Loopmasters News & Reviews

Future Music Review: Analogue Farmhouse

The term 'Analogue' is bandied about a lot these days, as producers search for that ever more authentic sound, but with the masters Mason at the controls this is the genuine article. In a variety of keys centred around the prime House tempo territory, this pack is full of deep, rich and wobbly waveforms. Mason have really hit the nail on the head with this one. The genre spanning set of sounds instantly resonates with inspiration and, a wealth of warm, wonky and buzzy basslines slotted right in to anything we tried them with.

The music and FX loops oozed with class, and the one shot library was hard-hitting and full bodied. Skillfully side stepping genre classification, these sounds will breathe life into any style of House that yearns for something classic sounding without being too retro. And at £25 for just shy of 950MB, this is a real gem.

Verdict: 10/10

Future Music Review: Kanji Kinetic Vol. 2

Weighing in at just over 550MB, Kanji Kinetic's subwoofer splitting Volume 2 is certainly not for the fainthearted. With audio loops split into a variety of tempos (mainly focusing on the in and around 140 and 170bpm mark), this pack leaves no stone unturned in the filth department. The bass loops in particular are saturated in all the right places and ready to be dropped straight into your tracks, as are the synth loops; however a few were slightly over-cooked in obvious 'nastiness' for our tastes.

Though the drum loops sound great, they do wander 'off topic' and some tepid one-shots might be a bit lightweight seasoned Dubsteppers and Junglists. The raga vocals, though authentic were slightly over-compressed and in places there was audible headphone spill, but this is a small griped with an otherwise great pack. Whether you're just getting into production or need something to bolster your arsenal, these are some well built sounds, if not a bit content-shy for £20.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Progressive Tech Essentials

Uncompromising for the dance floor there's plenty to sink your teeth into with over 850MB at play. There's 16 construction kits in a variety of keys ranging from 125-128bpm with a variety of drum loops, basslines, FX sweeps and everything else associated with the Progressive/Tech House vernacular.

However with massive sidechains and modulation already in place some of the basses in particular are a little too processed and developed to drop straight into tracks. That said, this pack is worth it for the drums alone. Construction kits may not be your thing, and this isn't going to rewrite the book on House Music, but the hypnotic and thumping drum loops are a redeeming feature, certainly a lot of keepers there. Hard to justify the price, but there's some top production in here.

Verdict:7/10

Future Music Review: Swedish House Essentials

Another Swedes inspired pack that - while having nothing to do with the work of Ingrosso, Angello and Axwell - goes a significant way to serving up the same recipe for chart bound excitement. Taking gems from a multitude of genres there's big high frequency splashy FX, mighty chiming synth chords and - interestingly - lots and lots of over-excited bendy synths and even a smattering of Minimal pops and clicks for the sake of completeness. Part Tribal, part Trance the synths and beats on offer do gel together nicely and any combination produces uplifting, commercial House with an irrepressible shiny 'Pop' sheen. There 900MB of hits and loops with every bass, drum and synth given clear naming and equal emphasis. There are a few questionable inclusions that are a little wide of the mark but the great drum shots alone nail this one for us. It may be that you're looking for an injection of commerciality into your otherwise lack-luster tunes. If so this is the big bold pack you need.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Shogun Audio D&B

Tight. That's the word for this collection. It's so macro-intense in its construction that it's often hard to gauge at just what just flashed by your ears. Drums are tuned up tightly, hats and clicks fizzle and pop and over on the dark side you'll find lashings of lovely warm ambient synth pads and punchy, dark bass. This is smooth, driving but easy to mess with D'n'B. It's at turns bright and intense but equally dark and involved. It's nice and sizey at 820MB allowing the guys to fully flex their sound design muscles and deliver something that's perfect for any D'n'B occasion. We love the Special FX and Stab sounds and the drum sets are among some of the cleanest and well-produced samples we've heard. Thoroughly recommended.

Verdict: 9/10

Rekkerd.org Review: Shogun Audio D&B

When Loopmasters released Shogun Audio Drum & Bass Vol. 1, the name Friction caught my attention. Friction aka Ed Keeley has made quite an impact on the drum and bass scene with his DJ skills and productions on various prominent labels like Hospital, Renegade Hardware, Valve, Tru Playaz, etc. I think I still have a copy of the Infantry E.P. with Friction and DJ Skinny (Nu Balance) on it, back from 1999.

I am not so familiar with the Shogun Audio, Friction's “diverse, exciting and forward thinking” drum and bass label. At the time K-Tee and Friction started Shogun Audio, I had already packed up my turntables and wasn't keeping up with new drum and bass releases much.

Icicle aka Jeroen Snik did not ring a bell either, but after reading his profile tagline on Shogun Audio's website I was expecting to like his work.

With this sample pack Friction and Icicle deliver a collection of 780 drum and bass samples, including 104 loops and no less than 676 one shot samples.

Here's a breakdown of the content:

27 bass loops
40 drum loops + 8 bonus classic drum loops
29 synth loops
30 bass one shots + 8 multi-sampled bass instruments
8 synth one shots + 12 multi-sampled synth instruments
63 stab hits
58 sound fx hits
277 drum and percussion hits
71 patches for Kontakt, HALion, EXS24, NN-XT and SFZ

The bass loops are generally silky smooth, understated yet brutal. Lots of deep sounds and plenty of filter action. Love that. The selection of drum loops is quite varied, with great overall quality. You get some beats done with sounds from classic breaks, as well as the more minimal beats reminiscing of Photek. Everything is very well programmed, though with an average of 8 bars per loop at 170+ bpm quite short in length.

I don't quite get the point of the included classic breaks. Sure it's just a bonus, but 5 short breaks and 3 amen fills with flanger effect? Not too exciting.

On to the melodic synth loops. There are no fillers here. Beautiful progressions (up to 64 bars), minimal tech stabs, moody pads, evocative dreamy keys. Very inspirational.

The single shot sounds and accompanying sampler patches feature a solid selection of sounds and fx. The bass sounds are good, but with a lot less filter and modulation they lack much of the appeal of the loops. The same with the synth samples. Great sounds - especially some of the pads - but you need to do some processing of your own to get the same vibe. Don't get me wrong though, this is how melodic single shot sounds/sampler patches are supposed to be in my opinion; a collection of supporting sounds with not too much processing going on for maximum flexibility. The stabs folder is full of classic hardcore/rave type stab sounds, chords and hits, and the sound fx folder boasts almost 60 quality original effects. Great material for spicing up your productions.

Drums and percussion samples are divided into cymbals and crashes (14), high hats (44), kicks (71), percussion (47), shuffles (28), and snares (73). Nothing earth-shattering, just a good collection of useful sounds for creating your own beats or to compliment the drum loops. The sounds are also available in 5 drum kit patches.

Where applicable everything is tagged with bpm and key for ease of use, and file names typically indicate the type of sound well.

So what do I think?

Friction & Icicle deliver some top notch content with their first sample pack. Even though the collection of loops is just some 125 MB in size, this is the heart of the library. Incredibly well-crafted bass and drum loops, combined with beautiful melodic synth loops which provide you with the authentic vibe that can only come from the hands of this production duo. That is what makes these “artist series” packs so great. My only complaint/wish in this section: I want more loops!

With the exception of the sound fx, the single shot sounds are a lot more generic. Still, this useful collection of bass, synth, pad, stab sounds and more is of high quality and suitable for a electronic music of any kind.

In short, Shogun Audio Drum & Bass Vol. 1 provides a solid collection of quality loops and sounds for drum and bass producers.

Verdict: 9/10

Rekkerd.org Review: DJ Krust - Bristol D&B

The mid 1990′s was an exciting time for me musically. Coming from a staple diet of bands like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi and the Cure, getting into music production with computers meant my interest in various genres of electronic music grew fast.

With drum and bass it was love at first sight. I instantly fell for the sounds from the likes of Goldie, Source Direct, Photek, J Majik, Dillinja, Lemon D, Ray Keith, Zinc & Hype, Trace, Ed Rush, and naturally Roni Size and his Full Cycle label mate and fellow Reprazent member Kirk Thompson aka DJ Krust.

I'm not sure which Krust track I heard first, but I know the one that made a big impact was Warhead. Whereas Krust's previous tracks resembled a lot of other early drum and bass tunes featuring the same classic breaks and 808-ish sine bass sounds, Warhead was different - jump-up if I'm not mistaken. I can still hear this tune without listening to it any time of the day.

Anyway, obviously I was excited to see one of the key players of drum and bass release an Artist Series sample library at Loopmasters: DJ Krust - Bristol Drum & Bass. And guess what, the Warhead breaks are on it!

Here's a breakdown of the content of the Bristol Drum & Bass sample pack:

30 bass loops - 8 to 32 bars.
64 drum loops - mostly 8 bars with some variations.
30 music loops - mostly string, pad and fx type sounds.
24 percussion loops - congas, bongos, shakers etc.
Patches (and single shot sounds): 5 + 12 multi bass, 99 drum sounds (26 hihats, 39 kicks, 5 perc, 29 snares) + 5 drum kits, 7 + 9 multi instruments, and 62 sound fx.

The bass loops set the stage for this sample library. They are rough and raw. This is Krust alright. Same with the drum loops, tons of beats with the classic Krust sound - uncomplicated yet full of life. The music loops are a bit sparse. Most of them are pad type sounds and some come with accompanying tail loops so you really only get about 20 melodic loops. The percussion loops are spot on and mix well with the other content. I especially like the fast bongo percussions. All the loops have key and bpm info included where relevant.

The one-shot sounds included in this library are mapped in instrument patches and multis in various formats. Most of the multis have about 3 or 4 samples each so don't expect any deep sampled sounds. For bass, drums, and melodic instruments these sounds fit in perfectly with the loops. You can tell they come from the same place. The sound fx samples are a valuable addition to the pack, and once again add to the “Krust-factor” of this collection.

Check the video from the man himself below:

So what do I think?

Drum and bass is a tricky genre. I happen to like pretty much all of its (sub)genres, but I can imagine if you're into jungle you might not like drumfunk. As far as Bristol Drum & Bass goes though, this is the real deal. I reckon that if you like drum and bass tunes by Krust, you will most definitely like this sample library as well.

The sounds are raw and authentic. It basically feels as if you were browsing samples on Krust's personal hard disk, which from the video I understand is exactly what this sample library is all about - a collection of sounds straight from the vault of a drum and bass legend.

Make sure to check the interview at the Loopmasters blog to learn more about Krust and this sample library.

Verdict: 8/10

Plughugger Review: Kick-Free Revolution 3

Review of Sound of Revolution Kick Free Revolution Vol 3: Oliver Schmitt is back with a new collection of kick free loops. If you are into electro and techno, this is a collection of loops that will help you stand out.

Oliver Schmitt is a man driven by a passion. Just like Deadmau5, Oliver Schmitt knows the art of creating drum loops that sound spot-on modern with a minimum of ingredients. For someone like me - who rather add than take away - it's almost like dark magic. But as the old idiom famously says 'the devil is in the details' - and that's what Oliver Schmitts loops are all about. Tiny details that you barely register but perceive as a whole.

In all its essence, the point of his Kick Free Revolution series is to provide the mood and the swing for drum productions. Basically all you need to do is choose and program the kick. This formula is as effective as it is clever, especially considering that these loops doesn't occupying every part of the frequency spectrum. In other words - it's easy to break out elements and tweak the loops to your own taste.

Before I forget - it's important to remember that this library is a library with only loops (both wav and Apple Loops) rex-files. The loops are conveniently put together in instruments for EXS24 and Kontakt - but there are not one single drum sounds in this library. Just loops.

There are 777 loops and they are divided into nine categories: Minimal, Hihat, Noise, Mixed, Tonal, SynthPerc, LivePerc, Kits and FX. Many of the loops come in an extra variation usually with more or less elements in them.

Each category has its own style. The LivePerc category is based on acoustic percussion sounds and the SynthPerc is based... yes, you guessed it: synthetic percussion sounds. While the loops in these categories are based on acoustic and synthetic sounds - that's just what they are. Based upon. The loops have been programmed and processed far beyond what you would probably call a traditional acoustic percussion loop. I'm not talking about mutilation of sounds - anyone can slap a multiband compressor on a loop and call it art - but creative processing dynamically over the loop.

"these loops do not only lack the kick but also the snare"

The loops are set in 127 bpm and work exceptionally well with traditional four-on-the-floor kicks (and the snare on the second and fourth beat) as well as equally traditional rock patterns. The reason for this is that these loops do not only lack the kick but also the snare. The omission of the snare might sound like a simple trick, but it makes the all difference in the world when it comes to actually use the loops in your own productions. This does it make very easy to build dynamic drums for entire track - with your favorite snares and kicks.

CONCLUSION

Being a somewhat decent producer myself - I marvel at the cunning steeped in this collection. The sounds are both carefully selected and masterfully processed. The usage of tonal elements is very clever and the loops are very dynamic - giving a feeling of ebb and flow.

If you are after the kind of sounds that will help you concur the charts of modern trance pop, this is probably too advanced for your audience. But if you are into modern electro and techno - or want to spice up your productions with those genres - there are few collections that will make you stand out in the same way as these loops will. People will think your production skills are way more advanced that they really are.

One final note about the price. In these days when you can grab gigabyte-sized libraries for 10-20 euros, a price of 64 euros is definitely high. But since the quality of these loops is so exceptionally outstanding - Kick Free Revolution files under investment, rather than expense.

DJ Mag Review: Friction & Icicle DnB

Loopmasters' 'Artist Series' provides DJ's and producers with sample packs that are intended for use in the specific genres that they are targeted to. It's proven a great revamp to an often non-inspiring selection of sample libraries created by boffins who are not on the frontline of cutting-edge dance music. Taking this philosophy one step further, Loopmasters have joined up with leading drum and bass label Shogun Audio to bring two major players of the scene together to collaborate on a truly floor-smashing pack: Friction and Icicle, who, between them, have more than enough production credits to name here.

'Shogun Audio Drum & Bass Vol.1' is a meaty pack with just under a GB of sounds, offering 104 loops and 676 one-shots samples. There are 27 speaker-wreaking bass loops, around 40 tight moving drum loops and eight bonus classic breaks for all rave lovers in the house, as well as a collection of instant track-inspiring synth loops. For producers who are a bit more musically savvy, there are bass tones and instrument samples to create riffs and basslines, the usual array of FX and over 250 single drum samples to programme beat sequences. Being Vol.1, expect some more in the series of releases via Shogun and Loopmasters. Available in the now usual formats, 'Shogun Audio Drum & Bass' is a must for producers into D&B, Dubstep, Breaks or Electronica who are looking for a tasty selection of samples.

Verdict: 8/10

Music Tech Review: Friction & Icicle Drum'n'Bass

Friction and Icicle are two leading lights in the modern drum and bass scene, offering up a combination of liquid grooves and minimal tech synth tones. Along with business partner K-Tee, Friction has pushed his Shogun Audio label to the forefront of the D&B scene with an eclectic range of cutting edge releases. The latest pack from Loopmasters sees Friction and Icicle team up for a varied collection of dance floor-ready beats, deep-tech synths and heavy basslines.

The download pack comes in your choice of ACID WAV, Apple Loops, Reason Refill and Live Pack, and also contains 71 sampler patches for Kontakt, EXS24, HALion, SFZ and NN-XT. First up are 104 loops ranging from 170-175bpm, with rounded, snarling bass sounds, deep-tech synth riffs and pads and a combination of upfront rolling beats and more quirky, glitch laden grooves. The production is excellent throughout, with thick low-mids where appropriate lending a warm sound, and all the synth loops being kept on a tight leash in order to retain space in the mix.

Although there are plenty of lashing beats on offer, most are a little more refined, with careful programming and tight grooves. There’s also a bonus folder containing eight classic breaks and drum fills for you to chop up and load into your sampler. The bulk of the pack is actually made up of the sounds and FX section, where you’ll find a large number of bass and synth hits, multisampled bass and synth instruments, ravey stabs, innovative-sounding FX and 277 heavily processed drum and percussion hits. Although a lot of the sounds here lack the originality of the loops, they’re solidly produced and offer a large range of staple D&B noises. That said, we enjoyed the inventive FX section, which features eerie stabs, processed vocal hits and risers made with machine noises, as well as the crunchy, processed drum sounds that would easily cut through a mix.

This is a well rounded pack full of both classic and original, new drum and bass sounds. Most of the hits and loops are kept quite short, so you’ll have to do some programming work to fill out your arrangement, but these elements make this an excellent raw resource for D&B and electronic music producers.

Verdict: 8/10

Music Tech Review: Complextro

Since our review of Loopmasters' excellent French Electro House pack back in Issue 99, producer Utku.S has gone on to start his own sample label, Freaky Loops, which focuses on providing upfront electronic sounds. The first release is called Complextro, so named after the schizophrenic new genre made famous by the likes of Deadmau5 and Skrillex, which combines elements of heavy dubstep, glitch and electro house styles.

The pack contains 682MB of 24-bit loops in WAV format, with the majority at 128bpm and a few at 130bpm. You'll find bass, drums, top-loops, music loops and combi loops, seven construction kits and several FX and synth multisamples. As with the French Electro House pack, the production is aggressive and upfront, with pumping synth lines and resonant analogue bass lines processed through an array of different distortions. Although you won't find a great deal of variety, the quality remains high throughout, with a raw finish gracing most bass and synth loops. We found it easy to create a number of different Complextro bass line riffs by chopping and changing the different four-bar loops on offer.

The drums follow a similar route and range from fuller beats with fast hi-hat shuffles to more stripped back but driving kick and snare grooves. Ideally, we would have liked to have each beat presented as its component parts so we could lay them out in our arrangement, but the drum top loops go some way to rectifying this.

Although the construction kits are a useful addition, it would have been nice to have more, and the combi loops may be a little too full-sounding for some. Finally, there's a small collection of synth FX and a slightly disappointing four multisampled instruments.

If you're after dance floor destroying bass synth loops you're in the right place as this is Utku.S' forte. Although the pack could have been made a little more flexible with more riff variations, you'll find a decent amount of chunky beats, nice arps and FX.

Verdict: 8/10

TheNews.co.uk Review: Iconical Vocal Acapellas Vol. 2

Hot on the heels of the marvellous Iconical Vocal Acapellas Vol 1 comes the second volume - a most welcome collection indeed.

This set of royalty-free full vocal acapellas from Iconical Music features the vocal talents of several excellent from electro pop to rock and dance to breakbeat.

You can even timestretch the vox without destruction to fit slower or faster tempos - the choice is yours.

They are crystal clear, tuneful, in a good variety of keys and tempos and make a refreshing change from run-of-the-mill phrases and glitch vox which seem to be ten a penny nowadays.

There is also a good mix of female and male vocals - and the icing on the cake is that there are verses, chorus lines, bridges and backing tracks - so you'll have no excuse not to turn out a banging, ear-pleasing track.

As I've mentioned many times before, it's easy to spend ages trawling the web to find some decent vocals but you always tend to end up disappointed so it's fantastic to see that Loopmasters have filled the void - and with great aplomb.

The pack can be bought as a whole, or tracks can be purchased separately with included Dry and Wet stems for maximum flexibility.

Iconical Vocal Acapellas Vol. 2 weighs in at 340MB, and includes 111 vocal stems in 24 Bit, and covering BPms between 105 to 128 BPM. The tracks include Barricade which includes 16 dry loops and 17 Wet versions; Crying Game includes 14 Dry Loops and 14 Wet; Going Underground includes 9 Wet and 7 Dry Loops; I'm On Fire includes 8 Dry Loops and 8 Wet FX Versions - and The Sweetest Sin includes 5 Dry Loops and 5 Wet, plus you also get an additional bonus folder with various shorter phrases and song ideas.

Equipment used by the singers include a Rode K2 with a retro fitted Electroharmonix tube, a Broadhurst Gardens Mic channel and a UAD quad core card. When selecting the appropriate version for your requirements the Zip (Main) format includes Acidised Wav and Rex2 Loops - all single (non-looping) sounds and Sampler Patches for Kontakt, Halion, NNXT, EXS24 soft samplers. Reason Refill, Ableton Live Packs and Apple Loops are not included, and must be purchased where available as a separate downloads. Apple Loops packs also include any single hits and EXS patches where applicable.

If in doubt, Loopmasters recommend you purchase the Zip (main) format which is usable with nearly all DAWs.

TheNews.co.uk Review: The Baker Brothers Funk Vol. 1 & 2

If you've been searching high and low for some of the very best funk sounds around today then you need look no further.

Monster Sounds and Loopmasters have gathered together two fine volumes of top quality loops and samples from the fabulous Baker Brothers collective.

The Baker Brothers have been rocking dance floors far and wide with their huge entertaining live show for nearly 10 years now.

With seven albums and numerous other releases under their collective belt the band have toured Japan and Europe extensively delivering an explosive, killer funk show!

They recently sold out Soho's legendary Ronnie Scotts and have supported legends such as Sly and The Family Stone, Jools Holland and John Schofield.

Their infectious, Raw Beats and Bass Lines underpin edgy Melodic Horns and Funky Guitars.

Over their consistently prolific career so far they have gained critical acclaim by the likes of Mr Scruff, DJ Muro, Keb Darge, Florian Keller and The Roots.

They have worked with guests such as Average White Band's Hamish Stewart, Vanessa Freeman of Reel People and UK percussion legend Snowboy.

So that 'honours list' proves you simply cannot go wrong with this ace library of sounds.

In these 100 per cent royalty-free Funk Sample releases - The Baker Brothers have laid down some fantastic funked-up basslines, keys, horns, flutes and guitars in a truly spectacular collection.

Volume One weighs in at 1.6GB and includes 645 samples, of which 579 are loops between 86-130bpm, and 66 one-shots, all recorded through valve equipment using fantastic mics and captured in pristine 24 Bit.

Producers of Funk, Hip Hop, Breaks, Cinematic and Downtempo styles will be amazed at the quality of these sounds.

Also included are seven ready to play patches for Reason NNXT, Halion, Kontakt, EXS and SFZ compatible Samplers. Apple Loops, Reason Refill and Ableton Live versions are also available separately.

Volume Two also weighs in at 1.6GB and includes 772 samples, of which 531 are loops between 86-130bpm plus a hefty 241 one-shots. Also included are five patches for Reason NNXt, Halion, Kontakt, EXS and SFZ compatible Samplers.

Again, Apple Loops, Reason Refill and Ableton Live versions are available separately.

So across both volumes you are in command of shedloads of basslines, drums, Fender Rhodes, guitars, horn sections, flutes, sax, trumpet and percussion loops.

So what are you waiting for? Get over to the Loopmasters site today and check out the demo and be amazed!

TheNews.co.uk Review: Moody Boys

ALSO coming highly recommended this week is this ace library of 'Dub Electronica' from the excellent Moody Boyz.

Dub Electronica includes 17 large construction kits which broken down include 99 Full Loops, 38 Percussion Loops, 79 inspirational Dub Music Loops, 3 FX Loops, four Vox Loops, 134 Drum Loops, 31 Bass Loops, plus 61 Single Drum Samples.

It's great for the good old 'mix 'n' match scenario and I even pulled out a grinding jelly wobble bass to slap into a crunk track because the quality of the recordings means timestretching - either up or down - is a doddle, without any quality dropout whatsoever.

It's a nice and different collection with plenty of ear candy to give your 'dance tempo' tracks some cutting edge.

It comes in at 1.75 gigs at a bargain £29.95. Check the site for tech specs.

Computer Music Review: Friction & Icicle

This library from two of the biggest names in deep and dark DNB is a solid package. The single hits are the star of the show. The 644MB of one shot drums, bass, FX, stabs and synths makes it one of the better DnB libraries around, while the extra multi-samples and loops sweeten the deal. Many DnB libraries fail to provide much useful content, but this is great for veterans and newbies alike.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: Kanji Kinetic

Pure filth is the name of the genre here, presented at 140bpm and 175bpm. Subtlety is not within producer Kanji Kinetics remit – everything here is big and brash, with huge distorted bass noises and overdriven drums. Those after sounds not already mangled to death should look elsewhere, but for a quick and dirty way to make up front, filthy bass music, this library hits home.

Verdict: 8/10

Computer Music Review: Abstract & Weird 2

This weird and wonderful pack comprises 200 loops at 127bpm in various formats including WAV, REX files and sampler patches. There's plenty of phasing, flanging, filtering and extreme EQ and distortion going on, resulting in loops with unique timbres and feels. It's as slick as you'd expect from Sounds of Revolution. Take a listen to the demo before you invest, as it is an acquired taste

Verdict: 7/10

Waveformless Review: Pro II by Wave Alchemy

After releasing a number of high quality loop and one-shot drum samples, developers Wave Alchemy are back with something a bit different this time. Pro-II is the company's first instrument built for Native Instruments Kontakt (minimum 4.2 required, and no, this won't work with the free Kontakt Player). This is exciting news in itself, but as the font on the packaging may have tipped you off, the source of these sounds is the revered Sequential Circuits Pro One. Got your attention now?

What is it?

Pro-II is a virtual instrument built in Kontakt that makes extensive use of that program's scripting and GUI capabilities. Although it includes over 150 multi-sampled presets, Wave Alchemy also provided samples of the Pro One's raw oscillators allowing you to sculpt your own. This is done via five pages of controls that mimic the look of the old Sequential synths. These pages are divided by Preset (with a basic "easy" selection of parameters to tweak on the multi-sampled presets), Raw Oscillator (with controls for the 2 oscillators, 2 sub oscillators, white and pink noise generators, and more available in the 'synth' mode), a Sequencer (to sequence Cutoff, Resonance, and Note Values), an effects section with reverb, chorus, delay, bit crushing, flanging, phasing, and distortion, and a Control page allowing you to select whether the sound is mono or poly, unison settings, etc. So clearly, while the Pro One provides the inspiration for this instrument, the Wave Alchemy team decided to bring it into the 21st Century with features you won't find on the original.

The Sounds

Anyone who has played or owned a Pro One will instantly recognize its tone here... buzzy, warm, and tight as a duck's behind. The sampling is of the quality we've come to expect from Wave Alchemy - damn near perfect. Split points among the multi-samples are undetectable, and looping is smooth as can be. There's a good selection of "bread and butter" sounds including analog strings, funky basses, and leads, as well as more unusual FM and cross-mod type sounds that blur the line between digital and analog.

The Verdict

If you're a fan of the Pro One and don't have access to one, I don't know why you're still reading this. For the price, this is an outstanding value and the additional programmability will extend its shelf life as far as you care to take it. I've often said that where a lot of softsynths fall down is in the oscillators, not the filters, as many people say (it's probably a bit of column a, a little of column b). If that's the case, there's something to be said for using samples of the real deal versus trying to emulate it in software. Honestly, some of the most convincingly "analog" sounding patches I've made are for the sample-based Omnisphere. So while you won't have the same instability of tone you might from the real deal, this gets you close and without the headaches the real thing can provide. And while this relies on Kontakt's filters instead of modeled ones (in the Raw mode), for most purposes, it sounds fairly close. Of course the multi-sampled sounds have plenty of actual Pro One filter sound, so there's a bit of that available to you as well. Overall, I'm not quite ready to sell my Pro One yet, but I can tell already this is an instrument I'll get a lot out of!

Rating: 10/10

Future Music Review: Octane & DLR

Just when you thought DnB had got as formulaic as it possibly could along comes Drum and Bass Rollers to give the bulging D'n'B sample library business a proper kick up the arse.

Funky, unusual, well organised and supremely useful, every one of the sounds and hits are here will slot into and enliven any in-progress hard stepping D'n'b tune. The accent is on pacey excitement rather than ear-burning nastiness or Jazz-fused funkiness with a natural, organic sound throughout. Packing 129 loops and 157 one shots and 28 sampler instruments there's more than enough inspiration here to get you busy. Recommended.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Spectre

Superb stuff. A great toolkit of useful sounds with a 'big' effect-heavy old school sound. Stick to the content of the pack and make deep, mainroom bangers. Or help yourself to any of the hundreds of loops and breaks on offer here and that big sound in an instant.

The pack is a serious mix, low on novelty value insanity and high on class and quality. Bass loops and scary synths are designed to inspire and a nice line in flickering, crunchy top loops give a nice retro vinyl flavour. A great piece of unusual ammo for anyone making any form of House.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: Dutch Electro House

Ok. Time to get a little kerrazy. Laden with more bendy synths than you've had barmy nights out, this insane collection of beats and synths is like a textbook of cutting edge House. Part deep hollow kicks and old skool ravey drums and part 'car alarm goes mental' synthesizer, the package is a completed and glued together with some great vocal chops, banging metallic percussion and radio-tuning spot effects.

There's 8-bit crunch, and a sci-fi sound effects at every turn making a faultless collection – thanks to the inate wackiness throughout – rather limits its usability in any genre other than its target. That said, it nails the Dutch sound dead.

Verdict: 7/10

BeatsAndBeyond.com Review: Spektre

Loopmasters continues to add sonic value to many a producer's set up by releasing multiple sample packs on a monthly basis. Among the latest packs made available is one by techno outfit Spektre (composed of producers Filthy Rich and Paul Maddox), who have designed an expansive pack for creating atmospheric, otherworldly techno. Let's crank up the sequencer and put it to the test shall we?

Spektre's pack is something completely different than Loopmaster's housier packs. This pack enables you to add those sought-after haunting techno sounds to your productions, such as reverb drums, swirling synthesizers and fierce big room kicks. We tested the pack using Ableton Live as the sequencer, Battery for the drum hits, plus a couple of soft synths to check the compatibility and usefulness of the samples in general. Unzipping the pack reveals four main folders, and as always we're starting with the Sound & FX folders.

Sounds & FX

This folder contains four subfolders (Atmospherics, Drum Hits, Instrument Multisamples and Risers & Transitions. The first one, Atmospherics, contains 13 sound waves varying from hypnotic to dark and haunting. Each sound has that distinct dark techno vibe and when chopped and tweaked a little, they definitely add a nice extra to your track. The Drum Hits section is divided over Claps, Hi-Hats, Kicks and Percussions and is a nice source for your track basics. The kick drums in here are definitely great tools to add that extra bounce to the ounce while the Percussion bits all have a slight industrial twist to them, making them odd but effective little extras.

Instrument Multisamples / Risers & Transitions

Now what makes this pack exceptionally good is the huge amount of non-drum and percussion sounds it offers. This pack gets you a buttload of extremely diverse and usable bass stabs and lines, drones, Detroit-techno keys and rave chords, each one of them sounding fresh, crispy, and sometimes downright evil. Most of them are capable of kicking the ass of many a bass module any time, and we've been working with some let me tell you that. From the Kicky Sub bass archive to Spacey Trancers, Drone Sub Bass and everything in between, this pack delivers. Big time.

The Risers & Transitions folder holds around 20 expansive sound waves ranging from low down bass to trance synthesizers, fx and percussion. We tested some of them by twisting and re-shaping them using a few standard Ableton plugins and the result was impressive. The best way to use these (just a tip!) is by slicing them up and adding them as background noise or an extra in your grooves. Trust us, you'll be amazed.

Spektre's one-of-a-kind looping insanity…

Now we already said that this pack is all about the instrumentals, and this is emphasized by the huge collection of ready-for-use WAVs, Rex Files and Sampler Patches it includes. Each one of these folders comes with a fine selection of loops that you just have to drag ‘n drop to the software tool of your choice. Next to rhythms, there's also a lot of pre-made bass loops (including some that will really upset your bowels), synth waves and oldschooly rave stuff. Just add an EQ filter, some delay and a touch of reverb and you'll be nodding to some ass-whooping techno beats soon enough.

Rex Files and Sample Patches

These folders are rigged with several files to use in your soft sampler and the vast majority of them provide a sweet enforcement to the backbone of your tracks. They work great as pre-made loops, but a little tweaking is the secret to success here.

Our verdict:

Let's hear it for Loopmasters and Spektre! We can welcome another very useful and original sample pack to the Loopmasters family, one that will definitely be a great addition to your studio if you're into the darker sides of techno.

Verdict: 8.0/10

Music Tech Review: Kelevra

Monster Sounds is the relatively new samples label from club veterans Aquasky. They've released a string of no-nonsense dance-floor ready packs created by top artists and producers from around the world, plus a dirty House music pack under their own alter-ego Black Noise Warehouse, and several vocal packs featuring American MC's and rappers. The latest release is a fresh collection of Jackin', Tech and Electro House loops and one-shots courtesy of prolific bassline house producer Kelevra.

The download pack contains around 720 MB of 24-bit audio and comes in either ACID WAV/REX2/Apple Loops/Live Pack or Reason Refill formats. There is also a substantial amount of hits and multi-sampled instruments that have corresponding sampler patches for EXS24, Kontakt, HALion, NN-XT and SFZ.

Unsurprisingly, for a man known for his love of bassline sounds, this pack doesn't disappoint in the bass department. Not only do you get some tasty bass loops, but there's also a good number of aggressive dives and wobbles, big, resonant multi-samples and no fewer than 21 sub-bass sounds. Balancing this you'll also find tech and Dutch-style synth loops, big trance lead multi-samples, raucous SFX and a smattering of strummed guitar chords.

Although these feature some interesting use of reverb and delay, we occasionally found some of the riffs to be a little on the cheesy side.

In respect to drums you get a decent amount of processed hits plus a well thought-out collection of meaty, upfront loops, each with a top loop, full loop and variation.

Finally, there are 161 male vocal loops, shouts and phrases. Although many of the shouts are slightly clichéd (and all are provided with reverb rather than dry),there are plenty of potential hooks available and this is a nice addition to the pack.

This is a well-crafted and laid-out pack, but despite flirting with tech house grooves and big rave synths, it's the exquisite bass sounds that will keep us coming back for more.

Verdict: 8/10

BeatsAndBeyond.com Review: Jamie Anderson

Tech-house boss Jamie Anderson has compiled two massive sound libraries for Loopmasters, your number one spot for ass-whooping royalty free samples. Jamie's many years of studio experience and headliner gigs at Panorama Bar, Love Parade and Cocoon have made him one of the most credible and versatile artists in the house scene and his productions on Radio Slave's Rekids, Alter Ego's Klang Elektronik and Sven Väth's Cocoon imprints have made him a personal favorite of Richie Hawtin, Dj Sneak and Laurent Garnier amongst many others, which explains why we have been looking forward to his packs for quite some time.

Enough with the name-dropping. Obviously you want to know if this pack is a worthy contribution to your studio setup. Let's find out...

We road-tested this sample pack using Ableton Live 7, a digital drum machine, and a few soft synths for compatibility reasons. As is the case with all Loopmasters products, all sounds are divided in four main folders: Patches, Rex (Loops), Sounds & FX and Wav Loops. Each folder contains a set of sub folders dedicated to specific sounds such as kicks, drums, hi-hats etc. In total, that means nearly 900 MB of sample madness split into 1,200 samples, 220 loops, 990 single shot samples... and loads more.

Sounds & FX

This folder is one of the biggest in the pack and ranges from analogue synth sounds to chords, hats & shakers, kick drums and everything in between. The Analogue Synths and Bass sounds are divided into C & G keys and are extremely usable for adding short key stabs to your house productions, while the Kick drum section contains some of the crispiest punches we ever heard in a pack. But what really makes this section special is the huge amount of bass sounds, which comes with some of the best sounds we ever heard outside of any regular dedicated bass module. The Juno 106 bass sounds are incredibly warm and fit to you in pretty much any composition regardless of genre, while the 'regular' bass sounds will also come in handy when you want to add a bit of nastiness to your rhythms. In terms of basic rhythm parts, this section really stands out from the already high quality packs we heard from Loopmasters so far.

Wav Loops & Rex

Divided into Bass, Musical and Drum Loops, this collection of sounds (123-128 bpm) contains a myriad of sweet pre-manufactured loops to use as an extra in your productions. The Musical loops vary from trancey (in a very house kind of way) to minimal, with each of them sounding very basic to trigger your creativity. The Drum loops (tech-house alert!!) would be our pick of the bunch, but the others are honestly just as good.

Patches

The Patches department also houses a huge amount of loops to use in combination with EXS24, Halion, Kontakt, NNXT and SFZ. They're similar to the WAV loops, but load these babies into your sampler and a whole new world of creative opportunities will open before your very eyes.

Our verdict:

Top marks for this one! The ever reliable Loopmasters collective has managed to drop another massive collection of samples that will definitely be of great value to your music. The Sounds & FX section is among the biggest and most versatile we have come across in any of the Loopmasters products so far, with the Loops and Patches sounds completing a formidable sound library.

Rating: 8.3/10

Computer Music Review: Dom Kane Electro Tech

This pack covers the more commercial side of the genre, with Calvin Harris-esque chord stabs and Wolfgang Gartner-style synth riffs. The drum loops come with and without kicks and sound immediately ready for the floor, while the effects are as standard or as out-of-this-world as you need them to be. With a sweet 800MB of content, every mainroom electro producer should own this

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: Moombahton

Moombahton is a genre that's been championed by the bass-crazed likes of Diplo and Major Lazer, and this is a varied pack with the tempo circling around 115bpm. There's focus on calypso rhythms and percussion with an analogue approach, while the synth loops are monotonous and raw in tone. Fans of MIA and Diplo will cherish this pack (and it's price).

Verdict: 8/10

Loopmasters And Producertech Launch ReasonCourses.com

Reasoncourses.com is the latest joint venture from sample boutique Loopmasters and online music production academy Producertech LTD. It is a new website which features two online Reason video courses for beginners, intermediate and advanced level students, which has been designed and delivered by qualified trainer Rob Jones.

The concept of this new website is to allow students of all abilities and locations to login and study online whenever they choose, getting professional instruction and support as modules are delivered. If you want to get the most out of your Reason software suite and learn all the latest tips, tricks and workflow methods then this brand new online training course provides the perfect solution for you.

The course caters for those with the very latest version of Reason, as well as users of previous versions too, covering both the old and new formats and feature sets. Furthermore, with an included bonus tutorial that teaches the new effects in Reason 6, these are the first online courses of this nature to be 100% up to date.

Operations Director Tim Dawson states "The feedback we constantly receive is that students love learning through watching these videos at their own pace and in the comfort of their own home. Our courses are supported by course materials, notes and sessions which you download from our website as you progress. We are proud as a company to be a pioneer in online learning in the music industry".

