Byte Riot is full of 8-bit drum and synth samples.
Native Instruments has given video game fanatics a reason to invest in its Maschine hardware, with a new expansion for the controller featuring 8-bit and chiptune-inspired sounds.
Byte Riot covers everything from drum samples to arpeggiated chords, and was created with Ivo Ivanov and Alex Retsis, lead sound designers at sample and effects company Glitchmachines.
The duo used a combination of modified video game consoles together with custom-built, circuit-bent units and vintage oscillators to record the samples. The pack also includes MIDI patterns based on music from classic arcade games.
Consoles recorded and hacked for the expansion include several Nintendo Game Boys, Windows instruments played through the Sega Mega Drive’s FM YM2612 chip “for primitive authenticity” and arpeggiators driven through Commodore 64 SID chips to sample chord variations.
Together with new sampled instruments, the expansion also includes presets for NI’s Massive and Monark synths as well as 43 drum synth patches. The pack costs $49/£44 from the NI website.
Byte Riot isn’t the only unusual sample pack NI has released this year – last month it launched a Kontakt instrument made from vintage toy recordings called Kinetic Toys.
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