04) Midi, Chords, Loops and Co.?
Updated: Sep 11
Expressions I use in the Blog;
Midi: What is MIDI ?
MIDI is a set of instructions that allow a hardware or virtual instrument to reproduce a musical performance based upon the information being sent to it.
Chords: A chord is a group of notes which sound at the same time. Chords are usually made up of three basic notes, (but any of the notes can be doubled up without changing the nature of the chord).
Loops: A loop is a repeating section of audio that can be played over and over again. A sample is a piece of audio that is played once and then stops. Loops are often used in electronic music, as they can create a hypnotic or trance-like effect
What I use and have to learn to handle it (2023):
FL Studio Producer Edition 21: The Producer Edition has everything you need to write, produce, mix, and master professional quality music. It comes with over 80 instruments & effects, Multi-track audio recording, Audio Clips, Mixer (100+ tracks), External MIDI control.
Unison Audio: "We help you produce pro-quality music while eliminating all the guesswork, frustration and overwhelm. Take your music to the next level with Unison now."
The Unison MIDI Chord Pack comes with over 1200 MIDI files that you can drag and drop into your own tracks, instantly creating a professional sound.
Native Instruments: Native Instruments as a company was founded in 1999 in Berlin, Germany, where its headquarters are still located. Founders Stephan Schmitt and Volker Hinz began using the name Native Instruments in 1996.
Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are located in Berlin, with additional offices in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Shenzhen.
Komplete 14 Ultimate (Native Instruments): With Komplete 14 Ultimate, you get all elements included in the first two bundles – and then Ultimate is particularly interesting because it adds 21 Orchestral and Cinematic Instruments as well. If you score for film, video games or even a TV or online series, this selection may be the best pick.
It includes: 21 Orchestral and Cinematic Instruments, 18 Synthesizers, 48 Sampled Instruments, 15 Percussion Tools, 31 Effects, 65 Expansions, Kontakt 7, Piano Colors
Action Strings 2, Session Guitarist – Picked Nylon, Session Guitarist – Electric Vintage
Spotlight Collection – East Asia. Plugin Alliance Effects and Ozone 10 Standard;
Komplete Kontrol 32M (Native Instruments): MICRO-SIZED KEYBOARD CONTROLLER
32 compact keys to control all your instruments and effects
Sleek and solid design, fused with professional production features
Comes with a powerful software package, including synths, basses, drums, effects – plus Ableton Live 11 Lite
SonuScore: SONUSCORE was founded in 2012 as a label of the award winning music and sound production studio Dynamedion and was created by the same team that founded the highly acclaimed BOOM Library.
Ancient Duduk Phrases (SonuScore): Ancient Duduk Phrases allow you to travel through space and time. Originating over 1,500 years ago in Armenia, the duduk instrument is listed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List and has found its way into countless musical productions.
Lyrical Bundle (SonuScore): CREATE EMOTION IN YOUR COMPOSITIONS
We are proud to present to you our first collection in the Lyrical series – a collection of virtual instruments, whose power is unmatched with common sampling methods. It combines the best of both worlds: the creative freedom that a composer enjoys – and the expressiveness and emotionality that a true instrumentalist unleashes. Everything at your fingertips – all with the same ease of use. This compatibility allows you to easily switch instruments and streamline your workflow even further.
Best Service: Best Service, founded 1986 as a pioneer in the upcoming sampling market is a Munich based Company, committed to providing the best virtual instruments and sound library experience possible, covering an exceptional range of inspiring tools for musicians.
Eduardo Tarilonte: is an award winning sample library developer. He is the creator of libraries such as Forest Kingdom, Epic World, Era Medieval Legends, Cantus, Mystica, Shevannai, Desert Winds, and more. His libraries are used by major Hollywood composers for movies, tv series, video games and documentaries.
Forest Kingdom 3 (Eduardo Tarilonte): The sounds of forests and jungles
Mother Nature conducts what is probably the greatest orchestra on our planet. The wind blowing through the leaves, the birds chirping loudly – countless natural instruments are constantly writing new and unique songs. Forest Kingdom 3 is the long-awaited sequel to the award-winning Best Service Forest-Kingdom-Series that transfers the sounds of forests and jungles to computer-based songwriting studios.
NADA (Eduardo Tarilonte): NADA – meditation sounds
Nothing is the primordial sound or the first vibration from which all creation arose.
