If you are after Kontakt libraries that works great for Hip-hop you are at the right place. We’ve prepared for you libraries that are specificall tailored for Hip-Hop as well as the ones that are just great instruments that works well for this genre!
Top 12 Hip-Hop Kontakt Libraries 2025
1. Native Instruments Bazzazian Tapes
Bazzazian Tapes is a groundbreaking plugin that delivers vintage-inspired textures straight from the personal collection of the German hip-hop producer, Bazzazian.
Infused with the richness of analog hardware and vintage recording techniques, this unique instrument consists of 2.4 GB of content retro character. It includes 99 well-designed sounds that cover an array of categories, such as bass, bowed strings, synths, and soundscapes.
Key Features:
- High-Quality Tape Infusion
The sounds in the instrument have been sourced from high-end rack gear and vintage tape machines, providing a warm and authentic flavor.
- Classic Kontakt-based modern workflow
Bazzazian Tapes consists of 4 windows: Main, FX, SEQ (Sequencer), and MACROs. Each of the windows gives you in-depth sound design options, wherein you can select the right sound sources, add effects to them, program them with the sequencer, and set up to 12 MACROs along with a response curve.
- Advanced Modulation Control
Bazzazian Tapes features comprehensive modulation capabilities, including LFOs with adjustable waveform, rate, and fade-in controls for nuanced sound shaping. The MOD and AMP Envelopes utilize ADSR parameters to sculpt dynamics effectively, allowing for precise control over how audio evolves over time. This flexibility enables users to create engaging and expressive sound textures tailored to their productions.
- Layered Sound Sources
The plugin supports 2 distinct sound layers, A and B, allowing for intricate layering and sound design. Each layer comes equipped with essential controls, including transpose, tune, pan, and volume, along with advanced parameters such as form, warp, and inharmonic settings.
The integrated filter controls (cutoff, resonance, key tracking) further enhance the sonic versatility, making it easy to craft unique timbres.
- Dynamic Pitch & Velocity sequencing
Bazzazian Tapes includes a robust Pitch/Velocity sequencer that empowers you to create complex rhythmic patterns. The sequencer features controls such as rate, swing, first step, root key, scale, steps, direction, and gate, providing extensive options for customization.
Compatibility:
Native Instruments Bazzazian Tapes is available in VST2, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats and works with Kontakt, 7.10.5 or higher players. It requires Mac OS 12 or higher (i5 or higher Intel Macs or Apple Silicon (via Rosetta 2 & ARM)) or Windows 10 or 11 operating systems.
2. 40’s Very Own Drums
40’s Very Own Drums is a virtual drum machine with hard-hitting Hip-Hop drum sounds.
It has fifteen different kits with sixteen one-shots, MIDI drag and drops, and many MACRO effects. It’s one of the best drum Kontakt libraries with five windows: Main, Kit, FX, Pattern, and Macros, that offer complete control over your sound and edits. It has 200+ sounds organized in nine preset categories.
Key Features:
- Tune Quantization
There’s a tune quantization switch in the library that, when turned on, keeps the tuning knob in semitones, represented by the step icon. When turned off, the same knob lets you adjust the tuning in cents and is represented by a straight line.
- Kit Editor
The plugin has a virtual drum kit that consists of sixteen pads and one-shots, a dedicated sampler, and an insert fx. You can browse through different sounds in the sampler and edit their pitch, volume, pan, velocity curve, and ADSR.
You can also add an HPF and an LPF, along with effects like saturation, compressor, etc. The pads are color-coded by the drum sound you select on them.
- Pattern Editor
Each kit has sixteen pre-designed grooves you can edit in the pattern editor. In addition, the pattern editor allows you to edit the speed, latch, retrigger, quantize, and playback display. It also shows to which note each pattern is assigned.
- FX Editor
The FX editor allows you to add and edit effects and assign them to different pads. You can add effects like compressor, saturation, limiter, tape saturation, lo-fi, and more. In addition, it has different windows for insert effects, global effects, and send effects.
Compatibility:
The plugin is compatible with the free Kontakt plugin and has a small hard disk space requirement of 52 MB.
