Is This The Best Afro House Sample Pack? Our Review Of Soundsphat & Basic Wavez’s “Ancestral Afro House Essentials Vol. 1”

Afro house very quickly became one of the hottest genres in all of dance music in 2024 and if you’re looking to follow in the footsteps of Black Coffee or the Keinmusik bros, I’m sure you’re looking for the best afro house sample pack to get you started.

Afro house’s signature blend of hand drum rhythms, melodic vocal shouts, and elements of traditional organic and deep house is inherently addictive, so it’s no surprise that more and more artists are turning to the genre and trying their hand at it.

And, for those looking to get into the Afro house space, there’s a brand new toolkit to help you get started. Grammy-nominated producer Christian Beat Hirt from Soundsphat and producer & sound designer Julian van Straten (professionally known as Bound to Divide) from Basic Wavez have collaborated to create “Ancestral Afro House Essentials Vol. 1”, a monster of a sample and preset pack that promises to take your Afro house productions to the next level.

It’s not just a one trick pony, as the creators claim that the pack would also help in producing deep and organic house – which makes sense, considering that Afro house is basically an amalgamation of the two genres. Needless to say, I needed to check this out. Thanks to the Soundsphat team, I got my hands on a copy, and the following are my honest thoughts on what you’ll find in this pack.

Buy Ancestral Afro House Essentials Vol. 1 here.

What’s in the pack?

Quite a bit. Rather than just focusing on being a sample pack or a preset pack, this pack functions as a real starter kit for Afro house.

I’ve come to know and love Soundsphat’s packs because of their drums. Their Cyclopedia series features some of the best drums I’ve ever heard for melodic, deep, and organic house production. Thus, it’s not surprising at all that that quality level has transmitted over to this pack.

Now, if we’re comparing this to Cyclopedia, then those packs absolutely have this one beat in terms of drum quantity. In this pack, there are usually 15-20 samples maximum of a given drum – still plenty to work with, but definitely not as grandiose as Cyclopedia. That being said, I don’t think this pack necessarily needs to be as grandiose as Cyclopedia, as all of these sounds are hyper focused on the Afro house sound; and they sound great. The sound quality is as crystal clear as ever, and every single drum in this pack would certainly sound at home in an Afro house track. I was particularly impressed by the claps; while there are only six of them, each one sounds so clear that I swore someone was clapping at me in my room.

This track also really shines in its variety of melodic elements. There are beautiful pianos, rhythmic guitars, lush atmosphere beds, and so much more, all recorded at the highest quality. However, there’s one specific melodic element I want to go into depth with: the steelpan, a fairly signature Afro house sound.

Not only have they provided a few loops to get you started, but they’ve also created an entirely free Kontakt instrument so you can have that signature steelpan sound at your fingertips. Yes, entirely free. There are no hoops to jump through or anything; all you’ll need to do is download the (also free) Kontakt 8 Player (it won’t work with earlier versions) and you’ll be able to play to your heart’s content. Even if you don’t want to buy the entire pack, you should at least grab this: it’ll help you tenfold if you’re interested in Afro house. Download it here.

But, if you do want to grab the entire pack, you’ll gain access to the coup de grâce: some of the best sounding Afro house vocal shouts I have ever heard. Seriously, these sound amazing; they feature interesting melodies, unique vocal techniques, and, as usual, the highest recording quality possible. As a bonus, they were recorded by traditional singers.

These vocal samples, combined with the organic drums, beautiful instrumentation, and free steelpan instrument round out the sample portion of the pack, which would already be plenty for one pack. But, there’s more.

Presets!

Basic Wavez, the music production company of melodic house producer Bound to Divide, is specifically known for their presets, so there were obviously going to be some presets involved in this pack. Specifically, these are presets for u-he Diva, so if you’ve already got that synth, you’ll be able to plug and play almost instantly.

In total, there are 106 presets that will be right at home in your melodic/deep/organic/Afro house arsenal. Bound To Divide, alongside DOUBLICIOUS and Emmanuel Gonzalez, have put together an incredible sounding bunch of basses, leads, plucks, arps, and FX. The highlight for me are the basses, but everything sounds excellent here; with interesting sound design across the board.

