Nothing gets a room full of people moving quite like soul and funk music. It's probably the reason why it has become some of the most timeless music in the past century and why so many artists, from electronic hip-hop, sample it for their own tracks. 

Of course, you can't just go out and sample your favorite soul track to use at your discretion. With copyrights and royalty payments, even sampling a small drum loop from a legendary soul song can cost you a pretty penny if you're even able to sample it at all.

Luckily, there are thousands of delectable soul sample packs on the online market, ready to be chopped and sliced in your DAW’s sampler, from sultry R&B vocals to head-bopping funk drum loops.

If you're ready to inject some soul into your next production, come dive in with us as we explore the best soul sample packs on the market today.

Lack of Afro - Organic Soul Vol. 2

The Lack of Afro team came together again to produce one of the sultriest soul sample packs we’ve heard to date. You get 803MB of original soul stem song ideas, great for slicing up and resampling in your house, R&B, and hip-hop tracks.

Lack of Afro isn't just another name in the sampling community. In fact, he has four of his own albums up for grabs on Freestyle, and received a nomination for BBC Music Album of the Year in 2016 when he released Hello Baby .

The point is that Organic Soul Vol. 2 was crafted by somebody in the business who means business. The sample pack comes arranged in stem construction kits with 56 loops inside, each one of them performed beautifully with live instrumentation, including drums, percussion, electric bass, electric guitar, piano, keys, horns, organ, and more. 

The team did an excellent job of dividing up the samples into song sections and delivered standalone files for each instrument, allowing you to reconstruct or remix as you please. 

It's one of the most comprehensive soul sample packs on the market for those who want to take it back to the days of crate digging and Hardware sampling. 

Loopmasters Neo Soul

To me, a great neo-soul track is like a warm Sunday morning. With laid-back drum grooves, mellow vocals, and sparse instrumentation, there's tons of room in a great neo-soul song to let elements flourish. 

To start building a foundation for your next neo-soul song, we recommend checking out Neo Soul by Loopmasters. This selection of samples was carefully crafted to provide profound and evocative characteristics for which to create timeless grooves.

While the 3.13GB of content might seem like overkill, it's because there are plenty of high-quality loops and samples to build out the perfect ambiance or design Rhythm sections from the ground up.

Better yet, the sample pack was produced by Aneek Thapar, an award-winning sound designer. If that wasn't enough, the drums in this sample pack were recorded by James Trood, who plays drums for Ben Khan and James Trood.

All in all, you get a tasty collection of loops, one-shots, and FX in Loopmasters Neo Soul that'll fit perfectly within your next soul session.

Vibes Vol. 3 - Vintage Soul

If you're looking to implement a more timeless sound in your next soul production, consider exploring the many soulful sounds of the past in the Vibes Vol. 3 Vintage Soul sample pack collection. All of the Sounds in this sample pack have shaped and influenced the sonic landscape of modern music, many of which were inspired by acts like Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Al Gren, Marvin Gaye, and more.

You'll find more than 1GB of carefully curated content, including loops, one-hits, patches, and more. From hand-crafted percussion to sun-kissed guitars to lush live drums and beyond, you'll find everything you need to fill every nook and cranny of your next soul track.

With loops running from 100-125BPM, it's a great sample pack for your across-the-board soul tracks, from disco to funk and more. Plus, you'll hear familiar sounds that echo those from some of your favorite soul labels, such as Atlanta Records, Hi Records, Stax Records, and Soul Records. 

Soul Surplus - High Definition: Chipmunk Soul

Of course, we had to throw a fun one in the mix for you. The term “Chipmunk Soul” was coined in the first half of the 2000s, when hip-hop artists were sampling old-school soul and R&B records, pitching the vocals into higher registers to get that iconic chipmunk sound we all know and love.

If you were ever a fan of Kanye West or Murs and Ninth Wonder, you’ve definitely heard this vocal style before. The High Definition sample pack from Soul Surplus delivers everything from pitched vocals to lush instrumentation, such as synths and keyboards.

It’s a truly inspiring sample pack to use in conjunction with one of your standard soul sample packs, like the ones above.

Where to Find Soul Samples

SampleSound

SampleSound goes beyond your average sample marketplace, offering educational content, courses, software and plug-in purchases, and more. It's an excellent place to look if you're an electronic music producer that leans toward underground styles.

Not only will you find a ton of great organic samples for soul, reggae, funk, disco, and R&B, but you’ll also find plenty of high-quality samples for trap, nu-disco, hip-hop, ambient, reggaeton, and more.

It's one of the most diverse sample platforms on the market today.

Plus, the team at SampleSound has partnered with more than 40 different contributors and labels, including Minar Records, Deeperfect Records, and Ushuaia Music, to bring you some of the most style-specific sample packs on the market.

Online Crate Digging

If you go back to the early days of hip-hop, sampling soul music was all about crate digging.

While there is certainly nothing better than waltzing into a local record store and feeling the vintage cardboard sleeves beneath your fingertips, you might be someone who doesn't live near a record store nor has the budget to purchase a bunch of records.

Luckily, the internet has given birth to a new concept called “e-digging,” which is essentially great digging online. While the quality of samples downloaded from YouTube may not be as high as those stripped straight from a record, it's a fun way to discover vintage soul records that could be used in your music. 

Just be aware that this form of sampling is not royalty-free in any way, and if you plan on commercially releasing your music, you will need to get in contact with the owners of the song.

Final Thoughts - Step Onto the Soul Train

There you have it, some of the best soul samples on the market to add to your pop, blues, jazz, funk, R&B, or hip-hop tracks. Soul music has such a rich history and combines elements in a warm, nostalgic manner that will forever be in our culture. In many ways, soul music is the backbone of modern producers. It greatly influenced and inspired sample culture, and without it, we wouldn't have the genre diversity we have today.

Download the sample pack collection listed above and get some quality soul loops to elevate your style!