Summary:
The instrument has a comprehensive set of controls. It also has an extensive MACROs editor that allows you to assign and rearrange MACRO effects in any order you want. As a result, the sounds are of great quality, combined with the immense controls and editing options for patterns and sounds, making it one of the best Kontakt drum libraries.
3. Native Instruments George Duke Soul Treasures
George Duke Soul Treasures consists of loops recorded by the Soul legend George Duke that are sliced and mapped perfectly, making it a playable and simple instrument.
The samples in the Kontakt library have been recorded with the best vintage gear, including classic Electric Pianos, Rhodes pianos, clavinets, and more analog instruments, with great analog recording equipment. The plugin enables you to use different slices from the recorded loops that can adjust to any key.
Key Features:
- Great sounds
The plugin has warm, deep, rich, and beautiful sounds with jazzy and soulful chord progressions, which are perfect for hip-hop producers.
- Immense Sounds
You can always enjoy the plugin as it has 500+ sliced unique keyboard phrases and is also tempo synced. The plugin has potential for Anderson .Paak, Frank Ocean, Mac Miller, FKJ, Dreamville/J-Cole, and Kendrick Lamar-type beats. That makes it one of the best hip-hop plugins, especially for RnB, soul hip-hop, or jazz-hop genres.
- Flexible
The editing and arrangement workflow in the plugin is simple. Usually, you have to import the samples, slice them, match them to tempo and pitch, and then arrange them. But with this plugin, you can bypass all those steps, as all phrases in the recorded loops are also mapped musically and are ready to be used.
- Ease of work
You must learn music theory and complicated chords to create the genre. However, the library makes creating classic beats easy. You need not know how to play complicated chord patterns, music theory, and colors to create a vibe like that of D’Angelo, Common, Questlove, Soulquarians, and De La Soul.
Compatibility:
Soul Treasures works with the free Kontakt player and requires 4.77 GB of hard disk space.
Summary:
It’s a one-of-a-kind instrument and has a simple and intuitive interface. Usually, one needs to have great musicality and theoretical knowledge of chords and scales, to make the given genre, along with skills in playing piano or guitar. But with the plugin, you can draw or play a few notes to get a great-sounding melodic bed for your beats/songs.
4. Native Instruments Stacks
Stacks is a Kontakt library for Hip-hop melodic instruments.
It consists of organs, strings, bass, horns, synths, and other instruments, packed in a beautiful-sounding set of presets with real-time control and an interface that is easy to use and organic.
You can go berserk with these sounds to create insane hip-hop beats with deep and detailed melodic beds and movements.
Key Features:
- Sounds
There are 150 presets in the plugin, 164 sounds, and 43 wavetables packed together to give you beautiful and organic instruments that are played and recorded live with good-quality equipment. The sonic and artistic quality of the sounds is great!
- Instant Inspiration
The library is so diverse that it can inspire fresh ideas. From dusky tones to hybrid textures, you can play anything from chords, arpeggios, and melodic rhythms on it. It covers various genres, and it’s hard to get creative blocks.
- Intuitive and easy-to-use
The plugin has a simple interface in which the main window consists of the volume sliders of the two main sound layers and a few MACRO controls. In addition, there are FX and SEQUENCE windows where you can do detailed sound design and editing. Further, you can also tweak and rearrange the MACRO controls in the MACROS window.
- Effects
The library allows you to choose and add many effects, including EQ, filter, compressor, cry wah, transient meter, Lo-Fi, AC Box, Choral, Flanger, Phasis, Rotator, and more. It has a huge collection of high-grade effects that you can use.
Compatibility:
Stacks require less than 500 MB of hard disk space and work with the free Kontakt player, which requires Windows 10 or 11 or macOS 10.15 (or later versions).
Summary:
From 2000s era sampled heavy Kanye West, Jay-Z, and the Game kind of sounds to new school Pop synth lines, lo-fi soul, and relaxing melodies to head-bopping synth and basslines, the potential of what you can create with the Stacks is endless. Hip-hop is a diverse genre in 2025, and the plugin makers deeply explored and created this beast.