“After a lifetime of going through many musical styles, one has always been close to my heart. Because, inside me, it's a significant part of my soul and my essence that I can't let go of: New Age Music – to which I owe everything; what I am and what I feel. I went from Ethnic, Folk, Ancient music to Soundtrack, and every note I wrote or sampled was imbued in some way. At times he thought he had left, never to return, but he was always there, sleeping and nourishing these new styles while at the same time giving them all his spirit. Now it's back, more beautiful than ever. NADA is a spiritual journey through the deepest sounds of my soul” - Eduardo Tarilonte
Sweetspot: Plug-ins, DAWs, samples and everything for your studio are at Sweetspot! Virtual instruments, VST effects and Audio Units for immediate download. The office is in São Paulo. I buy my software from them.
What´s new in 2025?
Since I'm not a musician and don't know anything about music theory, I use a few "crutches" which I'll list below:
FL Studio Producer Edition: When I bought the FL Studio it was FL Studio Producer Edition 21, now it´s FL Studio Producer Edition 25.1. What´s new?
AI Chord Progressions are the harmonic foundation for the emotions evoked by your music. Some Progressions feel bright and joyful while others evoke feelings of darkness and mystery. Chord Progressions can be memorable, can signify a genre and most important for you as a producer, a great chord progression sets you up for success by establishing the key and note structure for the melody and bass to follow. Starting with a solid progression makes writing the rest of your just that much easier.
And now with the new upgrade there is also a AI Bassline generator, to get a little help.
FL Studio Starter is a free, entry-level version of the FL Studio music production software. It's designed to help beginners get started with music production using a simplified version of the full program. The Starter Pack includes loops, samples, and project files to help users learn songwriting, sound design, mixing, and track organization.
Unison Midi Wizard 2: MIDI Wizard 2.0 is a music production plugin that generates chord progressions and melodies, aiming to spark creativity and help users finish songs faster. It offers various modes, styles, and genres for generating unique musical ideas, with built-in synths, samplers, and effects. The plugin is designed to be a tool for inspiration and workflow enhancement, rather than a replacement for human creativity.
"Well, I don´t like it. Some of this system is useful, but the melodies are mostly useless. It seems like a kid throws his toys in the air and watches what happens when they fall back to the ground. I hope they work on this stuff and make soon an upgrade."
Scaler 3: Scaler 3 is a music production plugin designed to help with chord progression generation, melody development, and overall music theory workflow. It's a versatile tool for both beginners and experienced musicians, offering features like chord suggestion, scale exploration, and a multi-track arranger for building full song ideas.
"That´s a great plugin. It helps a lot for wannabe composers like me. I can only recommend it."
Komplete Ultra 15: It´s a unfortunately payed upgrade from Komplete Ultra 14. Komplete 15 Ultimate Upgrade is a software package from Native Instruments that provides musicians with a vast collection of instruments and effects for music production, sound design, and performance. It includes over 150 premium instruments and effects, including Kontakt 8, Guitar Rig 7 Pro, and iZotope Ozone 11 Standard. This upgrade is for users who already own a previous version of Komplete Ultimate, such as Komplete 8-14 Ultimate.
"There is a lot of new stuff. I like mainly the Action Woodwinds, Vocal Colors, Session Guitarist – Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe, Session Bassist – Upright Bass, Session Ukulele, Duets, Rudiments and the Rudiments. A lot of thing to explore."
Ethera Gold Atlantis 3.5 is the latest version of a female vocal instrument for cinematic, fantasy, and epic music. It's a powerful tool for composers, producers, and musicians, offering a wide range of vocal possibilities, including realistic True Legato, a Hybrid Vocal Engine, and polyphonic vocals. This update features a redesigned user interface, adaptive True Legato technology, and expanded presets, making it a comprehensive vocal library.
"That´s a real fantastic and huge library of femeal vocals. It´s fantastic, my problem is only to find the right notes to make a track. But this is my personal problem. I'll sort this out somehow."
Zero-G Samples are audio samples, virtual instruments, and sound effects from the British company Zero-G Ltd. These products are used by music producers, composers, and multimedia developers worldwide for music creation, soundtracks, and sound design. Zero-G specializes in high-quality, copyrighted sample libraries with loops, beats, riffs, and more for various creative projects.
Insta Composer 3 is the ultimate upgrade to your creative workflow. Built on the rock-solid foundation of one of our most popular plugins, this powerful and intuitive tool is your magical musical muse. This MIDI generator plugin has been completely overhauled to embrace a brand new songwriting workflow, yet retains the same revolutionary composition features that you know and love. This is not an AI replacement for your genius, but a sophisticated co-pilot that puts professional-grade arrangement and production features directly at your fingertips. True creativity comes from control, and that’s why Instacomposer 3 operates on advanced, transparent procedural generation. Every song, chord, riff and rhythm is generated based on configurable musical rules, giving you total command over the output. Absolutely nothing is trained on copyrighted material - this is pure, clean musical innovation that’s ready for your human touch.