The modular courses contain lessons of around 30 minutes each, with the 27 modules beginning at initial setup and audio/MIDI basics and introducing various advanced processing and mixing techniques, which culminate in the producing of a cutting edge remix. Students are supplied with comprehensive notes and Reason Sessions to work along to during each module, which are accessed via downloadable course packs that also features a huge collection of Reason-optimised samples and instrument presets from Loopmasters (worth over £50). Students also get access to a private online forum where they can chat together and talk directly with Rob and other students about the course and their progress.

Prospective students can download a free information pack from the site here: http://www.reasoncourses.com/info_packs/reason_infopack.pdf to find out more details, and can watch a free module from each course to judge the quality of content for themselves without any obligation to buy: http://www.reasoncourses.com/signup.asp

The price is £149/$230 for a single course, or just £225/$360 for both courses when purchased together.

SPECIAL OFFER

Get 20% off any course or combination at both Reasoncourses.com or sister sites Live-courses.com or Logic-courses.com with this special promo code: LM20

Future Music Review: Dom Kane Electro Tech

Dom Kane has nailed it here. Straddling both Pop House sounds with classic, Tech House, there's plenty to be had. The quality is top notch, especially in the ultra flexible drum loops that come with or without kicks and have separate folders of tasty extras. These include percussive top lines and cymbal work that can help inject a layer or groove or lift your beat at new points in the arrangement. The basslines are particularly cool, with Kane really showing off his programming skills and ear for a catchy riff. It's a great starter pack for anyone looking to create Dance music, plus the Drums and Bass samples will be a tempting cheat for experienced producers too.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: Prok And Fitch

The Brighton House duo serve up a righteous array of Funky House samples, with deep subs, percussive basslines, dry and processed vocals and all the elements you need for a commercial club banger. The brilliant thing here is that the samples are paired back enough to be extremely useful in many situations. Bass loops are sparse but thick in production and easily editable. Vocals are clean when needed and many of the drum loops are kick-free, adding more freedom in your own tracks. A killer feature of the pack is the folder called groovefillers, these small effects loops and noises give you those details that can inspire a whole new part in your arrangement. Leave it to the pros and they will deliver. It's Vengence House, without the guilt.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: Punx Soundcheck

It's the cross pollination of ideas that make for great inspiration with individual hits, multi-sampled instruments, patches and full blown loops. The loops themselves sound a little lack lustre, especially the drums, so in production you'll need to tweak. You're spending your for nice sound choices and off the wall rhythms here. The main pulses are interesting mixes of drum loops, the ripping bass sounds, multi sampled analogue synths and the mix of genres. Worth a look.

Verdict: 7/10

AltSounds.com Review: Tribal And Tech House by WA

Wave Alchemy's latest sample pack is Tribal and Tech House, described as "an exciting selection of tribal infused tech house rhythms and authentic percussive ensembles." For the sample library world this is a breath of fresh air as a lot of sample packs these days seem to be heavily drum and bass, dubstep and trance orientated.

This pack contains plenty of funky percussion sounds, kick loops and glitches with excellent effects. As with most sample packs the loops are arranged in categories, which are; groove assist and layering tools, mixed percussion and tribal, percussion loops, shakers and sticks, tech top loops and xtra bonus kick loops.

Groove assist and layering tools consists of tribal sound effects, glitches, percussion loops, vocal, crowd and chant samples to name a few. There are some really moody grooves that ooze a tribal feeling and the crowd sounds give the loops a full and exciting carnival feel. The raw percussion loops are an inspired feature of this pack. Being able to use unprocessed live percussion loops in a mix really brings it to life and gives it that live feeling which can so often be lost in electronic music. This sample pack has an undeniable organic feel and could really bring something new and fresh to enhance a mix.

The mixed percussion and tribal samples have some loops with African/Cuban style instrumentation and polyphonic rhythms that make you feel like you are in the middle of a carnival. With instruments such as bongos, congas, shakers, woodblocks, bells, djembes and the sabar (a west African drum), this pack is filled with hip-shaking grooves.

The tech top loops and xtra bonus kick loops is where the tech house really kicks in, the samples have a more electronic/house feel. They have professionally added effects and heavier processing to give them an edgier sound. In particular the xtra kicks are really well processed and have a really strong, clean kick beat. The mix of raw percussion, tribal sounds and tech loops adds to the diversity of this sample pack giving it originality.

All of the samples are well made and extremely high quality and this sample pack is a reasonable price of £27.95. You can listen to a demo track of tribal and tech house where you can hear the quality and originality of this pack, you can also download some free samples.

Samples.org Review: House Anthems

Finding house samples is difficult at the best of times, but finding clean, rhythmic, sexy, professionally mastered house samples is like trying to find a hooker at the vatican.

If you're looking for the best house samples, then look no further. I've found that hooker at the vatican. She goes by the name of House Anthems.

Sergei Hall and Keiron McTernan, otherwise known as My Digital Enemy, are smashing their way through the dance scene with their unique and original sound. Their productions receive global recognition and accreditation by the worlds biggest DJ's including Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold and Roger Sanchez...

... and now you can get a piece of their sound with their highly acclaimed House Anthems sample CD. The biggest, and best, house samples beyond compare. No house sample CD steps close to this one.

Featured on the CD is 2GB of symphonious samples that will catapult your productions to the forefront of the dance world. Some of the samples on the CD includes:

Bass Loops
House Drum Loops
Glitchy Percussions
Arpeggios
House Kicks and House Snares
Tech Noise
Electro Bleeps
Hook Construction Loops
Melodic Construction Kits
Piano Loops
Jaw Dropping Synth Loops
Vocal Loops
Gates and Side Chain FX
FX One Shots
FX Loops
Vocal shots

Being the biggest house sample CD on the market you can expect quality. Each sample is pre-mastered to a very high standard allowing you to use these samples straight out of the box!

Sample formats are available in the classic wave format, Reason 5 refill, Apple Loops and Ableton Live 7 loops.

As a side note, personally speaking, what I find really useful is if I layer 2 drum elements, such as a snare, add a bit of EQ, I have a totally new and unique sample! Which means with a bit of creative thought you're never going to need to purchase another house sample CD again.

EQTV.DJ review: Trevor Loveys - Deep In House

In 2000 Trevor Loveys met up with Dave Taylor and started working on various projects together, the most successful of which was to become the renowned Switch. This collaboration yielded some of the most distinctive house sounds of the decade, a sound which has been dissected and laid bare on the new Loopmasters sample pack.

As always, there really is a wide range of options for the user. With various sampler formats on offer - EXS24, HALION, KONTAKT, NNXT, SFZ and REX - you have a wealth of choices from which to control and effect each sample. And if you're a fan of Trevor's sound, you won't be disappointed as this includes all the elements from his past and present work. The package has been labelled Deep In House, but Trevor's take on deep is a bit different from what you might expect. He's a purveyor of bass music, and here he has created 12 different types of bass ranging from the classic pure house bass to the nastiest of saw-wave basses. These are available in one-shot formats and also in a range of keys. These bass sounds are then used to create various loops.

Bass is not the be all and end all though, as Trevor puts together a mean beat. These come at you as a one-shot or as part of a killer loop. The package is completed with some tripped-out, spacey FX, tight strings and various chord hits. A great all-rounder package which gives you all the singular parts needed to build a very solid track.

http://www.eqtv.dj

Future Music Review Trevor Loveys - Deep In House

Kick back and feel the quality. While some collections go “cheese-on” to be as nasty as possible, Trevor Lovey’s collection is as sweet as its name implies. This is like being playfully punched with a velvet boxing glove.

Funky smooth grooves and warm fat synth basslines rule here, with sweet synth stabs and lush electric Rhodes pads. Great ambient vocals and chords will fill your tracks and inspire classy new grooves, and even when the synths do cut loose they do it with sheer class. Just the job for getting a little old school Soul and Jazz into your club tracks. Recommended

Verdict: 9/10

BeatsAndBeyond.com Review: Santos

One of Loopmasters' most exciting sample packs for tech-house producers is the one made by seasoned producer Santos. Here's the full analysis.

Among the latest contributions to the Loopmasters sample treasury is this huge pack created by Italian producer Santos, known for having released over 400 (!) releases in the past ten years. And Santos knows just what the producer is looking for, as evidenced by his massive sample pack. Let's first go over some specs: the full download gets you no less that 1.4 GBs of sounds, which equals 600 samples divided in a wide number of categories. There's 330 loops between 115 and 126 bpm, 270 one shot samples recorded at 24Bit and 62 patches for Reason NNXT, Halion, EXS, SFZ and Kontakt compatible soft samplers. Enough to keep yourself in heavy studio lockdown for weeks to come.

Now, is it any good? Yessir. We ran an extensive test in Ableton and found ourselves nodding our head to a self-produced massively rocking rhythm within mere minutes (much to the hilarity of bypassers, and chagrin of the neighbors). And it's plain to see why: this sample pack delivers sheer quality sounds tailored for the production of house, tech-house and techno. We first dug through a serious heap of pre-made loops, of which the vast majority are top-of-the-bill chunks of floorflilling beat mania that will cater to any tech house fanatic out there. Just add a bit of EQing, a compressor and perhaps, oh I don't know, some delay and you've got yourself a kick-ass foundation for your track. Great stuff, but we're always more fond of constructing our very own rhythms, and this is where the gold-plated one-shot samples come in handy. Bass hits, drum hits, fx, synth hits and multi's, it's all there for the taking and God they're good. The drum hits folder comes with a massive amount of percussive hits that will really make your creative outings a whole lot punchier and richer. Some of the drum hits contain an underlying bass or after effect, which results in surprising twists when added to your soft sampler. Last up in the main folder category are the Wav Loops and again we have to say they're incredibly suitable for both copy and pasting as adjusting to meet your demands.

Our verdict:

While we've heard many great sample packs before, Santos' addition has become a refreshing, incredibly useful, envelope-pushing sample pack. The Loop part is astounding, but what really excited us where the awesome one-shot samples. Another great value for money product from Loopmasters, hands down.

8.5/10

Future Music Review: Jamie Anderson Vol 2

This pack is amazingly well produced but the loop content won't be for everyone. With a huge proportion garnered from Anderson's 909, it's very niche. Synth sounds are more fun with Anderson sampling up loads of hardware and delivering some gorgeous melodies and hooks. The most attractive feature about this sample set and the sampler patches, which deliver great sounds spread across your keyboard for either EXS24, HALion, Kontakt, NNXT, and SFZ formats.

The quality overall is extremely high but this is a very specifically tailored set of sounds, so might not be for you unless you're seeking that slightly retro touch.

Verdic: 8/10

Future Music Review: Tribal & Tech House by WA

Blending the bouncy sound of tribal percussion alongside jacking Techy basslines, this pack has plenty of good vibes to liven up your tracks with the classy percussion really useful, especially when chopped and used as percussion fills. A folder of what Loopmasters call "groove assist and layering tools" are also great for injecting that swing where needed, whether it be bass, vocal cuts or noisy side-chained percussion - it's all useful. This pack is not only extremely useful within its genre, but could be fractured up into many genres of four-to-the-floor dance. From Toolroom to Hed Kandi this is a great set.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: DJ Krust

Bristol is known for its bass-heavy approach, and DJ Krust is a legend on the scene. His pack is made up of 500mb of samples and with everything around 175bpm, it's ready for the floor. The musical loops are a bit thin, but the basslines are impressive and there are plenty of high quality one-shots. There's a lot of character here too, which sample packs don't always deliver on.

Verdict: 8/10

Music Tech Review: Reel People Vol. 4

The Reel People are back with Volume 4 of their hugely successful Broken Beat, Nu Jazz and Soul series on Loopmasters. Once again, Papa Records founder Oli Lazarus delves into his sample vaults for an eclectic collection of funk fuelled, Latino loops.

The pack is available in ACID WAV, Apple Loops, Rex2, Live Pack and Reason ReFill formats and contains619mb of 24-bit audio plus 28 sampler instrument patches for Kontakt, EXS24, HALion, NN-XT and SFZ.

Volume 4 in the series offers up much the same as the previous packs - namely, live drum and percussion loops, hits and FX, several one-shot riffs and multi-sampled instruments alongside a mixed bag of instrumental loops and phrases. The overall vibe is a mixture of deep, laid-back chords, with more upbeat, funk and carnival grooves played on acoustic and electric guitar and bass, flute, organ, piano, Rhodes, strings and synths. There's an incredibly loose, natural feel to every element here with expert performances throughout, and even the synth parts remaining unquantised. Although each instrument resides in its own folder, we occasionally found the layout to be a little random, as some have only a few short riffs and others have longer phrases . That said, there's plenty to inspire, and a mere sprinkling of these samples into any track would undoubtedly add plenty of life and energy. The individual hits are equally random, but again, there are some jewels tucked away, including a fantastic collection of percussion hits. Our favourite element, however, is the organic-sounding drum and percussion loops, which are broken down into their component parts for easy arrangement.

Although this is a great-sounding pack, some may feel a little restricted by the small number of certain instrumental loops on offer, and as such, we'd love to see all four packs combined to form the ultimate collection of deep Latin House samples. That aside, there are still plenty of beautifully recorded and played riffs and grooves here that could easily breathe a sense of live performance into your tracks.

VERDICT - 8/10

A good collection of well-played and recorded, energetic live riffs ready to breathe Latin life and soul into your house tracks.

DJ Mag Review: Dirty Dutch House

As ever tapping into the dominant dancefloor sounds of the moment, Loopmasters "Dirty Dutch House" aims to give the modern producer the sounds they need to be the next Sidney Samson or Afrojack - but does it succeed?

124 drum loops kick things off, ranging from straight up electro House to the more urban/Dancehall influenced vibe that's so hot right now. The standard is high, both in terms of programming and sonically, and the loops are backed up by a healthy selection of one sot samples. Next up, a decent range of fairly aggressive bass loops move your production forward, as well as some very interesting FX and chopped vocal loops that would happily suit other "deeper" dancefloor genres.

However, Dutch House is all about those distinctive, squealing synths and speaker busting leads. Included are well over a hundred inspirational loops ranging from those suitable for more traditional electro House, to extreme fidget-y pitch bends, heavily distorted dancehall-tinged stabs and epic side-chained pads drenched in reverb.

The verdict? Unlike some other sample packs dedicated to a particular sound or scene, Loopmasters definitely gets it right.

BeatsAndBeyond.com Review: Berkson And What

With releases on labels such as Crosstown Rebels, Hypercolour Dessous, and Poker Flat, Dan Berkson and James What are known the world over for bringing only the deepest in house grooves to the floors. In that sense, we're not surprised to see the duo delivering a batch of loops and samples that especially come in handy for constructing deep house with a bite. As a whole, the pack weighs in at nearly 1.2 GBs (equaling a whopping 628 samples in total) and is divided in a relatively wide number of categories such as Bass Loops, Drum Samples, Vocal Hits and Synth Loops, all in crisp clear 24 bit quality. Now, of course you want to know how all this sounds like. Does it have what it takes to add the magic touch to your productions? Let's find out...

Sounds & FX

Let's take a look at the Sound & FX folder first. In here, we find a huge collection of bass, drums, synths, vocals and much more, all sounding very fresh and credible. The Bass folder includes a rather varied collection of Juno, MiniMoog and SE1 Studio Electronics bass samples to support your rhythms with, and little to no tweaking is needed to make that groove go deep. Just add a few percussion elements from the highly usable Drum Hits folder (watch out for the 808 and Jomox bass drums, hits and cymbals, they're hot and incredibly usable) and off you go.

Apart from the 'usual' elements, this pack also offers a selection of less common sounds that will definitely turn heads. We're talking about the FX and Noise Textures folders that each contain a set of elements that may sound a bit obscure at first, although they immediately reveal their magic when adding them to your sequencer. The FX folder holds a wide number of reverb sounds that'll add an powerful cosmic/psychedelic/druggy touch to your tunes (indeed, essential for deep house), while the Noise Textures folder is a wonderful source to turn to for ambient/experimental productions.

But perhaps the biggest strength of the pack as a whole are the synth sounds. Again, all sounds are divided into categories, but they all have one thing in common: they sound amazingly analog. Every single one of these samples sound incredibly powerful and some tweaking and editing here and there will be rewarded with a highly original sound that forms a killer addition to your tracks. A very valuable set of samples for the producer who isn't afraid to throw in an unexpected twist in his creations.

Loops

This sample pack includes a wide range of ready for use loops, including a set of 'full' (rx2) loops that you just need to drag and drop into your sequencer. Looking for a fast way to create a groove that will destroy the floor? Just use one of these premade rhythms, add some bass and synths here and there and Bob's your uncle. The WAV loops folder offers a batch of bass, synth, and full beat loops among others, and we must say we're especially impressed by the set of high quality Rhodes organs that sound, melodically funky, soulful and jazzy.

Patches

Included in the pack are countless patches to be used in the most common soft samplers. Check below for details.

Our verdict:

Berkson & What's Deep Electronic House sample pack is a great addition to your studio if you're looking for high quality samples to use in your (deep) house, techno, and minimal productions. For under a lousy GBP 35, you get a massive bundle chug-full of quality sounds that'll make you lock yourself up in your studio for days.

Rating: 8.0/10

BeatsAndBeyond.com Review: Alex Niggemann's House Pack

German DJ/producer Alex Niggemann's addition to the Loopmasters Sample Pack range is one budding house music producers will love...

Now this sample pack is one sweet deal. For under 30 bucks, you get 883 mb of sounds. That's 497 24 Bit samples, with 287 Loops between 115-126 Bpm, and 192 one Shot House Samples. Also included are 59 patches for Reason NNXt, Halion, EXS, SFZ and Kontakt soft samplers. Ableton Live Pack, Reason Refill and Apple Loops versions are also available to purchase separately.? In detail this supreme House sample collection contains 47 Dance Floor Ready Bass Loops, 32 Clubbed Up Drum Loops, 97 Inspirational Music Loops and Melodies, 53 Add on Percussive Loops, 52 Top Loops, 7 Vocal Loops, 115 Single House Drum One Shot Samples, 26 Dance FX, 34 Instrument One Shots, 10 Bass Single Shots and 6 Vocal FX . Right, so far for the specs, now let's find out how all this actually sounds.

We tested this pack in Ableton Live 7 and used a third-party soft sampler on the side. The thing that surprised us first was the incredibly crisp clear sound of the samples. Ever spent hours leveling the basics of your bass? Those days are over, as this pack offers a collection of one shot samples for instant use. The instruments and FX are top-of-the-bill too, but what really makes this pack stand out from the crowd are its amazing set of loops. There's almost 300 of 'em right here, all of which sound solid. Just drag'em into your productions, throw in the EQs, add some fx and off you go.

Our verdict:

Alex Niggemann's sample pack is a must-have collection for dance producers who aren't afraid of using pre-made loops into their productions. The separate, one-shot samples are really great, but the loops in this pack take the grand prize. Available now.

Rating: 8.0/10

Megamind Magazine Review: Alex Niggemann - "I Call It House"

This is a very solid pack of samples from a leading light in the current dance scene and will no doubt feature on many future dance floor smashes. Whether you make Chicago, Deep, Tech or Mainroom styles of Dance music - Alex Niggemann Calls it HOUSE!

Alex’s productions enjoy a solid reputation, and it was no surprise to see him being positioned in Resident Advisor's "Top 20 Charted Artists" ahead of DJ's such as Loco Dice, Joris Voorn or Ben Klock. Alex Niggemann launched his Soulfooled label together with Marc Poppcke and Oliver Fritsche from Superlounge in spring. The label has already signed a number of famous international artists including Audiofly, Till von Seine Phonique and David Durango. Soulfooled artists represent a cross-section of electronic styles ranging from Deep House and Techhouse, to old school disciplines like Detroit and Chicago House.

Niggemann's bookings have taken him around the world, his production 'Trippin' was released in October on Tsuba, and most recently he joined Steve Bug’s Poker Flat label with the 3 track "Lately EP". This year Niggemann continues his hectic schedule and will be headed for foreign shores with forthcoming tour schedules that take him to Europe, Brazil and North America.

Alex Niggeman "I Call it House!" sample pack from Loopmasters weighs in at a hefty 883MB and includes 497 24 Bit samples, with 287 Loops between 115-126 Bpm, and 192 one Shot House Samples. Also included are 59 patches for Reason NNXt, Halion, EXS, SFZ and Kontakt soft samplers. Ableton Live Pack, Reason Refill and Apple Loops versions are also available to purchase separately. In detail this supreme House sample collection contains 47 Dance Floor Ready Bass Loops, 32 Clubbed Up Drum Loops, 97 Inspirational Music Loops and Melodies, 53 Add on Percussive Loops, 52 Top Loops, 7 Vocal Loops, 115 Single House Drum One Shot Samples, 26 Dance FX, 34 Instrument One Shots, 10 Bass Single Shots and 6 Vocal FX .

iDJ Review: Jon Cutler Deep And Soulful US House

Jon Cutler has managed to produce quite the sizable sample pack. Everything is included in here, as you get drum loops, percussive loops, music loops, and bass loops. The drum loops range from downtempo shuffles through to jacking head-bouncers, and there’s heaps to choose from. The percussive loops also sound great and are extremely well produced, though sadly there aren’t as many of them to choose from. The bass and music loops are what you'd expect from a deep house pack. You can enjoy smooth pads, sharp chords and funk-laced basslines that have all been given the Jon Cutler touch.

iDJ Review: DJ Mixtools 16 - Mix FX

Sample packs don't always have to be about production. They can also be used as tools for performance, either in a live set-up or in a DJ'ing environment, and many of the DJ'ing software now support one-shot samples and loops. This suits Mixtools 16 down to the ground, as the pack contains tons of build ups, one-shots and noise loops aimed at adding more textures to your performance. Laptop DJ'ing is well and truly established in dance music culture now, and with the Mixtools series, Loopmasters have embraced this. If you're looking to add a little more texture to your DJ sets, then this is an ideal way to do so - and it won't even break the bank

iDJ Review: Justin Robertson - Disco Tech

Generally when you open up a sample pack with the word 'disco' in it's title, you're bombarded with the leftovers of a John Travolta tribute night. You get cheesy string samples and ridiculous basslines that leave a sickening taste in your mouth. Thankfully, what Justin Robertson has produced here is far from that, as quite frankly this sample pack is the nuts. What you get here is a fantastic collection of laidback musical grooves and loose drums. Nothing is done in an over the top manner: it's all very tasteful yet extremely enjoyable. This pack really is worth checking out, whether you're into disco or not.

Pro-Tone Review: Tech House Styles

Construction-kit based sample packs became more and more appreciated by producers, since they may offer well selected drum-, melody- and fx-kits saving the trouble of looking for matching sounds. Today we're gonna take a look at Loopmasters Tech House Styles, obviously taking care of the Tech House genre inclding popular styles like Detroit and Progressive.

Overview

550 MB deliver two main kinds of samples - construction kit loops(apple loops, rex2 & wav) and single sounds, which containing:

100 single drumsounds
20 synth stabs
20 chords

The construction kits are devided into 5 subgenres:

Tech House
Tribal Tech House
Progressive Tech House
Detroit Tech House
Minimal Tech House

Each kit contains 10-30 loops, amongst them several variations of the same basic loop, and demo loops showing the kit's potential. Root key information is included in the file name.

Summary

All in all the sample pack offers a nice allround supply with fresh sample material, although we would've liked MIDI files for the attached bass-, synth- and chordloops next to one shots of the samples used for the loops. Nevertheless, overall sound quality is top-notch, very punchy and professionally engineered. Most importantly, the caterogy fits each construction kit well and is quite characteristic for that genre.

Future Music Review: Alex Niggemann Gets 10/10

Yes! We call this House too. There's so much variety and quality in this pack that we'd say it's possible to put together a track in practically any modern Electronic style using the ammo onboard. There's ethnic loops, old skool Synth Pop and some great classic Ravey Pianos and hits alongside all the hard, deep dancefloor staples that today's tracks require. Quality throughout is superb and every sound feels hand picked to sit in the compilation despite its all encompassing mindset. It's deep, it's mainroom, it's one of the most powerful and useful sample packs you can buy right now. Thoroughly recommended.

Verdict: 10/10

Future Music Review: BOMB SQUAD With Full Marks!

Just stunning. No messing. No cheese. This is all about the beat - and not just individual hits and loops but huge, track filling soundscapes of glitch hits, crunchy Hip Hop stolen snatches and amazing, unrepeatable and unplaceable percussive synths and effect atmospheres. Sometimes African, sometimes Urban but all the while dangerously cutting edge and ripe for experimentation. It's huge, genre-crossing compilation and just because this was put together by the genius that is Hank Shocklee (of Bomb Squad and Public Enemy fame) should you assume this is purely Hip Hop. The sounds at play here could equally drive Dubstep or even give a glistening top loop to Minimal House. Not too sure about the slightly daft folder naming protocol (samples being grouped in terms of 'Sniper Weapons' 'Anti Tank Weapons' 'Traumatic Weapons' and more) but the net result is a veritable army of fresh 2012-ready beats. Can't wait to deploy this lot in our next manoeuvres. Ten-shun!

Verdict: 10/10

Computer Music Review: Tribal Progressive 1

This is all about progressive deep house paired with tribal rhythms and textures. It's the same high quality we're used to from SOR maestro Oliver Schmidt, and it's open ended nature means any electronic genre should benefit from this bulging pack. The price might reel in only the most dedicated progressive experimenters, though.

Verdict: 8/10

Computer Music Review: DubFX Sample Pack

Beatboxer and mouth musician DubFX, turns his, er, tongue to the world of sample packs. As well as the expected drum sounds, there are vocal stabs (think James Brown-esque yelps and yeahs) and melodies. Out of the 325 samples, the most useful are the drum hits - all are good for adding air and snap to your beats, and the snares are especially impressive. It's niche, but if you must have beatboxing, this is as good as you'll find.

Verdict: 8/10

Wusik Review: Syncussion Drums

Last issue I reviewed Wave Alchemy's Drum Machine Collection and gave it a good review. For this month it's Syncussion Drums - a collection of drum hit samples from (you guessed it) the classic analog Pearl Syncussion SY-1 drum synthesizer. The SY-1 is not just your typical classic drum machine but a rare beast that offers a wide variety of sounds. This soundware version is a 320 MB download with 24-bit resolution that includes 1885 samples of the 1979 Pearl instrument. Recording the SY-1 was a laborious task as Wave Alchemy had to capture the true sonic characteristic of the original unit. What I love about Wave Alchemy is that they seem to have an affection for classic, rare and odd bits of pieces of gear. Employed during the sampling session were plenty of great analogue outboard gear and high-end preamp hardware. Not only that, some of the sounds were re-sampled using an E-mu SP-12 for that lo-fi goodness and some one-shots were recorded through a Studer A0 mk1 tape machine to impart a 'warm and analog' sound. The result is a sample pack that is one of a kind. There are tons of great samples here that many producers can use over and over again.

Music Tech Review: S:amplify Patchworx

Loopmasters recently started the Patchworx series for preset packs created by named producers and artists for popular synths. This month's offering is the snappily titled Drum and Bass and Dubstep - NI Massive Presets, created by S:amplify.

The pack includes a range of bass, lead, pads, general synth and FX patches for Native Instruments’ Massive synth. Although lead bass noises seem to be the main focus here, they also span both the bass and lead preset categories.

MIDI files are also included as a demonstration of each preset, but we found that we preferred to interact with each patch ourselves via a MIDI controller as we flicked through them.

There are some strong sounds in the collection and extremely varied styles, all, generally, with a cutting edge to them. The macro controls have been utilised well, offering large sonic changes with little effort, so you’ll get plenty of mileage out of them. The other advantage of this is the ability to create easy call-and-answer sounds from one instance of Massive and automation of the macro dials.

The other styles of presets are equally interesting to use but small in number. One thing we did feel wasn’t covered was sub-bass, of which we found only one preset for.

Overall, this provides a lot of mid and high bass sounds that you can use as they are or as starting points for your own manipulation.

MTM VERDICT: 8/10

Plenty of dirty bass sounds to use straightaway or as starting points for your own creations.

Music Tech Review: Syncussion Drums by Wave Alchemy

Despite the seemingly infinite popularity of Roland’s 808 and 909 drum machines, many producers are starting to look further afield for more obscure analogue drum sounds to give their tracks a little more edge. Master of the electronic drum hit, Wave Alchemy, has taken this onboard, and it’s latest samples library is a collection of 1,885 24-bit drum hits that have been created using a rare Pearl Syncussion SY1.

The unit was originally manufactured in 1979 and features a set of raw-sounding oscillators that can be used to craft a wide variety of electronic drum sounds, which is exactly what Wave Alchemy has done. Not only will you find beefy analogue kick drums, but also a massive array of glitch hats, blips, percussion, toms and crazy SFX, plus several multi-sampled sounds that can be played up and down the keyboard. Although the sample hits are all laid out in the individual instrument folders, there are also 60 sampler patches with a selection of pre-made kits in Kontakt, Battery, Maschine, NN-XT, HALion, EXS24, SFZ and Ableton Live Pack formats. This is a nice addition that allows you to play beats directly into your tracks, although you’ll probably want to compile several of your own drum kits.

These raw sounds on their own are good, but the Wave Alchemy team has taken things much further with the inclusion of additional processed kicks, layered kicks, round – robin hits with subtle differences, hat and percussion sounds given the lo-fi treatment via an EMU SP12 sampler. On top of that you get an alternative set of the whole lot sent through a Studer A80 MK1 tape machine. These extra processed samples have been subtly saturated through analogue tape to give them a slightly thicker sound – although some may find the differences hard to hear, they offer up more choice when selecting hits for your track. This is an excellent value pack that has a surprising amount of variety given that it all comes from one machine. If you’re writing and form of electronic music and are tiring of the same old drum sounds, this library is definitely worth a look.

MTM VERDICT – Raw and punchy electronic drum sounds with a surprising amount of variety and plenty of subtle variations in processing.

Ibiza-Voice.com Takes A Peek At Inland Knights' Sample Pack

Groove Armada's Tom Findlay calls them 'part of the fabric of the British house scene', and we've certainly seen them weave their way through a few club nights in our time. Yes, I Voice catches up with long-time UK housers Inland Knights (Andrew Riley and Laurence Ritchie) to reveal what's going down their 'production hole' in 2011.

Andy and Laurence hooked up in the early 90s and by the late 90s they were creating their own tunes. Since then, the duo has seen their profile (and aliases) grow together with productions and remixes for labels like 20:20 Vision, NRK, Siesta Music and Om. In the late 90s they also started their own label, Drop Music, which is still going strong with a new album called House Bound (by various different artists) due out this August. Plus the guys have recently released a bunch of samples, entitled Deep Dub Tech House (which does what it says on the tin) via Loopmasters.

Of course, for many their music speaks for itself. But naturally we wanted to know more about how it's made. So find out what the guys had to say when we asked them to join us Down The Production Hole...

First can you tell us something about your frames of reference/what you think makes for a high quality electronic sound recording?

Laurence: The important things are you ears, then the room your in and then the monitors. Expensive monitors are a waste of time if your studio room isn't acoustically treated and your ears are tired. It's always good to reference other music you like and know well, for referencing. Strangely that's something we never used to do as our old studio had such a bad sound we couldn't hear records properly. But over time we actually got used to the room acoustics and could produce an OK sound in it. I always leave my masters at -6b with plenty of headroom for professional mastering. It's standard... But these days I find no one seems to know or bother and they just ram their music through tracks and similar. Which is OK on a budget but not great for your music.

Andy: Well I think the best way to get a good production sound is to start with high quality sounds in the first place. For instance using a synth sound from source instead of trying to lift it off an old record is going to make your life easier when it comes to production. We spent years trying to make pretty dirty samples sound good because all we had was an Akai S-3000 and a record collection. Now it's getting a bit easier with ready to go sample packs, etc. Having the samples is one thing, being creative with them is something else! We also tend to reference another recording in the studio, something we know sounds good when we've played it out.

What's your current music production set-up like?

Mac powering Logic Pro
Focusrite Saffire sound card
TL Audio Fat Track tube desk
Prophet 08
Juno-106
Moog Little Fatty Stage II
Focal Twin 6 monitors
Original Yamaha NBS10s
Focusrite Liquid Mix
TL Audio valve compressor
Alesis Micron
Akai S-3000 x 2
Yamaha 02R desk
Waldorf Pulse
Korg MS2000
Some outboard equipment (Valve EQ+Compression)
TC Finalizer
JBL monitoring with Mackie sub

What is/are your most essential tool/s of the trade within that set-up?

Laurence: I love the Focal monitors and Prophet 08 synth. Logic is a pain in the ass but it's what I know and, well, I guess it makes you work harder to get certain grooves by hand. I think other platforms kind of do it more for you and they sound more generic. The Prophet 08 is a really great synth! - lots of versatile sounds.

Andy: I would say I've got pretty used to the TC Finalizer; it's basically used for mastering and multiband compression. It's a very nice piece of kit. Ours is the 48K version. Also, I'm using Spectrasonics Stylus RMX a lot because it's really quick and easy to import REX files into and before you know it you've got your loops instantly in time and easily editable - great for time saving.

Can you reveal a secret about your production technique/s?

Laurence: I start with a bunch of loops and get about 12 tracks going over 8 bars, then I manually start to chop them all down until you start to get your own groove going while doing a bunch of EQing and effecting.

Do you have a general top tip for budding producers?

Laurence: Get the room treated for acoustics, bass traps and so on. There are tonnes of videos on YouTube to help. Also, try and re-sit your mix at a really low level on the monitors and you will notice any levels that are out of place.

Andy: I would say buy a good quality pair of monitors, and make sure your room is how you would like it acoustically. That is the solid foundation from which all other things can come! We struggled with a room that wasn't ideal and with mediocre monitors for a long time. It was a constant exercise in learning which part of the room to stand in to hear a certain frequency! All the plug-ins in the world won't make up for the fact that you can't hear stuff correctly in the first place.

Finally, what's your take on the future of electronic music production?

Laurence: The playing field will just get bigger and fairer and worse and better for everyone. If the last four years is anything to go by, it's going to be all about easily and quickly consuming samples - and cheaply making music that's very disposable and drowned out by large amounts of content on the download sites. It will become much harder to sell your music and have success, while it becomes easier and cheaper to produce the music in the first place. I personally don't like plug-ins; I like to plug things in. But that's because I come from desks and wires and such from when I started out in the mid-90s. I try to embrace both things equally. I feel the future is more about music being done in the one box and on your smart phone.

Andy: I'm guessing that there will be ever more powerful tools available at ever-cheaper prices. Making it ever easier for the bedroom producer to create something that has a 'big studio' sheen to it.

Interview With Berkson & What

Hi Dan and James, how are you? What have you been up to, been playing any gigs or festivals lately?

We're good, thanks. This week we're just finishing up the music and SFX for a game which has been really fun. We've been a bit more studio focused as of late, but we're going to Zurich next weekend to play a Live show together.

What do you get your influences from? Is there other creative outlets that inspire you, instead of just music?

I guess everything you do has to influence you in some way. Living in London there are so many creative things going on that can inspire. I'm not going to start talking rubbish about how we read philosophy and use the concepts to shape our techno records... You try to live an interesting life and hope that things rub off on your music..

How did you get into music production? I read somewhere that James, you attended the London SAE, I have a few friends that have attended SAE and loved it, how did you find it?

We both studied music pretty seriously before we got into production. Yes, James went to SAE here in London which seemed like a good experience. I think when you study music production you have to be ready to invest a lot of time and you really end up learning most things from experimenting on your own. You can get some good tips etc but really you need to work it out for yourself. Especially when it comes to making electronic music.

You both came from overseas to move to London, why was this? Were the music scenes not quite cutting it in America and France?

I was living in Boston and spending much of my time keyboards in bands. Slowly my interests were turning towards electronic music and I decided to take a risk and come to London to study production and just get involved in thing here. James grew up in the South of France so the progression to come to a bigger city like London was natural.

When you're not playing what clubs do you like to attend in London?

There are so many good things going on in London. Fabric is always a great club to go to, but generally it's the more underground warehouse parties that thrive in London. Secret Sundaze, half baked, Lokee, Electric Minds, Toi Toi... these are all good friends throwing great parties.

Tell us about your live show, what equipment do you use?

For our live show we both have laptops running Ableton Live. I generally use a Moog Voyager and James has a Vermona DRM-1 drum machine (303 clone) and various controllers. Over the years it's really changed a lot and now we tend to scale back the gear a bit depending on the situation. (5 years of travelling around the world with my moog was enough). We're really able to improvise constantly during our set and adapt depending on the situation.

When in the studio what does your equipment consist of? And if there was one piece of gear you could have, regardless of the price or how rare it may be, that you want?

In my studio I have an old Soundcraft 6000 desk, lots of old synths (Minimoog, SH101, Jupiter4, Juno60, MKS-80, Fender Rhodes), some drum machines (808, 909, 999, cr78, cr8000), FX units (space echoes, PCM70, Bel BD80) and various bits and pieces.

I'm pretty happy with my equipment, but if someone could arrange for it all to be working properly at the same time I'd be happy with that!

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this compared to writing a track?

This process was quite fun actually. We treated it as a way to kind of organise our sounds and sample up a lot of our gear in a way that would be helpful for other people, and also for us. It's completely different from writing a track, couldn't really compare the two.

Do you have any news you would like to share with our readers, any releases, big shows etc?

We both recently released solo EPs on Crosstown Rebels, and James has a new release coming soon on PokerFlat. James What - It Feels Wrong - Poker Flat (august 2011) w/ Lee Curtiss remix. We're also going to be doing a special new live set at Panorama Bar in Berlin in October.

Do you have any advice for budding music producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive music industry?

Don't get so obsessed over needing new gear! The same goes for hardware and software. You're much better off becoming a master of a few things than a novice at many. Some people are still making amazing music with an Atari and an Akai S3000!

OhDratDigital Review: BOMB SQUAD

Straight out the gate, we'd like to register both an eye roll and protracted groan at the unashamed play on Call of Duty weaved throughout Tactical Beats and Sample Artillery. Thankfully, the actual contents of this Hank Shocklee devised sample pack is more original.