5. Native Instruments EMPIRE BREAKS
Native Instruments’ Empire Breaks pays homage to old-school East Coast rap.
This new addition, Empire Breaks, is part of NI’s Play Series Collection, a set of highly playable and highly modifiable virtual software instruments. They’re excellent in every way; the design is sleek, the sound is superb, and the operation is a breeze.
With its gritty, crunchy drum production and signature “old-school flavor,” Empire Breaks is the most recent addition to the canon of albums that evoke the classic sound of hip-hop from the 1990s.
The instrument opens to a cheesy image of a New York City block and a drum layout that employs the distinctive New York City subway typography. In addition, here are eight generalized “macro” settings that you can adjust rapidly to alter the overall tone.
Key Features:
- Custom Patterns
You can play live beats or pick from various premade patterns that all feature sounds from the classic era of hip-hop, the late 1980s and early 1990s. You may drag and drop MIDI groove patterns into your DAW to modify them.
The instrument’s macro controls will allow you to rearrange and add to sequences and manipulate and add elements like a swing.
- Kit Editor
The Kit Editor’s included controls fully cover drum sound selection and modification. The FX Editor enables you to construct unique effect chains, allowing for greater tonal manipulation and expressiveness.
The Macro Editor allows you to customize the six available macros to your workflow. Assigning macros to specific sound parameters enables instantaneous tone shaping from any perspective.
- Settings Editor
Using the Settings Editor, you can adjust the instrument’s sensitivity to your playing style and the relative importance of notes in each layer. In addition, it’s possible to customize the trigger and playback behavior of 16 unique rhythmic phrases, which can be accessed and loaded from the Pattern Editor.
- Sample Section
The Sample tab is where your drum tones’ framework is established. To alter the pitch and volume of the selected sound, click on the corresponding buttons here. Pan also allows you to adjust where the sound comes from in the stereo field to hear every instrument.
Kick and Snare should be in the middle, with Toms, Hi-Hats, Crash, and Ride spread out to either side. This is how an acoustic drum set is typically panned. The Pan knob can also be used creatively as a send effect for percussion and FX, allowing you to send them in any direction.
Finally, adjust the sound’s volume curve in time with the Attack, Hold, and Decay envelope controls.
- Pads
Each of the 16 pads represents a different drum sound in your kit. One can alter the sample assigned to each pad in the Sample tab. The pads are a visual reference for the types of sounds in your kit and can be used to trigger, solo, and mute them.
Compatibility:
The library is available for Kontakt 6.7 or higher. Kontakt 6.7 is available for Windows 7 or higher 32-bit and 64-bit and macOS 10.10 or higher 64-bit. It comes in VST 2, AU, and AAX formats.
Summary:
Even though vintage samplers can be difficult to come by because of their high price and maintenance requirements, that doesn’t mean there aren’t great modern alternatives like the Maschine+ from Native Instruments or the MPC Live 2 from Akai.
However, for the heads who have no desire to invest in vintage equipment but still yearn for that 90s Hip Hop sound, software suites like Empire Breaks will be an excellent addition to your sound library.
6. Native Instruments DrumLab
More Info & Price (Trial Available)
DrumLab offers a simple interface for a fast workflow and never-ending inspiration. It’s an advanced drum layering tool that fits many genres and styles, and it’s perfect for beginners or even advanced producers.
DrumLab is all about making drum layering easy and simple while inspiring users to develop new and original drum pattern ideas. With 60 unique presets, 90 grooves, 80 electronic layers expertly mixed for easy layering, and over 900 drum patterns, DrumLab promises to solve all your drum problems. Beat block who?
An elegant and straightforward interface that offers many cool features for you to explore, such as grooves, kits, and many more that we will cover in key features.
Key Features:
- Hybrid Drum Kit
Inside it, you can find nine variations of kicks, ten variations of snares, seven variations of hats, to name a few. Thirty-eight individual drums were perfectly tuned and performed by top-tier drummer Derico Watson. Kenny Barto, a Grammy-winning producer, was then called in to polish the sounds to a professional finish.
