Samples, Loops

New from the Ueberschall Nouvelle series comes a downtempo collection - Chillers Joint.
Description:
Chillers Joint is heavily influenced by 60 s and 70`s soundtracks, Soul, Funk, Dub and Jazz. Garnished with modern Downtempo Hiphop and electronic flavours.
Highlights include 20 relaxed c-kits, each over a minute long, all including intros / outros verses and refrains with over [...]

Prime Loops is offering several free sample kits for Intua BeatMaker for the iPhone.
Kits include:

Dirty South Synth Loops Kit
Platinum Crunk Grooves 1
Platinum Crunk Grooves 2
Prime Trip Hop Kit 1

via the BeatMaker

Propellerhead has announced three new software bundles

Reason Premium Edition
Studio Combo
Rhythm Combo

The bundles will roll out in early August in Europe and later in the month in North America.
Reason Premium Edition
The Reason Premium Edition includes a full version of Reason, bundled together with the four complete Hypersampled ReFills—Reason Drum Kits, Reason Pianos, Abbey Road Keyboards and [...]

Time Unlimited and the samplemeisters from Germany, Ueberschall, have announced the Trance ID 2 Remix Contest
The Jury consists of course of the four producers who have provided the construction kits on Trance ID 2:

Mike Koglin (Noys Music)
Darren Tate (Mondo Records)
Mark Pledger (Anjunabeats)
Marc Steinmeier (Time Unlimited)

The contest starts at the 1st of August, Entries [...]

Sonic State has introduced a new series, The Art Of Sampling.
Episode 1 looks at the history of sampling:
Before digital sampling, sound manipulation was seen as a subversive and avante garde activity. Composers were ostracized for experimenting with found sound sources and a belief that music could exist outside the strict confines of the classical or [...]

Infrasonik - a new site offering sample packs for Ableton Live and Kontakt - has launched.
Its initial offering is Infrasonik’s Analogue Processes v1; sample packs in the works include libraries by Carl Finlow and Richard Devine.
Infrasonik’s Analogue Processes v1
Infrasonik’s Analogue Process v1 provides a fresh palette of percussion including deep sine wave kicks, raunchy snares, [...]

Big Fish Audio has released Stratos: Drones & Atmospheres, a construction kit sample library featuring over 4.1 gigabytes of evolving drones and dark atmospheres.
Each construction kit contains a complete soundscape consisting of both synthetic and organic layers, allowing you to re-mix the component pieces as desired. All the kits were created with a common tonal [...]

TASCAM has apparently decided to kill off its GigaStudio sampler.
I haven’t seen an official announcement on this yet, but a post at Virtual Instruments Composers Forum quotes TASCAM:
“Notice:  TEAC America, Inc. will cease further development of GIGASTUDIO and GIGASTUDIO related products as of July 21, 2008.  Product sales and technical support will continue through [...]