Nothing if not generous, Tactical Beats comes in at 1.4GB of 24bit audio, comprised of drums, percussion, bass, pads and SFX. The sounds themselves are divided into weaponry analogising categories, from the bread and butter 'Assault Weapons' and the one shots of 'Sniper Weapons' to the sub bass hits in 'Submachine Weapons' and more. Somewhat unsurprisingly given the warfare theme, the sounds are all bold, brash, synthetic and very effects laden. The single hit drums are the undoubted standout of the pack, almost every single one instantly usable (although there are some duplicates, or at least so equivalent they may as well be). Kicks are distorted and layered with subs, percussion is twisted beyond recognition, snares are filtered and pushed through spring reverbs, and everything is compressed to within an inch of its life for super quick attacks and extreme loudness.

The sub bass sounds are also fairly good, if arguably somewhat redundant to anyone with a half decent soft synth - there's also an issue with quite a few of the sounds having rhythmic amp or filter envelopes added to them, something we're not keen on for raw materials. The pads are long and suitably terrifying, from atonal dronescapes to bells and hints of fragile beauty; sensibly there are only a relatively small selection of pads so as not to risk sounding samey.

The jaw dropping amount of loop content is commendable, if slightly over egged. Many loops have six or seven variants, which bumps up the total size of the pack considerably: at its best this practice is a great inspiration source for building loops up, at its worst it harks to those lazy days of 'eJay'-esque drag and drop.

Entirely software sourced (with the exception of the UAD DSP plugins), Tactical Beats and Sample Artillery doesn't really deliver much genuinely unique material - but that's not to say that it's not expertly compiled and executed - by legendary producer Hank Shocklee, no less - with every sound having care and attention taken to its frequency range, punch and loudness. As a go to folder for quick access to hard, aggressive sounds Tactical Beats is a worthy purchase.

Interview With Alex Niggemann

Hi Alex, how are you? What have you been up to over the last couple of weeks? Any big gigs, festivals?

I'm fine, thanks. Still a lot to do, which is mostly a good sign. Traveling and playing a lot. Just came back from Ibiza, where I played Sunday at Space. Was a great great night!

How did you get into Music Production? Did you attend a Music Tech Uni course or are you self taught?

I did the first steps on my own. I got into it by first being a dj, although I wasn't really given a chance in my hometown. At that time I was 16 yet I knew I'd only make it if and when I started producing. As I was always trying to express myself through music, electronic music gave me a new and bright way to do it. I started increasing my technical knowledge and when I finished school I then had the chance to do full time studies. That education definitely was the missing piece, which helped me to make my music sound better in a much more technical way. I was always good at composing, but at some point you only get better, when you have the technical background.

What music were you listening to when growing up, or have you always been into House?

Well, the first record I bought was Armand van Helden's "the Funk Phenomenon". So in a way my musical taste has it's origin there. But as I was style-writing, doin breakdance as a young teenager, Hip-Hop/Rap was my first love. I got into EDM again when I was 15, while accidently visiting my first techno party.

I read recently that you are now living in Berlin. How are you finding the city? Do you manage to get out and go to many club nights when you're not DJ'ing yourself? If so, any recommendations for us that have yet to visit Berlin?

Honestly, when I have a free weekend, I prefer to stay at home, reading, watching a movie and relaxing, as I have parties usually every weekend and sometimes during the week. While playing sometimes it's pretty hard, because for my friends those weekends are the only possibility to catch up with me. They are usually the ones going out for parties!

I think everybody has heard a lot about Berlin. It's a fantastic city, with young citizens and a mixed culture. Berlin in summer is like Latin American countries. Life happens on the streets. Most parties are Open-Airs and free of charge. The city is still living and growing.

For sure I shouldn't forget to say, that Berghain/Panorama Bar, Watergate etc. are still the hot spots. Always love to go there when I can.

How do you find playing in Germany over other countries in the world, are audiences responses very different? And do you have any particular shows that stand out?

To be honest Germany is a pretty hard country to deal with and play. There are only a few spots and cities, where it really makes sense to play. Fee's are pretty low and new clubs aren't really able to make a success, its tough. You can only live, when booking the big 5 and therefor this is what most clubs do. Especially in western Germany. So it's hard for new dj's to get a name out there. I think this is very different to other countries like Spain, Italy, France, Romania etc.

I'm really happy that I have a few clubs where I play constantly in Hamburg, berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf.

About the audience there's a lot to say. In every different country you can compare this to their culture. People in South-America definitely party more enthusiastic than in Europe. But Europe is more focused on the music itself. People are more critical yet i love the contrast of both. Fabric, Space, Berghain or Watergate are best places to play.

You've recently set up your own record label Soulfooled. How is that going? Any releases coming out?

It's doin great thanks. It getting more and more know and people are hearing many of our releases, as we are also doing a lot of worldwide showcases We have just released a remix EP of the most successful tracks from 2010 and following that is another Double-A side, a release that has already huge support.

You have also just released a sample pack with Loopmasters, how did you find creating a sample pack? How did you approach it, as opposed to writing a track?

Honestly, it's tough work. It doesn't really mean fun, but im really happy with the finished collection, really proud. I mean, I know how I started producing. I was using sample packs created by big artists. It's a big things to learn from and essential in gaining the skills I mentioned earlier. Right now, I wanted to give something back, that people can use - my sound.

What does your studio equipment consist of? And if there was one piece of gear you could have, regardless of the price or how rare it may be, that you want?

I think a very important thing is the room you are producing in and the monitoring. I just built a new studio with a room in room construction. As monitors I'm using 2 different pairs of speakers. I have 2 Klein+Hummel o300 and a pair of Yamaha NS10's. I switch between them during the production progress with a Novation Mainstation. I'm also using an Akai MBK for playing and controlling as well as a KORG Triton LE. All this is connected through a RME Fireface to my Quad Core Mac Pro. As Sequencer I only use Apple Logic Studio 9 with a lot of quality AU Plugins like Waves, SONOX, Sonalksis, Native Instruments, Aturia etc. For recordings I'm using several condensator or dynamic microphones like MD421, SM52 or TLM102. It depends on what I need to record. I'm also really happy, that I have my old Steinway piano in my studio right now.

Something that id love it's a big 48track SSL consol, to mix my tracks with. There are no better filters and compressors in the world than the ones that mixer has!

Do you have any news you would like to share with our readers, gigs, and releases coming out?

There's a remixed EP on Soulfooled out now, with great contributions by Fritz Zander, Salvatore Freda and Roberto Rodriguez. My Poker Flat release "Lately" just been releases and its, working pretty well. There will be a new Supernature EP and a contribution to the next "forward to the past" compilation from Poker Flat in late summer. Look out for a remix on Get Physical as well as a remix for Silicon Soul for their 20th anniversary pack. Most importantly though, I shall be continuing to work on my album.

Gig-wise Ibiza madness has started! :) I'll be playing at Space again. Another US-, South-and Central America tour as well as gigs in Asia.

Busy!

Do you have any advice for budding music producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive music industry?

Be and stay yourself, try to do your own thing and don't listen too much to people telling you what is best for you. You will only get happy, if you find your own way

Wusik Review: Designer Dance FX

It's rare to find a good sample pack containing a wide variety of FX for build-ups and breakdowns. Fortunately, Designer Dance FX is here to serve up some perfectly processed sounds for all you dance lovers and enthusiasts out there. Included are lots of cutting edge elements and sweeteners such as impacts, bleeps, rises, drones, echoes, gated sonics, transitional tones and uplifters. Designer Dance FX is crafted using some state-of-the-art equipment such as Eventide H8000 and TC System 6000 and is produced by Marc Adamo, who is also the man in-charge for Loopmasters' Minimal Undeground Techno series pack.

This 1.4 GB, 24-bit library is definitely engineered with a fashionable dance genre in mind. What's good about the 600 samples themselves is that they are ready-to-play and quality is good enough to augment various mixes without further processing. DDFX is a cool way to spice up your dance tracks.

Wusik Review: House Builds And Breakdowns

Case in point: You've been working on a dance track forever. You gave it your best and finally come to decision that it is finished. But there's something missing. It lacks that edge to lift the crowd up and give your tracks the climaxes it needs. No need to worry, House Builds and Breakdowns is here. This collection boosts a healthy dose of unique loops and samples such as special FX, melodies, tonal flourishes and rhythm loops.

The loops are in the 126-128 BPM range, 2-64 bar in length, and are offered in pristine 24-bit format. This pack is broken down into different folders of FX, Tonal and Rhythmic. FX consists of big hits, drop ends, noise and cymbal rolls. The Tonal section has some tasty melody loops and a couple of vox loops. The Rhythmic folder offers noise gate and chain loops, rhythmic build loops and more. All in all there are 385 files in WAV format and 20 MIDI files. No doubt these loops will help add a definitive edge to your productions or give jolt to your listeners

Wusik Review: Drum Machine Collection by Wave Alchemy

This enormous bundle from Wave Alchemy contains two libraries rolled into one, the Drum Machines 01 and 02, combined to give you savings of £11 if bought individually. This includes several of Wave Alchemy popular 'Micro Packs' such as Airbase Drums, Deep Drums, Electrik Drums, 808 Drums, 909 Drums and Drum Fire. There are over 3500 samples in this collection, from classic drum machines sources like the TR-808, TR-909, MFB Schlagzwerg, EMU SP-12, SP1200, Drumfire DF-2000, Jomox AIRbase 99, Jomox XBase 999, Jomox MBase 11 and Vermona DRM Mk 11.

All samples were expertly crafted from the ground up. They were recorded with great detail and processed through high-end hardware units such as the API 512c, the Empirical Labs Fatso & Distressor, the SSL EQ, the Cranesong Hedd, the Sherman Filterbank and the Thermionic Culture Vulture. The results are some of the fattest, analogue drum hits I've heard. They are clear, crisp and punchy. The quality is superb and with its price you'd be crazy not to get this as part of your drum library arsenal.

Future Music Review: Utku S. - Electro House Producer

A highly eclectic and unusual set of loops and hits. While obviously 'Electro' in intention there's more than a little Tribal and Ethnic going on here, adding an exotic flavour to the more straight-laced face of European House. Tunes take on a shuffling, percussion-lead flavour with these loops, which while highly technical rely on conventional physical percussion alongside the more familiar and riotous synth elements. That said there are literally hundreds of snatched synth bursts and Ravey 5th megachords that'll blow your ironic moustache clean off. And watch out for some stunning, buzzing bass sounds. Ouch!

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: DubFX - Vocal Beats, Bass And FX

Dub FX is a genius. The master of the loop pedal beatboxes, raps and sings like no other artist and this collection is an ideal way to get amazing sounding vocal work into dry and drab instrumentals. Anyone who was knocked out/baffled by the choral work on the last Kanye would be well advised to give this a shot. The range of textures here crosses borders from Ethnic to Classic, Urban to Mainstream, Ambient and Chill to Hip Hop and R'n'B. If you want beatboxing, there kicks, snares and percussion loops aplenty but it's the chord beds, distant ethnic chants and supercomplex Gregorian harmony that we envisage cropping up on a million New Age tracks in progress.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: 6Blocc - Dubstep Ammo

There's no mistaking the intention behind this bargain-priced set of samples. Vocal riffs and hits give countless variations on 'DJ!' 'Bassline!' and 'Rudebwoy!' while the synth work does its best to scare the living bejesus out of you. There's mega basslines and a wealth of dirty chords to string together in a selection that's more 'useful toolkit' than 'genre expanding progress'. Indeed, some of the lead synths sound a little squeaky and 'music for schools and colleges' at times and there's plenty of cross-genre pollination here as Electro riffs jostle with material that's straight up D'nB. That said the single drum hits are both plentiful and expertly produced, giving plenty of variation while remaining band on the genre money. Indeed, a quick dip into the 'Boom n Sweep' folder produces an amazing grab bag of (literally) explosive spot effects that will turn any wayward WIP into instant word perfect Hard Steppa. "Ere dis!"

Interview With My Digital Enemy

Hi guys, how is everything going? Any releases, or big shows coming up?

Our third release on Steath records has just been released on Beatport. It's the ‘Dirty Brass EP' and has had some pretty amazing feedback. We have three more releases lined up with Stealth this year. We are in talks with Stealth Live about DJing at their events in Ibiza, London & Amsterdam over the summer months.

I have read that you're from Brighton. How do you find the music scene in Brighton? Do you get down to the sea front clubs much?

There are some really good nights in Brighton. Our favourite is Prok & Fitch's night Floorplay which has now moved to a new venue called Digital which is right on the front. The night life in Brighton is legendary. There is always something going on and no shortage of parties especially through the summer months.

How do you find playing in the UK compared to abroad, do the crowds differ?

Crowds differ everywhere but it doesn't matter where you are if the crowd are really up for it! We have had amazing nights all over the globe but it is always nice playing back home.

How did you individually get into music production, and then meet and decide to work together?

We have worked together on various projects since we were at college. We both got into production at the same time and have stuck together since. We have had our ups and downs music-wise but are still as passionate about it as when we first started!

What are your favourite pieces of studio equipment, and what does your studio consist of?

We have three sets of Monitors. KRK VXT8's, KRK VXT4's & Mackie HR814's. The KRK's are probably my favourite. The 4's for nearfield monitoring and the 8's for midfield. We have a custom built (by us) overclocked watercooled PC running Cubase 5 with a massive amount of plugins. We use a MOTU soundcard and have a Powercore unit which has some really good effects on it. We always use the MX5 for mastering and the Virus is cool for leads. Other favourites are Trilogy & Trilian for basses & Massive for phat synth lines. Our Outboard gear consists of a Trilogy keyboard, Novation Nova, TL Audio C1 Compressor, Korg Prophecy and a selection of Mics for recording.

Having produced remixes for some large names, such as Beyonce, Groove Armada and The Qemists, do you prefer writing original productions or remixing?

I like both but given the choice writing original tracks wins hands down. Its much more satisfying creating something from scratch.

You recently created a sample pack for us here at Loopmasters, we often get feedback from artists saying it's a really different process to writing music. How did you find it?

Creating the elements for it was not a problem at all. It was really very enjoyable. Organising everything was the hard part. Now we've done one I know how it all works making more wont be anywhere near as challenging. In fact I have already taken ideas for two more to the loopmaster guys and am working on them as we speak! We have put eight new royalty free samples up on our facebook page as a free download. Head over to www.facebook.com/mydigitalenemyofficial and click on the Free Downloads tab to get them.

Were you worried about producers having access to your 'sound' and the possibility of others sounding like you?

A little bit at first, but by the end I got a bit carried away and was throwing in ideas that we were planning to use ourselves. I had it in my head that we might as well make it as good as possible. When we came to make the demo track we were on the verge of pulling some of the samples from the pack to make the demos into full tracks. In the end we decide to grit our teeth and bear it. It going to be interesting to see what tracks are made with them!

You've collaborated with artists such as Prok & Fitch and Carl Hanaghan. Do you have any more collaborating scheduled for the future?

We have new collaboration with Carl Hanaghan coming out on Stealth in the near future. We are also back in the studio with Prok & Fitch towards the end of the month and have just done a session with Jason Chance which went really well.

Do you have any advice for young producers trying to break through in the competitive world of the music industry?

Work at it and don't give up. If you have success work even harder to sustain it.

Computer Music Review: Sy & Unknown - Essential Hardcore

Hardcore veterans Sy & Unknown bring us this stomping 956MB pack of hits and loops. It's comprehensive, with everything from male and female vocals, scratches and strings, to pads, classic breaks and full ‘ardcore beats. The tempo is manic, the basslines heavy and the beats relentless. It's all done to the highest standard, offering a solid foundation for any hardcore track.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Complex Indian Rhythms

Let me say straight off the bat that I love “other” time signatures, anything outside of the 4/4 and I’m interested. I also have a soft-spot for Indian percussion. So when Loopmasters teamed up with KV Bala Krishnan to record 16 construction kits covering tempos from 80-130BPM and 5,6 and 7 time signatures, clearly I was going to sniff it out.

Each kit comes with loops of various instruments such as Tabla, Urumi, Nagara, Bass Dholak (it’s all percussion remember) and then mixed versions. In short it’s a one-stop shop for interesting rhythms and grooves that will spice up any House or Electronica track with exotic percussion.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: Swedish House

"Swedish House draws influence from the chart topping sounds of the Swedish House Mafia", ie this is not an official package (despite that worryingly authentic packaging). So how does it fare? Well, there's an enourmous" vocal percussion" section that we're slightly confused by and some spoken dialogue that we’re a little bit embarrassed by, but things rapidly pick up with the synth effects. There's masses of detuned stabs, hits and some brilliant track-ready swooshes and elevators. The kicks are huge, middy punches in the face and the complete loops are entire packs in themselves. It's a bit silly. It's very niche but - by the Norse gods - this strikes the general nail with Thor’s mighty hammer!

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Fracture - Cosmic Drum & Bass

A collection of massively original atmospheres and hits that while aimed at the more experimental end of the DnB world would equally be at home making Dubstep. There’s some almost Kraftwerk-style synths, and countless ringing, ambient, atmospheres just ripe for chopping and glitching up. Drum hits are a well-recorded bunch, the accent being on capturing real sounds well, rather than mangling for mangling’s sake, but they’re very much a token set next to the synth and effects work elsewhere. Original and arresting.

Verdict: 7/10

Loopmasters Ride 1000 Miles For Water Aid

Between June 28 and July 9th 2011, Matt Pelling, Director of Loopmasters, has decided to take on the UK End to End challenge, or JOGLE as its known (John O Groats to Lands End) - with only his ipod and bike for company.

The ride which will see him travel 1000 miles in around 10 days is to raise money for Water Aid, a charity who dedicate their operations to providing safe and sanitized water to the world’s most impoverished communities.

Loopmasters are sponsoring the ride and providing him with some of the equipment needed to complete the challenge and all proceeds from charitable donations will be going directly to the charity itself which claims that for £15 a year it can supply someone with all the water they need to survive.

When asked about the ride he commented:
"Although I’m really no cyclist, I hope this is a challenge which I hope is within my capabilities, but nevertheless I know there will be some moments when I would love to jump in a car and go home! I’m looking forward to seeing this beautiful country under my own steam. And when it's over I'm hoping that I can be proud to have helped people less fortunate than myself in other countries who deserve the most basic of life's necessities"

Matt is hoping that some of Loopmasters customers and friends will find a small amount to make a donation to the cause which can be made at www.justgiving.com/mattp2011. Matt has also said that any Loopmasters customers who make a donation and email the receipt to him at matt [at] loopmasters.com will receive an exclusive and 100% unreleased 200+Mb sample pack link when he gets back at the end of July.

So what are you waiting for guys - do something to help those less fortunate than yourself AND get a free exclusive and unreleased sample pack into the bargain!!

We will keep you updated on Matts progress over the next couple of weeks - and wish him all the best.

http://www.wateraid.org
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what_we_do/statistics/default.asp

New On The Blog: Compression Pt. 3 And MIDI Learn

Compression Basics – Getting Under The Hood pt.3

Hey guys, here’s part 3 of our post on making sense of the settings on a standard compressor. If you missed the first two posts read them first: Part 1 | Part 2

MIDI Learn In Logic 9

Here’s a great little video which shows you just how easy it is to setup your midi controllers to control your plugin synth’s, effects and anything assignable within Logic.

New On The Blog: Granular FX and Compression Pt. 2

How To Make Special Effects With FL Studio’s Fruity Granulizer
Turning your samples into something completely twisted is easy with Fruity Granulizer. Fruity Granulizer is a plugin that utilizes the granular synthesis technology.

Compression Basics – Getting Under The Hood pt.2
We left off last time by looking at the main function of a compressor and how you can modify that function with the Threshold and Ratio settings. This time around we’ll look at another couple ways you can modify a compressor’s main function – via the Knee settings and Attack.

LoopTV Fresh: Monitor Test And Synth Compression

Sound Monitoring Explained | Part 1 of 4
LoopTV brings you this first part of forepart taken from the DSP Projects recent series looking into the science behind your studio monitors

Ableton Live | Compression For Synths | Danny J. Lewis
LoopTV bring you this fifth and final Point Blank Online video from their new ‘Mixing Dance Music With Ableton’ course. In this tutorial Danny explains how to use the compression FX unit to level off synth stabs and add presence to a mix.

Public Records: Chiller Twist "Pearl" Video

Chiller Twist - "Pearl"Video

The more we listen to it, the more proud we are of the fantastic selection on “Late Night Logic” and it’s becoming clear from the feedback sheets that we aren’t the only ones who are enjoying this release.

One of the artists, Chiller Twist, has put together a great video which really captures the vibe of his track “Pearl”. Have a look and get lost in someplace else!

Pro|Tone Review: SOR's Abstract & Weird

Abstract & Weird is a specialty you might need some experience for. Listen carefully to trance productions of guys like Sean Tyas or explore some harder stuff of the progressive electro genre: there they are, those special sounds, weird, not really percussion, not very obvious, but they all do one thing: making a track unique and groovy. Until now we couldn’t find any similar sample collection to this one, which makes sense: as mentioned before, these kind of samples do need some producer experience and creativity to handle – otherwise they’re just some non-fitting musical elements. You need to work on them, maybe add a huge amount of high quality reverb and others… in other words, once again: you need creativity. If you think you’re ready for that, you might be the happiest person ever with this perfectly handcrafted sample pack.

Verdict: 10/10

Pro|Tone Review: SOR's Clicks And Glitches

Clicks & Glitches is a really lovely package to work with: all those extremely groovy, special click sounds are provided as basic loops, meaning that you don’t get perfectly grooving loops but truly inspiring material to work with: everything inside a loop is perfectly processed, but you have to work on most of the loops to make them fit into your track – which isn’t of any disadvantage at all! “Clicks&Glitches” makes you instantly cut, copy and rearrange the loops – at least it inspired our creativity from the very first moment. For every fan of electro house and progressive, for sure also other genres, there’s no better collection of these kind of sounds.

New On The Blog: Hank Shocklee Release Coming Up

Hank Shocklee Artist Series Sample Pack
Loopmasters are proud to announce that we’ve joined up with Hank Shocklee of the legendary Bomb Squad and we’ll be adding him to our ever growing list of talent to the Artist Series very soon!

Music Tech Review: French Electro House

With a new Justice album on the way, it seems fitting that the new pack from Loopmasters focuses on the heavily distorted French electro sound. Accordingly, up-and-coming star UtkuS has compiled a massive collection of distorted synths, throbbing bass lines and glitched-out beats, with a healthy dose of groove and programming swagger.

The pack contains around 1.3GB of 24-bit audio in ACID WAV and REX formats, plus instruments for ESX24, Kontakt, NN-XT, HALion and SFZ. If you require Apple Loops, Live Pack or ReFill formats, then an alternative download is available.

The 580 loops are spread across the main folders of bass, drums and music loops at 122-130 BPM, plus additional folders of glitch, side-chain FX and top percussive loops.

If you're familiar with the output of labels such as Ed Banger and the artist SeastiAn, then you’ll have an idea of what to expect: heavy, driving house beats with glitch percussive elements and edits, fat sounding analogue bass lines that have been shredded through distortion pedals, and brash, side-chained synth chords pumping away on top.

There's not a lot of subtlety here, but the production is excellent throughout, with inventive riffs, wild pitch bends and an overly processed yet somehow pleasing sound. We can only imagine the array of distortion pedals that were used in the making of this pack, but each loop has a raw, "outside the box" quality and liveliness to it that helps to make it stand out in the mix. As an aid to arrangement, several of the bass lines and drum loops have variations, so you can drop in different versions or splice several riffs together.

Although the loops are the focus of the pack, you’ll also find a concise collection of heavily processed drum hits and synth bass patches, and some inventive sweeps and rising effects. The overall sound of French Electro House is pretty in-your-face, with some quite full-sounding glitch drums and occasionally harsh sounding distortion, so it won’t appeal to everyone. However, for fans of the genre, there are plenty of superb bass and drum loops, plus original, inspiring production.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: Reggae Soundclash

Canadian dub wiz Dubmatix brings his experience to the table. It’s no pastiche, though; this is as modern as it gets, and with 475 loops at between 60 and 180 BPM, it’s suitable for a wide range of genres. What makes the pack so appealing is it’s authenticity – you can even hear the breaths between notes on the horn samples. Classic sounds with a modern edge.

Verdict: 9/10

DJ Weekly Review: IG Culture Breakbeats & Electronica

IG Culture is one of broken beat’s most famous pioneers. Beginning his musical career in rap, he became drawn to the broken beat scene by its syncopated rhythms and freedom of expression. Culture’s productions are unique in that they play on the offbeat style of the genre while also utilizing influences from other musical styles.

The sample library contains 490 24-bit samples and 347 one-shots. There are also 88 ready-to-play sampler patches, so you can create your own versions of the sounds provided within the pack. Within the sounds you will find off-beat breaks, smooth pads, subby basses, expressive chords, syncopated stabs and a full arsenal of one-shot drums.

For producers of broken beat, breaks, dubstep and hip-hop, IG Culture provides an insight into his own creative studio techniques and allows a first ever look at what has made him so influential throughout two decades in music.

Verdict: 9/10

Kutski: A Review Of Organ Donors - Future Hard Dance

The Organ Donors have been leaders in the harder sounds of dance music for the past 15 years, but their current revolution in production has left everyone from hard dance to trance in awe of their tracks sheer unquestionable quality! This latest sound set will no doubt open doors to a whole new generation of producers, and even a new cross genre platform! This certainly has become the first port of call for all my remixes, re-edits, and bootlegs!

Verdict: 5/5

Mixmag Review: Organ Donors - Future Hard Dance

The Organ Donors, with their unique sound, are one of the leading exponents of the huge tech dance scene, so it is quite fitting that Loopmasters should ask them to distil that vibe into an exclusive sample pack! What you get is a really comprehensive, 1 GB snapshot of their current style with all the usual bases covered. What sets this pack apart from others out there is the feeling that every single variation has had real effort spent on it – every part of this pack has been designed with modern Hard Dance in mind and has enough scope to be of interest to producers of any forward-thinking dance music. This pack is most definitely worth a purchase for anyone looking to give their productions a cutting edge.

Verdict: 5/5

Wusik Review: Clicks & Glitches

Well, this is something different. I have never reviewed a "micro pack" before and this is the first, though certainly not the last. This pack lives up to my expectations, with some pretty useable esoteric loops that can add a littl 'extra' to your compositions. It's primarily geared for minimal techno but other electronic music producers an benefit from this as well. All loops are recorded in the standard 127 BPM and are offered in different formats such as 24-bit WAVs, REX, Apple AIFF loops, plus EXS24 and Kontakt 4 patches. Clicks and Glitches Vol. 1 comprises 100 loops (107 MB) that can also serve as top loops for drum mixes lacking that certain charm. A hundred loop library and for only 10.92 Euros (plus Tax/VAT).. . You can't go wrong with this.

Wusik Review: Minimal Underground Techno V. 2

When I reviewed Minimal Techno Underground a few issues back I was wishing there was a second installment because it was a fantastic pack. Little did I know there was more and that Marc Adamo and Loopmasters were only warming up. Minimal Underground Techno Vol. 2 picks up where volume one left off and this time it's guaranteed to inspire many producers. This pack caters to producers who are passionate about making Techno, House or Dubstep music. All major formats are supported and with 700+MB of24-bit resolution it contains inspiring loops that enable you to create your own banging tunes in no time at all. There are solid drum loops, synths loops, vox cut loops, risers and falls, impacts and individual percussion loops to boot. What I really like about this pack is that it represents the genre well. The samples are very well recorded, you can expect to have some very usable content.

Wusik Review: Future Garage

Here we have 500MB of content providing over 200 WAV loops, 135 REX files in 44.1kHz/24-bit format. Future Garage is inspired by the sounds of producers like Burial, 2562 and Martyn with usability in a whole host of genres such as UK Garage, Dubstep, Detroit and Dub-Techno. Tempos range from 132 to 138 BPM, and you get all manner of swung beats, shuffling hats, floor-smashing 4x4 and 2-step rhythms. Some sci-fi atmospherics, gorgeous pads, sweeps and SFX are also thrown in for good measure. As always, Push Button Bang pushes the envelope with their releases and this collection is exceptionally well produced and recored. I wish there were more loops in this collection but for the price it would be silly not to get it.

Wusik Review: India Surprise

From the get-go you know that India Surprise has a lot to offer. First of all, this specialized Ethnic/World DVD-ROM is full of traditional Indian samples and rhythms ready to be explored. Secondly, it includes a whooping 1500-plus files of percussion (tabla, dholak, partha, drum, etc.), stringed instruments (sitar, santoor, etc.), wind instruments (bamboo flutes), voices (singing, reading and mouth tabla), and a slew of sound effects. Thirdly, not only is this library in 44.1kHz/16-bit, but also in 96kHz/24-bit sample rate format - a real rarity amongst sample libraries. India Surprise also supports virtual instruments such as Native Instruments' Kontakt and Battery, with some of the instruments being pre-mapped.

Literally, India Surprise took me by surprise in terms of content. The high quality and the authenticity of the recordings also surpassed my expectations. I love the inclusion of "mouth tabla" which I think is great for augmenting Hip-Hop tracks. But to me, this library wins in the "sitar" department with some really tasty and inspiring performances. Nice packaging and cover art as well.

Wusik Review: Alien Robot Vox

A 354 MB collection of vocoded loops from Loopmasters, Alien Robot Vox is one fun sample pack to audition and to use in any electronic genre music. Split into categories such as Vocoded Loops, Android, Robot Talk, Cosmic Bot loops, One Shots, Vocoded Drum and Synths, Alien Robot Vox from Loopmasters focuses on loops that emulate the sounds and style of Kraftwerk, Daft Punk and Air. This collection includes over 250 loops in Acidized WAV and 210 REX files that were recorded in tempos between 90 and 126BPM. A separate Apple Loops pack is also available for purchase.

The selection of vocoded voices are well presented here but this sample pack also covers some nice vocoded drums and synth lines, which to me are very useful as fills or additional parts for any section of a song. You can always make DIY vocoded loops with the right source audio and vocoder effect plug-in but for quick and easy vocoded effects, phrases and sounds Alien Robot Vox is a good alternative.

New On The Blog: Organize Your Plugins, Flex Edit In Logic

Plugin Organization In Ableton Live

With the plethora of free and paid plugins currently available on the market, chances are that you already have access to a few of them. It might get intimidating trying to organize these plugins in a logical and understandable structure in your hard drive. Ableton Live has some nice organizational features that can make your life easier.

Working With Markers - Flex Editing In Logic

Flex editing in Logic Pro allows you to manipulate audio tempo and rhythm data by compressing or expanding the waveform. This is done with the use of flex markers. In this quick tip I will explain all about creating, manipulating and editing with flex markers.

Public Records: House EP Voting Stage Has Started!

The voting stage for the House EP has now opened, and we’ll be running that for the next couple of weeks. We’ve already chosen 3 quality tracks for the EP so we’ll be selecting one or two of our favourites from the current shortlisted tracks on the site in the very near future. Head over the the voting page and have a listed and let us know what you think!

Public Records Voting Page

LoopTV Fresh: Fred Everything, touchAble And Wobble Bass

DJ Fred Everything | Deep Analogue House | Studio Tour

LoopTV present this behind the scenes look at DJ Fred Everything's studio hideaway in San Francisco! Fred shows us round his enviable collection of hardware vintage synths and processors, which were used in the making of his latest Deep Analogue House sample pack for Loopmasters.

Ableton Live Controller | touchAble 1.2 Update | iPad App

The fantastic touchAble Ableton Touch controller app developed for iPad by programmer Christian Blomert, in partnership with French producer Sylvain "Le K" Garcia is an all-in-one Ableton controller with plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

Ableton Live 8 | Wobble Bass Compression Tips | Danny J Lewis

LoopTV bring you this second video Point Blank Online from their new 'Mixing Dance Music With Ableton' course, which gives some tips for brightening and controlling a wobble bass line in Ableton Live, using compression, EQ and Ableton freeze functions.

Wusik Review: Tribal Percussion by 5Pin Media

5Pin Media shakes the earth with this enormous collection of percussion loops aimed for tribal house, afrobeat, cinematic and electronica. This is a digital download product and you get 1.9GB of percussion loops, construction kit loops, MIDI loops, REX fies and one-shots. There are also 144 percussion shots available as a bonus. As with other 5Pin Media products it includes multisampled instruments for use in NNXT, Kontakt 3, Battery 3 and Live Sampler formats. Included are a massive range of percussion loops - 3 sizes of Djembe with Kesseng, Cajon, Congas, Bongos, Mandal, Berimbau, Caxixi shakers, Juju shakers, Shekeres, Guiro, Claves, Triangle, Tambourine, Agogo, Rain Stick and some custom instruments thrown in for good measure. How does it sound you ask? This extensive collection boasts some great live-sounding loops. A perfect addition to your quantized drum mixes.

Loopmasters Introduce New Series: Patchworx

As the world of music production grows and its tools diversify Loopmasters have entered new grounds to help producers with that we deliver best - top quality audioware.

Patchworx from Loopmasters is a new concept which presents fresh and exclusive collections of hand crafted patches for the most popular soft synths, direct from the studios of our best producers and artist contacts. Each title includes 64 custom made patches and also comes with 64 ready to edit MIDI files from the packs creators.

We launch the series with two very strong entries from expert producers: Jody Wisternoff's set of patches for Sylenth, catered for the Tech House-oriented producer/DJ and S:amplify Drum & Bass And Dubstep presets for Native Instruments' Massive Synth. Want to know what to expect? Check out the demo tracks on the produt pages

Public Records Announcement: Sine EP Out Now, Promo Campaign For PR03

"Sines EP" Out Now At Bandcamp

Our first Dubstep release, the “Sines EP” is out now and available exclusively at our Bandcamp shop. For those of you who like a bit of wobble in your bass, head on over to the shop to hear what we’ve been cooking.

Promo Campaign For PR03 Launched

We’ve launched a promo campaign for Late Night Logic with our partners at Ahead PR – this will get the release in front of tastemakers, press, radio and club djs around the world and we’ll be getting feedback from DJs who download the promo release.

New On The Blog: Cubase 6, Hank Shocklee And Ableton Sampler

Extracting MIDI From Audio
Here’s a great tutorial on how to extract MIDI data from audio in Cubase 6.

Hank Shocklee Joins Forces With Loopmasters
Loopmasters are proud to announce that we’ve joined up with Hank Shocklee of the legendary Bomb Squad and we’ll be adding him to our ever growing list of talent to the Artist Series very soon!

Tutorial Video On Ableton Sampler
Hey Ableton fans, here’s a great introduction video on Ableton’s Sampler and how to use its many features.

LoopTV Fresh:

Artist Clinic | Using Bass Layers In Logic Studio | DJ Fracture - Part 2

In light of DJ Fracture's brand new Drum & Bass sample pack due out on release through Loopmasters, Charlie Fracture takes time to show us round the new pack, with this exclusive 'Artist Clinic' and give us an insight to his sound design process.

Ableton Live | Sidechain Tips | Danny J Lewis

LoopTV bring you an exclusive selection of Ableton Live training videos for dance music production, which form part of their new 'Mixing Dance Music With Ableton' course launched in April 2011. This first video gives some handy tips for side chaining audio, without hearing the side chain key audio.

Rekkerd.org Review: The Jungle Drummer

When it comes to good drum breaks there is nothing like the real thing. This is especially true for jungle & drum and bass, and related genres. Many producers still use classic breaks samples, but there are also some great drummers around who deliver similar breaks with a fresh approach.

Chris Polglase aka the Jungle Drummer is one of those drummers. Over a period of ten years he has worked with a number of established acts including Coldcut, A Guy Called Gerald, DJ Craze, Scratch Perverts, and live drum and bass act London Elektricity.

With Jungle Drummer – Live Urban Drums Chris shares his experience and expertise, allowing you to incorporate that live drummer vibe into your own productions.

While jungle and drum & bass breaks make up the larger part of the content, this sample library is not limited to these genres. Also included are dozens of breaks in dubstep and hip hop styles, broken beats, skippy breaks and even some house top loops.

Here’s the content breakdown:

1.16 GB, 24-bit audio quality
301 jungle and dnb breaks
59 dubstep breaks
47 funk and broken breaks
34 skippy breaks
92 hip hop breaks
34 house top loops
132 drum hits + 12 patches for Kontakt, HALion, EXS24, NN-XT and SFZ.

The samples are categorized in folders by style (as listed above) and the loops have the tempo indicated in the file name.

The first folder I checked was the dubstep one, which includes a selection of breaks in 135 and 140 bpm. And I must say these loops surprised me. Right from the first few samples there is quite a lot of processing in these sounds. Things like putting copious amounts of reverb on the first or second snare hit, use of gate effects, etc. There’s a wealth of creative rhythms in this section, and they sound perfect for the genre.

Next up are the funk and broken break beats. While I have no grief with the beats themselves I am not taken with the sound of the high pitched snare in many of the loops. Of course this is a matter of personal taste, and it’s actually not really the sound itself but in these beats – which sounds very tight, the snare may just have a bit too much emphasis for me. Or, I guess these breaks are just not my cup of tea all together because in the next section – garage and skippy breaks, there is a fair amount of loops with the same type of snare sound and it doesn’t bother me at all... Go figure.

Turning the tempo down a notch to 90 bpm for the hip hop beats we get a lovely laidback vibe that feels like it’s right in Chris’ comfort zone. Lots of funky head bobbing goodness and great variation in sounds and rhythms.

The house top loops are another interesting set of samples. The 4/4 content here is higher than in any other section of Live Urban Drums, but these are not your standard “house” top loops. Processed with equalizer and filter effects these will blend well with your existing beat or drum part. Good addition to the sample pack.

Now, not to knock the sample sections I just mentioned, but… where’s the beef? Well of course it’s in the Jungle and Drum'n'Bass folder!

Over 300 amazing breaks in 8 folders: 3 pitched snares jungle, d&b breaks, dub one remix, jungle breaks, millitant jungle, rolling jungle, stepping jungle, and tribal jungle. Listening to these loops my head starts filling up with ideas for bass lines, stabs, pads, etc. The breaks are excellent for tunes in my favorite drum and bass genres, drumfunk and choppage. Inspirational, well performed, and ditto production.

Besides a total of 567 loops Live Urban Drums also includes 132 individual one shot drum samples, which I presume are from the same drum kits used in the recording of the loops. With these sounds you can create even more variations to the loops or program your own beats from scratch. The sampler patches include 8 preset drum kits.

