Goldbaby goes full vintage in EPROM Grind with Oberheim Prommer, DMX and DX
Low-bit sampling and high-end processing.
Image: Goldbaby
Sample library wizard Goldbaby has released EPROM Grind, a pack borne from vintage Oberheim gear including the Oberheim Prommer and the DMX and DX drum machines.
EPROM Grind boasts 2,841 one-shot samples in 24-bit WAV format, along with 27 bonus WAV loops to browse. Goldbaby has sampled a plethora of instruments for the pack, including the Roland TR-808, TR-909 and TR-707; Jomox Mbase 11, Teenage Engineering PO-32, Elektron Model: Cycles, Korg Electribe ER-1 and more.
There are also more tones, hits and chords from various analogue synths, modular synths, custom vinyl drums and synths, acoustic drums and percussion, and a snare created using layered firework sounds. Plus, Goldbaby has included the stock DMX samples from its old CustomDMX sample pack, many of which have been remastered and tuned.
What is an EPROM?
Those unfamiliar with EPROMs may be wondering what they actually are and why they’re pivotal to this pack. An EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) is a reprogrammable chip that stores data for computers to read. In music production, EPROMs were the memory storage chips for early synths and samplers, from which machines such as the Oberheim DMX and DX could play back.
For EPROM Grind, Goldbaby used an Oberheim Prommer – an 8-bit sampler that can burn EPROMS – to create custom EPROMs for the DMX and DX drum machines to read. Goldbaby then programmed the DMX and DX with these custom EPROMs, recorded the results through high-end gear, and kindly included them in the EPROM Grind sample pack.
If this sounds like an arduous task, it’s becau se it is. Recording fireworks and processing them to sound like a snare, then burning them to an EPROM and running them through a drum machine to finally record using high-end gear is no easy job. In Goldbaby’s words: “This was an incredibly time-consuming process, very much a labour of love.”
EPROM Grind kits
You can play the EPROM Grind library easily thanks to pre-mapped kits for Ableton Live, Logic Pro Sampler, FXpansion Geist, Native Instruments Maschine, Kontakt and Battery. You can also manually browse through the individual WAV samples and load them into your software or hardware sampler in any fashion you wish.
Goldbaby’s EPROM Grind is available now for $39 USD. Learn more at goldbaby.co.nz.
