocal Samples
3. EDMProd - Vocal Samples
4. Freesound - Datasets
5. GitHub - Voice Datasets