So what do I think?

One of the things I particularly noticed with Live Urban Drums is the sound quality. The recordings actually don’t sound all that hi-fi, which at first may feel like something is wrong.

I couldn’t find any information on the recording process, equipment used, or vision behind the sample pack but I think it must have been a deliberate choice to record and process the samples to sound the way they do. Why? Because it produces that distinct vintage live touch that producers are often after when using breaks. I realized getting this sound right is in fact something I often struggle with when using “hi-fi” samples. It’s refreshing to see Live Urban Drums takes a different approach in this area.

In short this sample library offers an abundance of excellent drum loops and samples that should certainly appeal to drum and bass producers, and it may also be worth checking out if you produce music in other urban genres.

Like: raw live drums vibe, great rhythms, single shot sounds
Don’t like: –

Verdict: 9/10

Interview With Fred Everything

What’s new in the world of Fred Everything at the moment, any releases coming up?

Lots... Just released my 5 years of Lazy Days mix compilation. I also have a new music coming out on Urban Torque, Buzzin Fly and Lazy Days as well as remixes for AtJazz, Matthias Vogt, Pezzner and Audio Soul Project. And let's not forget my Sample pack for Loopmasters!

You've released with OM Records, who are regarded as one of the world’s largest independent record labels. How did you hook up with them?

They started out by licensing some of my music for their compilation, hiring for to do remixes and playing for their various residencies worldwide. After that came the mix cds, the original EPs and Albums. It surely has been a long journey!

You also run your own label, Lazy Days. How is that going? Any new signings for 2011 or releases from yourself?

It's going great, thank you! We just celebrated the 5 years with a Sampler which featured remixes from the catalog by Crazy P, Greg Wilson, Art Of Tones and Ian Pooley. We have a healthy schedule ahead with artists such as Kruse & Nuernberg, Lance DeSardi, Atnarko, Pezzner, Shur-I-Kan and myself.

What is it like running a label in 2011, is there a huge difference in how you approach the marketing of your releases from when the label was founded in 2005?

I started the label when things were already slowing down. Funnily enough, our first release sold 4000 copies on vinyl only and was licensed to a dozen compilations. Nowadays, numbers have shrunk but overall, the label is gaining momentum and popularity. It's just about finding ways to make it work rather than complaining about it.

Let's take it back to where you started. How did you get into Music Production? What was your first piece of kit?

I started messing around equipment when I was a kid. First it was recorders and tape edits as well as banging on my mom's kitchen drums (true story!). When I was a teenager, my friend gave me a mattel drum machine and I was making acid house with a Korg Poly 800, syncing the both of them the best as I could. I also formed a few bands and we had and AKAI AX-60 as well as an Emulator 2 and a bunch of other synths.

Now, what five pieces of studio equipment, or software would you say determines your sound?

I used to think that equipment define your sound but not so much anymore. I can get the same result using pretty much anything. For me, equipment has become more like grown up toys. I love the way they feel and the fact that they can take me to unexpected places sonically.

Here are a few essentials :

MOOG Voyager
Dave Smith Instrument Prophet 08
Roland SH-09
MPC 3000
UAD2 Card (loaded with plugins)

Being an in demand DJ, do you prefer playing to the crowds or being cooped up in the studio making the music?

I love both of them and I wouldn't want to be ask to choose. There's nothing like creating a new song from scratch but playing it in front of a crowd is where it's at!

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this compared to creating musical productions?

I always wanted to do a sample pack and Loopmasters was my first choice. I had actually prepared a Blueprint before I got approached by Loopmasters but I ended up working on the whole project a lot more than I thought I would. A lot of work went into this and I hope It's gonna be useful for people. My goal was to create tools rather than already "chewed-up" material.

When you made your pack, were you worried that producers were going to be sampling, or trying to recreate your sound?

It did occur to me when I was making certain hooks that I could see myself use in my own production but it's the nature of the beast and I'm looking forward to hear what people make of them!

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

Be yourself and be humble.

New On The Blog: OhmForce Giveaway, 6 Frequencies And Chris Alexander Interview

Free Samplepack In Cooperation With OhmForce

We keep going with our wish to regularly provide some quality free stuff to our Facebook likers...

This time we joined with our buddies from OhmForce to provide (FOR FREE!) an exclusive 260Mb audio pack, filled of top-quality loops ready to inspire our next productions. Click the link above to go directly to download the Samplepack!

6 Different Frequencies You Should Know About

As producers we love to know how other producers EQed a certain vocal or drum sound to get that tight punch or shimmering highs so prominent in a mix. When you’ve mastered the EQ spectrum and you know where to go when you need to fix or embellish something, you are definitely ahead of the game.

Interview - Chris Alexander / Full Range Mastering

Loopmasters caught up with one of dance music's mastering pros Chris Alexander from Full Range Mastering and put forward a few questions on his take on mastering in the digital age – here's what he had to say…

Public Records: Late Night Logic Out Now, New Site Features

PR03 - Late Night Logic Now Available On Bandcamp!

We are very excited to announce that Late Night Logic, our third release for Public Records is now available on Bandcamp! This is our first, of hopefully many Downtempo, Trip-Hop releases introducing some new artists to the Public Records roster. Click here to access the Late Night Logic page on Bandcamp directly.

Site New Features & Improvements

Hey all, just a quick update to let you know that we’ve made a few small site improvements on May 12th. Check out what new has been implemented!

LoopTV Fresh: Bass Layers With Fracture, Remixing With Logic 9

Artist Clinic | Using Bass Layers In Logic Studio | DJ Fracture

Apple Logic Pro 9 | Remixing Tips | Danny J Lewis

Watch here as tutor Danny J Lewis (Defected, Enzyme Black) takes us through his approach to track mixing, sculpting EQ, and automation settings, to enhance your remix sounds.

Future Music Review: French Electro House

As brilliantly stern as you'd ever possibly hope. There's plenty of super-dry, super wide snares and kick drums that sound like bombs going off in your brain. There are the usual suspects – massive distorted leads and fuzz but some nice surprise additions in the shape of heavy Rock guitar chords and some sweet plucked and slapped electric basses. Love the spooky effect beds and swoops and when teamed with the beats you can get a track that'll rock your socks off within minutes. Of course, we like a bit of depth to our libraries and while the loops are insta-funk fun, the single hits give lasting appeal and a chance to put your own stamp on the genre.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Abstraction 05

If you're looking for a quirky collection of brand new Tribal and Ethnic House drum hits and loops then this is the place for you. There are hundreds of single hits that sound like someone has taken sticks and hammers to an entire homeware shop. There are metal twangs, warm ethnic thuds and pops and –in loop form - some incredibly complex and funky mashes of everything (quite probably) a kitchen sink. The overall focus is on top-end Funk and wiggle so bring your own floor-rocking bass but it’s impossible not to be moved the classy, clean new world vibe these loops will give your sun-kissed House experiments.

Future Music Review: ASC Experimental Drum And Bass

Massive originality warning. Most of the time when you see the DnB flag flying over a sample collection you can expect a gig of Pendulum outtakes and last decade's Junglist knock offs. Not so - this brilliant sounding 'experimental' selection of atmospheres and loops give the genre a rather more interesting and delicate outlook. The whole collection sounds super-pristine. Bottom ends are warm and fuzzy but it's the top loops and sweet digital chords and long reverb domes that really sing out. Use the collection entirely by itself or team it with your favourite hard stepping drums and breaks for a soaring, lemon fresh new take on the grit and grime you'll find elsewhere.

Verdict: 9/10

New On The Blog: Chords, Oscilators, Filters And More

Lock Your Chords To Your Groove

It’s easy to lock some piano chords to a drum beat or groove of your choice by using a few simple tricks. We’ll make a simple beat, paint in some piano chords and then lock them together so they groove together by side-chaining.

Understanding The Role Of Filters In A Synthesizer

Check out this video that looks at the importance of filters within a synth and how they shape the sounds.

Understanding The Role Of Oscillators In A Synthesizer

Over the weekend we posted a tutorial on synthesizer LFO’s, If you missed that click here. Keeping with the theme here’s a great video tutorial which explains the role of a synthesizer's oscillator

Creating A Bassline Like Sebastian Leger's Remix Of Format:B Dogtag

Many of you enjoyed the post where we showed you how to create Sebastien Leger delays in Ableton Live 8. Today we are going to look at how to create a bass line like the one he has in his infamous remix of Format:B 'Dog Tags'

LoopTV Fresh: Interview With Tim Debney Pt. 3 And Repairing Audio

Interview With Tim Debney | Fluid Mastering Engineer | Part 3

Rupert Brown concludes his conversation to Tim about his first break into the industry and gets some of Tim's opinions on the current mastering best practices and ongoing loudness wars!

Ableton Live | How To Repair Your Audio Files | DJ Podcast

LoopTV bring you this useful video from 'The DJ Podcast' on how to repair your broken audio files in Ableton. In this episode Peter runs through the basics of joining two similar audio files, using Ableton's cut, and navigation, useful for not only repairing but experimenting with audio joins.

Free Samplepack From Wave Alchemy!

Tape KPR-77 by Wave Alchemy Serves up over 280 drum samples (recorded directly to 1/4" analogue tape) from the Korg KPR-77 drum machine.

The KPR-77 was originally manufactured by Korg in the early 1980's and was advertised as a cheaper alternative to Roland's successful TR-606 drum machine. Surprisingly this quirky little analogue machine is capable of producing quite powerful drum sounds, we are especially fond of the toms, snare drum and claps!

Tape KPR-77 contains three pre-mapped drum kit patches for use with Kontakt 2, 3 & 4 and Battery 3. Each Kit makes use of extensive velocity layering, round robin sample playback and choke groups which in turn capture the quirkiness and expressiveness of the original unit.

The Kits

Tape Clean - includes 127 KPR-77 drum hits which have been recorded directly to 1/4" tape via a Studer A80 Mk1 analogue tape machine at a clean / neutral level. This kit includes 5 round robin samples per sound as well as 3 velocity layers per hit!

Tape Saturated - includes 127 KPR-77 drum sounds which have been recorded at a hot level (providing obvious tape saturation) to a 1/4" tape via a Studer A80 Mk1 analogue tape machine. This kit includes 5 round robin samples per sound as well as 3 velocity layers per hit!

Driven Kit - includes 27 KPR-77 drum samples which have been recorded and processed through a variety of Wave Alchemy's outboard studio collection.

The best part of all is this sample library is 100% free!

Download The KPR-77 Free Samplepack

Round Robin

Due to the KPR-77's analogue nature, subtle differences in tone are heard n the sound each time a drum is triggered. This means that no two hits coming from the KPR-77 will sound exactly the same, which in turn makes the overall sound a lot less static and instead - more vibrant and real. Due to this we felt is necessary to record up to 5 round robin samples per sound to help capture the "movement" created by random analogue behavior!

If you are looking for high quality drum samples and cutting-edge one-shot hits be sure to check out Wave Alchemy's Syncussion Drums sample pack.

New On The Blog: Live Instruments From Scratch, Gating And Perfect Kicks

More Smart Ableton Tricks Plus A Kicking Kick Drum Tutorial. Get Smart!

Creating A Live Instrument From Scratch

Using the sounds that come with Ableton Live can be a bit boring after a while – there’s only so many patches that you’ll actually like and even less that will suit whatever you’re working on. You could of course use an Audio Unit or VST for a couple more options, but where’s the fun in that!?

Add More Presence And Definition To The Attack Phase Of The Kick Drum

Ever found yourself wanting to add more presence and definition to the attack phase of your kicks and feeling you’ve run out of options when EQ and dynamic effects just won’t do?

Understanding And Using Ableton's Gate Effect

Here’s a great tutorial on understanding and using Ableton’s gate effect creatively. The subject area is covered from the basics to advanced sidechaining and creative usage of this simple yet powerful effect.

LoopTV Fresh: Interview With Tim Debney Pt. 2 And Tron Legacy

This week LoopTV follows up with the second part of the interview with Tim Debney and presents a VJ Remix of Tron Legacy.

Interview With Tim Debney | Fluid Mastering Engineer | Part 2

Rupert Brown continues his conversation to Tim about his first break into the industry and gets some of Tim's opinions on the current mastering best practices and ongoing loudness wars!

Visual Reload Presents | Tron Legacy | VJ Remix

LoopTV bring you another visual helping from talented Italian VJ remix artist 'Visual Reload'. Here he puts his talent to use in this stylistic visual massage of original elements from the trailer and film in this audio visual mashup of the Tron Legacy blockbuster, with an original Dubstep sound track from DJ Met.

Computer Music Review: Clicks And Glitches

100 Loops here from SOR’s golden-eared Oliver Schmitt, claiming to be just what you need to add “charm and groove” to your clean productions. The collection is made up of heavily swung distorted twitches and pops that bounce and spark out of your speakers. This focused pack gets our thumbs up, and the production is top-notch.

Verdict: 8/10

Computer Music Review: Black Noise Warehouse

Like a can of comedy worms, these AIFF/Live/REX/Wav samples leap out at you in all directions. It’s a collection of whistle-blowing rave-y sounds from Black Noise, the House incarnation of Aquasky. All the sonic elements are covered, the MC-like vocals being a surprise gem. The drums are a little thin but the basses and leads are so badass we’ll forgive them.

Verdict: 8/10

LoopTV Fresh: Recording Audio Mixes And Automating Send FX

LoopTV presents a fresh insight into the Send FX automation and recording audio mixes in Ableton.

Ableton Live | Recording Your Audio Mixes

LoopTV bring you this useful video from 'The DJ Podcast' on recording your DJ audio mixes into the Ableton Live arrangement environment. The setup described applies to any stereo input sources, so also applies to other instrument recording.

Logic Pro 9 | Automating Send FX Chains | Danny J. Lewis

Add sonic interest to your tracks by using a battery of send FX stacks on different audio channels, to add colour to individual track components, like your snare and clap sounds.

New On The Blog: Bandpass Filter Delay, Ableton Clips And More

Tip Of The Day is back by popular demand! Plus getting creative with Ableton clips and the Ultimate Bandpass Filter Delay.

Ultimate Bandpass Filter Delay In Ableton Live

Here’s a great tip on how to build an ultimate band pass filter. It can be used various situations for example during DJ sets or before breaks during your progressions.

Getting Creative With Clips And Ableton's Envelopes

Once you’ve found a nice loop that makes your track bump, sometimes just switching between various processed versions of the clip is all you need to make your track move along and maintain interest.

Loopmasters Quick Tips Of The Day

Hey all. We’ve been really encouraged by the response to this blog over the past year, and it’s become clear that what you really like is the choice bits of production information we’ve been presenting from a a variety of sources. We’ll continue to work on bringing you what we hope are useful posts that hopefully improve your productions.

Public Records: Late Night Logic At Mastering + Inland Knights

Late Night Logic Heading To Mastering + More

Close on the heels of that release is PR03 – Late Nite Logic. We’ll be adding the artist pages to the site over the next few days and the tracks have now been compiled and will go to mastering this week. As usual, we’ll make Late Nite Logic (chilled/downtempo) available first on our Bandcamp page and it will then be out at all major online retailers a few weeks following.

Inland Knights Remix Competition

To celebrate the forthcoming release of their Loopmasters producer pack, Inland Knights are giving producers the opportunity to create their own original track using samples and inspiration from the armoury of Inland Knights production sounds. Click here to find out about the prizes and to download the parts for free.

IDJ Review: MIDI Focus - Prog Tech Beats by 5Pin Media

The beauty of MIDI based sample packs is that they don’t take up much room on your hard drive. The downside, though, is that you might yourself a little bit short changed when you discover you haven’t got many samples for your money. Thankfully Progressive Tech Beats utilises MIDI to give you loads of different grooves to play with. The samples themselves aren’t anything out of the ordinary and there isn’t a great number of them, but the MIDI files provide inspiration for great beats. Then again, you can always replace the samples with your own if you want, you know?

IDJ Review: James Harcourt - Twisted Tech House

What exactly does twisted tech house mean? Usually when the word twisted is thrown around its in relation to a lady putting a cat in a bin, not tech house beats. While I have to admit these loops aren’t that twisted, they are bloody good. The drum loops have a great shuffle to them and the music loops sound fantastic. There’s also plenty of them, so you’re bound to find something you like whether you’re into twisted things or not. Overall this is a great effort from James Harcourt. If you like making beats that suit the early hours then chances are you’ll absolutely love this. It’s definitely worth a punt.

Waveformless Review: Syncussion Drums by Wave Alchemy

There's been a bit of a trend among indie sample developers in the past couple of years of releasing libraries of sounds from rare, obscure bits of vintage gear - those pieces that just sort of fell through the cracks for whatever reason, but upon further inspection, turned out to be really cool. That's exactly what we have here with this collection of drum and percussion sounds produced by the Pearl SY1 Syncussion drum synth.

Back in the late 70's, drum manufacturers Pearl decided to enter the electronic drums market that was being stirred up by the disco movement. Although it was an unusually capable drum synth, for whatever reason, it seemed people were more interested in using it for novelty type sounds and the unit eventually faded into obscurity. But now Wave Alchemy has picked it up, dusted it off a bit (but not too much), and, in combination with extensive processing from an impressive (and expensive) gear list, they've attempted to give this old curiosity a second lease on life.

Wave Alchemy's Syncussion Drums consists of nearly 1,900 24-bit one-shot samples sourced from the Pearl SY1. There is a good selection of cleanly recorded sounds, but for me, the processed sounds - run through high-end compressors, an E-mu SP-12, a Studer tape machine, and the like - is the most interesting section. There's some really aggressively processed stuff here and there is a beautiful grit and weight to these.

The library comes with 63 pre-mapped kits that arrange the samples in a logical way for all the major software sampler formats. The types of sounds are surprisingly varied, considering the age of this machine. There are classic analog sounding drums, clangy FM cymbals, gritty, hard snares, rumbling subs, Kraftwerkian bleeps & bloops, cheesy FX - a very nice spread of different types of sounds. Some of the really hard, compressed kicks and snares are going to appeal to French House enthusiasts and electro-heads on the harder end of the spectrum. The best thing about the sound of the SY1 is that it wasn't really trying to sound like anybody else. It has a very unique sound that can take you beyond the wonderful, but overused Roland TR samples and add a more unique edge to your productions.

As always with Wave Alchemy, the sound and production quality is superb. Everything is clear, it punches where it's supposed to punch, and it sizzles where it's supposed to sizzle. I think dance producers looking for a different sound will especially appreciate this collection, but at such a cheap price, there's really no reason for anyone not to just get it. (Especially because for a limited time, your order will also get you some free processed TR-808 samples.) More obscure stuff like this, please!

Verdict: 10/10

Inland Knights Remix Competition On Public Records

€449 Ableton Live 8 (boxed)
€250 SoundCloud Pro account
£200 Juno voucher
Audio plugins from Rob Papen, OhmForce and D16 Group
Option to release their mix on Public Records
Loopmasters DVDs

Get all the parts here

New On The Blog: Headphones, 'Real' Gear And More

Find out how to use headphones in your production and learn how to sound 'real' using outboard gear. Plus an update on our iPhone app...

Mixing On Headphones

A good set of headphones is undoubtedly an essential bit of kit for any serious music maker. An invaluable tool during recording they can also prove useful in post-production, revealing bad edits and problems in the stereo image that might slip through unheard on speakers.

Sound 'Real' Using Outboard Gear

Music production in an all-digital environment definitely has its advantages - total recall, infinite undos and an exceptionally low noise-floor, to name but a few – but an easy trap to fall into is creating tracks that sound too clean and somehow not 'real'.

Loopmasters App Update - Now Also On Android!

The Loopmasters Free mobile apps family now covers all Android-based smartphones. Get yours now! Also - we’ve now partnered with Point Blank Online and WinkSound to start pulling in their tutorial videos regularly. You’ll now find even more great content under the “Partner Videos” link in the LoopTV section of the app.

LoopTV Fresh: DJ Alex Gaudino Interview, Bass Mixing In Logic

Interview with Alex Gaudino - DJ, producer, remixer and label owner and then a cool lesson on Bass mixing in Logic in Minimal Tech productions. Check them all out!

Artist Spotlight: Alex Gaudino

DJ, producer, remixer, and label owner Alex Gaudino began his adventure as A&R in the early nineties in Italy at the famous Flying Records. In 1998 Alex founded RISE Records, which soon became one of the most respected European labels signing hit records like The Tamperer and Black Legend, scooping a nomination as best European A&R at the European Music Awards in 2000 along the way!

Bass Mixing Tips For Minimal Tech

LoopTV bring you this useful video from Point Blank Online, on Logic Pro bass mixing and tips for Minimal Tech. Watch here as tutor Danny J Lewis (Defected, Enzyme Black) takes us through his approach to bass mixing. Here he blends two basses, using carving EQ and compression techniques

ProTone Review Of Dom Kane's Tech House Tools

Dom Kane doesn’t really need an introduction: well known for his House, Electro and Techhouse productions, he furthermore created quality sample placks for loopmasters and Deadmau5′s Xfer Nerve plugin. You might imagine we were really curious about his latest release – Techhouse Tools. Here we go…

750 MB of samples, both one-shots and loops, include patches for all common samplers and the REX2 format, which makes the collection usable for many producers and their software platform of choice.

Starting with the drum and one-shot section which you may find in the "TH3 Sounds and FX" folder. A little bit confusing to not find any FX in there, you may experience a standard drum arsenal:

9 claps
4 cymbals
16 hats
22 kicks
25 percs
5 shakers
10 snares

Obviously, this is a very basic collection, both in terms of sample amount and quality – everything sounds pretty much "out of the box" of a 808 and others. Layered sounds would have been a quite good idea here. Something we definitely like are the available drumkits which were carefully selected and really fit each other in terms of the included instruments.

Switching to the "Synth Hits" folder you will find 11 multisampled sounds, again quite basic and not really a huge choice. Last but not least, the „Vocals“ folder offers 27 vocal samples, which are quite okay but could have used a bit more effect work.

Talking of the loop part, this is the truely interesting part of this product. 46 groovy, well-balanced bass loops with good subbass work, 43 inspiring, variable chord/stab loops with cool patterns offer quite some sources for your next track. Still, some of them sound a bit too similar (Chord STB 10-14).

Drum loops are split into 3 categories: addons, without kick, with kick. The first section contains cool clap loops and various percussion types from tribal to basic. The without kick loops contain more percussion elements when it comes to the lower frequency region and are typical main loops. Some elements, especially hihats, are just the same in a couple of loops which makes us think that the art of detail work would’ve been desirable here.

42 kickloops again seem few once you figure they’re compiled in a loopkit manner with single loops being just variations of the others. Still, this doesn’t change the fact that their quality is pretty nice.

12 mostly noise-based loops finalize the fx-loop folder - and again: good quality, but a minor choice...

All in all…

This is a sample pack offering professional sounds with quite some basic elements – which is a good thing as such, but thinking of all the variations of a basic setup, the amount of samples is quickly reduced and has the problem to win against other sample packs for a nearly same price and way more content (e. g. Wave Alchemy TechHouse & Minimal). For true Dom Kane fans, this pack is for sure a good addition, for all others you might want to have a look at Wave Alchemy TechHouse & Minimal, also available at Loopmasters.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Tech House & Minimal by Wave Alchemy

When a new Wave Alchemy sample collection arrives in the FM inbox we expect big things. This 125-130bpm collection is one of the company’s most versatile yet, with a slick, professional sound that’s restrained enough to fit into a variety of House and Techno production styles. The 930MB of content includes a total of 1340 samples, from bass loops and drums to tempo-synced FX and multi-sampled analogue synth patches. The collection is available in all the major 24bit formats, along with sampler patches for Battery, Kontakt, NNXT, Halion, EXS24 and SFZ. With the release of Tech House and Minimal, the Wave Alchemy boys have delivered the goods yet again. Outstanding.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel - Progressive Electro House

The latest instalment in Loopmasters’ ‘Artist Series’ comes fresh from sought after remixer producers Haji and Emanuel. As you would imagine this pack is pointed squarely at the House crowd so you get swelling pads, four to the floor beats and bass lines that really swing and bounce. 700MB plus gives you plenty of raw material (the drum library includes 60 claps!) and there’s no less than 46 ready to play patches for those of the soft synth disposition. A healthy dose of bass tones, ‘Sidechained Progression FX’, and chord stabs ensures that if your House track is missing some special magic it’s highly likely that you’ll find it here.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Total Science - Drum&Bass Vol. 5

Total Science – otherwise known as Paul Smith and Jason Greenhalgh – have recorded on just about all of the big DnB labels, and get name checked by the likes of Fabio and Goldie. Clearly there is some pedigree here, and at 1.2 GB it’s not lightweight. Neither are the basslines! Up in the 171-176bpm realm you’ll find one shots, loops 92 (yes 92) patches. This is a well stocked drum and bass tool kit that screams to be used, whether powering your DnB, Dubstep or Breaks. You’ve always said you’d go there didn’t you? Well no excuse now!

Verdict: 9/10

Music Tech's Logic 9 App: Learn On Your Cell Phone

Help yourself to 30 pages of Music Tech’s finest Logic Pro 9 tutorials tips and hands-on features courtesy of sponsors logic-courses.com. This specially produced app includes some of the best elements of the brand new Music Tech Focus Logic Pro 9 Vol2 edition along with access to 48 minutes of full trial lesson from logic-courses.com.

Click here to download or search for Logic Pro Lite in iTunes.

Inside your free app you’ll get:

25 Pro Tips for Logic Studio - from Buss Automation to Self-oscillation
Drum Editing Workshop - making the most of Flex Time and drum replacement
Remixing in Logic Pro 9 - in-depth 8-page feature on the fundamentals of remixing Logic style
Thievery Corporation - avowed hardware duo on integrating Logic with a traditional set-up
Sidechaining in Sculpture Workshop – using sidechain inputs to control Logic’s physical modelling synth

Plus inside every app there are introductory videos to logic-courses.com as well as exclusive access to 48-minutes of full lessons covering ‘Logic Basic Concepts’ and ‘Gating and Sidechaining’. logic-courses.com offers two levels of online video training from authorized trainer Rob Jones for Beginners / Intermediate and Experts available 365 days a year. Music Tech Focus readers can save 20% on usual course prices – just enter the special code from the app when you sign up.

We hope you enjoy this special complimentary app. If you like what you see you can also up-grade to either of our full 132-page Music Tech Focus Logic Pro Vol1 or Vol 2 apps direct from the app.

New On The Blog: Pre-fader Sends And Optimizing Your PC For Audio

Getting creative with simple mixing desk functions and making your PC live for audio - check out this week's blogposts!

Using Pre-Fader Aux Sends Creatively

Most popular DAWs nowadays will let you route an Aux send signal either pre- or post-fader. When an Aux send is configured post-fader, the effect’s wet-to-dry ratio is preserved as you raise and lower channel faders; lowering a channel’s fader simultaneously lowers the Aux send signal level.

Optimizing Your PC For Audio Performance

Hey PC users – here’s a great article by Dubspot Instructor and Native Instrument product specialist Mike Henderson aka DJ Endo on how to tweak your PC system to optimize it for audio applications. This article dispels a common myth about PC’s and Windows

LoopTV Fresh: Ghost Rhythms And Launchpad Tip

Have a peek at this week's LoopTV unveiling as we present you with a ghost rhythms and a creative way to use the Launchpad LEDs.

Novation Launchpad - LED Feedback Uses

LoopTV brings you this great HD tutorial from the DSP project – on using setting up the LED feedback on the Novation Launchpad. Rupert Brown explains how to setup the Midi mapping, including drum racks, metronome, LED mute and how to specify which colour you want.

Ghost Rhythms In Logic 9 Explained

Watch here as tutor Danny J Lewis (Defected, Enzyme Black) takes us through the uses as both a mix tool and production facility, of the Ghost Rhythms presets in Logic's reverb space designer.

Public Records: Retrofox Remix And A New Contest

Retrofox Remixes Ready To Go!

We’ve got the mastered versions of the “Bubblegum” remixes back from mastering today and they are now available exclusively at our Bandcamp shop.

We’ll be making the tracks available exclusively at our Bandcamp shop for the next couple of weeks, at which point they will go to the distributor and hit most major online shops, as well as niche dj download sites.

So head on over to get your exclusive Bandcamp shop links and be rocking them in the clubs first!

Announcing The "Trapped Moog" Remix Contest

In patnership with Ohm Force , D16 Group, and Rob Papen, we’d like to announce the launch of the DJ Mauritzo - “Trapped Moog” remix contest.

You will find stems here and here from the original track, which was released on PR01 (“Ecclectic Beats”). Again, we’re looking for interesting remixes across the full genre spectrum – don’t feel like you need to stick to House only. Surprise us with an interesting twist that still reflects/compliments the original!

PRIZE:

Our top remixer will win 5 Loopmasters Artist Series DVDs of their choice, 2 for our second favourite, and 1 for our 3rd favourite remix.
Ohm Force will offer an ALL-ALL Bundle for the big winner, an ALL-Live Bundle to the second place, and a “Quad Frohmage + Hematohm + OhmBoyz” pack for the 3rd place. Ohm Force have also kindly given us a special discount code for all of you. Just use the “LOOHMPMASTERS” coupon code (without the commas) to get a 25% discount on any individual plug-in or bundle. Just copy the code into the coupon field when checking out of the Ohm Force shop.
D16 will be offering our top remixer one instrument and one effect of his/her choice.
Rob Papen will be offering the top remixer two products of their choice. The second place prize will be one product of your choice. Third place will get the excellent RP-Delay.

In addition, we’ll consider offering release to the winning remixes, depending on the quality of the submissions. All in all, a great package of goodies and some nice incentive to get remixing we think!

We’re expecting some great remixes as we’ll be promoting this through all of our channels and our partners are doing the same.

More about submitting your tracks here

Loop TV Fresh: TV Rock and Akai APC20 Unveiled

Check out our latest LoopTV videos.

Interview With TV Rock - House DJs

Good things come in pairs so they say and this exclusive interview is no exception, as LoopTV talk to Australian house music duo TV Rock! There must be very few career boxes for TV Rock left to tick. Double ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) award winners, the duo, comprised of GQ DJ of the Year

Akai APC20 MIDI Controller Explained

LoopTV brings you this great HD tutorial from the DSP project – on using your Akai APC20 Ableton controller to trigger loops and audio clips. Rupert Brown explains how mapping your APC20 to FX racks, and other midi mappings can really improve your your live performance workflow.

New On The Blog: New iPhone App Functions and More

Our latest blog entries cover a pretty wide range of topics... as usual. Have a look!

More Video Tutorials In The FREE Loopmasters iPhone/iPad/iPod App!

We've now partnered with Point Blank Online and WinkSound to start pulling their tutorial videos regularly. You'll now find even more great content under the "Partner Videos" link in the LoopTV section of the app.

Make Your Sounds Move With Modulation

One of the things that many of us overlook in our early production days is the modulation matrix of our synths. I’ve used Logic’s ES2 as an example here, but most soft synths will contain a modulation matrix that is similar.

Pro-Tools - How To Use Key Commands

Knowing your way around key commands (no matter how geeky it may seem) is a great way of keeping your sessions creative and moving.

Music Tech Review: Real Strings Vol. 2 by Organic Loops

Despite advances in both physical modelling synthesis and scripted sampled instruments, it’s still very hard to get a good, realistic string sound, especially when dealing with melodies and moving phrases. Real Strings Vol.2, from Organic Loops, aims to fill the gap with 126 loops and phrases played on live string instruments.

Created by Pete Whitfield – who arranges and records real strings for major labels and TV/media companies – the pack contains layered violins and cellos played with a full range of dynamics, expression and emotion. You get 126 individual 24-bit loops each lasting four bars and divided into 12 construction kits from 110-140BPM.

There are several different playing techniques on offer, including romantic legato chords, rhythmic staccato stabs, chilling tremolos and tension-building trills, plus some more irregular, special effect-type bends and drones.

Each of the kits has been carefully constructed with different types of riff that can be layered to create a fuller sound, plus melody and progression variations, high sustained notes and end phrases. This makes building your own arrangement much more flexible as can create different sections and variations, although, as a lot of the chords, figures and melodies occupy a similar frequency range, you probably wouldn’t want to layer more than about three at once for fear of the mix becoming cluttered.

It’s clear to hear that the work of orchestral break-beat maestros Hybrid has been a big influence in the style, feel and layering of these riffs, with big-sounding unison melodies, subtle slides between notes and a mood that teeters between dark, beautiful and up-lifting. The pack is available as a download in ACID WAV or Apple Loops formats, with the addition of REX loops, MIDI files and four-part scores as PDF and Sibelius files. This is a nice touch for anyone wanting to expand on the content here by recording their own additional parts or use the MIDI data to add in their own sampled instruments or synths.

For anyone writing emotional, orchestral electronic these loops are a dream come true: high quality, real strings that can instantly add organic expression to your tracks

Music Tech Review: Tech House & Minimal by Wave Alchemy

We were mightily impressed by Wave Alchemy's last sample pack (Deep Tech & Progressive) when we reviewed it a couple of issues back, so are happy to see the latest release arrive in our inbox.

Tech House & Minimal follows a similar vein and is stacked with chunky house beats, basses, synths and percussion to inspire your latest tracks.

The pack is available as a download in WAV and REX, Apple Loops, Ableton Live or Reason formats - you get 930MB of 24-bit content. Where appropriate there are aslo instrument patches (10 drum kits and 23 multi-sampled synths) for Kontakt, EXS24, NN-XT, Battery, HALion and SFZ.

This collection carries off where the last one left off, with inventive, creative sounds and world-class production throughout. Once again, these are some of the best electronic club sounds and available and can easily give an instant, club ready polish. By comparison to Deep Tech & Progressive, the drums are a bit more grooving and kick-drum heavy, the basses more throbbing and the synth loops more melodic. Having said that, there are still plenty of quirky sounds and rhythms demonstrating imaginative production and generous use of effects. It's a wonder that Wave Alchemy can still churn out so many new drum sounds, but there are 401 finely crafted drum and percussion hits spread across 10 instrument patches.

The main addition here are 23 playable multi-sampled synth sounds that have been created using a variety of analogue gear, including the Korg MS-20, Moog Voyager, Future Retro XS, Waldorf Pulse and more. Most of these are brighter and more agrressive than the pitch-bent minimal sub loops in the bass folder, but as they all drip with analogue warmth, they are a great addition to an already tasty package.

In a perfect world, we'd like to see fewer loops, but have variations on each drum pattern and extended progressing synth lines to aid with arrangement. That aside, this is another stunning release that will be of interest to anyone looking for cutting-edge club sounds.

Verdict

Another world-class library of club-ready sounds that's packed with inventive production and creative programming!

9/10

Aquasky Launches New Sample Label - Monster Sounds

Drum and Bass legends Aquasky join forces with Loopmasters to launch an exciting new sample label Monster Sounds!

Alongside exclusive sample packs from Aquasky themselves alongside their cut up house alter-ego Black Noise Aquasky have dug deep into them rolodex to bring you packs from top artists and producers from around the world in various cutting edge genres and styles, with the aim to release a pack every three weeks. Watch out for packs from Sy & Unkown, The Baker Brothers, Lee Mortimer, Kanji Kinetic and Organ Donors alongside some very exciting vocal-based packs tapping their huge network of top MCs and rappers focusing on the different sounds emanating from across the States kicking off with East Coast Rap Pack and Dirty South Rap Pack!

Brent from Aquasky explains, "There will be two levels to what Monster Sounds is about. Firstly presenting a fantastic line up of some of the very best musicians/producers that we know. Secondly to offer packs designed for the working producer that concentrate on key instrumentation or vocalisation, a staple for any professional recording studio."

Monster Sounds aims to provide inspirational royalty free audio content for music producers and DJ’s alike. Incorporating pro Sessions from well-known artists or tailoring specific musical and vocal content for the professional recording studio.

Monster Sounds will launch on March 18th with Aquasky’s own alias Black Noise.

Music Tech Review: Ed Solo Bass Lab Vol. 1

To many electronic music producers, crafting the perfect bass sound is both a passion and a science, requiring a fine balance of distortion and clarity in different parts of the frequency spectrum. One such man is Ed Solo, best known for his heavyweight DnB, breaks and dubstep tracks as well as his collaborations with the breakbeat elite. Bass Lab Vol.1 is the latest release on his Booty Farm labell; it contains 93 bass-line loops and 47 playable multi-sampled instruments.

The download pack unzips to around 1.3GB and is available in ACID WAV, Apple Loops, Reason ReFill and Live Pack formats, with each version also containing instrument patches for Kontakt, NN-XT, EXS24, HALion and SFZ. The sounds on offer range from stabby garage organ tones and ominous rumbles to throbbing wobbles and filthy, distorted Reese basses. A combination of digital and analogue synths and effects has been used to create a no-nonsesnse, upfront sound, with only a few of the loops and patches containing a hint of room ambience.

Although you get 93 individual audio loops, there is a fair bit of repetition in both A and E keys, giving a total of 42 different riffs. The loops are further divided into 130, 135, 140 and 175BPM for use in breakbeat, dubstep and DnB tracks.

Despite the excellent quality of modern pitch-and-time-stretching, you wouldn’t want to mess up these scientifically crafted tones by stretching them too much, so the addition of two pitches and different speeds is a nice touch. However, the real stars are the 47 multi-sampled bass patches, with every single note mapped to a key.

This is a great collection of tight jungle and dubstep bass sounds and we heard several faithful recreations from classic jungle tracks. Although it isn’t a huge pack and the sounds aren’t amazingly original, it’s the perfect tool for anyone who needs no-nonsense, club-ready bass sounds.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Deeper House Vol. 2 - 6pod9

Having won awards with Vol.1, 6pod9 has returned to bring you Deep House Vol.2. Aimed at the Funky Tech House crowd who like a bit of Soul, this 400MB collection has 125BPM firmly covered with bass, drum, synth/keys as well as a smattering of vocal samples. If you crave the sound of labels such as Freerange and Plastic City or acts like Jimpster or Aki Bergen, then this is the pack to send your soul higher.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Electro Folk India Vol. 1

From the same stable that brought you Balkan Drums (reviewed a few issues back) comes this cracking 719MB pack. As the name suggests this is a collection of Indian folk instruments such as the Sitar, Tabla, Dotara and Konnakol and others. However, the live recordings have been tweaked off the map producing some pretty darn must-have sounds. These can be added to pretty much any kind of track to give it that "great sound – what is it" vibe. Awesome

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Dark Percussive House & Techno by Steve Lawler

Steve Lawler’s long and illustrious career has culminated in this Artist Series sample pack. Forget the sets at some of the world’s best clubs, this is what he’s been waiting for – 1.3GB of deep, subliminal bass loops, club ready drums (which ship as tops, percussion, full loops) and some Latin for your hips. Elsewhere, you’ll find synth loops full of atmosphere, bass hits, FX and 30 vocal samples to sink your teeth into. 46 instrument patches for the usual platforms finish what is a meaty pack for the Techno heads out there.

