About naturalstudio.

naturalstudio's roots can be traced back to 1999 and the release of the 32MB naturalstudio kit version 5 sampled drum kit. At the time, this was considered a large sample bank and, as an added bonus, users could download it for nothing from an advert-free website...

That was the main idea behind naturalstudio: to provide usable, multi-purpose, realistic and detailed sampled instruments for free. Most importantly, free didn't mean mediocre, nor did it mean wading through adverts or pop-ups! At the time, the number of high quality and free sampled instruments available to download could be counted on one hand. Furthermore, it was an incentive for the authors of commercial libraries to have a re-think about the often extortionate prices of their libraries.

naturalstudio's drum kits have always been the most popular download (although, for a while, ns_piano stole the glory!) and well over a quarter of a million people have visited the site, downloading ns_kit in its various incarnations 250,000 times (since 10th Feb, 2002) resulting in naturalstudio domain transferring over 1Terabyte (that's 1000 Gigabytes!) of data. Now, whether I have made a difference, or whether it is simply zeitgeist (or a result of the more widespread use of the Internet), there are many more free, quality sampled instruments to download than ever before. Not only that, many of the current commercial libraries seem to provide a lot more value for money.

About me.

naturalstudio is essentially a one man operation and operates from my personal studio in Glasgow, Scotland. Sampling instruments has evolved into quite a major passtime which has culminated in the release of a commercial sample library.

naturalstudio is not a major company, nor is it affiliated with any such company. It's just me and this side project; an enthusiasm for sampled instruments - operating out of my studio. What started off as a modest enterprise has actually taken over my life these past few months!

I'm a musician/composer, first and foremost and I like to think this shows in the sample libraries that I create. Also, because sampling instruments is a side project (though admittedly a rather large one!) it's not about profiteering. Sure, it will be a great feeling to get some compensation for the amount of time and effort put into this massive project, but it will also be nice to start investing it back into naturalstudio and work on new things – location recording, developing the record label, working on the ns_congas, the new ns_bass etc.