- Drum Layering
Layering drums can be time-consuming and difficult. You have to find the sounds that fit, match their pitches, fix the timing, not to mention the time you have to spend making sure the sounds don’t clash. With DrumLab, layering drums is easy – Pick the sound you want to layer, tune it, and then slide the mix to choose between acoustic and electronic-sounding drums.
- Intuitive interface
The interface is straightforward to use, even for beginners. The number of tabs is not overwhelming, so that you won’t get lost, and everything is well organized. At the bottom, you can find grooves where you selected the exact grove you want your beat to have.
Next is an options tab and kit page to find all of the drums and percussive instruments. You can also find unique settings that the user can edit in each tab, such as tune, velocity, and effects tab, including saturation, compression, and many more.
- Small download size
With this list of features, you would expect the download size to be massive, but surprisingly this library comes only with a 2.6Gb download size, making this plugin perfect on lower ends computers without huge disk sizes. Even pro users can benefit from it because you don’t have to install it on an external hard drive, so if you want to travel, that’s one less hard drive you have to carry.
Compatibility:
The library is available for Kontakt Player or Kontakt 6.2+, which works on Windows 7 or higher, and macOS 10.13 or higher, 64-bit only. Kontakt comes in VST2, VST3, AU, and AXX formats.
Summary:
DrumLab is an excellent plugin for both novice and experienced users. It provides a wide variety of drum sounds with many groove variations and presets to choose from.
So, if you often work with drums, or you are tired of copying and pasting your old drum patterns, then you’ll find a lot of value in this plugin.
7. Native Instruments Lo-Fi Glow
Lo-Fi Glow is a Kontakt library that offers lo-fi-style sounds. If you like dirty distortion and lo-fi feeling sounds, then look no further; Lo-Fi Glow has all this in one Bank.
Vintage synths, keys, organs, guitars, and basses; Lo-fi Glow includes all these sounds but processed through effects pedals, tape decks, and samplers like the SP-404 for an eclectic collection of lo-fi inspired sounds. The plugin also comes with many presets to choose from to save time when producing, and on top of that, you can create and save your own presets.
The interface is straightforward with a beautiful design to fit the lo-fi vibe. At the bottom, you have your effects such as distortion, noise, and many more (as you can see in the picture above).
Key Features:
- Lo-fi warmth
Lo-fi Glow offers a true, warm lo-fi sound. You can emulate tape distortion or vinyl and cassette noise to add unpredictability and character to your sound. There’s also a bit-crusher in case you are after that 8-bit sound type of distortion, as well as effects like delay to add space to your sounds.
- In-depth tweaking
Once you enter the sound editor page, Lo-Fi Glow gets interesting. You can modify the sound sources in an A/B manner and access the tuning and filtering controls. There’s also a built-in sequencer for generating ideas on the fly and a dice button that randomizes the patch and creates new sounds to inspire you.
- Plethora of sounds
There are a plethora of carefully selected sounds inside Lo-Fi Glow, over 120 to be exact, as well as 150 carefully curated and designed presets for quick and easy performance. The sounds and presets are catered towards lo-fi hip hop, making this Kontakt library the ideal place for you, the modern hip hop producer, to source and create sounds suitable for your beats.
- Effects and step sequencer meant to inspire
You can create your customized effect chains inside Lo-Fi Glow, with various effects that include saturation, bitcrusher, reverb, delay, rotator, phaser, and many more. The effects work serially in a chain, meaning they all affect one another depending on how you arrange them, which provides many sonic possibilities.
The step sequencer included is genuinely inspiring. With 16 steps, it can control pitch, velocity, and up to six assignable macros. Remember that hip hop is constantly evolving and explores more and more sounds and production techniques.
This means that tools like this can help set you apart from the rest and inspire new and unique sounds.
Compatibility:
Lo-Fi Glow is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone versions, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.13 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, AU, and Standalone, 64-bit only.