Verdict: 8/10

Interview With James Harcourt

First of all, hi James. Where are you from, and how did you get into Music Production and DJ'ing?

Hi! I'm from UK - born in London and raised in Hitchin - and I've always been into music since being a kid. I played instruments at playtime at school, in bands in my teens and early 20's and got into clubs, DJ'ing and making music as soon as I could afford some stuff to do it on!

What projects have you got on the go at the moment?

I've got a few remix offers on the plate but I'm really keen to make a new E.P for my Twisted Frequency label. I've just moved house and my new studio is inviting me to produce more!

What 5 pieces of studio equipment would you say determines your sound?

My Alesis MultiMix FW 16, Cubase SX, Moog Voyager, SH-101 and the Nord Lead Rackmount 3 are the main ones.

How do you approach writing a track, drums first? Melody?

It varies. It's about getting a nice blend of sounds first and foremost - then sometimes I might rewrite melodies or rhythms as the mood takes me.

What equipment do you use to DJ? Vinyl Junkie, CDJ or the ever growing popular live approach to performance?

I came from a vinyl background, I've progressed to CD's but cannot bring myself to DJ on a laptop. It gives great choice of music but it just seems a bit odd – I prefer to hone down my choices to carefully selected bunches of tunes on CD's.

What is the most memorable gig you have played, or is there a certain country or club that you would love to play every weekend?

There's been some wicked parties, not necessarily the big ones with thousands of people - but the intimate ones where the excitement level has been insanely high. I loved Sunburn festival in India as it was just such a new thing and really went well.

If there was one artist that you could work with, who would it be?

I love Adele - she has such a powerful voice - and it would be amazing to do something with that.

Who are you listening to at the moment, any new artists we should know about?

I'm listening to a lot of pop music, but aside from that I'm really a big fan of a Dutch producer called Anton Pieete, really groovy stuff, well constructed.

You recently created a mammoth sample pack for Loopmasters with over 1GB of content. How did you find this compared to writing music?

Really different and really refreshing! It totally changes the perspective and opened up some new creative options in the studio.

Do you have any advice for the young producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

Yes - always keep in mind how easy technology makes it for people to make well produced but uninspiring music - and always to try to be better than that. Also - if an idea isn’t working - shelve it and move on, don't flog it!

New On The Blog: About Gain Structure and 3 FL Studio Tips

Hey, producers! Here's a small handful of tips that can improve your production skills this week.

The Importance Of Gain Structure In The Mix

In this quick tip, we will take a look at a few reasons why it is necessary to maintain a proper gain structure even within the 32-bit floating point architecture which most DAWs employ.

3 Useful Tips For FL Studio

FL Studio (despite being disapproved by many of the music producers) is an excellent software for composing and arranging. With Fruity Loops you can create musical pieces in genres, ranging from house and industrial to epic soundtracks and the one thing that you need is a gentle bit of creativity! Here’s 3 great tips to use in your productions.

Interview With Timo Maas

What's new in the world of Timo Maas, do you have any projects on the go at the moment?

I have a bunch of things going on right now. Rockets & Ponies is doing pretty well at the moment, and we have the next strong releases ready to go including an amazing club-based SANTOS album, the first one on our label. The next TM album is also in the making, as well as several songwriting and remix projects.

Where did it all start for you, how did you get into music production? Or was it DJing that came first?

I started DJing back in 1982, so nearly 30 years. I started to produce music towards the end of the 80`s and my first release came out in 1994 and, I've had many since then.

What five pieces of studio equipment would you say determines your sound?

Santos ;), Moog, Ms20, Reactable, Rhodes.

You have done remixes for some big names in your career, how do you approach remixing? Do you prefer it to writing your own music?

First of all, the original music for a Remix must be inspiring, if it is then the ideas usually come automatically. Sometimes it's the sounds, sometimes it's the vocal. But in general the energy and vibe of the original is the key for the remix. Remixing is fun, to write original music is obviously a bit more of an intense process. I like it to do strange and different stuff.

What was the Tech House scene like when you were growing up in Germany, were there big nights going on?

I started going out to houseparties at end of the 80`s and played my first one also at the end of the 80's. Back then the German scene was hugely influenced by what was happening in the UK scene.

What do you think of the Tech House & Techno scene at the moment? Are there artists coming through at the moment that we should be looking out for?

There's a lot of people producing music these days. I absolutely love the work from my partner Santos, Maetrik, Adam Port, etc etc. But for my personal taste, it's still hard work to find the specials in the huge amount of music that's getting released every day. There seems to be too much average music really for my personal taste but there is still gems to be found out there.

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this when compared to writing music?

It was a different experience and a very different approach to writing music. It was quite an intense process to create something so distinctive that can be inspiring and useful for other producers.

When you made your pack, were you worried that producers were going to be sampling, or trying to recreate your sound?

No, not at all. That's what it's made for!!!

What production techniques do you think are really over used and annoying?

Everything has been used really, every instrument, noise etc etc. But still, it's about the great idea. The most simple things can be the next big hit!

Do you have any advice for young producers trying to make it in today's music industry?

Just be individual, don`t try and copy anybody else.

New On The Blog: Quick Tips Of The Day And More

This week our blog featured some pro tips and an interview with Total Science. Have a look at the new stuff we've got there.

Quick Tip Of The Day

Reverbs, Automation, Gating, Vocal arrangements and more

Getting Creative With The ES1

See how sidechaining can boost your use of ES1 - the synth that's an integral part of Apple's Logic suite.

Interview With Total Science

Check out what the Scientists say as Kmag digs deep into their studio technology

LoopTV Fresh: Martijn Ten Velden, Traktor and Podcast

This week LoopTV brings you more of what you like - the industry insight and a roundup of last month's materials. Check it all out!

Interview With Martijn Ten Velden

A respected DJ/Producer on the international circuit playing his signature Tech House and Minimal sets.

Sync Your Traktor With Maschine

A useful video that explains how to sync the software with the hardware.

LoopTV Podcast

The regular "Rewind" podcast looks back over Feb. 2011 and brings the best tutorial videos in one easy helping.

The Loopmasters 2011 Producer Survey

Another year has passed and we want to know your opinions. Yes, again... We are keen to hear your voice on any and all issues related to the samples, the store, the website and all in between. It is very important to us to hear your voice, not just in the down-to-earth issues that can be covered through our Customer Support Centre. We want to know what you think and how you feel about different aspects of our Boutique.

Please spend some time to give us your feedback and we will certainly show you our gratitude.

Click Here For The Survey

We have prepared a big reward for the randomly selected few and a sure-shot goodie for everyone. See below what we have in store for you:

Everyone who fills out our survey and leaves their email will get a FREE link to exclusive unreleased samples.
Every respondent will also get a 15% discount code for their next purchase at Loopmasters.com
One lucky winner will get 10 Artist Series titles
Three runners up will get three free Artist Series titles of their choice

As you see, there's light at the end of this survey tunnel. It's a train full of samples!

Thank you - The Loopmasters Team

Interview With Utah Saints

What is going on in the world of Utah Saints at the moment, keeping busy?

At the moment we are working on new material. We are also doing a big remix package of one of our early releases. We also run a label called Sugarbeat and a club night as well. The label has been going since September 2010 so it is early days but we are now up to release number 5 and all is going well so far. We release quite eclectic material and are always on the look out for quality electronic music to sign and release. Our Ethos is that if we would play it our night at peak time then we can release it.

You guys have been making music for a long time now, which means you must have experienced a lot of different ways of working. What is your typical set up in the studio now? And what's the first thing you reach for to get ideas down?

Our typical set up in the studio is a on a mac tower running Ableton. We use this to get ideas going as Abeton is like a giant sketch pad/sampler and is very fast for getting ideas down. When it gets to mixing stage, we normally export the stems into Logic or Pro Tools and mix down from there. We still have all our outboard gear from back in the day ranging from old synths to compressors and drum machines so we do call on this from time to time for certain things and then wire it in through the sound card on the mac and record it in. All our early Utahs material was made on an Atari 1040 running Cubase and we used lots of Akai samplers but it was all outboard and the only thing that the computer was doing was the MIDI sequencing so to answer your question - yes we have seen a lot of things change over the years!

You're well known for your impressive use of sampling. Has an uncleared sample ever caused you serious problems? And what is the process to get samples cleared?

We have always cleared our samples and it sometimes can be a frustrating process and very time consuming. The process starts by us making the track and then we have to approach the label who own the original recording and clear that side of it for audio use and then the publishing has to be agreed upon once the artist has given permission to use the sample. The percentage used is normally decided by them so if they decide that they want 100% of the publishing even though you may have only used a very small part of their track then they are perfectly within their rights to do that, though most of the time in our experience, the percentages have always been fair. We have never had problems from un-cleared samples as we have always cleared them or not used them in the final version or had them re-played.

Products available from Loopmasters are all royalty free. When you were starting out would you grab ideas from royalty free sources, or was there hours spent crate digging?

Using Loops from Loopmasters is a great way of getting your head around making full tracks. Yes we did use to spend hours crate digging and we still do but we also use Loopmasters samples. It is a great way to start an idea off and then we really get into the samples and start cutting them up and using a bit from one sample, a bit from another and try different ways of processing them and try and create something new. They are a great starting point as the loop has already been produced so if for example you use a kick then you know that sonically it is going to be in the right area and wont need too much doing to it.

Through your career you have worked with some huge names including REM and toured with the likes of U2. What was it like chilling out with Bono and The Edge on a daily basis?

The U2 tour was a great experience and it taught us a lot of things. The band were great and very friendly and supportive and most importantly they had no attitude and were real people that were approachable.

Hailing from Leeds, a city I had the pleasure of visiting for the first time recently. Musically, it seems like a really thriving city. Do you still go out much in Leeds and check out the local talent?

We don't go out in Leeds as much as we should. we promoted a night there for over 10 years and stopped about 2 years ago. Where our studios are based though is a great place as there are about 10 other people all making electronic music so the place has a great vibe and people are always bouncing ideas of each other. It keeps us on our toes and between us we are all very up to date on the technology side of things as we all let each other know when a new gadget, plug or some piece of kit that we need comes out.

We also get to meet a lot of upcoming producers and dj's as some of the studios are hired out and we get to hear what people are doing and it is also how we have signed a couple of the releases that we have put out on our label. Leeds is a good city though for music and there seems to be a lot of diverse talent out there right now.

I've read that you're quite active on blogs discovering new artists. Is there anyone you've found that we should be listening to?

We have had to be active on blogs as our club night only holds 600 people so we cannot afford to put on big name dj's and the only way we can do it is to book them before they become big so we have managed to put on people such as Justice and 2 many Dj's who now would play to much bigger sized venues.

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this compared to creating musical productions?

It was good fun and quite testing to do and different to what we expected. It was a tough one to do as we wanted to make every single sound that we put in the pack valid and useable. Sometimes in the past I have flicked through sample libraries and only one or two things are really useable. We were trying to create something that if we were looking for samples/loops or inspiration then this would do it. Hopefully, we have achieved that. It is quite a diffrent process as well to making a track as normally you would say work on beats then a bass line and build up your track where as we would spend a day making different kick drums from scratch which is harder than you may think.

I've recently got my hands on an Akai Mpc 2000 and although it may be slightly long winded when compared to soft synth samplers like the EXS24, I am loving the simplicity of it and have began to appreciate the art of sampling a lot more.

is there any sampler that you have an attachment to for our readers to go check out?

I guess that would be either an Akai S900 or S950. I would challenge anybody reading this to go and pick one up off ebay and see if they can make a whole track on it. Taking into account that it is mono and you only have 19 seconds of sampling time and have to save everything on floppys. We used to record in samples from Vinyl of a record at 33rpm and speed it up to 45rpm and then pitch it down so that we could get more in the sampler!!

The good thing about learning your skills on these type of machines is that back then you would have maybe one or 2 pieces of equipment in your studio and you had to really learn these inside out and be more creative almost to the point of making them do things that they weren't supposed to do. Today things are very different and the technology available is amazing. Also you would have to get your calculator out and work out percentages for time stretching samples where as today you can just do it in realtime and play any sample at any pitch and any time.

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

Yes we always have advice to give.... We are Utah Saints and have been doing this for quite a long time now.lol... The biggest advice we can give is : Be nice to people on the way up. Be aleader and not a follower. Fashion seems to go in 13 year cycles so if you start of doing something now and stick with it, then by the time it comes round again you should be able to clean up!!!

LoopTV Fresh: Seamus Haji, Fedde Le Grand, Cubase, Ableton

Here's a round-up of our latest LoopTV releases. Hit our video channel as we hook up with artists and bring you great tech tips.

Fedde Le Grand Interview

LoopTV interview DJ Fedde Le Grand about his latest releases, musical background, ongoing remix work, and get some electro house production tips from the master.

Seamus Haji Interview

In light of the upcoming release of his new sample pack for Loopmasters, due out on Feb 25th – LoopTV caught up with Seamus to find out a little about his production style and musical background

Using The Arpache MIDI Plugin In Cubase 6

Watch here as tutor Danny takes us through the functions of this awesome midi arpeggiator plugin. Using musical data from Trance legend Mike Koglin, he shows us the holly grail of plugin functions, by being able to create the actual midi sequences derived from using a midi arpeggiator, so these can then also be edited!

Macro Controllers In Ableton Live Explained

LoopTV bring you this useful video from ‘The DJ Podcast’. In this episode Peter runs through the main uses and setup of Ableton Live macro midi controllers. He shows us how to use macro remote mapping, to assign Ableton effects chains to hardware devices.

Loopmasters Now On iPhone - Get The Free App

Keeping up with all the information from Loopmasters and our partner sites LoopTV and Public Records can be hard if you don’t visit all of the sites individually. To help keep you in the loop and streamline things, we’ve teamed up with Mob Base to create the official Loopmasters App.

By installing the application, you can keep up with new loopmasters releases and check out release demos, keep up with Loopmasters news articles and artist interviews, stay in touch with each tip or trick posted in the blog, watch new LoopTV movies as they come in, keep up with the news and releases from Public Records, follow the Loopmasters Twitter stream and more. You can download the app here or just search the app store for “loopmasters” on your iphone/ipad/ipod.

Loopmasters iPhone/iPad/iPod App - Download Now

Rekkerd.org Review Of The Funky Underground

Loopmasters The Funky Underground is a sample library featuring loops and samples by producer Darren Payton. The Funky Underground includes almost 500 loops, generally 8 or 16 beats in length at either 126 or 128 bpm, and a few at 124 bpm. The loops are categorized into basslines, drums, filtered loops, combi grooves, music loops, and vocals.

Right off the bat the bass loops are perfect for the intended style. Lots of deep soulful sounds, funky thumpy basslines, the muffled next-door-neighbor sound… it’s all there. For ease of use the keys and progressions are in the filenames, as with all melodic content in this library.

Drums come as 72 full force four-on-the-floor style beats as well as 142 loops with singled out instruments – kick+snare, percussion, shaker, and top loops. Most beats have that “in your face” vibe, tight and funky. The variations are useful for building up your tracks.

The filtered loops – 53 samples strong, are mostly melodic elements like bass, chords, etc. that have some kind of gate type filter action going on. Great for layering with beats or to use in breaks. The collection of music loops mostly features electric piano sounds, a good amount of synth loops, and a few others like organ, piano, and guitar. A total of 77 samples in this section.

A nice variety of vocal loops is also included. These 20 samples mainly feature cut up vocal recordings, processed and sequenced to create rhythmic loops. Quite some nice creative work done here. Finally, a selection of 21 combi grooves offers a combination of the sound categories just mentioned, minus the drums. Makes for some nicely processed melodic loops.

Besides loops you also get over 700 one-shot sounds, including Rhodes chords, various sound fx, melodic & vocal stabs, and more than 600 drum samples.

The sound library also includes sampler patches for these single shots. As per usual, the patches simply map each sound across the keyboard, and in the case of drum hits each patch has a collection of the same type of samples (e.g. kicks, snares, etc.) mapped for auditioning or quick swapping of sounds. A number of drum sounds have also been mapped into 10 drum kits. While I generally don’t use these patches I will make an exception for the drum kits.

Listen to the audio demo to get an idea of the sound of The Funky Underground.

So what do I t think?

Funky, soulful, fresh… this sample library hits the spot alright. The Funky Underground is a collection of high quality loops and sounds for house music.

The loops are well produced, with tons of catchy melodies and beats that pack a punch. The additional one-shot sounds are a good match, featuring useful sounds for adding flavor to the loops or you could even create completely new beats and melodies with these samples.

Darren Payton shows that he is a skillful producer by delivering loops and sounds that are not only processed perfectly (EQ’d, filtered, etc) but also have that musical quality that instantly inspires.

If you are into house music you will want to check out The Funky Underground. You can’t go wrong with this one, I promise.

Verdict: 9/10

Recordings.de Review: Electro House Revolution by Mutekki

For me this collection is a true hit at our office. The quality of the samples is consistently of high value. All sounds have first class sonic qualities. A lot of work has been put into this library and most importantly: it can be heard. Oliver Schmitt has built the loops all from scratch. That’s why they are made available in different variations and the no-kick variations cover the complete spectrum of frequencies. Absolutely no low cutting using filters. In regards to the offered content and quality, the price can be treated as very favourable. You obtain a premium collection of single sounds (with focus on drums and percussion) as well as consistently fresh loops, FX and one-shots – applicable not only for this genre.

Keys.de Review: Electro House Revolution by Mutekki

The steadily growing Electro House genre makes a few steps forward towards Techno. All familiar House elements have been replaced by modern and fresh sounds. Instruments responsible for the sounds only include (analogue) synthesizers – even 909 sounds can’t be distinguished in the beats. Similar to the Minimal genre, multifaceted synth percussions and effects are employed here. Sounds of Revolution for this library again stays true to its principles and offers a huge pool of add-on-loops, percussions and synthesizer sounds that are geared to a certain stylistic. Drum loops, single drum and synth sounds as well as effect sounds make up the core of this sample pool. Furthermore also basses, chords, vocals, percussions and scratches are offered.

Looking at the loops, synth loops and basslines are a bit left out, in contrast there are even more drum loops involved. Next to well-proven add-on-loops that allow to add kick, snare and hihats as one sees fit, there are even diverse loop-mini-kits for complete drummings. All loops are on a common tempo of 127 bpm and are available in WAV, Apple Loops and REX formats. This library offers a multitude of synth sounds for your own hooks. There are no multi-samples, but for Electro House it usually doesn’t need any big tonal jumps anyway. SOR offers mappings for all samples in Kontakt2 and EXS24 format, which is very useful in regards to the mass of single sounds. Sound-wise the samples and sounds are rather rough. Despite the comprehensive offering, synth FX and lo-fi character dominate. That’s why the library appears a little one-dimensional despite its numerous sound categories. By all means intentional, as the sub genre Electro House does not allow much scope. In light of the big content of about 1 GB (WAV) there should be no need for further Electro House samples for the time being.

Computer Music Review Of Timo Maas Sample Pack

Taken straight from Maas’ hard drive, this pack is made up of deep rolling kicks, sparse rhythmic loops and rather understated effects and noises. In fact, the whole thing is rolling and understated. With 236 loops and 198 one-shots, there’s not a huge amount here, so it will neither make or break your track. This pack is all about sound design, effects and layering rather than bombastic riffs or stabs. Perfect for more minimal techno, then, and fans of Maas’ stripped-back stuff will love it. Those looking for one-stop track ideas should look elsewhere.

7/10

Computer Music Review Of Steve Lawler's Dark Percussive House & Techno

Steve Lawler is a household name among house DJs. He describes his sound as ‘deep and sexy’, and happily his sample pack reflects that pretty well. What’s most impressive is the number of samples: 1842 WAV one-shots as well as over 100 loops at 125 and 127bpm.This is elegantly produced house, and although it doesn’t offer anything particularly unique, there’s so much and at such high quality that those aiming to reach Lawler’s heights would do well to start here.

9/10

Computer Music Review: DJ Mixtools 12 - Dubstep Vol. 1

DJ Mixtools follows the construction kit mantra, breaking down ready-made songs into their stems.The latest release sees dubstep take the stage, and with four full tracks broken down in chunks of either 32 or 64bars, there’s a lot to pick and choose from. There’s definitely enough beats and effects here to top up your third and fourth deck with ‘filler’ material for your DJ set (that’s the primary idea behind the series), while the basslines and more melodic samples will be at home in the studio. The production quality and overall vibe is convincing and the packs well worth the £15 for heaps of flexible and high quality dubstep samples, even if we are missing one-shots.

8/10

iDJ Review: Ghetto House by Loopmasters

When the term ‘ghetto’ is thrown around in the world of sample packs, a few things spring to mind. You might expect gunshots, fog horns, spin backs, and the occasional ‘whoop’. It can all get a bit generic, and quite frankly it sounds pretty sire on the dance floor. Thankfully, Ghetto House isn’t the ghetto one would imagine. It’s really just house beats with a hip hop twinge, and that’s a winning formula. They’re all nicely done and cover a lot of the house spectrum, so this isn’t just for fans of big basslines and bangers, either – though those are included in the music loops, if that’s what floats your boat!

iDJ Review: Monodeluxe Deep House by Loopmasters

Weighing in at 411MB, Monodeluxe’s offering serves up plenty of loops and samples. There’s loads of variation in the drum loops, with the option to lose the kick if that’s your thing. There’s also a wide range of tempos to choose from, so you’re not limited to the peaktime pace that you’re often lumbered with in sample packs. While the drums and percussion sound great, the music loops, such as the guitar licks and piano stabs, do sway the way of the dairy counter a tad too much. If you’re looking for something original then you may be disappointed – but then if you want something original, maybe you should create it yourself...

Future Music Review: Ghetto House by Loopmasters

If you like to whack out the kind of tunage that usually finds itself challenging the suspension of hot hatches with full body-kits, then this could be right up your chrome plated exhaust pipe.

Taking its lead from the likes of Adam F, Redlight and Zinc, this 726MB pack is full of bouncy bass-lines and filtered beats. The 250 loops run at a very club-friendly 127 and 131 and you get another 360 single shots to play on with. As is increasingly common among sample packs these days, 64 soft sampler patches put the Crack firmly in the Ghetto House.

Verdict: 8/10

DJ Mag Review: Dubmatix Automatic Reggae

Producers like Robot Koch, Diplo and Switch have all borrowed heavily from dancehall, dub and reggae and combined them with modern electro sounds to come up with something fresh and slightly different.

Step forth “Automatic Reggae” by Loopmasters – the newest sample library in their artist series range from Canadian dub and reggae maestro Dubmatix.

As the name suggests, this sample pack heads up the reggae-inspired genres, from old school King Tubby dub to reggae, Dubstep, D&B and root-flavoured downtempo music. This selection of musical loops and samples has been carefully fused with modern technologies for producers not just of dub n’ reggae, but anyone wanting to get a feel of the Major Lazer-style electro sound.

Coming in at 1.4GB’s worth of samples, the pack consists of deep bass loops, drum from 60-180BPM, guitars, melodies, organs, synths, percussion and drum loops which are also broken down into single drum hits, fills, FX samples and miscellaneous sounds.

The only thing not included is the kitchen sink!

If you are looking for dub and roots samples in the classic rockers tradition ,or wanting to step out of the classic comfort zone, then Dubmatix’s ‘Automatic Reggae” sample pack is worth a look.

Music Tech Review: Deep Tech & Progressive

There seems to be a big increase in the number of tech house samples packs released over the last few months, possibly due to the shift in clubland away from the heavier electro sound to something a little more minimal and more cerebral. “Deep Tech & Progressive” is the latest pack from Wave Alchemy, blending the deep melodies of progressive house with driving rhythms and sounds of techno and tech house.

The pack is available as a download in a variety of formats including WAV and REX2, Apple Loops, Live Pack and ReFill. You also get 600 individual drum hits laid out across 30 sample instruments for Battery, Kontakt, NN-XT, HALion, EXS24 and SFZ, which are available separately in a “drums only” download. In total this works out at over 950MB of 24-bit samples and is spreading across three main folders comprising bass loops, drum loops and synth and combi loops, plus the aforementioned drum and FX hits.

From the outset it’s clear to see that Wave Alchemy has raised the already high bar the company set with its previous releases. The quality of production that has been lavished on every single loop and hit is second-to-none, with each thick sounding beat, throbbing bass and lush synth sound leaping from the speakers. This is no doubt due to WA’s amazing studio skills combined with a long list of classic analogue synths and an extensive array of high-end processing gear.

The result is a collection that already sounds full and mastered to perfection. Of course, this could put some people off if you want to add your own additional layers and compression, as the drums in particular are already heavily compressed. The synth and bas loops have plenty of modulation, movement and inventive effects, while the individual drum hits are tight and meticulously crafted.

Arguably the only downside is the lack of flexibility that such an already full-sounding set of loops offers. We would have liked to have seen some of the full drum grooves and synth/combi loops broken down into individual elements to aid in arrangement. That aside though, this is a stunning collection of high-quality and imaginative loops and hits.

Datatransmission Review: Essential Dance Basses

A cost-effective solution to getting a bunch of classic, distinctive dance music sounds is always going to be welcome. While some might bemoan the (over)use of known presets, there are certain sounds that are simply part of the DNA of dance music – part of the original orchestra, if you will. Acid, Reeses, Hoovers – you know what I'm getting at.

This new pack from Loopmasters is, therefore, a godsend. With over 2380 samples across 400MB taken from classic beasts like the Roland Jupiter 4 (a favourite of Jamie Jones'), Korg MonoPoly (a Depeche Mode mainstay), MS20 (see Daft Punk) and the Arp Odyssey (Kraftwerk anyone?) Essential Dance Basses has got a hell of a lot going for it, whatever genre you produce. The pack includes more than 2380 samples which have been mastered to 24Bit, and weighs in just shy of 400MB – with more than 100 patches at your disposal. There's so much to enjoy here, from clean-as-a-whistle subs to the plump electro bass, to phat pre-enveloped patches to acid house throwbacks, and if you skip up the octaves on many of the patches, you get bright, lush stab and chord sounds galore.

Everything sounds pristine, and with such great sounds at your fingertips, it's so easy to come up with something that sounds great in no time. Use your sampler's controls to give these classic sounds your own twist and to get even more variety out of them – slap Unison on some of these basses and the sound is truly monstrous. Endless hours of fun, this is a pack that you'll want to come back to for pretty much everything you make, such is its depth and versatility. An absolute bargain.

Golden Ticket Promotion: Novation, Rane, Serato & Loopmasters!

Novation have teamed up with Rane, Serato and Loopmasters to launch the Golden Ticket campaign. Willy Wonka's chocolate factory this is not: we will be giving away 25 pairs of special edition gold Dicers, five gold Launchpads, 50 pairs of special edition Golden Ticket Serato control vinyl, and a gold Rane Sixty-Eight mixer! Added up, the total value of the prizes amounts to over $5000, and that's not counting the priceless special edition Serato control vinyl!

Golden Tickets can be found inside every special edition box of Rane SL 1 and SL 3 interfaces as well as TTM 57SL and Sixty-Eight mixers. Every single ticket unlocks over 500MB of sample content hand picked by the Loopmasters team, but only a handful are linked to the hardware prizes.

Golden Mixer

To discover if yours is a winning ticket, head to novationmusic.com/goldenticket, where you can also watch DMC champion Blakey putting the prizes through their paces (including the Loopmasters samples) with The Bridge - Ableton and Serato's DJ software collaboration.

Waveformless: Wave Alchemy Tech House & Minimal

"Tech House & Minimal" is the latest offering from UK sample developers Wave Alchemy. This collection contains not only the loops and drum sounds consistent with their previous offerings, but also features some outstanding multi-sampled synth sounds. The drum loops in this collection are divided into tempo-based folders at 125, 127, and 130 BPM. If you're using the REX versions of these loops, this is less of a concern, as the loops are all sliced very well and translate over a broader range of tempos with very few artifacts. In addition to full drum loops, some "top only" loops without a kick drum are also available allowing you to customize the beats with your own kick parts. In addition to the drum-oriented loops, there's also a generous selection of bassline and synth part loops, allowing you to build full arrangements from the loops alone if that's your thing. As always, the melodic loops contain the key they are in as part of the file name, so finding compatible loops is quick and simple. The general style of the loops is very quirky, creative, and - dare I say it - light-hearted. Despite the minimal precision of the loops, I found a lot of them to have an almost cheerful tone to them. As you might expect from a Wave Alchemy collection, the sound choice and production is outstanding. While the loops trend to the lighter end of the spectrum, the sounds are all extremely clear, present, and punchy as hell. Understanding that you'll probably want to augment these loops with some programming of your own, Wave Alchemy has included over 400 one-hit drum samples. These are separated into folders marked Glitch & FX Perc, Hats, Kicks, Snares & Claps, and Synth Perc. The sound palette here is unmistakably electronic, mixing expertly compressed and EQed electronic kicks and snares with bloops, sweeps, and tweaks consistent with the collection's quirky mood. The sounds are an interesting combination of retro analog funkiness with unmistakably modern production - tight compression, near perfect EQ, and nice stereo separation where relevant. Most of these sounds would be at home in just about any style of electronic dance music, but the percussive effects will be of particular interest to those looking to add an unusual flavor to their rhythms. The collection would be a great value if this is all it contained, but Wave Alchemy has also included 23 multi-sampled synth sounds sourced from machines like the Korg MS-20, Moog Voyager, FutureRetro XS and more. These sounds are all great and sound as analog as you would expect from machines like these. Stylistically, they'd be useful in pretty much any style that favors vintage synths, not just tech house and minimal. I would LOVE to see Wave Alchemy release a collection of nothing but multi-sampled synths. The synth sounds share the same high production quality as the drum sounds, and I think it would be of great interest to musicians who love the sound of real analog, but can't afford the price of entry.I keep waiting for Wave Alchemy to screw up with a sample library. Not because I expect them to be incompetent, but because their collections are so scarily consistent in their excellence. Not every library may be to your stylistic preferences, but you can be assured that what's there is going to sound great right out of the box, so you can spend your time making music instead of trying to tweak sounds to perfection. Highly recommended. [10/10]

SoundOnSound Review: Drum Tools - Minimal Techno & Tech House

Drum Tools has been produced and recorded by Wave Alchemy’s Daniel Byers and Steven Heath. The two have all the gear necessary for making modern electronic music and, more importantly, know how to achieve the right sounds for the various sub?genres tackled by each of their sample collections. Minimal Techno & Tech House is a very specific title, telling us exactly what to expect from the content, although it is also applicable to electronic music in general. As indicated by the word ‘tools’, the collection contains the basic building blocks needed for producing minimal techno and tech house, the onus being on the musician to use them in the right way. Indeed, there are no editable ‘sound banks’ like those used by Ueberschall’s Elastik player, nor are there any loops or grooves. There are, however, kit patches formatted for all the major software samplers and dithered 16?bit versions of the 24?bit WAV files to cater for hardware samplers and memory-precious setups.

Some libraries inexplicably divide their content across an unfathomable system of folders; Wave Alchemy, on the other hand, have done the right thing and organised their 1950 samples into a logically conceived set of folders, which can be navigated in a matter of seconds. The main folders are dedicated to individual sound types like claps, crash cymbals, hi-hats and kick drums. Where it’s been necessary to narrow things down more precisely, however, the library employs further layers of sub-folders. Percussion, for example, contains the descriptively named Blips & Pops and Toms & Tones folders, amongst others. Similarly, in Snares, a Classic Snares sub-folder holds a familiar, but essential, set of hits, while Layered Snares contains non-standard creative combinations. Folders such as Sound Effects and Glitch collect together miscellaneous experiments, which are reasonably varied but still recognisably appropriate for the genre. Also included is a list of gear that was used for generating sounds and shaping them, highlighting the point made by the team that everything was ‘created from the ground up’. Predictably, Roland’s TR808, TR606 drum and TB303 bass synthesizers were called upon when crafting some of the content, as were a Korg MS20 and ARP Odyssey, but there are also some live recordings and material created on slightly more exotic instruments, such as the Vermona DRM MkII and Elektron Machinedrum. In general, the samples are clean and punchy, having been recorded using some truly top-end analogue processors, although one or two clearly overloaded something during recording. The editing, apparently done by hand, ensures that the attack of each sample comes in straight away, so layering multiple sounds works well and there is no particular need to trim samples further. Creating samples can be fun, but it’s sometimes better to let experts do the donkey work. That is precisely the point of this very well-conceived product.

Tom Flint

Real Strings Vol 2 review in Future Music

Real Strings - one of the holy grails of the musician/producer and next to impssible to get hold of without spending huge amounts of cash. Thankfully Pete Whitfield has taken time out from his film and TV work to put together this awesome collection. Aimed at the Hybrid/Cinematic Orchestra end of the Dance spectrum this is a must have.

126 loops ranging from 110-140bpm comes as huge (widescreen, if you will) and stripped back versions as well as 12 MIDI files allowing you to program your own parts.

12 construction kits finish of what is for me a
complete 'need'.

Real Strings - the title says it all. 10/10

Loopmasters, Ltd Appoints Reach Sales Group To Lead Artist Relations And Business Development For The US And Latin American Markets

Brighton, England, April 11, 2011- Loopmasters Ltd., has named Reach Sales Group as its exclusive representative to lead artist relations and business development for the U.S. and Latin American market. The announcement was made by Loopmasters Director, Matt Pelling, which is indicative of the continued growth of the company, due in part to the ongoing global expansion of its brand.

Under the direction of Managing Director Richard Mercado, Reach Sales Group will employ their knowledge and understanding of both U.S and Latin American markets on behalf of Loopmasters. Reach Sales Group will leverage their existing network of high-profile artist and manage the U.S artist relations team across a wide range of musical genres. Reach Sales Group will also identify and create new business opportunities across a variety of marketing channels. Richard has over 13 years experience in the MI and Pro Audio industry. He has worked with prominent companies such as Yamaha Corporation of America and Global Sales Management. While at Global Sales Management, Richard helped manage brands such as Audio Technica, Denon Pro, Allen & Heath, Turbosound, Rane, Serato, LabGruppen, Denon DJ, Marantz, Tannoy, Blue Sky, Odyssey, and TC Electronic. Richard is also a highly respected international DJ and music producer with over 20 years of experience.

Matt Pelling commented, "We are extremely pleased to partner with Reach Sales Group and Richard Mercado to expand our U.S. and Latin American operations, and see this as a great opportunity to work with a company who understands the direction of Loopmasters. Reach Sales Group has strong connections and an impressive track record in the Pro Audio and DJ industry".

Future Music Review: Deep Tech & Progressive by Wave Alchemy

We've been following Wave Alchemy's output very closely since they arrived on the scene a couple of years ago and we've yet to be disappointed.

Following a series of excellent drum and effects packages, the guys turn their attention to the melodic world of Deep Tech and Progressive House with this outstanding 950MB package!

Over 1,300 samples are included, all clocking in at 125-130bpm to slot straight into your productions. All major formats are catered for, plus the 600 individual drum hits are organised into patches for every common sampler plug-in.

Great stuff from a consistently good company!

Rating 10/10

Future Music Review: Ils - The Sound Of Breaks

Having cut his teeth with LTJ Bukem's label before releasing "Idiots Behind The Wheel", which was hailed by some as the first Nu-Skool Breaks album, Ils has very kindly delved into his own sound bank to produce this pack for Loopmasters.

48 soft sampler patches of "bass and stabs" as well as loops in the basses, leads, breaks, stabs and FX categories with some one shots thrown in fill up ths 16-bit 206MB pack. It'sa pretty versatile pack, lending itself to Dubstep and D'n'B practitioners as well as Nu Jazzists and Break heads.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review: Progressive House & Tech

Taking it's flavour from FM cover stars the Swedish House Mafi, Funkagenda, Deadmau5 as well as labels Toolroom, Stealth and the like, this is 90MB of pretty much everything you need for your Progressive House shed.

All loops and samples are set to 126BPM for easy usage, andyou get 45 "ready to play" House Bass patches for all the usual players. 11 Construction kits and 27FX samples plus the standard drum, bass and synth loops completes this comprehensive pack. If you're looking for some of the freshest sounds from the clubs, this this could be a great virtual stocking filler.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: World Drum Sessions - Balkan Drums

Having decided that your next track is going to have a distinctly Eastern European edge to it how do you proceed? Well respected drummer Yoav Bunzel has got together with Earth Moments to give you a head start - 518MB of Balkan Drums. 132 Loops andpatters spread across the 100 to 120 bpm ballpark with another 48 at 174bpm or above.

The definitive beauty of this pack is its "odd" time signatures. Included you will find grooves in 3/8, 9/8, 5/8, and 7/8, which is a refreshing change and will no doubt get you thinking and creating in different and exciting ways - as well as annoying your flat mates!

Verdict: 8/10

Public Records NEW website and voting stage launched!

It's with great pleasure that we’d like to announce the launch the brand new Public Records website, along with the voting and comment stage for PR02 (House, Trance, Techno).

It's been a busy couple of months getting the new site put together, but we think you'll find it was worth the effort! Head on over to Public Records and check out some of the new features on the site and our new look - and while you are at it check out some of the fantastic submissions for this stage!

We've decided to go with a House/Trance/Techno release based on the strength of recent submissions - who knows what's coming next, it all depends on what you all send us.

Now that we have the new site up and running we hope to be much more consistent with our voting phases and release schedules, soyou’ll be hearing more from us over the coming months.

