Free Yamaha RX-21 Drum Machine Sample Pack By SampleScience

SampleScience has introduced RX-21 HD, a free (pay what you want) drum sample pack featuring the sounds of the Yamaha RX-21 digital drum machine.

The Yamaha RX-21 was an entry level drum machine back in the 80s, targeted at the lower segments of the market. It didn’t deliver much in terms of build quality, and its output wasn’t particularly noise free, either. Needless to say, the RX-21 isn’t the most sought-after drum machine out there. However, those noisy 80s drum hits make use feel rather nostalgic nowadays, so for the price of around $50 on the second hand market, the Yamaha RX-21 is indeed somewhat of a steal at the moment. The instrument was also featured in a variety of music tracks, such as Taking Control by Aphex Twin.

See also: Free Roland TR-808 Sample Pack!

But if you don’t want to spend $50 on the actual drum machine, this pay what you want (with the minimum payment of $0) sample collection by SampleScience is your best bet. SampleScience takes pride in crafting superbly detailed “HD” sampled versions of digital drum machines (check out their recently released TR-626 HD sample pack as an example), and they made no exception this time. RX-21 HD contains 162 drum samples in total, with 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit WAV version of each drum hit.

They’ve also included three different variations of each drum hit: clean, passed through a tube preamp (with four round robins for each drum hit), and processed with a digital 80s reverb unit. That’s quite a bit of bang for your buck. Of course, the sound quality is superb (as much as the RX-21’s audio output allows) and that lovely dry snare drum is as thick and fat as it ever was. Definitely worth the download if you’re a fan of lo-fi 80s drum sounds.

RX-21 HD is available for free download via SampleScience (19.2 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 162 drum samples in 16-bit, 24-bit & 32-bit WAV format).