Summary:
Lo-Fi Glow is a great-sounding Kontakt library that offers warm, lo-fi sounds that sound eclectic and stylized enough to make it an eye-catching instrument. The plethora of effects and control parameters and the built-in sequencer and randomized mode are the main drawing points of this library that aims to recapture the glory of past sounds in a modern way.
8. NI Action Strings
NI Action Strings is a playable orchestra instrument made for Kontakt. It’s meant to add a dramatic orchestral feel to your productions while also sounding organic and realistic.
Every string note and phrase inside Action Strings was recorded live and played by professional string players, adding a nuanced and realistic feel to the sounds. With over 14 GB of sounds, it can cover anything from simple string phrases for hip hop beats to complex orchestral arrangements.
Key Features:
- Blockbuster sound
Action Strings was created with one goal in mind: to make the sound of action blockbuster films accessible to music producers and composers. The library is loaded with string phrases, expertly played by real players and live-recorded, that will add movement and suspense to your beats.
You don’t need to have a string player at your disposal or a team of lawyers to clear a string sample for you to get professional, realistic-sounding strings.
- Playability
The main interface has a piano keyboard, split into different sections. With your left hand, you can select phrases and control chords, while with the right hand, play melodies and set the tonality. It’s a very playable instrument that makes string arrangement easy and simple.
- Huge sample library
Action Strings comes with a sample library of over 14 GB of live-recorded string phrases meant to add an authentic and natural sound to your productions. The phrases vary from basic rhythm patterns to complex melodies.
They were recorded in two dynamic levels, which you get the option to blend, and in every musical key so that they fit into any song or beat you produce. Whatever your experience level is, Action Strings won’t limit your choices or inspiration.
- Emotional and intense sound
Aside from all the specs and features, it all comes down to the tone and sound Action Strings offers. The feel of the phrases can be emotional, perfect for your slow hip hop beats that focus on emotion, drama, and themes of struggle and hardships, or intense, perfect for beats that want to build up tension, just like an action sequence in a blockbuster movie would.
Compatibility:
Action Strings is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone versions, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.13 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, AU, and Standalone, 64-bit only.
Summary:
If you want to make simple orchestral Hip-Hop beats or very advanced orchestral pieces, well, Action Strings 2 got you covered. A well-organized library of sounds and amazing-sounding phrases is what this plugin has to offer you, and although it’s a bit on the pricier side, it’s worth every buck.
Save your time and money looking for perfect one-shot kits and sample packs, and cop this plugin for those epic orchestral arrangements.
9. Native Instruments Cloud Supply
Cloud Supply is a Kontakt instrument from the Play Series that offers a variety of synth sounds and fx curated towards trap and modern hip hop music production.
Native Instruments developed the instrument in collaboration with Grammy-winning trap producer Snipe Young, and it’s 100% catered towards trap and hip hop production. Everything you need to create original, melodic layers for these genres is included in Cloud Supply, from keys and mallets to pads, organs, and fx sounds.
It’s filled with beat-ready hybrid keys, wavy pads, plucks, bells, and sequences, as well as pitch-shifted resampling for on-point hidden harmonics – all polished with analog studio gear and high-end processing.
Key Features:
- Modern trap sound
The sounds inside Cloud supply are either distorted, glitchy or spacy, with reverbs and delays specifically tuned and set to complement each preset sound’s character. Everything inside this library was carefully selected to complement modern trap and hip hop music.
If you are a hip hop producer who creates his melodic elements from scratch, this plugin promises to cover all your needs and inspire you.
- Combine sounds
You can select and tweak two sounds simultaneously and layer them through the A/B blend knob. This is a great feature, especially if you wish to create unique sounds that are layered with more textures and fx than what a simple preset can provide.
- Sequence and randomize
Cloud Supply comes with a built-in 16-step sequencer, as other Play Series instruments do. There’s also a scale knob to help you stay in key, as well as swing and latch controls and the ability to step-sequence velocity values. You also get a cool randomize button to create new and unpredictable sounds.
- Process each sound in-depth
Cloud Supply’s sound editor page provides a range of controls to help you tweak each sound to your liking or completely transform it into something brand new. You get to alter the tuning of each sound, access to filters, panning, and various envelopes to shape your sound to perfection.