The current comment/voting stage is open until the end of January, so there's plenty of time to head over to the site and get involved in supporting your favourite artist/s or track/s. And of course, you can ALWAYS submit your masterpiece to us using the dropbox on the site.

You can check out all the submissions that made it to the current voting stage in the player below before heading on over to our site to cast your votes and leave your feedback.

Finally, we'd like to sincerely thank all of you for ongoing support. Here’s to a great year ahead!

Public Records Submissions Release 2 by PublicRecords

Here's The Gift, Our Dear Producers!

Needless to say, Christmas is around the corner. And what's it known for? Santa, the Reindeer, snow, the Christmas Tree... eggnogg... err... Gifts! Since we're all in this holiday mood we felt we'd fill your Xmas stocking with samples and loops from the best of the best.

The audio candy that's there for you has different flavours. These are: Andy Karakasis, High Rankin, Justin Robertson, Meat Katie, Prince Fatty, Rasmus Faber, Semus Haji & Paul Emanuel, Timo Maas, Total Science and Utah Saints. Hmmm... tasty! Just download and unwrap with your favourite unwrapping application ;).

There's more sweet coating on this, however. The 185MB of free samples that we're giving away comes from sample packs that are unreleased - they will see the light of day next year. So... you're putting your hands on samples that are not available anywhere else in the world!

The first two links come now and the third will follow just before Christmas. Stay tuned!

Free Download Pack Part 1

Free Download Pack Part 2

Free Download Pack Part 3

Interview With Rennie Pilgrem

What's new in the world of Rennie Pilgrem,, what projects do you have on the go at the moment?

I am just finishing my first film score for a movie called 'The Fix'. I have just finished a batch of stuff for a couple of Library companies for use on TV both on my own and as Bush Doctors (which is a new project I do with Jem Stone from Fingerlickin'). We are just sorting out our first monthly residency, which will start in January at a new venue called The Raving Budda in Shepherd's Bush West London. I am also half-way through volume 3 of my Street Legal Series. Which will be another double EP of modern fuinkiness.

How did you get into Music Production? What’s your musical background?

My background was as a keyboard player saxophonist until I heard early Rave in 1989 whereupon I put down my horn and picked-up and Atari and a sampler instead. I cut my teeth making records as part of Hardcore outfit Rhythm Section.

How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?

Whichever comes first...drumbeats suggest melodies to me and melodies fit with certain drumbeats. I usually do a rough demo in Ableton, getting the vibe and tempo right and then bring the project into Logic.

You’re well known for your long running TCR imprint, what’s happening with the label now?

At the moment I am just using it as a vehicle for my own music because the world of digital does not really support releasing other artist's material currently.

You’ve been acknowledged as the pioneer of ‘Nu Skool Breakz’. Is this acknowledgement a daunting thought when you sit down to make music?

Sometimes being known for one style can hold you back because people expect that genre from you, but I am currently experimenting with lots of different styles which is exciting for me. You can't beat a fat beat though.

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this when compared to creating musical productions?

Well it made a nice change to concentrate creating small chunks of audio that would be good to use as building blocks in other people's tunes. The hardest part was letting go of stuff that I wanted to use myself.

When you made your pack, were you worried that producers were going to be sampling, or trying to recreate your sound?

No because the whole point is that you are providing artists with your sounds with a view to them twisting them to suit their own work. And one of the great things about these packs are people using material from outside their comfort zone...that's where interesting music comes from. EG a drum n bass dude using stuff from a Deep House collection etc.

Being an in demand DJ, do you prefer smashing dancefloors across the world, or getting in the studio and writing music?

I still like to DJ becasue it's still a huge buzz to get a crowd-going but it has always been about creating music for me. That's my first love and always will be.

Is there one gig or country that stands out in particular in your years of travelling the globe performing?

Yes Australia, for 15 years I have been going there and having great gigs meeting people who are very knowledgeable about the music I have been making.

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

Things are very tough now. I would say have another means of earning a living first and do it for love, don't be scared to be different and if you get a break it's a bonus.

Logic-Courses.com Now Open. Find Out How To Get A Discount!

A revolutionary new way of learning now delivers a new suite of tuition materials. With Live-Courses.com already successful, alive and kicking for quite a while, ProducerTech.com introduce Logic-Courses.com. This training suite delivers a learn-as-you-progress series of courses on Apple's top music production package - Logic Studio.

The courses have been custom-designed by a Qualified Instructor - Rob Jones. Divided into two distinct packages, the courses are aimed at the Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced users. Flatten the learning curve with modular training and learn from any place in the world - your courses stay available to you in your profile so you can watch them from any desktop or laptop computer.

Master your music production skills using Logic - from music production to sound design and beyond! All the powerhouse features packed in this superb software become unveiled before your very eyes and enable you to harness this top-notch DAW in very short time.

With the course you get nearly 700MB of royalty-free samples courtesy of Loopmasters and Novation Bass Station, courtesy of Novation.

If you want to satisfy your curiosity you can register at Logic-Courses.com and get 2 FREE modules with no obligation. There's also a free InfoPack available for you.

Sign up for the courses today and get a discount - right off the bat! Use this Coupon Code to get a 20% discount, which can be redeemed at the Logic-Courses.com checkout.

The Coupon Code is: LM20

Get your Logic skills upped today! Wait... want to save even more? This Coupon Code works also with Live-Courses.com. Save double and master the leading audio software.

IDJ Review: Deep Tech & Progressive By Wave Alchemy

Wow. Wave Alchemy sure know how to make a decent sample pack. Deep Tech & Progressive is a whopping 1.2GB of drum loops, bass loops, combi loops and, most importantly, individual hits. A huge amount of effort has been put into this, with every drum loop sounding simply exquisite.

There’s plenty of variation in there too; some loops are just percussion, while others have it all. Possible the best thing about this pack is the amount of individual hits you get to play with. Each hit oozes clarity, whether it’s a booming kick drum or a unique snap. This isn’t just for producers into deep or progressive house and techno, this is for anyone in the production. It’s worth every penny.

IDJ Review: DJ Mixtools 06 - Minimal Underground Techno Vol. 2

There’s been a lot of buzz about DJ MIxtools recently.
Native Instruments plan to give the packs away when you purchase a S4, and Pioneer have been endorsing them along with their new CDJs. The packs are designed to enhance your DJ Mixes adding new elements.

With Minimal Underground Techno you get four tracks that have been separated into various sections. These range from a full track to just the stripped back percussion. The production’s fantastic and the concept is a great idea, but it’s worth having a listen first as the tracks are pretty heavy and may not be what you are looking for if you want to keep it minimal.

IDJ Review: Jungle Ammunition by Loopmasters

With plenty of loops and one shots, Jungle Ammunition is perfect for the producers that like things big. While the pack is certainly not for the fainthearted among you, the bass loops and individual hits are nonetheless brilliantly done and sound absolutely massive.

The synth loops and hits do sound a bit cheesy at times, but still maintain that high quality production feel. What really stands out with this pack are the drum loops. They’re all varied and are produced in the way that allows you to tweak them to your own tastes. Nothing is overly compressed or processed, which also gives you plenty of freedom.

IDJ Review: Speaker Junk Bass Heavy House by Loopmasters

This pack contains everything you would expect from these two wobblesome warriors. There’s plenty of bass, beefy kick drums and quirky percussion that’ll make you, dare I say it, fidget. The stand out element however is the drum folder. Here there’s everything from full on breaks through to groove ridden percussion, all of which should suit the big rooms just as well as the underground basements.

The only downside to the pack is that Speaker Junk have their mark all over the loops, so you’re going to find it hard to make your own sound out of what’s on offer. There are plenty of individual hits to help you along, though.

Rekkerd.org Review of Real Strings Vol. 2

Violinist, arranger and orchestrator Pete Whitfield has recently released his third strings sample library with Loopmasters, Realstrings Vol. 2: Cinematic Loops. The library features authentic strings samples recorded in Pete’s studio, where he also records real strings for major labels, TV companies and radio/media companies.

Pete writes:

I’ve taken, for inspiration, the music of artists like Hybrid, Cinematic Orchestra and Bjork and the media scores that capture a similar feel.

There are 126 loops (mostly 4 bars) at tempos from 110 – 140; they each offer a distinctive character as individual loops, but they are also organised into 12 construction kits.

This is the 1st time I’ve tried this and the feedback from writers and producers is already very positive, so the next pack will do a similar thing but slower tempos and darker moods."

The 126 loops are available in 24 bit/44.1kHz wav format, as well as Rex2 loops (an Apple Loops version is available separately).

Divided up into 12 sequence kit folders the loops include chords, melodic lines, held notes, figures, etc. that work well together. Basically like construction kits. The folders and files are well structured, indicating key, tempo, and type of sound.

Besides audio loops you will also find various scores for violin and cello as MIDI sequences, as well as in Sibelius format and printed scores in Acrobat PDF. Pete’s passion for his work shows.

Having these sequences is really useful as you can make modifications to the phrases and use your own sample library or virtual instrument. In the example below I used Tone2′s ElectraX synthesizer to play a phrase from sequence 3.

Realstrings Vol. 2 continues in the same vein as the previous two string sample packs by Pete Whitfield on the Organic Loops label. This is a collection of outstanding orchestral strings loops. Dynamic, emotional, dramatic, and real. The themes are inspiring and useful in many music genres like hip hop, chill, house, film and game soundtracks, etc.

The construction kit approach works well and having a collection of MIDI sequences is a big bonus.

“I love my work!” it says on Pete’s website. His sample libraries are a reflection of this statement. If you are in need for some high quality strings loops you can’t go wrong with the Realstrings sample packs.

Verdict: 9/10

Electronic Musician Review Of Live Lounge

Andre Touhey of CueSounds delivers an extensive library of downtempo funk, R & B, and soul-oriented loops, hits, effects, and sampler instruments in Live Lounge (approximately $46) from Loopmasters (loopmasters.com).

The 1GB collection starts with nearly 500 one-and two-chord loops in an assortment of major keys at tempos ranging from 90bpm to 115bpm. Those comprise individual instruments (brass, guitar, keys, strings, and synths), as well a full drum kits and single percussion instruments. Beyond that, you’ll find more than 400 hits including individual drum kit-pieces, pads, Rhodes chords, scratches, and effect. And when you’re having trouble getting the engine started, the Motifs folder of 52 short mixes is an excellent source of ideas.

The Main version of Live Lounge includes acidized WAV and REX2 files, along with sample patches for Kontakt, HAlion, Reason NNXT, and EXS24. Ableton Live Pack, Apple Loops, and reason ReFill versions are sold separately.

DJ Mag Review: House Builds And Breakdowns

This month we take a look at Push Button Bang’s utility sample pack ‘House Builds and Breakdowns’, a collection of samples to give your tracks that extra production flair with crescendos and climaxes to give that peak-time hands in the air moment.

This sample pack features 1.2gigs of FX, melodies, tonal sounds and rhythm loops which have been created to help deliver epic builds or drop points in your musical arrangements, but users are not just limited to using ‘House Builds & Breakdowns’ just in musical productions as the pack lends itself nicely to DJs and performances, especially if using Ableton Live or the sample banks in Traktor and Serato.

The pack is broken down into sections – FX, Tonal and Rhythmic – with all the samples offering the types of sounds and noises that would go to make up huge epic breakdowns. Instantly creating dance floor tensions on the fly is easy using the elements of the pack, and the pack isn’t just confined to one genre. The loops on offer range from two to 64 bars in length, with tempos at 126 and 128 BPM, and come in the now usual formats.

Verdict: 7/10

Elektron Octatrack Loaded With Loopmasters Samples

On Dec. 20th 2010 the music producers will have a new powerful tool - the Elektron Octatrack. Dubbed as Dynamic Performance Sampler it introduces massive live sampling potential to the producer and the DJ alike. Whether you need to catch a groove from the turntable and mash it up or need to churn out music - the uber-intuitive interface and extensive real-time processing capabilities make it the trendsetter in the years to come.

The sampler ships with a 4GB Compact Flash card… with 2GB of Loopmasters samples pre-installed! Now getting your creative juices flowing will be a snap. The proud owners of the Octatrack will find a wide selection of musical genres for the dancefloor or for chart-topping radio hits: Breaks/DnB, Dubstep, Electro, Hip Hop, House, Techno and Trance. Drum loops, basslines, synth grooves and more PLUS one-shot samples complete the picture. High craftsmanship and sampling excellence now come together in a single box.

Make sure to get your Electron Octatrack DPS-1 for Christmas - it's the perfect gift for… yourself!

Find out more at http://www.elektron.se

Live-Courses.com - Powered by Loopmasters!

Live-courses.com is a new website which features two Ableton Live online video courses for Beginners/Intermediate and Advanced level students. The courses are designed and delivered by Ableton Certified trainer Rob Jones.

The online video training courses can be studied at times which suit you, wherever you are located. They are supported by course materials, notes and projects which you download as you progress, making this the first course of its kind in the music software industry!

This is what the deal has got in store for you:

Modular Format
Online Delivery
Custom Access 24/7/365
Certified Trainer
Course Notes for every Module
Certificate on completion
Ableton Live 8 compatible
Online forums for discussion

And that's a given. In addition to this modern classroom facility you get yer freebies as well:

Free Novation Bass Station Synth
Over 750 MB of free Royalty Free samples (yes, you've guessed it - from Loopmasters)

Please Note: If you register today you can get 1 Free 20 Minute Video from each course and a full Info Pack absolutely FREE!

Special: Loopmasters visitors get 20% off all courses with this exclusive coupon code :

COUPON CODE : LM20

Master Ableton Live whenever you like and wherever you like. Open the classroom door yourself - your login is your key.

Single Courses are £149 with a special promo on both courses for just £225 (less your 20% of course)

If you feel your skills could use some polishing, or if you are simply looking for inspiring workflow tips be sure to visit http://www.live-courses.com

What are you waiting for?

Go register and check out the Free Sample Videos now!

Interview With Monodeluxe

What's new in the world of Monodeluxe, what projects do you have on the go at the moment?

I am just working on a new cd album for little angel/soulstar records.This will be my third cd album in collaboration with Harley & Muscle since 2004.I am also working as a producer/remixer on my own new label KLANG RECORDINGS in collaboration with new and established producers.

How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?

Well..everything starts with an idea, with a certain mood or feeling that you are wanting to express in music. I draw inspiration from numerous places like vinyls, cd's, tv and radio. This happens on a spontaneous instinctive level of almost inconsciousness, then my head starts taking control by organizing what I feel. So i'll turn to the computer and start playing some chords on the piano or keyboard at my home studio. Then I will take the first approach to what I would like to write. On the computer I write the beats first, combine them with chords then i'll layer that with a bass line and start adding melodies and arrangement. It's important that the beat is in tune with chords, more than the bassline. If you don't get to hung up on your original feeling or idea then you're on the right way to producing a good mix...but in music anything can happen. If you have a new idea that leads you in a totally different direction you'll end up writing something exceptional!!

What five pieces of studio equipment would you say determines your sound?

Computer equipment and music software is a basic. Soundcard and monitors are a must. I also have additional hardware mixers and soundmodule equipment. It's also important to have good music software (audio/midi) like virtual instruments and sfx plugins and for the end to have good audio mastering tools for your mix.

What production technique do you think is really overused/annoying?

This is hard to say as every technique has it's own music history and special sound character. It's really up to everyone how they like to produce. Nowadays maybe combinations of different techniques are intersting to follow, the market is offering fantastic music solutions like software and hardware.

Being an in-demand DJ, do you prefer smashing dance floors across the world or creating music?

The approach is different. Studio work and production, in most cases are not stressed by time windows. The club is more a live entertainment and performance thing, both are creative moments. The result on a dancefloor is immediate and the studio is more elaborated...i do love both situations.

What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?

It's impossible to be inspired 24/7.It's not human, also in music creation there are time outs. There must be so you can re-fill yourself with new attractions, life experiences and emotions. This helps you recharge your soul and mind and put a fresh attitude into your sound. I like going for a walk in town, reading, drinking coffee, going out with friends, parents, daughter...just life.

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this compared to creating musical productions?

It's a very unique experience. You really try to put the best possible ideas and skills into it to really create something useful that works and can fulfill the intent of offering immediate sound and musical inspiration for the people. It's a head orientated systematic way of working, but still very emotional. The time window is also more extended as working on a remix or a new music track production, sample packs take months while tracks takes days or at max, weeks.

When you made your pack, were you worried that producers were going to be sampling, or trying to recreate your sound?

Oh I didn't even think of it like that. I just want it to be enjoyed by people to help them create music for there own amusements. Many producers, past or new take influence from elsewhere until they find out that the most important thing is to create what you feel and what you are as a producer. Sure, taking inspiration from others is useful but it's not necessery to copy them. It's useful to learn by listening to music and trying to evolve that way. So at the end of the day it's up to us what we want to do with this wonderful gift called music.

Who are you listening to at the moment, any new artists we should know about?

I was doing a new music chart recently for an established digital store and it was amazing to see how much good music and the amount of quality there is out there. I had a great time lsitening to all these blessed producers from around the world. I dont remember all the names...but the fact that they exist makes me feel good. Now speeking about electronic music, of course we all know the geniuses that inspired the music world for decades like the Police, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, but that's another story!

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

I love well produced music in terms of sound quality. That's also what the industry is looking for in order to get signed with labels or distributions, but its not the essence of musical talent. I believe people are born with this gift and skill, you can learn and become better as for everything you do in life, but the real talented one is the one that can say more with 3 notes than the other can with an entire repertoire. Discover where your real talent and power is in music and you'll move mountains. Be different and don't be scared to try out new stuff...

Plughugger Review of Deep Tech & Progressive by Wave Alchemy

Wave Alchemy have a solid reputation of being one of the top players among the creators of sample libraries, and with their latest product they show they're not afraid of pushing the boundaries.

Last time I laid my perverted hands on a library from Wave Alchemy was a couple of months back when I got the opportunity to write about their Drum Tools 01 collection of processed drum samples. Since then they have been working on a new library, just released - aimed for the more quirkier and darker side of techno. This time, it's not just drum sounds on the menu, but also loops - drum, bass and synths.

The library contains three main folders - drum hits, sound effects and wav loops. There are Rex loops as well, but for the sake of clarity I've chosen to forget about them.

Let's start with the drums.

The drum hits folder is divided into kick, snares & claps, hihats, crash cymbals, electronic percussion and world percussion

Kick - 144
Snare - 48
Clap - 17
Hihats - 37
Crash - 15
Electronic percussion - 196
World percussion - 135
Sound effects - 62
Bass loops - 116
Drum loops - 434
Synth and combi - 104
Total number of single sounds - 654
Total number of loops - 654
Total number of samples - 1308
Tempo - 125, 127 and 130 bpm

Although Deep Tech and Progressive is not exclusively a drum library, that's were the focal point is. Just look at the kicks - 144 kick drums. Personally - I prefer libraries with smaller amounts of single drum shots. They become easier to handle. But quantity aside, these sounds are excellent!

Although quite processed & compressed, the kicks doesn't require unproportionate amounts of space in the frequency domain. Mainly the kicks are keeping themselves on the lower end of the scale. You can hear some relatives to the the boomy 808 and classic 909, but most of the kicks are in the 'other' category. Electronic. Most of the kicks have a sharp transient click in the beginning - which gives them definition, even if the rest of the kick is as deep at it gets.

The snares are in the same folder as the claps - something I personally find both convenient and logical. As in electronic genres, the border between a clap and a snare is at times diffuse. In total there are 65 sounds here and of them 48 are snares, leaving 17 claps which I felt was a bit on the low side, but that has more to do with my personal fetish for claps over snares. As with the kicks - top quality all over the range, and the variety is mixed with anything from classic snappiness to electro with odd harmonic layers. I would say that these snares/claps can work for just about any electronic style, not just Deep Tech or Progressive.

The hihat section also features the same mixed approach. After a few Roland-esque hihats, the vast majority can be labeled as electronic hisses and tonal klonks. There is no clear division between open and closed hihats, but since we're only talking about 37 samples - it's not an issue. It's easy enough to find the stuff you want. I liked these samples a lot, and it also shows that in no more than 37 samples you can practically cover most bases from 909 oh's to noisy hisses to more tonal hits.

Moving on to the percussion side of things, you see that this is where the real energy have been put into. The electro and 'world' sounds combined - 331 sounds.

Starting off with the electro-percussion - this collection is a bit like a lost and found category. The usefulness of the sounds are still very high and stretches from electro-congas and toms, to clicks, kick-like sounds (but not entirely), cowbells (yesyes), effects and even synth sounds. 808 and 909 toms and congas make an appearance with quite a few tunings.

On their own - these sound may strike you as what you normally would consider a box of lost and forgotten items - but on top of a foundation of the kicks, snares and hats - these sounds actually set the character of the drums. Since there are not so many assembled drum kits (complaint on this coming further on) I spent ten-fifteen minutes assembling my own kits. Starting with the kick, I added snares and hihats as I seemed fit - as the last stage I added the percussion elements, by programming a percussion line in Guru while the rest of the drums were playing. Then I was flipping through the percussion sounds until I found something that matched.

The 'world' percussive sounds are synthesized imitations of real world percussion sounds - which actually is extremely cool. I don't know how many libraries I've been listening to where they've included acoustic percussion to an otherwise very synthetic library. For a limited number of sounds - it works, but essentially you're no longer playing in the same sound arena. Here, the sounds have the groovy sliding feelings with waterdrums, djembes and atonal qualities inspired by eastern percussion, but still have a clear synthetic edge.

There were many things I liked about the sound effects. They sound original and keep well into the definitions of the library. While processed - they still feel quite clean. There are no booming reverbs or endless delays, something that I found quite relieving. Although the reverb + delay combo (in that order to be exact) is a weakness of mine, in many cases it actually sounds better without. Here, you at least get the option. The variety of sounds span from wobbly dark soundscapes, to up & downsweeps and assorted computer-ish noises. Good good good.

Moving on to the bass loops - these loops were the first thing that surprised me since I was expecting classic basslines and booming subbasses. Well, there are a lots of those as well, but in all honesty I found these loops to be, quite odd. Many of them consists of only one tone with a fair amount of processing. Dark, quirky and... odd. I wouldn't go so far to say this is as far away from pop you can get, but it's like you're walking in a snowy pine forest and suddenly you see a herd of giraffes galloping by. It's not exactly what you expect. Although I might personally classify some of them as effects - the quality is outstanding! and I can't do anything else than applaud Wave Alchemys balls to create such a weird collection of loops. Weird, cool, earcatching. Useful? Probably. I am not sure. But still. Very very cool.

Drum loops - let's start with the good stuff. They're good. If you're into that darkish underground vibe of Deep Tech, these score equal Ben & Jerrys, Mövenpick or Häagen-Dazs after a good dinner. Mainly these are four-fours but still sound astonishingly fresh, which means you don't fall into the four-on-the-floor-coma. The programming is clever - but obviously that is just a part of the explanation - even a simple loop with just a four-four kick and a hat on every second and fourth sounds great. Although I don't consider myself as a beginner programming loops - I cannot even touch these guys kung-fu.

My only complaints here regards the structure - I know some people disagree with me here, but I think it's a bit of a waste offering three tempos so close to each other - 125, 127 and 130 bpm.

Among the loops are both full loops and kick-less loops. Sadly there are no indications telling you which loops are kick-less and which aren't.

Lastly, the synth and combi loops is as disorganized as the drum loops - only here it's a bit more confusing. Some of the loops are plain and normal synth loops/stabs/chords - but some of them have other element in them. In many cases this is not a problem, but when you've found a nice mellow synth background and there is a hihat playing on top of it, and there is no alternative variations, I get a bit grumpy.

The style swings from dark and moody, to bright and moody. From blippy to smeared soundscapes. It's a bit like the experimental backbone of the bass loops.

Sampler patches only contains drum sounds collected in neat packages such as all claps & snares, all kicks, but there are a handful - not too many though - kits compiled with the sounds from the collection.

Tech and Progressive is a very fine sample library, well up to par of Drum Tools 01, but it's also the first product from Wave Alchemy I got a feeling of disappointment. Qualitywise - all is lovely. But I do miss single tonal sounds - a lot. Especially as many of the synth sounds are quite nifty.

Conclusion

Deep Tech and Progressive is a truly impressive library. As with Drum Tools 01 - Wave Alchemy have a certain taste and style for processing, and with this library they really show their talents in their drum programming skills. But the library isn't without flaws, especially the omission of single synth and bass sounds, which actually was a disappointment for me. And I can't for the world understand why they didn't include hihat-free versions of some of the synth loops. But apart from that - the library is top notch. Inspiring & well produced. Go get.

Pro Tone Review Of Deep Tech & Progressive

Right during the pro|tone startup phase we got our hands on a sample pack by Wave Alchemy, impressing us a lot with respect to what you pay and what you get this left us waiting for new stuff to come, which is why we got excited about the review inquiry of “Deep Tech & Progressive”, a fresh and all-new product from Wave Alchemy

Start up

First of all, the product is available in different formats (Wav & Rex – Drums only – Ableton – Reason – Apple Loops); our review focuses on the Wave & Rex version, which includes patches for the most common samplers (Battery, EXS, Halion, Kontakt, NNXT and SFZ) and delivers a total of 1.35 GB content.

Getting deep...

Listening to the drum sound section you quickly recognize the typical Wave Alchemy style - A clear sound with a touch of analogue warmth and colour.
Kicks range from punchy to pumping and subby, a complete care package at first sight. However, we’re missing variety here, maybe some mild layering or heavier effects – some kicks sound just too similar.

The electronic percussion was created to be smooth and clean, without excessive effects, thereby building a solid foundation for creativity. Surprisingly, this product also includes world percussion with water drums, djembes, chimes and others – something fancy to spice up a house track!

The sound effects section offers predominantly sweeps and lifters, all with a smooth and decent sound to it, often with a charming analog touch. Still, as this is the effect section, some heaver effect use would have been a plus to offer a larger variety. Something we definitely miss here are hits and impacts…

And deeper…

coming to the main part – the loops. Well, there are the bass loops, inspiring samples from deep to subby and 303-ish, not missing out on modern and driving. To get a cool effect, one should add a dose of sidechain later on. Althought basses are not the favored loops, this is still a nice addition to make this package a great overall deal. By the way, the tune of each of these loops is noted in the respective filename.

Drum loops are split by bpm counts and overall offer huge punch and reveal lots of fine, detailed work. Still, it could have been worth considering splitting them into bottom/top/perc/tonal, especially as there are tonal elements included here and there. However, we have to talk about a really critical point now - as good as the loops are, many of them are provided with a kick. Don’t get us wrong, the kick fits very well each time used, but still it narrows creative possibilities with the loops as reverse, cut’n'rearrange is just too often impossible…

Let’s switch over to synth and combi loops – a really great collection to add to your existing library. Typical pluck loops, chords with subtle pads and atmospheres – very inspiring work with a variety of facettes and a true highlight of this product.

Summary

To sum things up - Deep Tech & Progressive delivers well-crafted and inspiring samples at a great and professional quality and attractive pricing. Without the kick issue our rating would have been very easy – however, this doesn’t keep the product from being top-notch overall. Our highest recommendations!

Verdict: 9/10

Waveformless Give Full Marks To Deep Tech & Progressive

Sample developers Wave Alchemy are back with another collection of loops and drum sounds, this time setting their sights on the Progressive and Deep Tech genres. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably already know Wave Alchemy has a reputation for the excellent production quality of their previous sample libraries. Will this new collection match up? Let's have a look...

Like their earlier libraries, Deep Tech and Progressive is organized neatly into folders. These are separated into drum hits, REX files, sampler patches (where the drum hits are organized into kits in all the major soft sampler formats), sound FX, and WAV loops (same content as the REX files, just in WAV instead). This makes installing only what you absolutely need easy and convenient. As always, file names include the tempo and the musical key when relevant.

Let's have a look at the loops first. There are 654 in total, which are further organized into folders for bass loops, drum loops, and synth & combi loops. The bass loops are up first and they immediately establish this as a collection with a lot more grit and attitude than what we've heard previously from Wave Alchemy. Outboard analog gear, bit crushers, and all manner of clipping are employed to give these basslines some serious snarl. Don't get me wrong, though, although these are quite a bit dirtier-sounding, the grime is done tastefully and up to Wave Alchemy's usual sterling standard. It's hard and digital when it needs to be, warm and full of analog juju when it needs to be. Stylistically, there's a pretty wide range of sounds here. Most of these could fit perfectly in any number of modern dance genres quite well, so don't overlook it just because tech and progressive might not be your thing.

The drum loops are divided by tempo into selections at 125, 127, and 130 BPM. Immediately upon starting to auditioning these I am again struck by how these are different than anything I've heard from this company so far. Not that there was anything wrong with what they have already released, but the level of creativity on display here sets a new bar for them, I think. The drum loops all groove in the propulsive, throbbing way you might expect, but the production is extremely creative and makes these sound much more interesting and high-tech than your average dance loop library. Everything from clean and technical to bang-up and filthy is represented here, so you can probably find something you'll like regardless of what genre you normally inhabit. The production is top notch, and the low end especially is impressive in how clean and defined it sounds.

The synths and combis category basically consists of everything that isn't a bassline or drum loop. Lots of punchy stabs, echoing synths, and lush reverbs on display in riffs of varying complexity. While some are simply isolated synth lines, some of the more complex combi loops also include percussion or light rhythm parts. This category is really the most genre-specific one, so these might be of less interest to makers of non-house genres, but everything here is superbly done. Catchy riffs, memorable chord sequences, and crisp, present production.

If loops aren't your thing (and by the way, you can now buy a discounted version of this library featuring only the drums hits and omitting the loops), Wave Alchemy has your back with 600 individual drum sounds and 62 FX type sounds to create your own beats with. These are divided by folders for crash cymbals, electronic percussion, hi-hats, kick drums, snares & claps, and world percussion. You probably won't be surprised to find out that these are just as awesome as the loops. Combine creative sound design, tasteful use of effects, and character by the bucketload, and you've got a great-sounding buffet of modern club drum sounds. There's really nothing here I didn't like.

Usually when I receive a Wave Alchemy library to check out, I'm not terribly shocked when I end up liking it. There is a really consistent attention to detail with their products that you don't often see. With Deep Tech and Progressive, though, I think they've raised the bar for themselves and their future collections. Perhaps it was just the looser "rules" of the genres they were focused on, but this collection feels like they let their hair down a bit and allowed themselves to get a bit more creative and "out there" than they have up till now. I really hope they continue to explore the edgier, dirtier side of things more in the future. If you make dance music, just get it. You're not going to be disappointed!

Veridict: 10/10

Computer Music Review Pete Lockett World Percussion

This collection of top notch world percussion is from professional session percussionist Pete Lockett. The 455 WAVs and 403 REX loops comprise everything from tinkly symbols to thunderous Taiko drumming. Everything is recorded to a high standard, and there’s plenty of expressive playing.

This is a sensible purchase if you’re working on soundtracks or indeed any genre that could benefit from unusual percussion: you get a lot for the price and there’s some truly original work here.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: DJ Mix Tools 01 - Minimal Underground Techno

As the boundaries of conventional DJing blur into those of production, Loopmasters have jumped on the concept of “filler” material. Consisting of loops and FX made to fill and bridge the gaps in your mixes, DJ Mixtools is perhaps the most perfectly non-descript House music we’ve ever heard.

Made up of 16-, 32-, 64- and 128-bar parts, each is ready mapped for Ableton Live. It’s hard to fault DJ Mixtools – the price is right and the material delivers without imposing its style too much on your mix. If you want to make better use of your C and D decks in Traktor, or need an extra beat to smooth transitions in Live, this could well be for you.

Verdict: 8/10

Future Music Review Of Loopmasters DJ Mix Tools Series

Loopmasters have decided to try something a little different here. In each of the DJ Mixtools packs you get four tracks broken into their composite parts. And you do what with it you ask? Well, the theory is that the parts canbe used to scupt a “unique mix or DJ tool to work the crowd”.

So far Loopmasters have produced three packs: Minimal Underground Techno, Tech House and Deep Minimal, and Swedish House. Each pack ships with locked Drum and Bass grooves, loops that evolve over 32 and 64 bars, as well as top and bottoms, breakdowns etc. At 15 quid a pop, it’s cheaper than a night in the pub and could be a lot more fun! As with all samples these are royalty free so you can happily release them as your own should you wish.

Verdict: 7/10

Future Music Review: Ragga Vocals Vol. 2

Flinty Badman and Deman Rockers, otherwise knows as the Ragga Twins, take some time out from being the “Kings of Dancehall” and working with the likes of Shabba Ranks, Aquasky et al, to join Nick Deekline in a London studio to put together this rather large collection of Ragga Vocals. 1.9GB of raps and vocals sitting between 97 and 177BPM.

Dry and FX versions are supplied for ease of useand although not the cheapest pack, you have ot agree it’s a darn site cheaper than hiring a couple of Ragga legends for a session. Now get the dub in yo step.

Verdict: 8/10

IDJ Review: Jamie Anderson - Underground Tech House

With tons of different loops at various tempos, Jamie Anderson’s sample pack is certainly a winner. The drum loops have a wide range of tempos for tech house and are stripped back enough to allow room for your own elements.
There’s also different variations of each loop, so you’ve got a wide array of options to choose from.

The musical loops aren’t quite up to the standard of the drums, as they can be little bit cheesy in places. That shouldn’t put you off, though; there are still plenty of quirky elements in there, making this pack more than worth a punt.

IDJ Review: DaLata Afro Brasil Parade

It’s refreshing to see a Latin sample pack that doesn’t simply compile of the same loop, just with different drums. This pack has a wide range of everything you could ask for, such a percussion, guitars, bass and even miscellaneous, which happens to be the most interesting category on offer, thanks to some funky accordion loops.

The acoustic guitars do sound a bit too generic, in a coffee shop playlist sort of way, but the keys and percussion loops sound very fresh. Almost anyone will find something they like in this pack, particularly those into breaks, but it may be best to tray out first.

Wusik Magazine Review: Fidget House Vol. 1 & Vol. 2

The spread of Fidget House from the UK to the rest of the world is like a wildfire. As the sub-genre suggest, Fidget focuses on the innovative and wild side of house. It incorporates a lot of cool sound design, funked-up wobbly bass lines, glitchd-out drums, processed vocal snippets and warped synths.

For Fidget House Vol. 1 and 2, Loopmasters commissioned all the sounds from renowned producer Darren Payton. Volume 1 features 595 WAV samples (370MB) and volume 2 weighs in even bigger at 625 MB with 950 samples. From a production perspective Darren Payton's work is sonically excellent and the samples themselves are impressively useful - even for breakbeat, electro, tech house. The fifty-five slick and glitchy drumloops from the first volume captured my attention while 122 broken-band glitch loops and the 28 twisted and broken vocal FX are my volume 2 favorites. All in all, Fidget House 1 & 2 are very techy and sophisticated sample packs. A great buy!

Wusik Magazine Review: Rise SFX by Push Button Bang

No doubt effect sounds are very useful in giving productions that certain edge or interest. They also help ease the transition of a song going from one section to another.

Many dance/electronica producers rely on quality effect samples for this reason. Rise SFX from Push Button Bang is an FX pack with 700 MB of content that is instantly suitable for any productions. More than 500 ultra, up-to-date samples comprise this pack. It includes 540 exotic noises, 70 bang, 55 climbers, 20 cymbal, 40 Doppler and 40 drop-downs, 60 fader, 60 multiple movements, 65 seamless noise FX loops and 120 transitional elements.

The production of Rise is stunning and a lot of the samples have that nice sheen on the top end. Throw down some dynamic flare in your production with this unique collection of effects sounds.

Wusik Magazine Review: Dark House by Push Button Bang

If you want samples that specialize on the darker side of house, Dark House from Push Button Bang is a collection of loops and samples intended just for that. Featuring 980MB of content, you'll find drum loops, synths, special FX, percussions and single hits ready to drop in your own productions.

The loop content is split into three different categories with sub-folders added - all labeled with key and tempo info. The sounds themselves have that dark twist buy yet they are very accessible. Even more, Electro producers comparable to Justice or those making sparse Minimal Tech can benefit to the diffrent materials on offer. For me, the FX section sizzles particularly with its over-the-top processing employed.

Wusik Magazine Review: Minimal Underground Techno

This 450MB+ release from Loopmasters is based around samples programmed by Marc Adamo. As the name suggest, Minimal Underground Techno is a set of high-quality samples geared for producers of dance music. It includes drums, bass, kick-free loops, kick-only loops, FX, synth, FX hits and an assortment of single drum hits.

All popular sample formats are covered in this collection as well as patches for major soft samplers. Most of the samples were created using analog machines and the result is warm and punchy. They are well processed and the synth loops have a nice sheen on top, the drums are punchy and the uses of creative effects processing is gorgeous.

Wusik Magazine Review: SFX Collection by Wave Alchemy

Last but not the least this month and the third effects library reviewed, is Wave Alchemy's SFX Collection Vol. 1. This sample pack is a collection of cutting edge effect sounds that includes textures, impacts, stabs and acid hits, sweeps & drones, short FX and hits, cymbal FX, downlifters and uplifters.

With 1.5GB of 24-bit samples, there is plenty of material to inject into your productions. The use of vintage and new equipment and high-end tools such as the Eventide H3000 and Sherman Filterback really help to make SFX Collection sound fresh and very polished with a good fidelity. The samples tend to lend themselves to electronica, game, TV and film music.

Datatransmission Review: Speaker Junk - Bass Heavy House

When Trevor Loveys and Dave Taylor emerged in the latter half of the Noughties with their irresistible fidget house sound as Switch (yep, it used to be a duo), no-one could have predicted that they would change the sound of mainstream house music. They've spawned a whole genre and a million copycats – but no-one's topped the originators for pure groove, funkiness and originality.

On this Loopmasters pack, Loveys and partner-in-crime Herve bring the sound of their Speaker Junk project to your DAW, combining their phat house and broken beat sound with a little worldly flavour. There's some of their trademark squelches, wobbles and grunts in the bass loops, but not a great deal. Perhaps they didn't want to give away too many secrets. The drum loops however, are plentiful and phat – ranging from classic funk breaks given a new shine, to the familiar stomp fidget loops, to funky phat house grooves, to Latin percussion, to hard-hitting bruk beats and electro breaks, to real bouncy motherfuckers. A nice touch is that they’ve given different versions of the same loop with lesser layers of production – giving a level of flexibility that you often loose when basing your beats on loops. The pads mix big hazy swathes of sounds with classic house chords, while the vocals only yield a little useful booty (they are all female ooh, ahh, yeah ones with different effects and gate patterns).

