Although pro audio brands develop new tools to record perfectly clean audio tracks, remove clicks and make precise mix downs everyday, there’s still something cool about Old School samples. It’s not uncommon to hear phrases like “back to the old school” even in modern productions and genres like Old School Hip Hop still have a thriving fan base.
In this post you’ll find the best (free & paid) Old School sample packs of 2021, including content for Hip Hop, Lo-Fi, Synthwave, House and other styles..
1. Lunar
Let’s start off this list with a free download. The Lunar Lo-Fi sample pack is filled with 120 old school samples and has a size of 230+ MB. Although it’s not the biggest pack from this list it basically contains everything to get started: drum one shots, loops, some melodies + a few ambient recordings and sweep effect sounds. Just like all BVKER packs, it’s 100% royalty-free.
Contents
- 80 Drum Shots
- 5 Top Loops
- 30 FX Samples
- 5 Melodic Loops
Details
- Files: 120
- Size: 233,1 MB
- Formats: .wav
- Price: Free
2. Afterlife
The Afterlife Lo-Fi Drum kit can be seen as Lunar’s big brother. It contains everything included, but also about 10 x of additional old school samples. It’s the ultimate Lo-Fi sample pack and literally comes with everything you need to produce this genre. With a size of almost 2 GB it counts towards the biggest packs in here.
Contents
- 655 Drum Shots
- 40 Drum Loops
- 18 Ambiences
- 25 Atmo Pads
- 80 Sweep Effects
- 41 Melodic Loops
- 41 MIDI Loops
- 100 Tonal Shots
- 3 Construction Kits
Details
- Files: 1058
- Size: 1.83 GB
- Formats: .wav & .mid
- Price: $40
3. Old School
“Old School” is a Boom Bap drum kit, which has been released on my division wavbvkery for free. The special part about this one is that it contains samples, based on old vinyl records and drum machines. All files have been processed to hit hard.
Contents
- 25 Hats
- 30 Kicks
- 20 Percs
- 31 Snares
Details
- Files: 106
- Size: 13,6 MB
- Formats: .wav
- Price: Free
4. Synthwave
You’re still in love with the 80s, a fan of huge tom fills and analog sounding synthesizers? If your answer is yes “Synthwave” might be a great fit to your taste. With drum loops, one shots, melodies, MIDI files, a dedicated Serum library and synth multi shots, it’s a great mix of different file formats.
Contents
- 115 Drum Loops
- 340 Drum Shots
- 27 Drum Fills
- 144 Melodic Loops
- 102 Melodic MIDIs
- 10 FX Sounds
- 80 Serum Presets
- 42 Serum Wavetables
- 269 Synth Multi Shots
- 4 Construction Kits
Details
- Files: 1165
- Size: 1.97 GB
- Formats: .wav .mid & .fxp
- Price: $40
5. LoFi House
One of the genres not that many producers talk about yet is LoFi House. It’s basically the houseish version of LoFi Hip Hop so you’ll often hear 4-to-the-floor drums based on 909 samples, vinyl crackles and melancholic chord progressions.
Contents
- 276 Bass Shots (69 Multi Samples)
- 435 Drum Shots
- 168 Drum Loops
- 40 FX Elements
- 80 Melodic Loops
- 40 MIDI Files
- 4 Construction Kits (41 Audio Stems)
Details
- Files: 1080
- Size: 1.68 GB
- Formats: .wav & .mid
- Price: $20
6. Organic Trap Drums
Although Organic Trap Drums is relatively small, it’s without any doubt one of my favorite drum packs 2021. All files are entirely based on weird foley recordings, which have been pitched, processed and re-sampled to sound like trap drums. Great for filtered sections.
Contents
- 50 Drum Loops
- 17 Kicks
- 32 Snares
- 21 Percussions
- 15 Hats
- 10 Shakers
Details
- Files: 145
- Size: 200,6 MB
- Formats: .wav
- Price: $14
The following packs marked with * might contain affiliate links. This means that I’ll get a commission for every sale. However, the price for you certainly stays the same.
7. Classic Hip Hop*
Aiming for head-nodding old school beats? Classic Hip Hop by Singomakers is exactly what you’re looking for. The library has been inspired by producers, such as Illmind, DJ Vadim and Marco Polo and contains so many different sampler formats.
Contents
- 440 One Shots
- 40 Music Loops
- 22 Rap Vocals
- 60 Bass Loops & Grooves
- 60 Drum Loops & Grooves
- 50 FX
- 20 Drum Fills
- 20 Vinyl Noise Loops
- Bonus Files in Various Formats
Details
- Size: 1 GB
- Price: $39.05
- Formats: Various
8. Vintage Vinyl*
Vintage Vinyl is Origin Sounds take on Old School Hip Hop. The demo track alone is incredibly 8 minutes long, so you can be sure that they put a lot of effort into making sure that all content is actually useful and can be used in your productions.
Contents
- 97 Drum Hits
- 46 Drum Loops
- 13 Bass Loops
- 21 Melodic Loops
- 41 Vinyl Cuts Song Starters
- 22 SFX
Details
- Size: 693 MB
- Formats: .wav
- Price: $31.95
9. Ski Beatz Limited Edition*
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Skit Beatz is a producer, who has been in the game for longer than I actually live. In the course of his career he worked with artists, including Jay-Z and with this kit he’s giving away some of his best drum shots in wav and nki format.
Contents
- 20 Kicks
- 27 Snares
- 20 Hats
- 1 Kontakt Module
Details
- Files: 68
- Size: 41,3 MB
- Formats: .wav & .nki
- Price: $49
10. East Coast Hip Hop*
The last but not least product I want to introduce to you is called “East Coast Hip Hop” by Ghosthack. With a size of more than 1 GB and a 30 days money back guarantee it might spark your interest as well.
Contents
- 100+ One Shots
- 400+ Loops
- 30 Full Mixes
Details
- Size: 1 GB+
- Formats: .wav
- Price: €39.95
Final Thoughts
So although the billboard charts might not be filled with old school music there are still a lot of people listening to it and therefore also a lot of old school samples available. The packs in here should cover most of the different styles and should be enough to get you started.
Btw, I recently also made a similar post about the best trap sample packs, so if this is something you’re interested in as well you can check it out here.