Library of Congress Offers Free Audio/Video Materials to Make Music
Citizen DJ is part of the Innovator in Residence Program at the Library of Congress. The program is set to be released this summer and will offer thousands of free video/audio clips to make music with.
How to Use Citizen DJ
This program allows you to select from multiple categories of free audio/video files. You can select a category and scan across several sound clips to hear what they sound like using your mouse. The files are grouped are cross the screen by location and color that correspond to the similarity of what they sound like.
Remix Tool
After you find an interesting sound file you can select the Remix Tool and begin to play with it. This tool takes the sample you chose and puts it in a musical sequence. The Remix Tool offers a range of cool features.
Some of the features include slowing or speeding up the BMP, changing the beat pattern (ie: from 60s or 70s funk to 90s hip-hop), and being able to add different types of drum machines. The tools for the program are in development, but can still be used to choose from several audio/video files to remix and make beats with.
After finding a cool sample, you can download it to your individual music production software. Citizen DJ also offers bulk downloads of clips with Sample Packs that gives you the ability to import thousands of audio clips.
How Citizen DJ Helps Sampling in Hip-Hop with Free Audio/Video
The creator of this program Brian Foo made Citizen DJ in order to allow for people to have access to a vast range of sounds and hopefully create music. The beat for a song really sets the foundation for what’s to come. Even if you might not realize it, pretty much any sound can be sampled and used to create music or a beat. Check out this clip from the movie Baby Driver to see what I mean.
Some of the weirdest, most random, and even old audio clips can make for the best samples. This is made evident by legendary producers such as MF DOOM, RZA, J Dilla, Madlib, the Alchemist, and others who have been able to craft some of the wildest beats over the years thanks to the unique samples that they select. Hopefully, this program will help in providing artists with creative sounds to select from when creating music.
Final Thoughts
Citizen DJ offers a pretty cool way to get creative with making beats or music. I have personally never attempted to make beats before, but after messing around with the tools on the website I have to say it seems pretty fun.
Thankfully the sounds that are offered are Citizen DJ are fully yours once you have downloaded them. Therefore you are free to do what you want with the music that you create such as give it away, perform it, or sell it. So go out there, have fun, and start creating music!
What do you guys think about Citizen DJ though?
Are you interested in making music or beats, if so was this program useful? And even if you haven’t made beats/ music before did you find this program to be fun or enjoyable?