In the one shots, you get a nice variety of sounds, from minute hats to a wide range of lovely kicks (70 in total, from plump ones to live ones with some noise on top of them) and some truly bonkers, very colourful FX. REX files and sampler patches give easy and quick access to these sounds via your MIDI keyboard, and they’ve really gone to the effort to put as many as possible into these formats – which makes your life a lot easier.

There's only a few subtle sounds here, so generally this is one for creators of chunkier, phatter music – but by no means just for fidget heads. D&B producers will find lots of fat drums and wobbly bass, likewise hip-hop producers and dubstep ones, and fans of broken beat too.

Interview With King Roc

What's new in the world of King Roc, what projects do you have on the go at the moment?

I have had a very busy year with releases on Cocoon, Moodmusic, Bedrock, Kling Klong and several others.. but these are ostly under my own name - Martin Dawson, as it a housier sound than with most of my King Roc productions. Right now I am working on projects with Glimpse, Catz n Dogz, Andre Crom, Namito and of course continuing the Two Armadillos project with Giles Smith. Only with this I am working on 3 album projects, Two Armadillos, King Roc, an indie punk project with Darren Farrow from Get Shakes, and 1 mini album for Moodmusic under my own name.

You have recently constructed a sample pack for Loopmasters. How did you find this when compared to writing music?

The hardest thing about making sample pack loops if fighting the desire to carry on and finish the track. To do this I made myself work quite quickly and across several ideas at once so I dont get to focused on one idea. Playing live with software like ableton I realised the sort of loops I wanted to created. For one thing the most important part was to make loops without a kick drum in the final bounce because I always find this the most annoying thing about other samples packs.

Now your sample pack is out are you worried of hearing your loops and one shots in other peoples production? Is this something that would bother you, or would you find it flattering?

No this doesn't bother me at all. I have been using loops for years although I do think it is important to chop up the loops, recycle them and make them your own. Starting with a loop is a really quick way to get a vibe going for a track and that speed can be the difference between getting inspired by an idea or running out of enthusiasm. Working fast is a real key to my studio work and all the guys I work with will be the first to say that about my studio style. Spending 3 hours on a bassline just kills it for me. If the ideas don't come in the first 10 minutes I move on to another one... Starting with loops speeds this process up.

How did you first get into music production?

I was playing guitars in a electronic band and learned back then by watching the guys as we were recording. I have never taken one educational class and because of this i feel even more open to sharing my techniques and processes with other people.

What did you listen to growing up? Anything that you would say had a huge influence on your music?

Well as I said I used to be a guitarist so I was listening to Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Beastie Boys and stuff like that. My tastes in music have always been evolving and I am always looking for new inspiration. When I discovered electronic music is was to Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, Fluke and Underworld. I loved those bands because they wrote albums. I had no interest in the DJ world at this point and I was just looking for good songs. I didn't get into vinyl and club tracks until I was 19 which I guess is quite old compared to some guys. But I would say that everything from my past tastes has had an influence on my music because they all inspired my and drove me to get to this point in my career.

What five pieces of studio equipment would you say determines your sound? Your release, the Gonna Be Alright EP that you collaborated with Andre Crom on sold really well on Beatport. What is next, can we expect more from yourself and Andre?

I dont have so much in my studio and I have never been a hardware fanatic like a lot of my friends. When I am working on album material my first port of call is my electric piano or my guitar. I write most of my music melodies on these first and just roughly record them into my computer to get ideas going. For my studio the first thing I would say is essential to me is Apple Logic. I know a lot of guys are using Ableton and I can use this of course but I love Logic. Its not so easy to get into which is why a lot of up and coming producers turn to Ableton first but I have been using it for years so I can work very quickly. To be honest I think its mind blowing that you can get professional music software like this for about £400. Logic on my laptop goes with me everywhere so I can work no matter where I am in the world. After this my Mackie HR824 speakers are my essential. I can work on other speaker but I love the sound of these ones and a lot of my friends and colleagues have them. To me they are sort of like the Yamaha NS10's in that they are widely popular and sort of a studio standard. Thats really it. I have a Juno 106 in my room that I am borrowing from my flatmate but I find with good digital amp modulation and valve eq's you can make most decent software sound respectable so don't use the keyboard that much.

Being an in demand DJ, do you prefer smashing dance floors over the world or getting in the studio and writing music?

For me that's six of one and half a dozen of the other. I love writing music and am so grateful that it is what i get to do for my job. But it is such an amazing feeling to see a track you have just written getting a good response from the audience in a club. I can't imagine having one without the other... but that said if you were putting a gun to my head I would say writing music. I was into this before I even thought about hearing music in venues or performing.

What are you listening to at the moment, any new artists that we should know about?

The last album I bought was Blood Red Shoes. They are a two piece garage punk band. Its very cool music and I also love to write this kind of guitar driven tracks. On the electronic side I have been listening to the album by Kele (the singer from Bloc Party) and Sebastien Tellier. It's more song based music. I don't really listen to any club music at home or on my iPod. To get this music needs to be heard loud.

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

The best advice I would say is never stop and never give up. That is the difference for me in those who succeed and those who get another job. I know I am not the most talented musician out there but I never once thought that there was any other option about how I would spend my life. It takes time to learn your skill and make the contacts to become a full time professional but self belief is the first hurdle to over come. After that it all gets much easier.

Loopmasters Team Up With Blip Interactive For Best iPhone App!

There’s been a big buzz around Blip Interactive’s superb music making Iphone app Nanostudio over the past couple of months, with the app getting great reviews and excellent user feedback.

We were so impressed that we offered to contribute some sounds and they thought it sounded like a nice idea. Loopmasters have contributed around 400 free samples for use in NanoStudio and you can grab them here.

http://www.blipinteractive.co.uk/samples.php

There are two large packs totalling approximately 300 samples and 10 packs of around 10 samples each, which should be more than enough to to get you going if you need a little kick up the inspiration pipe.

The packs are based on Loopmaster’s sample CDs, and as new CDs are released this page will grow with more free demo packs. The samples have been converted from 24 to 16 bit and most are already arranged into TRG banks but you’re free to use them individually.

The samples in the smaller packs are pretty well public domain so you’re free to use them as you like. The samples in the two larger packs are also free to use, but if you use them commercially then you should licence them by buying the full CD. We think that’s fair eh?

For those of you not yet familiar with Nanostudio, here’s their official demo video and more info: http://www.blipinteractive.co.uk/

Hope you all enjoy using our sounds in this fantastic app!

Interview With Jay-J

What's new in the world of Jay J, what projects do you have on the go at the moment?

Mainly I have been working on a new album based around all electronic elements, in that the music is all created by me and has no organic sounds or songs with vocals, which differs from my last album "Love Alive" where I used some great vocalists and many guest musicians. For this one I wanted a more simple stripped down approach and was interested in exploring some other genres related to house music. It has been a fun and exciting project especially when it came to the simple fact that my tried and trusted approach for many years was not going to work. I have not brought in any of the amazing musicians I have worked with so the musicality and melodic appeal is much simpler than some of my more song oriented soulful stuff. I also seem to have been doing a lot of mastering for folks lately. This is not even something I really try and push as a business but I have lots of friends in the industry and people have been reaching out in this regard. I just mastered Mark Farina's Mushroom Jazz 7 and that was a great project.

How did you first get into music production?

I was in a band for a while attending high school and also starting DJ'ing. I wanted a Yamaha 4 track cassette recorder, so I saved and saved and eventually got it. It had a little mini-mixing desk (4 tracks off cassette and 2 auxiliary channels plus a master I think). So I would record, overdub and make write songs on my guitar. Eventually I did some recording of some other bands and just sort of continued from there.

What did you listen to growing up? Any big influences, that you would say has helped mould your music into what it has become?

This is an interesting question and I always feel so weird answering it. Mainly because I was a teenager in the 80's and with my love of guitar and the launch of MTV I was sort of influenced by those 80's hair bands, other Heavy Metal groups and the softer melodic side of Rock as well. I really wish I could say I grew up listening to the disco and soul of the 70's but I was pretty much just a kid wanting to play like Eddie Van Halen. My main music career has been as a house music producer and that particular sound was influenced the in early to mid 90's more so than my 80's rock days. As I was starting my production and DJ-ing carrer I was into records by MAW, Roger Sanchez, Todd Terry, Grant Nelson, Jazz N Groove, Voctor Simonelli and I have continually created a similar sound with an organic feel and live instrumentation with real songs and singers.

What five pieces of studio equipment would you say determine your sound?

First and foremost Pro Tools
Sonnox and Massey plug-ins (among others).
Studio Electronics SE-1X
EL7 Fatso Jr.
Focal Monitors

You have recently constructing a sample pack for Loopmasters. How did you find this when compared to writing a song?

There have only been 2 periods of time in my career when I have worked more on the same project and those were full albums. Thinking back on the hours I spent working on this new sample pack, it’s possible I spent more time on this than either of those albums. I got a bit obsessive and just continued to create and pull from sessions and do more and more sound design then eventually started to see the significant amount of sounds I built.

Now you've made your pack are you worried that producers are going to be sampling and trying to re-create your sound?

No not at all. I have always been one to share tips and tricks and ideas and I don't get hung up on any of these things. I love the music I make for a living but it feels like a hobby because most of the time that's all I want to do.

You were at Moulton for the golden period there. Do you have fond memories of that time?

Yes I sure do. I built 2 studio complexes one (on Moulton Street, thus the name) this was 2 main rooms consisting of a live room, vocal booth and a small pre-production closet. The other was an amazing live room, mixing room and a whole other set of studios and offices all based around music and club culture. The camaraderie, creativity and mayhem we got into was definitely an amazing experience.

You are known for your drums - do you have any key tips you'd like to share?

Use good sounds! Take the bottom end out of every element except Kick and Bass using a high pass filter. Work as hard as you can using eq to make the kick and bass both loud but not fighting each other. (I rarely sidechain)

You're well known for your remixes. Are there any that stand out as a favourite over the years?

Certainly the Jill Scott remix resulting in a Grammy Nomination stands out. Recently, I completed a remix for Pete Moss titled Make It Real and I really felt like that was some of my best work. Although it's hard to say because being a true student of the craft I am always trying to improve, be it producing, playing, or mixing/engineering. So I most often feel that my latest work is my best.

How differently do you approach remixing to your original productions?

Well really not that much differently in that I start with the drums usually for both. I actually really enjoy remixing in that it seems to have less stress associated with the creative process.

What are you listening to at the moment?

When it comes to my gigs I have been into a bit more of an electronic sound with a Chicago Jackin feel although everyone still knows me from becoming well known for my soulful side. I don't really listen to music for pleasure any longer. Doing what I do with music for so long has created a weird music listening experience for me. I no longer listen to music, I analyze music and that takes some of the fun out of it. It's actually distracting to me to have music on while working on my computer for emails or something. I get sucked in to the keyboard sound that was used or the drum programming or the out of key vocal ;-)

Any new artists we should know about?

I'm sure there is... When you do find out about them, let me know. I have been cooped up in the studio for close to 2 months putting this sample pack together so I'm a little out of the loop (pun intended)

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

Intern somewhere, engineer for friends, and get committed to finishing projects not just starting them. Don't wind up with many ideas not completed. Strive to have polished sound even if the sound your going for is more dirty or gritty.

Interview With Nick Deekline

Hi Deekline, you have recently just set up Booty Farm Samples. Tell us about Booty Farm, who is involved in this project, and what made you want to start up a sample library label?

The Booty Farm is a new our new online shop. Loop masters is a sub division we set up to our resources and contacts in the sample CD world. We aim to offer the listener a new experience and cover new ground other sample CDs haven't covered.

Your first two releases have been Ragga Twins Vocals 1&2. What was it like working with the Ragga Twins, and where did you record them?

It was a pleasure to work with them. They are very professional and easy to work with. They are great at free styling with the vocals and worked very quickly in the studio to our needs

You and Ed Solo made a pack for Loopmasters in 2009. How did you approach creating a sample pack, and how different was it to producing songs?

A lot people were always very interested in where and how we got our beats and bass from, so we felt it was time to give something back to the up-and-coming music producers. Firstly we took a look at some of our classic's and pulled them apart. We then produced some fresh beats and bass and chopped up some new breaks.

Aside from Booty Farm Samples, what else are you working on?

I am in the process of setting up a label with Central Station in Australia (A sub-division of Ministry). I have just completed a remix for Heavy Feet and The Utah Saints. We are also setting up a new super DJ team called the Hot Cakes Allstars that consists of JFB, Ed Solo and myself. We will be using live sample triggering with Ableton and Serato as well as video mixing.

How did you first get into music production?

I was always a music enthusiast and production was always the next natural progression. When I was seventeen I hooked up with Donna D and I brought an Akai S2000. She very kindly passed on her knowledge and trained me up on to how to use it.

What five pieces of studio equipment would you say determines your sound?

Logic - This is where everything is programmed from. The ProTools plug-in is wicked, we occasionally write our beats on an MPC to get a vibe. The NI Massive is also pretty awesome.

Who are you listening to at the moment, any new artists we should know about?

Dodge and Fuski, Ill eleven, Keith Mackenzie, DJ Fixx, Dustin Hulton, Sporty-O, Reid Speed, Wizard, Ivory, Stripper, & Tim Healey are doing pretty interesting bits at the moment.

How do you feel about the Breakbeat scene at the moment?

I feel like it has gone around full circle. A lot of dance music genres have gone back to hardcore roots and are using funk breaks and no matter what fancy sub genre name people like to come up with the bottom line's still a break beat. I feel that it needed some fresh talent to give it a new perspective.

What's next for Booty Farm?

Well we are in the final procedure of launching the site. It will also have a clothing shop built in to the site, along vintage clothing store, videos and load of exciting goodies and exclusives. Look out for Ed Solo's Bass Lab, Deekline and Wizard's Present Booty Breaks Volume 2 and Ill Eleven All Stars to follow shortly :)

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

The Loopmasters samples are a great start. If you choose an artist whose production you like. Good sounds are the key best to a solid tune

Loopmasters In Serious Game Action!

Loopmasters are proud to have entered the video gaming scene. The release of the anticipated DJ Hero 2 game could not have happened without us! The about-to-be-released game will feature various unlockable items and one of them is a set of Loopmasters-branded DJ decks. And yes... you've guessed it - our samples and loops are featured there as well.

If you're into DJ-ing for points and top scores and prefer the living room crowd over night-club guests, get your door selection crew ready! The new DJ Hero 2 with excellent gameplay experience will get you stompin'... til the neighbours knock on the door.

Click here to read the full Press Release

Future Music Review: Live Lounge

‘Blissed out R’n’B essentials’ is the M.O for this gig worth of sample goodies. Split into a variety of folders (loops, single shots and 37 sampler patches), covering beats, keys, basses, guitars and strings, this is a pretty flexible and complete package. If i had to use one word to describe it, it would be ‘smooth’. The Rhodes gets a look in (as it should) and along with a dedicated percussion library, this pack becomes worthy of the must-get pile. The whole thing has been put together very nicely by Andre Touhey of Cue Sounds so, if you even sniff towards a bit of R’n’B in your tunes then this is definitely worth the fairly low outlay. Recommended

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review: Lick Me Guitars

Been getting a little too into Guitar Hero instead of putting your tunes together? Then maybe this little collection can assist. 1gb of guitar loops ranging from 90 to 180bpm and covering a wide range of styles from Country to Ambient Metal. Riffs, rhythm and leads lines are covered with a sprinkling of FX tricks to boot. Clean and distorted guitars are covered and yes there is some chugging! With a little teasing and the odd bit of pitch correction using Melodyne or even AutoTune, this could be the way to add six strings to your tracks without having to source a session musician or set up a complex guitar recording signal chain.

Verdict: 8/10

iDJ Review of AtJazz - Deep & Analogue

At first listen it would be easy to say that Deep and Analogue doesn’t go that deep at all. The loops are very stripped back, meaning they don’t necessarily sound like you would expect. However, when you combine a lot of the various drum loops, synths and a basses together you actually realise the potential of the sample pack. You’ll realise that it’s actually great to have stripped back loops, as there’s so much you can do with them. All the loops can sit comfortably in your own productions without intruding and causing a mess of things. There’s also plenty of one shots to get stuck into, making this pack well worth the flutter.

IDJ Review - Future Garage by Push Button Bang

With a name like Future Garage it’s hard what to expect with this pack. So many different types of music could be pigeonholed into this category, whether it’s the experimental wonders of Burial or the hideous rehashes of classic garage. Thankfully Future Garage can’t really sit in any category, with the pack being diverse enough to fit in with a whole host of genres. Apart from the cheesy vocals, all the loops are crafted brilliantly, with many interesting rhythms for you to get your beatmaking teeth stuck into. The only downside to the overall pack is that it could do with a few more loops, but at just under £20 it’s still a pretty decent purchase.

DJ Mag Review: Alien Robot Vox

Alien Robot Vox is the newest sample library from Loopmasters, aiming to provide producers with those vocodered and robotised sounds that have graced many top dance and electronic tracks from artists such as Daft Punk, The Freestylers, Air, Mylo, Kraftwerk and Grandmaster Flash.

Alien Robot Vox features various levels and styles of vocodered vocals – from the subtly affected to full – robotized electronic vocals. Don’t let the name fool you, though, as included in the sample pack are also a collection of vocodered drum loops and synth parts that are handy additions, enabling producers to build up those P-funk style cosmic electro-type dance tunes. The selection of vocodered loops, android and robot talk, cosmic loops, one shot hits and drums has all been recorded over various pitches and speeds between 90-126bpm.The whole pack has been put together really well, and whilst the title may sound as if the pack is targeting a specific music style, it doesn’t feel limited at all. Alien Robot Vox comes with over 260 loops in acidized Wav and Rex2 formats, or as a separate Apple Loops pack.

Computer Music Review: Alien Robot Vox

This pack focuses on vocoder loops a la Daft Punk, Mylo and Air, ranging from 90-126bpm. We were initially concerned that the results would be a little thin and "70's Sci-Fi", but au contraire: Alien Robot Vox is filled with fizzy, deep and full vocoded effects, sounds and phrases. What makes it so good is that these aren't just standard cliche'd phrases that have been quickly run through a vocoder plug-in.

Instead, every sound is crafted and effected to bring out the best of it. The results are at once both authentically retro and thoroughly modern – immediately usable yet filled with heaps of analogue grit and noise.

Slit up into categories such as Rhythmic Melodies and Autotalk Androids, Alien Robot Vox covers all vocal effect bases, from subtle electronic soundscapes to vocal hooks that could fuel a breakdown or even a full track. Electro house tunes will probably be the biggest beneficiary of this pack, but there's enough to cover everything from Kraftwerk minimal to Boys Noize techno.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: Total Tribal Beats Vol. 1

Here you'll find 124 two-bar drum/percussion loops, all at 125bpm. There are 40 patterns in total, with each loop coming in three variations. Stylistically, the set is very focused, sitting at the groovy/funky end of the house spectrum – with a tribal feel, of course. The sound set could be broader - the heard the same ones cropping up throughout. However, the excellent programming and solid production saves the day, and a full kick-based loop and two no-kick options make the samples useful for main loop and supporting roles. It's a very specific pack, but at this price, that's fine.

IDJ Review Of Drumdrops In Dub Vol. 3

Attention to detail is an important thing: if you produce something that cuts corners then you're going to end up with a half-finished product. In Dub Vol.3 has plenty of loops, which have been recorded beautifully. There really is a lot of attention to detail in this sample pack. Whether it's the spring reverb or the perfectly rolled snare patters. The loops are all split into different BPBms and then offer either dry patterns or patterns with effects. To top it all off there are also some Ableton groove patterns thrown in for good measure, meaning you can quantize your own beats to give them a dub feel.

IDJ Review Of Future Garage

With a name like Future Garage it's hard to predict what to expect with this pack. So many different types of music could be pigeonholed into this category, whether it's the experimental wonders of Burial or the hideous rehashed of classic garage. Thankfully Future Garage can't really sit in any category, with the pack being enough to fit in with a whole host of genres. Apart from the cheesy vocals, all the loops are crafted brilliantly, with many interesting rhythms for you to get your beat-making teeth stuck into. The only downside to the overall pack is that it could do with a few more loops, but at just under £20 it's still a pretty decent purchase.

Music Tech Review: Tribal Percussion by 5Pin Media

Even just a little live percussion can go a long way when it comes to adding life to your drum patterns, and the latest library from 5pin Media – Tribal Percussion – is jammed-packed with live-sounding loops.

Once downloaded and uncompressed, you get 1.GB of material in 24-bit WAV and REX formats, with a Live Pack available separately. This is a large pack with several different sections, so it’s probably best to break these down before getting into the detail.

First up is the main collection of 435 acoustic percussion loops, where you’ll find congas, claps, and claves alongside djembes, darabukas and biribau instruments. These loops have a loose, un-quantized feel that could instantly add a live vibe to any track. If you need more rigid rhythms you can easily quantize the REX versions.

Next up are the 18 kit loops that feature five or six individual parts that work well together, plus five variations with the loops combined and mixed. You’ll then find a large collection of hits and deeply multi-sampled instruments with velocity layering and round robin in NN-XT, Kontakt, and Battery formats.

These are an excellent addition and a great way for you to make natural-sounding percussion grooves. To make the pack more flexible, 5Pin Media has included several groove templates and a collection of 479 MIDI loops so you can try the rhythms using your own sounds.

Finally, there are electronic 808 loops, additional percussion hits and side-chained and effected vocal atmosphere sounds.

This is an extensive collection of well-recorded loops and hits with minimum processing to allow for your own effects. The addition of MIDI loops and multi-sampled instruments makes for an incredibly flexible package.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review: Atjazz Deep & Analogue

While Atjazz’s speciality of ‘jazzy UK deep house’ might be a tad niche, the ‘deep and analogue’ part of the title tells you what you need to know about this pack. Using only analogue kit and hardware samplers, each of the 258 loops and 143 one-shots have plenty of top-end sheen and low-end power, with Rhodes chords and bass loops particularly impressing us. There are plenty of tight claps and kicks, too. It’s a modest collection, but it will fit the glove for everything from DnB to classic house.

Verdict: 8/10

Computer Music Review: Jamie Ball Banging Techno

The title says it all: Jamie Ball wants you to take these 340 samples and rule the dance floor with his relentless, distorted, grinding 140-160bpm loops and hefty, speaker-crunching one-shots. Forget Detroit, Chicago and Berlin – this take on techno is more Wigan Pier. The pummelling, brutal drums are the highlight for us, but there are also leads, basses, vocals and even turntable FX. There’s a lot going on in each loop and it would take some time to create something similar from scratch. Overall, the quantity and usability make this worth the modest price.

Verdict: 7/10

Waveformless Review: Scott Rockenfield Rock Drums

Although drum loop libraries seem to be a dime a dozen these days, it can be difficult sometimes to find a decent collection of rock-oriented loops played by an accomplished drummer. Loopmasters is here to remedy that with more than a little help from Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield.

This collection consists of six complete drum tracks divided up into loops consisting of intro, verse, chorus, bridge, fills, and ending. In most cases, multiple variations of each loop are available to help keep things more interesting. The loops range from 130-180 BPM. Perhaps a few slower loops would've been nice, but what's here is very good. The full loops are all fully mixed and pre-produced. Aggressive compression and various reverbs help give each track its own personality, but may make things a bit more difficult to drop smoothly into a pre-existing mix where the compression settings or reverb might not be appropriate.

Fortunately, all of the loops are also available as mutli-track loops, where you can isolate and even mix and match different parts of different loops. These loops are recorded dry, so you have a lot more flexibility producing them the way you see fit. This extends the usability of the collection by quite a bit if you're willing to do some extra work. Adding to that is a collection of "bonus loops" from the sessions giving you still more options to play with.

Man cannot exist on loops alone, however, so it's nice that the collection also contains sampled drum kits from each of the tracks. These are kind of a mixed bag. Most of the sounds are quite good, but some of the tom and snare sounds seem oddly truncated, like they've been cut off too quickly. The best of the sounds are really good, however, and using these in combination with the loops will yield you the most variation and flexibility of all. Just don't expect the standard of some of the round-robin, multi-velocity level samples many dedicated drum libraries have.

As you would expect from a drummer with a 30 year history, the playing throughout is superb. Rockenfield's drumming is precise and creative (very nice cymbal work) and the recording and production quality is quite good. How useful for you this collection is, depends on what you're after. This isn't a collection of hundreds of diverse loops. but rather sub-collections of loops intended to form a complete song. This could be really handy for demo work or any instance when you need a good sounding acoustic drum track without much time to record a real drummer. Producers who aren't afraid to dive into the dry isolated tracks will get the most of out this, as it will allow them to customize the sound of the drums more, as well as mixing up and combining different parts from different loops

Verdict: 8/10

New: Rate Products And Earn Virtual Cash!

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You can rate the product when you log in and go into your Profile. For each product there's a 5-star rating waiting for you to point-and-click. It's that simple...

Virtual Cash - Earn it when you buy, earn it when you rate!

Pro-tone Review Of Drum Machines 02 by Wave Alchemy

Quite some time ago the brand Wave Alchemy was successfully established on the sample market – for a good reason. Their products are known to be top-notch and highly professional, therefore we proudly present a fresh review of the latest release, Drum Machines 02. It’s a bundle consisting of 3 independent Micro Series sample libraries, with a focus on sounds only famous (vintage?) drum machines can offer.

What you get…

Samples are delivered in state-of-the-art 24bit/44.1kHz format plus professionally dithered 16bit format, something hardware sampler users might highly appreciate.

Part 1 of this sample pack is “808 Drums”, as you might guess - a sample collection built with the infamous Roland TR-808. Sounds are divided into subfolders:

Hats & Cymbals (53 samples)
Kick Drums (259 samples)
Percussion (48 samples)
Snare Drums (91 samples)
Toms & Congas (57 samples)

Part 2 is named “909 Drums”, as you might again guess - a sample collection built with Roland’s TR-909:

Cymbals (59 samples)
Kick Drums (128 samples)
Percussion (44 samples)
Snare Drums (117 samples)
Toms & Congas (87 samples)

Part 3 is named “DrumFire” and offers samples from the rare DrumFire DF-2000 alongside the well-known MFB Schlagzwerg:

Hats & Cymbals (15/74 DrumFire samples)
Kick Drums (89 DrumFire samples)
RingMod (11 DrumFire samples)
Snare Drums (40 DrumFire samples)
Toms & Various (14 DrumFire samples)
Hats & Cymbals (74 Schlagzwerg samples)
Kick Drums (149 Schlagzwerg samples)
Snare Drums (68 Schlagzwerg samples)
Toms & Various (58 Schlagzwerg samples)

It’s all about the details…

…and there’s plenty of them in here. We like a lot the fact that main samples like kick drums or snares are available to everybody’s taste - clean, driven, fatso, sp1200, warm – this definitely facilitates hunting for the right sound and adding facettes to your track. To our knowledge, it’s the first time ever a sample pack tells the root keys of the toms – awesome!

Okay, what about the sound?

Again, you might have guessed it - we simply love it. The variety of samples is outstanding, the creators applied smooth compression (which is really an art), everything sounds clear, dynamic, pounding. Just as it has to be for drums. Wave Alchemy carefully used a whole bunch of reknowned equipment for sound editing and shaping, once more emphasizing the professional work put into this project.

Summary

Drum Machines 02 convinced us. Why? ‘Cause it does what it’s supposed to do - deliver versatile, high quality drum sounds, created by legendary equipment. Besides pretty attractive pricing, this pack is ready to support and enrich manifold styles like minimal, house, hihop or ambient. Would have been nice though to have sampler patches attached for easy use within plugins (EXS, Battery, Kontakt…).

Rating: 10/10

Music Tech Review Of S:amplify by Davide Carbone

Australian D&B maestro Davide Carbone’s first samples pack for Loopmasters Drum & Bass masterclass was released a few years back. It’s become a favourite in the MTM office for go-to drum and bass breakbeats, and now the follow-up, S:amplify, aims to repeat that success, offering a fresh collection of loops, beats and sounds.

The pack is available as a download in your choice of WAV and Rex, Apple Loops, Live Pack and Reason Refill formats. You get around 1.5GB of 24-bit audio, which breaks down into 223 loops, 371 hits and one-shots, plus 88 sampler patches for Kontakt, HALion, EXS24, NN-XT and Sfz. It’s a well thought –out collection that covers plenty of musical ground, including drum beat and percussion loops and hits, bass loops and hits, electric pianos, synths, pads, guitars, FX and even saxophone. The samples waver between heavy, distorted sounds and a lighter, more liquid D&B style. The beat loops are spread across 20 different live-sounding and heavily compressed kits, with several variations on each groove to keep things interesting. You also get a massive collection of individual hits from each kit, plus some toe-tapping percussion and shaker loops.

On the bass side , there’s a usable but not mind-blowing selection of filtered rumbles, LFO wobblers and tech stabs. Things get more interesting with the keys, synths and musical loops, though, with the inclusion of some surprisingly deep, beautiful electric paino progessions, heavy rock guitar and good, if a little cheesy, sax riffs. To round things off there are some deep evolving multi-sampled pads and a small selection of built-in FX.

This is an eclectic pack with just the right amount of repetition and variation. There are plenty of deep sounds for those writing more musical D&B, but also some meaty basses and superb breaks for heavier-sounding tracks.

Carbone has done it again. 9/10

Loopmasters Release DJ Mixtools!

DJ MIXTOOLS from LOOPMASTERS are a brand new concept for forward-thinking DJs and live artists. Imagine buying a track but then being able to separate that track into its key elements and having ROYALTY FREE access to remix, effect, chop and loop the parts in your own individual style to create an exciting and refreshing new mix… welcome to the world of DJ MIXTOOLS.

Created by some of the most respected producers from a wide-range of genres DJ Each DJ MIXTOOL package is broken down into long ‘progressive’ mix stems including drum grooves, percussion tops, synths, basslines as well as effect builds, breakdowns and drops, professionally mastered using state of the art analogue EQ and compression and limiting ready to mix into your decks and computer DJ sets.

Launching with key genres such as TECH HOUSE, MINIMAL, DEEP and SOULFUL, TECHNO, DUBSTEP, TRANCE and DRUM & BASS. Each title contains 4 genre specific ‘tracks’ in the same BPM and key which can be broken down to use in Live sets and in creative ways by DJs and producers.

DJ MIXTOOLS offer new and exciting possibilities for studio production and live performance. These tools give a DJ the ability to essentially remix live and the product raises the bar for tools a DJ has at his disposal to work a crowd. As mentioned all loops and samples provided are presented ‘royalty free’ which means that for the first time ever DJs can mix and produce live sets which they are also legally entitled to release as their own without any copyright issues or clearance problems.

DJ MIXTOOLS will be available from BEATPORT.COM immediately and LOOPMASTERS.COM

LOOPMASTERS are the leading purveyors of sample packs for producers, known for producing quality loops and samples covering a multitude of genres LOOPMASTERS raised the bar by becoming an online portal LOOPMASTERS.COM dubbed THE SAMPLE BOUTIQUE which not only sells sample packs from their own catalogue plus all other leading sound design labels making them the one-stop shop for all your sample needs.

DJ MIXTOOLS RELEASE DATES:

•    Aug 13th - Swedish House and Minimal Underground Techno (2 packs)
•    Aug 20 - Tech House and Deep Minimal
•    Aug 27 - Deep and Soulful House
•    Sep 10 - Tech House and Deep Minimal Vol 2
•    Sep 24 - Minimal Underground Techno Vol 2
•    Oct TBC - Dubstep and Trance (2 packs)

Rekkerd Review Of Atjazz Deep & Analogue

Atjazz is one of the monikers of producer, DJ, prolific remixer (over 140 remixes worldwide), and record label founder Martin Iveson, who actually started out as a video game composer at Core Design (of Tomb Raider fame).

Martin is the latest producer in the line-up of the Loopmasters Artist Series. With Atjazz Deep & Analogue he shares a sample collection featuring recordings from over 10 analogue synthesizers.

In the booklet Martin writes:

“In order to make this artist pack for Loopmasters I had to think long and hard about how create the pack in a way that I would be able to generate many sounds as I would for one of my own songs.

Not working “in the box’ using new methods of music production ‘Plugins, VSTi’s etc…’ meant that a lot of hard core recording was in store for me. Recording over 10 analogue machines each of a different age meant that I could give out a good varied selection of usable analogue sounds taken from the actual synths & machines. I for one am an avid sampler of my own sounds and love to get into editing and would love to see more people getting back into the art of sampling.”

The library includes over 250 loops in Wav and REX formats:

Bass Loops, 19 deep basslines made with synths like the Waldorf XT, Nord Modular, Korg Monopoly, and more.
Classic Breaks, Martin’s takes on 8 classic breaks. Includes single element loops for easy mixing (47 loops in total).
Drum Loops, 23 beats plus various single element loops, a total of 150 loops. 117, 120, and 124 bpm. Includes 3 beats (16 loops) from the Kawai R100.
Synth Loops, 43 loops from various synths and samples instruments including the Fender Rhodes, Yahama DX21, ARP Odyssey, Teisco 110F, and many more.

Also included are over 140 single sounds and some 60 sampler patches in various formats (EXS24, HALion, Kontakt, NN-XT, Redrum, and Sfz). Available categories here are bass, drum, lead sounds, and pads.

These single shot sounds and sampler instruments compliment the loops well, as quite a few are the same or similar sounds to those used in the loops. Useful for creating variations. The single shot sample folder also has some Rhodes chords and sound fx, these are not mapped to sampler instruments.

So what do I think?

Using some of the instruments which determine the “Atjazz” sound (Rhodes Mk II, Teisco, SH09, Monopoly) Martin has managed to bring this sample library to the level you would hope for. If you are familiar with music of Atjazz you’ll find the vibe of Atjazz Deep & Analogue is spot on.

The melodic loops are soulful and inspiring, featuring a good mixture of sounds like bass, stabs, chords, lead melodies, etc. The lovely Rhodes samples are a highlight for me. The drums and breaks have this amazing funky, mellow feel to them – great for house and downtempo music genres. The loops are just 4 bars, but still there is plenty of room for cutting things up in your favorite sampler (REX is also included).

Although I don’t care for the sampler patches — which layer single sounds across the keyboard or simply group sounds (hihats, kick, snares), the included single shot sounds are not filler content. This section contains some quality samples, including ones that are not used in any of the loops. The pads and layers folder has some fantastic samples of Juno pads and lush deep chords. Great value.

Atjazz Deep & Analogue shows Martin’s love for music, and I feel privileged that he has shared some of his sounds in this library. I only have one small gripe, this library leaves me wanting more!

Tech House & Deep Minimal Review By Future Music

809mb of material from Marc Adamo includes 10 construction kits as well as 50 drum loops, 50 soft synth loops and a host of one shots, synth stabs and ‘superdubbed bass loops’.

The overall vibe is inspired by producers such as Joris Voorn, Claude Von Stroke, Trentemoller and the like, with plenty of scope for getting progressive in a house like fashion. Clicks and glitches are well covered, as are the usual soft samplers with nine ready to play patches. All in all, a very usuable collection, whether you stick within the genre or take some of the more versatile elements and run with them.

Verdict: 8/10

Dubwise Review By Future Music

Back in December, I gave Drumdrops in Dub a nine-out-of-ten – maybe some of you went and bought it. If you did, then you’ll definitely want this batch to complement it tastefully.

If you don’t, then its time to shell out.1.3gb of 24-bit Dubtastic dynamism covering everything you need to make Dub inspired tunage or to add a touch of Jamaican spice to your track. Melodica and horns, vocal one shot, riddims – its all covered here. The guitar loops are skanking and the bass loops have the monitors sweating like an accountant in a traffic jam. Get the samplers out, open the windows and make the best of the present good weather – hear me now one time!

Pro-tone Review Of Tribal Percussion by 5Pin Media

5Pin Media, the latest label of Loopmasters, wants to offer something special: unique and professional sounds, alongside with midi files that give you the basics for groovy rhythm and melodies. So far, this is nothing new: midi collections are present everywhere nowadays – so does Loopmasters once more prove its dominant position on the sample market? This test will tell…

Define the expectations

Tribal music is a widely present genre; still, talking about the electronic dance music scene, other styles are definitely more popular – an issue you also come across when searching for good tribal samples. There are a few collections out there (e. g. Vipzone) offering some nice loops where you simply need to throw on a kick and you’re done – but once you want to get really creative, the products already available may not be enough.

Not surprisingly, Loopmasters tried to take care of this: “Tribal Percussion” is a huge 1.9 GB collection. You have to choose hard amongst loads of single samples (kicks, effects, percussion, cymbals…), multi-sampled instruments (african drums, cajons, djembes…), a variety of loops thereof – and finally midis that spice up your track’s groove or at least offer some creative input.

Numb3ers…

Okay, let’s start with numbers all over the place: what do you get?

Midi: 22 groove templates, 521 loops for tribal drums – get creative mixing, cutting, realigning them!
Single samples: 1223 files to choose from – you better reserve some time for that
Multi samples: 27 instruments from african drums to udus – all you need is the feeling to play them right
Loops (126 bpm): 750 single-instrument and mixed-instruments files to quickly arrange the basic groove of your track or to simply add more top or bottom to your drumming

Convenience first…

Is there something that makes this collection special? YES. For all who are new to the music production business, the 5pin guys took care of a detailled and easy-to-understand manual that helps you to install and use the patches with your sequencer and/or sampler of choice. Nicely, sampler files for Battery 3, Kontakt 3, Reason plus a Rex version are attached. All samples, midis and other file types are sorted carefully into folders which makes browsing for the right sound quite easy. Furthermore, all samples having a certain pitch provide this in their respective filename – nice!