W. A. Production was founded in 2014 to provide electronic music producers of all kinds with the tools they need to make their best music possible without breaking the bank. Beginning by offering professional-quality audio samples, W. A. Production has since grown into a globally-recognized developer of Audio Plugins, DAW Templates, Music Production Courses, and more.
W. A. Production also prides itself on top-quality human-to-human customer support. Ensuring a positive customer experience is W. A.'s number one priority, and the team works hard to prevent and rectify any issues that customers may experience.
W. A. Production is constantly innovating and testing new boundaries, pushing its product offering and the industry as a whole to new heights. W. A.'s team does this by continuing to ask themselves each day: "What about making your sound better?"
Whats new in 2026
Cymatics is a popular music production company known for creating high-quality sample packs, loops, and VST plugins, particularly for Hip Hop, EDM, and Trap genres. Trusted by over 2 million producers, they offer both premium and free, royalty-free sounds and tools designed to speed up workflow.
Here I bought the Pandora Midi Collection & Midi Deluxe Collection. PANDORA is an exclusive library of placement ready Cymatics MIDI, covering multiple genres and styles of today’s most popular music.
If well written… MIDI can be one of the most useful tools that a producer can have.
Between BPM changes, transposing, sound selection, and post processing, you can take 1 MIDI file into a thousand different directions.
So whether you want to learn how we write placement ready melodies, edit the MIDI and create new compositions, or simply use them as is...
This pack contains a variety of unique and complex MIDI, to give you a plenty of different styles to work with regardless of the type of track you’re making.
There are 4 genres inside this MIDI collection, including RnB, Trap, Lofi, and EDM.
Deluxe Midi Collection
Our team of experienced songwriters and producers have put together an expansive collection of high quality MIDI progressions and melodies that make it simple to quickly find inspiration and write great music faster than ever.
All MIDI files have been carefully refined, giving you useable progressions that can be dropped into your DAW immediately.
These MIDI files are also great if you’re trying to improve your songwriting skills and learn how simple, effective progressions and melodies are written.
Toontrack: FOR SONGWRITERS. BY SONGWRITERS.
"Sometimes things happen that exceed your wildest expectations. As in the case of Toontrack. What began as an experiment ended up as Drumkit From Hell – a collection of drum sounds that would come to change the face of the industry. “We just wanted great sounding drums for our own songwriting. We had no aspirations of even selling it in the first place”, says Mattias Eklund, Toontrack’s co-founder.
That was some 20 years ago. But instead of being a two-man operation and having an “office” in the bedroom of Mattias’ apartment, Toontrack now employs almost 50 people in four countries and continues to spearhead innovation of creative tools for songwriters around the world.
We believe our success and legacy boils down to a few simple things: our love for music, craft and sound. That’s what the company is founded on and that’s what we bring to work every day."
From them I bought the EZ Keys is a virtual piano software and songwriting tool designed to help musicians—even non-piano players—compose, arrange, and add professional piano tracks to their music. It functions as both a standalone application and a plug-in for major DAWs like Pro Tools, Cubase, and Logic Pro.
Core Library: Includes a high-fidelity Fazioli F212 grand piano recorded with multiple microphone perspectives for diverse tones and ambiences.
Bandmate: A standout tool where you drag and drop MIDI or audio (like a guitar riff) and the software automatically suggests matching piano grooves.
Suggest Chords: Helps you build musical chord progressions based on a selected style or feel.
Tap2Find: Allows you to tap a rhythm on your keyboard to instantly find matching MIDI grooves in the library.
Grid Editor: Features an onboard editor with humanization, scale matching, and timing tools for detailed MIDI customization.
EZ Keys Rock Arena: Inspired by the greats of rock that have packed arenas to the brim from the 1970s and on, getting people chanting, cheering and screaming their lungs out to songs about open highways, life, work and the everyday rut, this collection of MIDI for EZkeys checks all the hallmarks of arena rock as we know it. Expect basic chord structures, to-the-point melodies and big, anthemic hooks that just won’t go away – all with that unmistakably driving and energetic rock feel.
For my Kontakt Library from Native Instruments I bought some new VSTs:
Drop-tuned devastation
From piercing leads to crushing riffs, Electric Storm Deluxe unleashes the full power and range of a premium eight-string electric guitar. Built for the fierce sounds of metal, rock, industrial, and beyond, it delivers thunderous low-end chugs, soaring solos, and everything in between. Whether you’re writing for the mosh pit or dramatic movie moments, Electric Storm Deluxe gives you high-impact tones on demand.