If you want to hear exactly what a few of them sound like, keep reading! And, as I mentioned earlier, these sounds could absolutely fit in any production; afro house or not. You should also update to the newest version of Diva before using the pack, as many of the presets were made on Diva 1.4.8 and won’t quite work with older versions.

There are also over 200 midi files included with the pack as a finishing touch to help kick-start your next track. This pack really does have it all, and you can take a listen to everything in action in the demo tracks promoted on the store page.

In addition, I’ve whipped up a quick demo track, because the best way to show you what’s possible with this pack is to actually use it. Keep in mind a few things here:

1. I’ve never made Afro house before this, so go easy on me (I usually make melodic and progressive house, which you can listen to above if you want).
2. None of the samples have been processed besides the vocal, which I added some reverb to. The only other things I have done to them is adjust volumes, make everything play at A minor and 122 BPM, and added some sidechain compression. You’re hearing raw sounds and presets here. I’m also using MIDIs from the pack, as well as the free steelpan Kontakt instrument.

Pros and Cons:

Like any good sample or preset pack pack, there are some benefits and some drawbacks here.

I’ll go through the benefits first:

It focuses on a specific sound, and sounds excellent.

This pack isn’t nearly as large as some other packs that Soundsphat and Basic Wavez have put out, but it doesn’t need to be. From the start, it was clear that its sound would focus in on Afro House.

That is exactly what you get. They don’t try to get cute or re-invent the wheel here; they just give you the best possible sounds for the style of music you want to make.

It’s reasonably priced – and if you get it soon, you get a sick bonus.

I’ve admittedly had qualms with the pricing of some packs Soundsphat has put out, but the list price of 82 USD seems reasonable for what you get here. Remember, this is not just a sample pack: you get MIDIs and presets, too. Not only that, but it’s currently on sale for 20% off (at time of publication – if you’re reading this in the future, the sale’s probably over), so you can actually grab it for around 65 USD.

Plus, if you grab the pack before February 28th, you’ll snag an invite to a live production and feedback session featuring Christian Beat Hirt (aka Passenger 10), Julian van Straten (aka Bound to Divide), and a VIP special guest. All you’ll have to do is make a track using the pack and submit it, and you’ll get invaluable feedback from the pack’s creators.

Considering Beat Hirt and van Straten’s pedigree and the fact that they’re touting some sort of “special guest,” this is totally something you should pounce on if you’re interested.

To submit your track for feedback consideration, email it to [email protected] by February 25th, 2025.

Now, for the cons.

If you aren’t interested in producing house or don’t own Diva, this probably isn’t for you.

As is the case with any focused pack, if you’ve never had any interest producing house, then maybe this isn’t the pack for you. While the sounds are great, this is a pack definitely geared towards house producers, and it may be difficult for people producing other genres (say, drum & bass) to implement these sounds into their workflow.

In addition, while I love the samples included, the presets absolutely make this pack for me. If you don’t own Diva, I’d wait to buy until you’ve got the synth so you can get every last drop out of the pack. (And, you should. It’s wonderful.)

I’d have liked to see some more drum samples.

I’m greedy and collect drum samples like Pokemon, so this might be a me thing. But I really would’ve liked to see some more claps, rims, and organic percussion loops. Even then, though, what’s there sounds great. And, as I’ve said before, this pack doesn’t need to be massive.

I just would’ve liked to see a few more of each.

Should you get this pack?

That depends. Here are a few questions to help you decide:

• Are you interested in making Afro house?
• Do you own Diva and want some new sounds to play with?
• Do you like clean house drum samples?
• Do you want to add some new vocal samples to your library?
• Do you want to get feedback from two incredible producers and sound designers?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then I’d recommend this pack to you. It’s yet another great product from the talented people at Soundsphat and Basic Wavez.

Buy Ancestral Afro House Essentials Vol. 1 here.