Let’s groove

To be honest, we prefer using loops in productions, as it speeds everything up. Furthermore, you can cut them, reverse them or do other crazy things to them and get a whole chain of effects quickly – this is the reason why we’ll focus on the loop part. But don’t you worry – you’ll also get information about “the rest” ;)

Well, as mentioned in the beginning, other products out there are more or less complex mixtures of tribal drums which simply need the kick of your choice and then walk the groove through the whole track. This is of course very fast and easy – and Tribal Percussion offers these kind of loops as well. Still, you might want to work a bit more on your own – maybe not arranging single samples all over the place, but at least having single instrument loops at your fingertips. And guess what? That’s also included – in fact it’s the major part of the loop section: you can either use little loop kits which keep you flexible in terms of arrangement but are already selected for sounds that harmonize with each other – or you are completely free to combine out of several hundred single instrument loops.

It could be just pure fun to play around with those loop samples, maybe adding some crazy vocal atmos to spice up the production even more – if there wasn’t a very annoying issue: except for the complex loops (remember, the ones that only need a kick on top), none seems to be well-cut. Dragging any of these loops into Cubase 5 (set to 126 bpm, as the sample pack states), they don’t cover a whole 2 or 4 bars, but end earlier. Hence, analyzing each loop in a separate audio editor shows clearly that loop length is perfect – and Cubase SX3 or Ableton Live as a comparison don’t see this problem. Something must be wrong with the tempo readout of Cubase 5, suggesting this is a Cubase 5 specific bug and cannot be blamed on 5pin. Anyway, a workaround for all Cubase 5 users: drag the loop into a sampler. We used Kontakt for this – and then it worked nicely.

Programming own grooves from the scratch can be hard work: you have to find samples that fit to each other, you have to carefully arrange each element in the stereo field, add some effects and much more. However, real groove needs one important thing: swing and shuffle. It’s a little magic function many sequencers offer – but you have to know how to use it the right way. You may try hard and see what comes out – our you just start with cool basic groove midis this sample pack delivers. Besides, midis come in handy as you can quickly cut, edit and rearrange them and thereby get lots of different patterns – and then you can try manifold samples on those midis. That’s really some help in case you’re desperately searching for a good starting point.

Sound quality please…

Let’s take care of the well-educated ears of music producers – what sound quality delivers this sample pack? Well, we’re glad this part is quickly done: the sound is truely nice. Smooth compression and crisp samples. That’s it. Nothing to complain. Vocals are artificially bitcrushed to a certain extend which fits perfectly to the Tribal genre and harmonizes with the drum samples.

Summary

Loving Tribal, you can’t be wrong choosing this product. To our knowledge there is no other collection out there thoughtfully covering many producers’ needs regarding this music genre – and no sample pack supports beginners of music production the way this product does. By the way, there is a dedicated Ableton Live version available. Still, one bad impression stays for Cubase 5 users: the lack of loops ready for drag’n'drop into the sequencer. However, this does not seem to be the fault of 5pin Media, so Loopmasters proved their name once more anyway – we’re especially excited what 5pin Media will offer in the future.

Verdict: 10/10

http://www.pro-tone.eu

Music Tech Review Of "Dark Matter - Experiments In Dub"

After a slow start, dubstep based sample packs are now pouring into the MTM office – and like ever- expanding genre itself, they tend to fall into two camps: either dark and aggressive or sparser and more dub-like. This latest pack from Loopmasters falls more into the latter category and features samples by artists associated with seminal Multiverse Studios.

The download only pack contains 270MB of 24-bit/44.1kHz WAV and REX loops, plus 108MB of hits with accompanying patches in EXS24, HALion, Kontakt, NN-XT and SFZ formats, Reason Refill, Apple Loops and Ableton Live versions are also available as separate downloads. The samples are divided into 20 construction kits that contain complete beat loops plus individual drum, bass and synth parts 140-143BPM. You can expect to find deep head-nodding dubstep grooves alongside more shuffling broken beats, with a combination of snarling synths, raspy effects and deeper lead sounds.

The artists represented include Ginz, Moving Ninja and Pinch, with each lending a slightly different twist to the genre. This is the pack’s strongest point: by having similar artists you get loops that work well together, but still with a decent degree of variety in the production techniques used.

In addition to the loops there are 82 ready-to-play synth, bass and drum instrument patches. Although these all feature the same tight production, they are spread across several folders in order to mimic the layout of the construction kits.

Overall, there’s not much to really blow you away but the production of each sound and drum hit is super-tight and would work well on the dance floor, with carefully EQ’ed kicks allowing space for your speaker-destroying bass lines. If you are writing this kind of dubstep, this pack comes highly recommended.

Drum Machines 02 - Computer Music Review

Here we have samples from four drum machines: Roland TR-808 and TR-909, Drumfire DF-2000 and MFB Schlagzwerg. The result is 1513 24-bit samples with nine sampler patches. In addition to a full set of clean samples, the 808 and 909 samples have also been processed using desirable hardware, including saturation courtesy of Empirical Lab’s FATSO.

To make the most of Drum Machines 2, we had to venture beyond the quite basic sampler patches and seek out many variations. Admittedly, much of this pack is old ground revisited, but that doesn’t preclude the sounds from being highly useful and relevant.

Verdict: 9/10

Wally Lopez - Computer Music Review

The sixth Global Underground collection is packed with loops, shots and squelches, perfect for the tech house sound. There’s not a lot to this pack – just 148 samples – but for the low price, the very targeted sound makes up for the low quantity. If you’re a REX file user, you’ll rejoice because every loop comes with a REX version, which is almost worth the price alone.

One-shot wise, there’s not a lot going on, but for fans of Lopez, tech house producers and anyone who makes nine-minute tracks featuring one synth stab, their £20 will be well spent.

Verdict: 7/10

Untold - Dubstep Producer - Computer Music Review

Untold, AKA Jack Dunning, delivers gritty beats, dirty synths and explosive samples and effects in his first sample pack. Ranging in tempo from 132 to 145bpm, Dubstep producer covers DnB and grime too, and the varied one-shots mean its suitable for most genres. Loops are separated into three categories – drum, full and music – and sounds within are unique and definitely don’t sound clichéd. Overall, this is a great pack with lots to get your teeth into.

Verdict: 8/10

S:amplify by Davide Carbone - Computer Music Review

Anyone who keeps half an eye on the sample world will know Carbone’s name well, as he has provided plenty of DnB weaponry in the past. His experience shines through with this pack of top-quality samples and loops. There are some surprises too, as Carbone focuses on the musical side of DnB, with emotive piano loops, rock guitar riffs and soulful sax solos. Of course, there are also the typical wobbly basslines and powerful drum loops. A versatile and high-quality package.

Verdict: 8/10

Interview With Martin Iveson aka Atjazz

This week we are talking with Martin Iveson, the brain behind the Atjazz phenomenon. Martin shares some of his insights and reveals how he made it from gaming industry to where he is now...

What’s new in the world of At Jazz, what projects do you have on the go right now?

Well, Many many things in 2010, Loads of very tasty releases from Atjazz Record Company including collaborations from myself with Mark de Clive-Lowe, Karizma, Boddhi Satva & Osunlade, I've been remixing heavily and have now in the 15 years of producing have made over 140 remixes for various artists worldwide and have now a planned double remix CD in the pipline coming on R2 records. Other than that I've produced 7 songs for the new Robert Owens album along side Larry Heard for compost records which has been a really nice process.

How did you first get into music production?

Music has always been in my bones since an early age, I had my first "keyboard" when i was about 6 years old and that had pegs you slotted in to get a different waveform, very analogue indeed and very pink as i remember!, I guess I've never really been one for the norm and music excites me and energises me deeply, I guess I just have to do this! Getting in to the DJ life and listening to different music was a big turning point for me from 1992 - 1994 and I found new inspirations in underground music, I fell in love with the whole things and it just escalated!

What five pieces of studio equipment would you say determines your sound?

Cubase, Roland SH09, Teisco Synth 60f, Korg Monopoly, Fender Rhodes Mk II

What are your musical influences, what music did you listen to growing up?

My sister listened to northern soul and I used to try and find strange station on the wireless, I guess this is why I'm so attracted to sound, the John Peel show when i was in my early teens was amazing too, I think I complicated my tastes as time went by.

You’re well known for your remixes. What is your favourite to date?

Well, I don't really have a favourite, I guess there are a few productions I like because I hit the sound I was looking for or even just had a very happy accident in the studio but I really enjoyed remixing Mr Beatnick 'I Know All The Bitches' & Maddslinky Feat Omar 'Special' but there are far too many to choose a favourite, I know the Bob Sinclar remix I did was a bit of an underground hit but again, I produced it so it sounds dated to me now, I move fast in my production techniques, I try and keep fresh the best I can with my sound.

Being an in-demand DJ, do you prefer smashing dance floors across the world or creating music?

Well, when gigs are good they're unbeatable but I'm a sucker for staying put, I love the day to day work ethic and miss being in my space when I'm away, I need my studio to feel grounded in what I do.

How differently do you approach remixing projects to your original productions?

Very, I mean you're kinda stuck with sound you're given, I always reprogram beats and drop new keys but sometimes I get busy and re-sample the parts that I've been given. As for productions, it's about getting a groove and then finding the space to make a song from nothing! a much different approach.

You recently created a sample pack for Loopmasters, how did you find this compared to creating musical productions?

Well, I really enjoyed it, I heard on a London radio station a few weeks ago someone saying "Yeah, Atjazz has always got those sounds you've never heard" well, that made me nervous, I guess I've got to keep making these mystical sounds that nobody has heard before, no pressure there I'm sure! LOL - But it wasn't easy, I put a lot of my time and effort into making something that people could actually use, It's nothing like writing music, it's more about building blocks that work together as I made it quite clear that I was not just going to make a construction pack, those kinds of packs make people lazy and I would really like to see more people getting into the art of sampling once more.

When you made your pack, were you worried that producers were going to be sampling, or trying to recreate your sound?

Yes, as I mentioned, I didn't want to write some Atjazz track loops and then somebody release that under their name, It's just not right, I made building blocks and the naming convention really just points people towards things that may fit together rather than having, Drums 1, Bass 1, Keys 1 etc... It's there for the creation of music and hopefully people will get their heads into the right space and use what I've created to their advantage and come up with some great songs of their own using my pack as a sample library.

Do you have any advice for the budding producers out there that are trying to make it in the competitive world of the music industry?

Make sure everything you do gives you goosebumps, be different and don't feel like you've got to be something or someone else. Feel the music that comes from you and believe in it. You won't go wrong... that is unless you just can't write music! Keep it fresh people, Keep underground music alive, It's what feeds popular music after all!

Computer Music Review Of Minimal Techno Revolution 1

Minimal Techno Revolution comprises huge library of one-shots and loops, totalling over 2000 samples. Each folder is meticulously filed, with subfolders making it easy to find the sound you need. Every sound is upfront, tight and powerful, and what’s more, it’s easy to get inspired and start working on ideas right away. One of the best things about the included loops is how they don’t try and take over a project – they’re Eq’ed to sit tightly without intruding. The kicks are fantastic, offering weight and power. If you can’t find something you like in this package, you’re in the wrong business.

Verdict: 9/10

Future Music Review of A Guy Called Gerald

AGCG (Gerald Simpson to his nearest and dearest) has delivered a new pack of atmos, bass loops, chord progressions and drum loops. I often question the difference between a batch of samples by a ‘big name’ and one with an unknown. In this case the ‘big name’ has delivered the goods in a nod-worthy fashion. Some of the drum loops are truly awesome and I’ll be filing them away quicker than you can say “The sounds herein contain patterns that create specific air movement sequence in earth atmosphere used at the correct pressure. The sounds will transport you to the groove simulator first level: the holographic key to die hold activation.” And that’s from the mouth of Gerald himself!

All the usual samplers are catered for as you’ve come to expect. My top choice of edgy soundscapey retro-progressive twisty Techno collection of the month.

Roger Watson

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Review Of Bop Minimal Drum & Bass

Hailing from Russia, BOP is an ice cool producer focused on minimal and all its branches. Turning his attention to DnB, the result is sparse but tight collection of samples. There are 216 loops, and 480wav samples and ‘cool’ is definitely the word that comes to mind- atmospheric pads, glitch loops and ‘tech chords’ accompany the usual one-shots and loops. BOP has done a great job of combining textbook Dnb samples with creative ‘sound-designed’ hits that still feel at home in the genre.

Plughugger Review Of A Guy Called Gerald - Deep Techno Sessions

Review of Loopmasters Deep Techno Sessions: when house legend A Guy Called Gerald releases his own sample library on Loopmasters the focus is on dark moody techno.

Gerald Simpson is a legend. While pretty much anyone who played at the Hacienda in Manchester are legends in my book, but Monsieur Gerald is more legendarish than the rest. While he'll always be remembered as the guy who were behind tracks such as Voodoo Ray and Pacific (808 State), his catalogue and works stretches far beyond. My earliest memory of A Guy Called Gerald is from one of my insanely hip friends who sent me an early mixtapes with G before he got big and starting redefining the sound of house. Big words - but while Marshall Jefferson might be the granddaddy of the US house movement - I would personally name Gerald Simpson as one of founders of modern house.

So when Loopmasters announced a sample library called Deep Techno Sessions by A Guy Called Gerald/Gerald Simpson I was over it the instant it was released. Unfortunately, the thing called life came and sucked out every opportunity to go through the library, so here we go. A month later or so.

Turn on the kettle and let's start chewing on some of the numbers.

WAV Loops

Atmospheres and FX: 49
Bass loops: 63
Chord progressions: 13
Drum loops: 127
Musical loops: 46

WAV Single shots

Bass hits: 59
Instrument sounds: 32
Misc: 19
Kicks: 39
Snares: 31
Hats: 45
Cymbals: 21
Toms: 25
Percussion: 40
FX: 19

Total drum hits: 220
Total single sounds: 330
Total drums: 347

Total loops: 298
Total samples: 628
Total time: 44 minutes 32 seconds.

While Deep Techno Sessions isn't a huge library it is well balanced. As with All Libraries Called Techno there is a fair number of drum-related samples in here, so let's start there and let's go directly to the common areas of trouble and tedious repetition: the single drum sounds.

With 39 kicks, 31 snares and 45 hats you never feel overwhelmed. The selection is well thought-out and covers a broad area. There are kicks for minimalistic electro as well as the stone hard punches for the clubs - there are even a few kicks distorted all the way into gabber-land.

The snares confirms Geralds deeper understanding of drums. There are of course the traditional both 909 and 808 sounding snares - but surprisingly few of them - and on top of that there are quite a few acoustic snares.

The percussion sounds are sort of a mixed bag with claps, toms, shakers, rim shots, snaps and even some effect-like sounds. With only 40 sounds, these sounds is a good foundation of what most people would use as percussion. On the other hand, they are not original nor does score high on the impress-o-meter. A useful selection of additional drum sounds.

What I like about the selection of drums is that they doesn't repeat themselves to death. Yes, turning a knob on the 909 one anthair to the left indeed results in a different sound. But, really. Who gives? This is a small collection of drum sounds that are easy to handle and sounds good. Electric & acoustic. Clean & layered. It's not what I would call the Final Collection of Drums, but very well thought out and highly usable.

The bass sounds are organized as one file per sound. In other words, there are no multiple takes of the same bass sound - which personally is fine by me. I never learnt to appreciate multi sampled synthesizer sounds anyway. Strings, brass and piano - great. But synthesizer sounds? I usually manage with single shots. So that leaves the user with almost 60 bass sounds. The sounds stretch from deep sub basses to aggressive techno-nastiness and all have a moody and a bit aggressive feel to them. Although you most definitely can use them for your upcoming Lu Lu Lu-cover, but they suit best among more wilder animals. Another good thing about the bass sounds is that they are unprocessed. No massive reverbs, hell-house eq curves or distortion. Just plain bass sounds. Which make them very suitable for being violated by your own tools.

Before we move on to the loops, just a few words about the instrument sounds. Despite that logic and sense would have us assume that the instruments folder contains synthesizer sounds that you can use to build melodies with - the larger part of these sounds are surprisingly more of an atmospheric nature: pads and drones, there are even a few bass sounds in there, which kind of make this category into a I-don't-know-where-to-put-these-sounds, but that aside, the sounds are excellent. Especially the soundscapes and pads - which have a dark, brooding feel to them.

Leaving the DIY-area we head straight over to the beef: the drum loops. All in all there are 127 of them and while there are a few kickless loops in there, the vast majority are with kicks. The pre-set tempos are 116, 120, 127 and 130 BPM and most of them are electronic. If I should would point to the area where this library reaches its peak - this is it. These drum loops are damn, damn, damn good. Although I've come a long way from the classic fourfour pumping since the hight of my personal commercial success in the nineties - I can't match this guys drum-programming voodoo. As with all intelligent techno/house/dance music, the drums play an active role in the music and these loops do that with top grades. They are like small worlds. The only negative thing I can say about them is that it would have been great with a few variations, or at least one without kick. Thankfully, the loops kind of play in the same sounding domain, which make it not too difficult to switch loops during a track. I was equally impressed with the acoustic loops as well. Although much fewer, the acoustic loops feel genuine and not ripped of by some old heavy metal or funk record. Fresh.

The rest of the loops are also of high quality. The basses have a low edge and are more rhythmical rather than melodic. As with the chord progressions, the basses are coated in a serious/moody vibe, which works great with the drum loops. The Musical section is not that musical really. Or at least not melodic, if that what you mean with musical. It's made up by higher, tonal rhythmical sounds - sure - but as with the basses, the treat is the combination of sound and rhythm, rather than a catchy melody.

Conclusion
Deep Techno Sessions is a damn fine library. It's not overprocessed and it's not overwhelming. Although the selection of both tonal and drum samples are highly relevant, the main treat is the drum loops which are superbly programmed. The moodiness and darkness is present through all of the sounds which also gives the library a uniform direction. Fantastic.

Good: Uniform library for darker house. Good collection of drum samples. Fantastic drum loops.

Bad: Slightly uninspiring percussion sounds

Waveformless Give Full Marks To Wave Alchemy's Drum Machines 02

Drum Machines 02 is the latest release from Wave Alchemy, a company quickly building a name for itself as the source for some of the best sounding electronic drum samples on the market. This library collects the company's previous micro packs of Roland TR-808, Roland, TR-909, and Drumfire DF2000, and adds samples sourced from an MFB Schlagzwerg. The sounds were recorded and processed through everything from hi-end pre-amps to vintage samplers and filters, so they don't require additional processing to sound great in a mix. But doesn't the world already have enough 808 and 909 samples?

It's true that there is no shortage of 808 and 909 samples out there. Other sample libraries, both free and commercial, have explored this territory many times over already. But while you've no doubt heard these famous drum machines countless times already, I'd wager that you've never heard them sound this good. Wave Alchemy is known for the production quality of their drum sounds and this is no exception. The kicks and snares sound impossibly snappy and present. The cymbals are clear as a bell. The percussion punches through a mix perfectly. In addition to tweaking the settings on the drum machines to obtain different sounds, a really wide range of processing techniques were used here to stretch the boundaries of sounds you'd normally expect from these machines. The overdriven variations are especially nice with the perfect balance of hardness and warmth.

Wave Alchemy may have suspected that 808 and 909 samples, good as these are, might still be a tough sell, so they've wisely paired those two machines with sounds from a duo of less common drum machines - the Drumfire DF2000 and the MFB Schlagzwerg. Both of these machines can do some very similar sounds to the 808 and 909, but both also offer more extensive sound shaping parameters, so the sounds are a lot more varied, including some synthy FX and ring mod sounds. The sound of both the DrumFire and MFB units are unmistakeably analog and while these sounds mostly pale in comparison to the more iconic Roland drum machines, what is here is recorded and processed very well and offers an extended palette for those in the mood for something more synthy sounding.

As always, the sounds are divided up into sub folders by sound types making it quick to find the sounds you need. A handful of mapped out drum kits is included for the various soft sampelrs out there, but these don't include all the samples in the library, so if you want a "sound menu" type mapping of all the sounds, you'll need to take that on yourself. As a bonus, all of the samples are also available as professionally dithered 16-bit sample for those of you dinosaurs who still favor hardware samplers.

If you need some 808 and 909 samples, this is your library. I've literally never heard nicer samples of these machines and the processing is just jaw-dropping. The additional drum machines round things out nicely, and while they're not as inspiring as the Roland classics, they still sound great and give you an even wider range of sounds to choose from.

Rating: 10/10

DnBBeats.com Review Of The Ray Keith Sample Pack

Here’s the story: I’ve had a couple of weeks to test out the Loopmasters Ray Keith Drum & Bass Vol.1 Sample Pack and you know what? It’s KILLER!

This time around I didn’t just want to add the samples to my existing tunes to check them out, I wanted a new challenge.

If I could get a track or two up and running using JUST the samples from the Ray Keith Sample Pack I could work out the depth of the pack and its ability to smash up the DANCE FLOOR!

The Evil Plan Is Hatched!

The quickest, easiest and nastiest way to to get this into effect was to use Ableton Live 8. As you may be aware I’ve been using Live 8 more and more and for this type of thing because its a perfect fit. I fired up Ableton, set the BPM to 172 and BOOM away I went.

The Bass

First stop was the BASS. I normally start with drums but I’ve found that if I start with a music element first I don’t get bogged down so much with the technical mumbo jumbo of building beats.

Well, how was the Bass then? All 100% quality. There is quite a wide selection of Bass Loops so if you’re after something gritty or smooth or dark or jungle sounding or what ever Ray got you fully covered. There is also a nice selection of Bass one shots for all you peeps out there that want to get down and write your own b-line, in the future I’ll be using one of those sounds but for now I just wanted to get up and running. I quickly selected a bass loop that had a nice steppy riff to it and moved on the beats.

The Beats

I won’t lie to you. The beats are awesome! Once again you get wide selection of loops to choose from and every one of them has a vibe and sonic flavour. The only downside here was not enough Percussion loops to my liking but hey nothings perfect right? Whilst i had the Bassline rolling I was able to audition a few drum loops. It was a hard choice but I managed to pick a drum loop that had a nice shuffle rhythm to it that worked with the bass line.

The single drum shots are all gold. You get solid Kicks, Snares and Hats to play with. Whilst the numbers may be small the quality more then makes up for it.

What does this mean for you? Your beats should never sound weak on the dance floor again!

The Rest…

Continuing on I moved onto the more musical side of things, like Pads, Atmos, Blips and then FX sounds. Here, the same thing again. A fine selection of loops to choose from in a variety of styles but I really could have done with more FX sounds like swooshes and risers etc I know from experience people on the dance love these sounds. The FX sounds that are there, are 100% Classic Ray Keith sounds so if your after instant Jungle badness (who doesn’t?) you’re sorted.

And Finally…

Listen, I think the Loopmasters Ray Keith Original Drum & Bass Vol.1 Sample Pack is a definite must have in your studio. You can use the loops to phatten up your own breaks, bass, fx or whatever or you can use the loops to help kick start your creative juices. Once you got a tune up and running you can pull the loop out and go from there. Click the link below to grab your copy today.

See you on the dance floor!

Dauntless

DnBBeats.com Review Of Syncopix Sample Pack

Well, Loopmasters are at it again with their Artist Series delivering up another gem of a royalty free sample pack. This time round they enlisted the talents of Hamburg’s own Syncopix (aka Roland to his parents) for a 470 mb smash up of Beats, Bass and everything in between.

I won’t go on all day about what’s in the Loopmasters samplepack and what format you can get it in because you can find out for yourself here.

What I will tell you is that it’s a very fine piece of work and definitely should take up a suitable space on your HDD. (Probably right in the Loopmasters folder!)

There’s a lot of TURD sample packs out there in the big world, indeed some that would cost you double or even more but don’t really don’t deliver! However, this sample CD does, and does so well.

We all know the saying in drum n bass production well, “you can’t polish a turd!”… so collecting a good sample library is a must if you’re going to get anywhere in this very competitive genre of electronic music. Add Loopmasters Syncopix Drum n Bass Vol 3 to yours NOW!

See you on the dancefloor

Dauntless

Ten Stars From MTM For BOP: Minimal Drum & Bass

Every now and then, and artist comes along who manages to strike a perfect balance between different genres and create something that feels fresh. BOP is a producer from Saint Petersburg in Russia whose music combines elements of deep techno and minimalist dubstep with IDM and ambient drum and bass. He has already had several releases on Hospital Records and their sister label Med School.

BOP: Minimal Drum and Bass is available as a download in four versions: Apple Loops, Live Pack and Refill, plus a main zip version that includes ACIDised Wavs and Rex2 loops, plus single hits and sampler patches for Kontakt, Halion, NNXT, EXS24 and SFZ. If you're in doubt as to which version you want, visit the Loopmasters website, where you'll find a handy guide.

Once unpacked you get a 430mb of 16 bit loops and 75mb of hits, plus 33 instruments patches with the sounds mapped out. All of the production is outstanding, with an astonishing attention to detail and some of the warmest and most beautiful sounds we've ever heard.

All of the 170bpm beats are of the electronic variety but have been processed with lo-grit and had the aggression removed from the top end to produce spacious but crunchy D&B and dubstep style grooves.

As a useful addition, the subtle and melancholic atmos-pads and musical loops have both tight looped versions and samples with the release tails intact. There is also a superb collection of glitch loops and bass, drum and FX hits.

The only slight disappointment is the bass and synth loops, of which there could be more. Overall, though, this is a fantastic pack of immaculately produced sounds and loops that's packed with originality and ice cold charm. It's a must for anyone writing downbeat electronic music in any genre who wants to be inspired by something a little different.

A superb library of loops and sounds brimming with beatiful, warm, and intricate production.

Public Records Launch In Partnership With Loopmasters

Public Records set up for the specific purpose of providing talented and undiscovered artists with an effective platform to launch their careers.

The site makes use of social media tools so that user votes and feedback are easily and seamlessly spread across the web, promoting your music to an untapped audience during the voting stage. Even if your submitted tracks aren’t ultimately signed we will help spread your music across social networks and draw new attention to your music, increasing your profile.

If you are signed with us, we’ll PR your music and make use of our list of key partnerships to get your music out there. Our artist agreement is simple and easy to understand, and we only look for your commitment on a track-by-track basis. We are here to act a launch pad to move on to other labels if you choose – think of us as a starting point to big things for you.

The label is open to all styles of music with an electronic influence and our first EP will be an eclectic mix, so whatever your flavour we’re here to listen! Our submission phase officially launches today (June 4th 2010) and we’ll be accepting tracks until July 4th. From July 11 to August 11 we’ll post our short-listed tracks on www.publicrecordings.co.uk for public comments and voting. Shortly after the voting period ends, we’ll offer the five most highly rated track producers the option to release with us! We plan on releasing at least one EP every quarter.

For full details of the submission, voting and release process you can visit the labels FAQ page.

If you feel it’s time for you music to be heard, why wait? Submit your track now

iDJ Review Of Lucio Aquilina Deep House Sounds

After big releases on Cocoon and support from the king of techno Richie Hawtin, Lucio Aquilina releases this sample pack full of quirky drum loops and wonky synth lines. While all the drum loops are intriguing, with all their unusual sounds and atmospheres some may find that they are caked in too much reverb, making them difficult to blend them with your own composition. Other than this, the sample pack is full of useful tools – especially the percussion loops, which blend easily into the mix, without much adjustment. There’s also plenty of individual hits and chord stabs to keep you busy. This one is perfect for those that like to inject a little bit of melody into their techno mix

Computer Music Review Of When Alien Drum Robots Attack

Firm favourites of CM, Goldbaby strike again with another prolific collection of samples. Described by the brazen babes as a ‘drum and FX tool box’, this pack is jammed full of high-quality one-shots, kits and loops. There’s also a collection of ‘Rise and Fall’ FX and layering tools such as transient snaps to give your snares more bite, and vinyl crackle to make your kicks sizzle. All of the samples here sound warm and huge, a testament to both the sound sources (vintage drum machines, samplers and synths) and the high-quality processing they underwent.

Don’t be put off by the retro sci-fi terminology and artwork – this package will stretch right across genres like hip-hop, dubstep and DnB, as well as being perfect for house and techno. To top it off, each pack comes with a PDF of pictures of the equipment used to make the samples. This is a hugely versatile, premium quality pack at a great price.

Verdict: 9/10

iDJ Review Of BOP Minimal Drum & Bass

Generally the best sample packs are the subtle ones, the ones that don’t scream out at you and don’t try and make every single producer on the planet happy. BOP’s latest effort is subtlety at its best. With it being minimal you can easily pick and choose the drum and glitch loops and edit them at ease. There are none of those irritating horn sirens over the top, there’s no nonsense. This isn’t just for drum and bass producers either; the loops work well in all sorts of experimental tracks. The only minor downside to the pack is that the synth stabs and basslines are a little generic, but this is something you get with many other sample packs. For the price this one is a must buy.

Rekkerd Review Of Progressive House & Future Tech

Loopmasters has released a new sample library by Andy Lee: Progressive House & Future Tech.

I am not exactly sure by what standards something is called progressive house or future tech these days so I guess it’s a good idea to drop some names to get an idea of what type of sound you can expect.

From the Loopmasters website:
"Progressive House & Future Tech is influenced by the more progressive club sounds of artists such as Pryda, The Swedish House Mafia, Funkagenda, Daniel Portman, Michael Woods, Alex Kenji, EDX, and the legendary sounds of Deadmau5.

This collection of royalty free samples includes everything between Progressive and the Main Room side of Tech House as pioneered by artists such as Tiger Stripes, Bingo Players, D Ramirez, Mark Knight, John Dahlback, and labels such as Noir, Toolroom, Stealth, Poker-Flat, Sneekerz, Get Physical, Nervous, and Spinnin."

Progressive House & Future Tech includes over 1,100 loops and samples:

Over 1.3 GB content, 24-bit quality.
697 Loops: 88 bass, 89 chord and stab, 398 drum, 80 lead, and 42 pads & sidechained.
459 Single Sounds: 17 chord stab (2 multi), 333 drum, 26 FX, and 20 synth multis (bass, synth, pads, etc).
45 patches EXS24, HALion, Kontakt, NN-XT, and sfz format.

The loops folder structure is uncomplicated and easy to browse. There are category folders for bass, chords/stab, drum, etc., for the two tempos offered (128 and 130 bpm). Same thing with the single sound folders, everything is straightforward and painless to find.

The sounds of Progressive House & Future Tech are generally quite minimal, though there is a generous amount of the type of melodic content you would expect from a progressive sample library. Where applicable everything has been key labeled.

Even though most of the samples are quite short (2 bars), many chord/stab and lead loops have those typical build-up/breakdown type elements and a few also have variations for easy construction of sequences. The drum loops are quite varied, including variations such as top/no-kick loops. For pushing the beat even harder the pads section has some useful side chain effected loops.
The collection of single sounds is a valuable addition, especially when using the included sampler patches. Each one of the 20 multi-sample synth patches uses only 4 samples, yet they work surprisingly well and cover a lot of ground.

412limited Review of Progressive House & Future Tech

As part of our special on the Loopmasters website we'll be reviewing several of their loop packs across the pages of the 412 website. As this is the house and electro section of the site, here you'll find our thoughts on one of the best packs available for Progressive House Producers, the Loopmasters 'Progressive House and Future Tech' pack. The pack is designed to include the ultimate in building blocks for creating Progressive House and Futuristic Techno music.

I'm not really much of a progressive house kinda guy really but I thought i'd give this pack a review and see if I could be clinical enough in my review to try and pinpoint some of the good points about this product. The first good point to make is that its around a gig and half of music samples... thats a lot of sounds and even for someone who isn't really into producing progressive house, its easy to find loops that you can use in any project.

Versatility is what I'm always looking for when i review sample packs, so I often try and use the sounds in completely different types of music and see how they work out. The pads in particular were very useful as the range of atmospheres you can create with them is quite broad and they also all sound pretty good when pitched up and down to different speeds. The 'Synth Multis' folder is also good for this same purpose, although they do fade out quite quickly and so are more adept for using in samplers than simply laying into a track for atmosphere.

The pack contains the following: 90 Bass Loops, 400 Drum Loops, 90 Chord And Stab Loops, 80 Lead Lines - as well as 459 Single Sounds including: 42 Pads, 20 Chord Stabs, 300+ Single Drum Samples, 26 FX, 80 Multi-sampled Bass, Leads and Pads, 45 Ready-to-play Patches for Reason NNXT, HALion, Kontakt, EXS and SFZ. This pack is also available in the following formats: Reason Refill, Apple Loops and Ableton Live version.

As with so many of these packs the single hits are where the real gold lies in store. The drum hits are all top quality and in particular the percussion folder has more than a few gems hidden inside. A nice variety of sounds and several recordings of every sound make it quite a useful folder - highly useful for any type of house, garage, minimal or even a world music orientated composition.

Loopmasters are one of the best sample sites on the internet and with good reason. The packs they provide are from quality producers and companies, their prices are reasonable and should you lose the samples they are stored in your account area in case you need to download them again. A serious website for serious producers. Check it out.

Ray Keith Original Jungle Drum & Bass Vol.1 - Review by Sound On Sound

Back in 1994, jungle producer Renegade (aka Ray Keith) released a record called ‘The Terrorist’ and it’s probably fair to say that the jungle and drum and bass scenes haven’t been the same since. While Ray was by no means the first dance-music producer to sample the ‘Amen’ break, it was probably the first record, other than the Winston’s dusty B-side, to get sampled for that infamous drum loop (Marvelous Cain’s ‘Hitman’ is a notable example). Loopmasters’ latest attempt to keep the scene alive and full of samples is the Ray Keith Original Drum and Bass Volume 1 Pack, and it doesn’t disappoint. Crammed with 150 loops (at a very usable tempo of 175bpm) and over 160 one – shot samples (all of them in 16-bit/44.1khz uncompressed WAV format), there’s enough here to keep you gurning for days. The loops are divided between drums, basses and musical loops, with the drum loops being further split into what Loopmasters call ‘Future Drum Loops’ and ‘Classic Loops’.

The Future set comprises a selection of hard hitting and modern – sounding four bar drum offerings, while the Classic loops are mostly derived from the funk breaks that helped create the genre (including the aforementioned ‘Amen’). Fortunately, though, these have been quite heavily processed and reinforced with one-shot samples, and so offer far more than just pitched up versions of the originals. The bass loops, meanwhile, sound like they’ve been pulled straight out of the Dread Records top drawer, and feature a pretty comprehensive set of jungle bass lines, from angry buzz-saw stabs to slow-modulated Reese bass lines.

The Musical Loops section is where you’ll find the pads, bleeps and hooks, and if these don’t have you scrolling through your phonebook looking for the party hotline in minutes, there is something wrong with you. Highlights are the reggae-type delayed piano stabs, and there are also some good synth leads and highly usable pads.

Anyway, that grumble aside, the loops here make producing some seriously dark, yet professionally-sounding drum and bass incredibly easy. For me, however, it’s the one-shot samples that make this pack so useful; the single hits and loopable sections of the pads and basslines make writing some original material possible, while the sound effects (which include pretty much every type of dub siren sound imaginable) will no doubt come in handy when your looking for some ear candy with which to pepper your tracks.

Pretty much all of the drum hits included have been well chosen and well produced, which is perfect if, like me, you prefer to programme your beats manually, but don’t want to trawl through a bunch of lacklustre kicks and snares, or have to beef samples up by layering and tuning them.

Chris Korff.

Drum Tools by Wave Alchemy Score Another Rave Review - Future Music

This impressive new release from Wave Alchemy contains just under 2,000 individual drum hits in 24-bit and 16-bit WAV format, along with sampler patches in the most common formats, including Battery, Kontakt, ESX24 and Halion. Although it’s clear that the sounds were designed with minimal techno and Tech House in mind, most of the samples are versatile enough to fit into any production style.

It’s clear that the Wave Alchemy boys have put some serious effort into the creation of Drum Tools 01 and as a result it comes highly recommended for producers of all electronic genres.

Verdict: 9/10

Computer Music Give Fatjuno-6 The Full Marks!

Wow! This is stunning – go and buy it now! What, you need more information? Well, the FatJuno 6 is a terribly named , fantastically – executed multisample collection created using a Roland Juno 6 running through a UBK Fatso processor. The results are astonishing: huge- sounding, instantly usable, authentic Juno sounds for a mere fistful of dollars! There are 140 patches here, which is more than enough at this price, but they’ve all been crafted with the intention of being combined into new, exciting hybrids. You’ve got everything from raw oscillator samples to enormous multi -layered beats. Our only criticism: this pack is so good, we would have happily paid extra for more content. How about it, Goldbaby?

Tim Healey & Marc Adamo Alternative House - Review by Sound On Sound

This latest collection from Loopmasters comes courtesy of noted DJ, producer and remixer Tim Healey and production partner Marc Adamo, and weighs in at a hefty 3.9gb. That figure is slightly deceptive, though, as alot of the material is duplicated in different formats. What we actually have is around 800mb of loops, in Apple loops, Wav, Ableton Live, Reason Refill and Rex Formats, and a further 200mb of various one shot samples. There are also sampler patches for Emu X2, EXS24, Halion, Kontakt, and Reason NN-XT, plus sound fonts.

The loops are grouped into folders of Bass, Drum, FX, Music and Synth contenders, while the one shot samples are grouped into Bass multis, Drums, FX, Synth Sounds and Vox FX. This seems to be pretty much standard these days, and the familiarity is welcome.

Two things immediately struck me while running through the sounds, the first of which was the very edgy tone of many of them. In fact, the information accompanying the DVD makes a very strong point of mentioning the tube warmth and multiple stages of compression that were used in the creation of the sounds. In some respects, this is good, as it provides material that is instantly ready to go and doesn’t require much, if any, processing. However, it has drawbacks too, the main problem being that once you start to layer a few different elements, the ‘tube warmth’ becomes way too much, in my opinion. As I was auditioning the samples, there was a great temptation to just throw a few loops together and start working on a track, but as soon as I did, the warmth overload started to take effect and I found myself combining just one or two samples from this collection with less processed material.

Having said that, it is immediately clear that a huge amount of time, effort and care has gone into creating the samples, and Loopmasters seem to be onto a winner with the series. The second thing I noticed was that the samples, although in qute a narrow bpm range of 125-128, are quite diverse and would fit nicely into a number of different house based genres. This is a nice change from some of the more narrow and focused collections I’ve heard lately.

I would certainly recommend this to anybody who wants to add a cutting edge feel to what they have already , as the faultless production will instantly add ‘vibe’ to whatever you are working on. Simon Langford.