Most importantly, the effects included sound incredible and can transform your sounds even more. The effects are assigned in a chain that works similarly to the one found in Lo-Fi Glow (as explained above) and include options like reverb, compressor, tape saturation, delay, and more.
You, therefore, get enough tools to create mix-ready sounds for your trap beats without having to leave Cloud Supply.
Compatibility:
Cloud Supply is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone versions, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.13 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, AU, and Standalone, 64-bit only.
Summary:
Cloud Supply is a modern solution for the current hip hop producer that needs fresh, trendy sounds and instant inspiration. The ability to blend two different sounds offers a wide range of sonic possibilities; the effects are creative and genre-accurate.
If you’re feeling stuck, you can always hit the randomize button and get a new, weird sound. Everything you need for your trap and hip hop beats!
10. Output Exhale
Exhale is a vocal instrument designed by Output. It was designed with the sole purpose of pushing what’s possible when it comes to vocal arrangement and vocal manipulation.
Loaded with over 500 presets to choose from, Exhale offers everything vocal-related, from choir notes and phrases to breaths, chants, and high-pitched vocal samples.
Key Features:
- Three playing modes
You get to choose how you trigger each of Exhale’s vocal sounds through the three main trigger options: notes, which splits the vocal sound chromatically throughout your midi keyboard, loops, to play full loops, and slices, to retrigger sections from loops in new orders.
It can be played pretty much in any way you can imagine. Whether you choose to go, Exhale is exceptionally playable and intuitive; coming up with fresh ideas is effortless.
- Musical and inspiring
Exhale lets you choose the scale you are in and pitches the vocal samples accordingly so that you are always in key. The built-in effects offer endless inspiration and can help you mix the sound in the box without having to resort to external audio effects to do so—everything from EQs and Compressors to reverb, saturation, and phaser effects is included.
Even more exciting is the ability to map all of these effects to macro knobs for even more creative and performative freedom.
- Tweak in depth
Once you expose Exhale’s sound engine, you can see that it’s more than just a sample playback device. You get to sculpt these sounds in-depth with filters, envelopes, effects, and of course, a built-in sequencer.
The sequencer can modulate six effects (volume, pan, filter, phaser, formant filter, and saturation) either in step or wave mode. It’s a handy feature, especially if you want to create sounds that have movement and evolve.
- Huge sound bank
Exhale has an astonishing 9 GB soundbank of recordings, all split into three playing modes. The plugin also comes with 500 factory presets that are well organized in a library that uses a tag-based filtering system that makes locating them easy. There’s no way you will run out of sounds or ideas with a library as extensive as Exhale’s.
Compatibility:
Exhale is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone versions, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.13 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, AU, and Standalone, 64-bit only.
Summary:
Exhale is perfect for the producer who needs to add extra ear-candy layers of vocal effects that have no access to a vocalist or for someone who’s looking for new, creative ways to synthesize sounds.
It can offer something as simple as a loop or one-shot sound to embellish your beats with, or something as complex as unique, custom-designed synth sounds that originated from the human voice.
11. NI Electric Sunburst
Electric Sunburst is an electric guitar sample library for Kontakt. It can add the natural and distinct flair of a classic electric guitar to your productions.
Naturally, an electric guitar is something many producers don’t have access to. It becomes necessary to include an electric guitar library in this list, especially considering the long history of hip hop producers sampling electric guitars; there’s no better library to list than Electric Sunburst.
The library offers 154 patterns that cover arpeggios, riffs, strumming patterns, loops, and single notes, as well as a plethora of built-in effects to color your guitar and shape the tone to your liking.
Key Features:
- Different articulations for an organic feel
Electric Sunburst can be played in four different articulation modes: open, muted, flageolet and tremolo. You can also choose whether each articulation will be played with fingers or a plectrum, as well as which notes slide into others and which notes bend. Obviously, much thought and care have gone into this library, making sure it’s as playable and organic as possible.
