Dex Digital Sample Library (or just Dex) is 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit which serves two missions:

(1) The creation of an open-access collection of audio-visual materials curated from commissioned artists, licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 International licensure.

(2) Arts enrichment through subgrants, providing material reparations for artists through donations and grant work, often done through live events such as concerts and galas (think funded commission/benefit concerts, recorded for anyone to remix through our collection).

dex officially launched for public use on June 1st, 2023. We now have dozens of hours of high quality audio and video, featuring artists around the world.

Creative Commons (CC) is a nonprofit organization which provides licenses for open sharing of knowledge. Learn more about CC here.

All of our samples (photos, videos, and audio) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). As a library patron, that means you are free to use, mix, remix, adapt, and otherwise transform the material, as well as share it freely and even distribute commercially, as long as you appropriately attribute the content you use. For more information, please visit dexdsl.com/copyright

Artistic tools are often gatekept through institutional access and financial hurdles, with marginalized identities many times left out of the room entirely. Sample libraries themselves mainly work through a for-profit model, with artists on the hook for creative production before they've even begun creating. We look to break that cycle, and give artistic compositional tools directly to all in the form of an online collection of curated, licensed sounds and visuals. In doing so, we also materially benefit the artists we commission to record, and culturally enrich our hub areas by presenting those recording sessions as open concerts, inviting the public into the creation of our library entries.

So far we’ve recorded everything from traditional instruments like cello (Emmanuel Losa), organ (Midori Ataka), oboe (Sky Macklay), and multi-percussion (Ben Giroux); to electric instruments like electric guitar (Ethan Bailey-Gould)(Chris Mann) and no input mixer (Jared Murphy); to experimental instruments like amplified tv sets (Sam Pluta), amplified knives (Tyler Jordan), or even amplified printer (Cameron Church)

And that’s just the start! For a full list of the instruments we have in our library, look at our catalog.

No, silly!! You just need to sign up! Here’s how to sign up in three easy steps:
1. If you’re not a library patron yet, click this link to create an account.
2. Wait for our email notification, then verify your email address by clicking the link in the email. additionally, accept our newsletter email by doing the same in our newsletter opt-in email (optional).
3. You’re all signed up! pat yourself on the back.

The only time we will ask you to pay for anything is if you’re coming to a live event, signing up for our paid patreon memberships, or donating to us. :)

the audio-visual samples can be used in myriad ways: as a traditional sample, as a live sample-based production tool/instrument, as a video game soundpack, etc…dex is not so much focused on preserving the historical sound of a particular instrument, but transforming its acoustic capabilities into shocking possibilities for new music creation.

Yes!! That’s great! We frequently hold calls for collaboration so that you can make your way into the dex library, either through proposals for recordings, calls for proposals post-production, or smaller calls where you can take part in decisions or send in samples of your own.