Free Surround Sound Music Sampler

[JZStudios]

There's not a lot in ways of surround music that's freely available... or available at all really. In any case, out of primarily boredom I decided to look into what it what it would take to make my own. Turns out that Reaper is mostly free with a built in surround sound plugin and there's a site dedicated to free track outs provided by bands or other sites from Cambridge.

So I went through and picked the songs I liked the most and made my attempts at a very amateur surround sampler, designed for 5.1 systems. I don't have a lot of experience with mixing and mastering, but the "final" product has every song hit about the same peak volume without any clipping and a decent amount of dynamic range. The end result might still be a tad quiet though, as they peak around -3dB. The bigger problem was that a lot of the music I picked was recorded live, with a lot of spill over between all the mics. I did my best to clean them all out to make the spatialization work as well as possible. Some of the vocals in particular were especially fried and I don't think there's a good way to deal with that. My system setup is also by no means professional, nor is it properly EQ'd.

 

As these track outs are provided free of charge for the intent of educational purposes and sharing masters, I'm releasing them here for anyone who may be interested. If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

Dropbox link HERE ~1.05gb 24 bit FLAC

All tracks have proper metadata and original albums where possible.

 

Song titles/Artist credits;

1. The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers by Araujo - Jazz
2. All the Gin is Gone by Maurizio Pagnutti Sextet - Jazz
3. By My Side by Kat Wright - Jazz/Blues
4. Dead Roses by Andrew Cole - Country/Bluegrass
5. The Marsh Marigolds Song by Don Camillo Choir - A capella
6. Electrum by Digital Humans - Electronic
7. Muddy Water by Dorothea Wessel - Electronic
8. Better Way by Benjamin John - Indie Folk
9. Like You Do by The Western Den - Indie Folk
10. Spirit Cold by Tall Heights - Indie Folk
11. And Into the Forest I Go, To Lose My Mind and Find My Soul by Wide Waters - Post Rock

Marsh Marigolds is probably the best for surround spatialization, though I tried to make everything else have "unique" channels. Most of the surround music I've seen has been little more than expanded stereo, I tried to really make each channel unique and stand out. Into the Forest is the least completed song, but I kind of just wanted to share. I might update it later.