UNAPOLOGETICALLY FEROCIOUS
Invasion combines outright impact with absolute precision to deliver drums that will cut through even the fastest and most chaotic mix. In true metal form, the library is based around a gigantic drum kit, with aggressive kicks and snares augmented by a perfectly tuned battery of toms and an onslaught of cymbals – from tiny bells and splashes all the way to monster chinas and crashes.
EXPRESSIVE SOLO PHRASES
ETHNIC VOCAL PHRASES – BY HAYAT SELIM is our next vocal solo instrument for impressive soundtracks. It brings powerful and emotional vocal phrases directly at your fingertips. Ensoul your music with the distinctive touch of the human voice.
EMOTIONAL LIVE PERFORMANCES
Our Ethnic Vocal library features expressive live phrases. It provides true human musicality, captured in a real artistic performance. You will be fascinated by the ease of use and the instant emotional depth of this instrument.
THE SPIRITUAL SOUNDS OF THE VOICE
Invoke the old magic with these mysterious voices from beyond. These otherworldly calls will deliver you into strange and unknown places, enticing your primordial inner self to break your compositions free from all inhibitions.
For the MONGOLIAN VOICES - ANCIENT PHRASES library, we tapped into the shamanic sounds of traditional Mongolian singing. Divided into three categories, Female, Male, and Throat, the library delves into the more mystical places of vocalizations. The Female and Male parts are based on the traditional long song, or Urtiin duu, a most ancient art loudly sung from the mountaintops, each long, drawn-out syllable evoking the deep, vast, open spaces of the Mongolian steppe.
Then there’s the famous throat singing – the Mongol Khoomei – which relies on guttural vibrations and circular breathing, creating a completely alien, otherworldly sound. At first listen, it inspires visions of far out sci-fi/fantasy worlds or ancient religions.
MONGOLIAN VOICES - ANCIENT PHRASES is the perfect vocal instrument to add a raw, esoteric flavor to your music.
EVERYTHING • ALL-IN-ONE • OUT OF THE BOX
Composing professional film music is a difficult task. In addition to musical creativity, a great deal of technical knowledge is also required. Until now.
THE SCORE is our groundbreaking all-in-one scoring-tool, covering a massive palette of genres, styles and instruments. Our goal is to provide you with the perfect assistant, making composing as creative and free as possible, without any limits. Skip all technical burdens and start making music now.
THE SCORE is a perfectly matched scoring toolbox, guiding you from the start to the end of your composition
THE SCORE has a massive, colorful instrument palette: 46 orchestral, 37 synth, 20 band, 34 world and 18 drum instruments and more (160 in total)
THE SCORE comes with over 150 animated Stories to inspire you. Each Story includes four different arrangements with a vast dynamic range, meant to help you spin your own musical tale
THE SCORE comes with various groundbreaking power tools: Chord Studio, Melody Studio, Dynamic Mixer, Adaptive Customizer, MIDI export
Spectrasonic: The Spectrasonics Story
Founded in 1994 by Los Angeles synthesist Eric Persing and his wife Lorey, Spectrasonics quickly became a leading developer of world-class sampled sound libraries. As Chief Sound Designer for Roland Corporation since the development of MIDI in the early 1980s, Eric was already well-known in the music industry for creating the most iconic sounds in their classic synthesizers, including the ground-breaking Roland D-50 and many others. By infusing his years of product design and sonic expertise, Spectrasonics earned a reputation for setting the standard of excellence in the industry.
A New World
Omnisphere is Spectrasonics’ flagship synthesizer - an instrument of extraordinary power and versatility. Top artists worldwide rely on Omnisphere as a core source of sonic inspiration. This award-winning software combines many types of synthesis into one amazing-sounding instrument for a lifetime of exploration.
What are Leaps from Native Instruments?
Leap is an intuitive, high-performance playground built into Kontakt 8 for triggering, twisting, and transforming loops and one-shot samples.
Key Features of LeapKits & Samples: Each Leap kit holds 16 samples mapped across the keyboard, blending rhythmic loops that sync to your DAW's tempo and single-hit sounds.
Playback Modes: Group mode lets you play the full kit on white keys while black keys trigger real-time perform effects (like half-time or octave shifts); Single mode allows chromatic pitch-playing of an individual sample.