- Set the tone
Each note, loop, and phrase in Electric Sunburst was recorded multiple times with different pickups, tone settings, volume, and pitch. You have complete control over all of these parameters, and you can choose between bridge pickup, neck pickup, or both of them and adjust the tone and volume.
All of these controls give you the power to set the tone and character of your electric guitar with high precision.
- Multiple pedals and effects
Just like with any electric guitar, effect pedals are a must. Electric Sunburst saves you the trouble of post-processing your guitar with different plugins by including an amp and fx page.
Everything from EQs, compressors, and cabinets to distortion, fuzz, and retro echo is included in the form of pedals, which you can virtually set up in your customizable pedalboard. The effects can be as clean or dirty as you want them to be, making this library perfect for all sorts of sounds.
Compatibility:
Postcard Piano is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone versions, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.13 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, AU, and Standalone, 64-bit only.
Summary:
Electric Sunburst can add the flair of a classic electric guitar to your hip hop beats. The control you have over the guitar’s tone is impressive, as is the ability to play it in various styles and ways.
There are enough patterns to inspire any type of beat, and if you wish to push it for some powerful sounds, the built-in effects can offer that. Not many guitar libraries offer this much, so if you’re a producer interested in sampling electric guitars for your next beat, this is the best place to go.
12. Output Analog Brass & Winds
Analog Brass & Winds is a virtual instrument by Output. This innovative instrument combines orchestral brass and wind instruments with legendary synths to create unique and powerful sounds.
An 18-piece brass section,18-piece wind section, and a handful of soloists were recorded and sampled at the BMC Hall in Budapest. Each player performed in various playing styles to capture a wide range of sounds and styles, making this library extraordinarily playable and organic.
Key Features:
- Unique sound
Analog Brass & Wind was created to break the rules of orchestral music and push the limits of what brass and wind instruments can sound like. This is done through layering and blending unexpected signals with these orchestral instruments. Some of the unexpected sound sources are analog synths, chosen for their brass-like qualities, pianos, organs, or even beer bottles; all sampled creatively and easily layered with each brass sound. You get an A/B section, where you can blend two different sounds.
- Sequencer and arpeggiator
There’s a built-in sequencer with over 20 rhythm presets to get you started. The arpeggiator is split into two parts and can affect each of the two sounds you layer independently. You can therefore have two separate arpeggios played by two different sounds simultaneously.
Compatibility:
Analog Brass & Wind is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, and AAX formats, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.12 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and AU, formats, 64-bit only.
Summary:
Analog Brass & Wind is a refreshing orchestral sample library that offers a new approach to orchestral composition. The sounds can be classical-oriented or truly experimental and leftfield, making this library perfect for most modern genres, including hip hop—an excellent tool for anyone looking to explore new sounds.
Best Free Kontakt Library for Hip Hop
NI Urban Beats
Urban beats is a free Native Instruments library dedicated to hip hop drum programming. There’s a massive collection of loops, one-note, and kits, all playable through your midi keyboard.
Key Features:
- Gritty sound
The drums of Urban Beats feel as if they came straight out of a drum machine or a vinyl record. They have the dirty feel of hip hop songs from the ’90s or the ’00s. It’s a great selection if you are interested in exploring boom-bap or implementing its signature drum sounds in your modern beats.
- Effects
You get a reasonably wide selection of effects, including saturation for even dirtier tones, reverb, and delay. A filter is also attached to shape the drum sounds and eliminate any harsh frequencies that creep in with the harsh saturation.
Compatibility:
Urban Beats is available through Kontakt on Windows and Mac OS, in VST, VST3, AAX, and AU formats.
Summary:
Urban Beats is a nice selection of drum sounds and perfect if you are interested in exploring dirty drum sounds reminiscent of hip hop’s glorious past.
Bonuses:
1. Teletone Audio Postcard Piano
Postcard Piano is a piano library for Kontakt, designed by Teletone Audio. It’s marketed as a nostalgic piano since it manages to travel us through the years and create distinct moods for nostalgic, vintage piano sounds.
Postcard Piano is great for moody hip hop songs, where you are trying to capture a specific vibe with a piano that’s full of character or piano phrases that may feel like they’ve been lifted from a 50’s vinyl record.