616 live-played bagpipe loops by top-tier artists – tempo-synced & BPM-tagged
Authentic live feel – ready to drop in
1.1 GB total
Instantly epic
Bagpipes Sample Pack offers 615 loops of Great Highland and Borderpipes, with soaring drones, fiery melodies, and Celtic grit. Ideal for epic scores or folk-inspired tracks, adding cinematic intensity and timeless character.
Product includes
Loops:
Bass: 12, Strings: 2, Brass: 6, Drums: 56, Guitar: 2. Mallet: 2, Percussion: 17, SFX: 2, Synth Lead: 5, Synth Misc: 37, Synth Pad: 7, Vocal: 5,
One shots:
Drums: 5, SFX: 2;
Installer files download
Total download size: 386 MB
Additional Information
Tip: Some Leap Expansions are included in Kontakt 8 and Komplete 15 Standard and above
Rare multitrack percussion kits
Master kit of 16 fully mixed beats for instant action and easy stacking and sequencing.
20 Unique multi-track kits broken into modular song parts and instrumental stems.
Flexible ambient pad kit that can be played melodically or blended to add richness and texture.
A world of rare instruments & real performances
Explore the world with cinematic percussion grooves by UK percussionist and documentary film composer David Oliver (BBC & Nat Geo). This dynamic loop library taps into his deep collection of rare and instruments to explore traditional styles and polyrhythmic motifs from around the globe.
Additional Information
Download size: 1 GB
The sonic signatures of late 90s and 00s hip hop, pop, and R&B.
Futuristic sound design meets organic instrumentation.
Product includes
160 carefully-curated sounds, including 10 Kits and 160 loops.
Loops:
86 Drum and Percussion, 10 Bass, 28 Synths & Keys, 19 Orchestral, 8 Guitar, 5 Vocal &
4 SFX;
Punk rock Leap kit
475 live-played guitar loops by top-tier artists — tempo-synced & BPM-tagged
Authentic live feel – ready to drop in
1.34 GB total
Unfiltered power
American Punk Rock Guitars offers 475 gritty live-recorded loops, from dirty power chords to ripping leads, packed with raw DIY punk energy. Played through vintage Gibsons, Fenders, Marshalls, and classic distortion pedals, these loops capture the sweaty basement-show vibe.
Devicemeister
The company is owned and operated by developer Jens Krämer and is officially based in Cologne, Germany. The name itself also uses the German word "Meister", which translates to "Master" (meaning "Device Master")
Origins as Max for Live: Devicemeister, a developer based in Cologne, Germany, first introduced Stepic back in 2020 as a specialized Max for Live device tailored strictly for Ableton Live.
The VST3/AU Evolution: Because of its explosive popularity among electronic music producers, Devicemeister rebuilt the software as a native, cross-platform VST3 and Audio Unit plugin. This migration untethered Stepic from Ableton, allowing it to act as a powerful standalone MIDI generator running natively in digital audio workstations like FL Studio.
Sequencer Powerhouse
Stepic isn't just a powerful and versatile polyphonic step sequencer. 8 additional and fully integrated modulation sequencers make it a true sound shaping tool. Use them to automate any parameter (e.g. Filter Cutoff, Wavetable Position, Effect Amount) of your favorite synthesizers or effect devices. With its support for MIDI CC, Stepic offers you parameter control for both software plug-ins and hardware devices.
By assigning different tempos and sequence lengths to the modulation sequencers, Stepic lets you create deep, polyrhythmic parameter progressions that add a lot of motion and uniqueness to your sound. And if that's not enough, bring the 200+ random generators into play ;-)
Ghosthack
Ghosthack Audio - Looking Out for Your Creative Projects Since 2016
Back in 2016, Ghosthack started as a free sample provider from Christoph's Dubstep music project and grew to become a small family business.
Ghosthack stands for unique and exclusive sounds that you can only get on our website. Christoph picks each sound designer carefully and works with them together to create well-rounded sound collections.
We are not a market place where anybody can upload anything. Each sample pack is curated by our team.
Includes 24 Sample Libraries for Every Music Genre
14,600+ Vocals, One-Shots, Loops, SFX, MIDI Files, Presets
Works with Every DAW and Audio Software
100% Royalty Free: Cleared for Commercial Use
30-day Money-Back Guarantee
We designed this bundle of 24 sample packs to fit in almost every genre!
The genres you can produce with this bundle include:
Techno, Dubstep/Riddim, Deathstep. Midtempo, Trap, Hip-Hop, Afro Music, House. Dub, Techno, Wave, EDM, Future Rave, Pop, & More
Get creative and use the sounds to find your own style!
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