Key Features:
- Vintage feel
Postcard Piano is rightfully marketed as a nostalgic piano. Each piano note was played on an 1896 Sterling upright piano, recorded, then pitch-shifted down a minor third and time-stretched to create a nostalgic sound that reminds of the past while also staying modern.
There are also extra controls for noise, which adds tape noise, and age, which ‘wears’ the sound off to make it feel like it came from the past.
- Excellent reverb
The instrument comes with its own reverb, which sounds fantastic and complements the unique qualities of this piano. Choose between plate, room, church, spring, and hall modes.
Compatibility:
Postcard Piano is available through Kontakt (both free player and Kontakt 6) on Windows 7 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone versions, 64-bit only, and on Mac OS 10.13 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, AU, and Standalone, 64-bit only.
Summary:
Postcard Piano is not your usual piano library. It has its own unique tone, thanks to how the piano notes were recorded and processed.
The nostalgic vintage, but at the same time modern, feel of it makes it perfect for all sorts of hip hop productions, from boom-bap and soulful hip hop to modern trap-influenced beats.
2. NI Kinetic Toys
Kinetic Toys is a Native Instruments sample library that explores the sounds of vintage children’s toys, tools, and spacey synthesized noises and sounds.
Kinetic Toys is all about adding that extra bit of uniqueness and individualism to your productions. The sounds were recorded and then morphed and processed using a dynamic X/Y modulation system to create anything from spacey leads to glitchy rhythms and evocative textures.
Although marketed towards all genres of music, I believe the dark and unsettling tones it can produce have all the right ingredients to enrich any trap beat.
Key Features:
- Unique sounds
The range of sound sources recorded to create Kinetic Toys is impressively broad; anything from clockwork robots and popcorn to synths and ping pong balls. The idea is that you can choose a sound, and using the controls in the main interface, move around the X/Y modulation spectrum to affect the sound with a variety of effects.
You can also blend the sounds from toy sources with synths to get layered sounds with rich textures. The sounds can be soft and ambient or even dark and creepy.
- Creative workflow
Kinetic Toys’ workflow is unlike any other I’ve experienced. It can look bizarre in your first introduction, but explaining a few key things can uncloud its mysteries. There are two big toys in the main interface, a ballerina and a robot.
The ballerina controls the sound sources; as she dances, the sound will morph between eight toy sounds and eight synth sounds. On the other hand, the robot modulates up to eight effects; as you rotate each of these two figures, the sound changes accordingly.
This creative workflow makes Kinetic Toys perfect for all producers since it’s approaching sound design from a fresh perspective that requires zero previous knowledge of synthesis. I think it’s the ideal library for anyone wishing to explore synthesis from a new approach.
- In-depth sound sculpting
There are various effects included in Kinetic Toys that the robot can control and dramatically affect the sound. There are resonant effects like equalizers and filters, spatial effects like delay, bitcrushers and distortions, and, of course, modulation tools.
You also get two LFOs and two envelopes, all four of them being assignable so that you can twist and mangle each toy and synth sound to the extreme. These options make Kinetic Toys a good choice for experienced producers too since they can dig under the playful main interface and tweak the sounds in-depth.
Compatibility:
Kinetic Toys is available through Kontakt on Windows 7 and higher and Mac OS 10.9 and higher, in VST, VST3, AAX, and AU formats.
Summary:
Kinetic Toys is an excellent library for those inspired by new and different sounds. It can serve both beginner and experienced producers, allowing the freedom to explore its endless sound design possibilities at your own pace.
The sample library is impressive, not only in audio quality but also in the audaciously creative and random origin of its samples—the perfect tool for adding character to your hip hop beats and setting you apart from the rest.
Conclusion:
So these are our picks. We will constantly update these articles so you don’t miss on the new instruments, hope you enjoyed this post and will see you next time!
Integraudio is a audio-focused blog that explores everything from VST plugins and studio hardware to practical guides, tips, and tutorials on Spotify, AirPods, podcasting, Discord, and beyond.