Cluster Sound's New Season Starts - Find Out More From The Source!

Cluster Sound have a long-running tradition of delivering razor-sharp loops to producers and DJs around the world. There was a short break, but no means were they on vacation. A leading Tech & Minimal House Label has a line-up of sample packs ready to hit the digital shelves worldwide. Here's a few words from the man behind the faders.

There's been a shroud of silence over Cluster Sound recently. What's the cause of that?

During the last months we have drawn the picture of the situation, analyzed the new trends and worked on new series..it has been a very prolific period. We are living in very exciting times in the music world. Producers are promoting their tracks on free sharing communities and the growing amount of immediately available free music is positively affecting sound quality. Quality is becoming synonymous of credibility and prestige, it has become more important than a banner placed in the homepage of popular mp3 shops. Everything is changing quickly and people are in need of professional music tools to quickly create their own music, also because they have to find the time to master their DJ sets. We have monitored these market dynamics and developed new products designed to further simplify the creative processes. We have always focused our attention to sound quality, flexibility and multi-format compatibility but now we have added also the full sound customization in our priority list.

What's new and unique about these products?

Generally speaking, the biggest benefit of loops is their immediate usability... you simply drag it into your DAW and you are done. Their obvious disadvantage is that lot of people will use the same loops in their music productions. To avoid this factor we have offered dry sounds since our first library (so that producers can customize them with their favourite effect) and single-sound loops designed to be “transparent” but effective at the same time. During this period we have studied in depth the most popular music software, we have integrated their features in our libraries and implemented tweaking techniques that allow to drastically change a sound in few clicks. A very useful technique is the “FX layering”. It’s as simple as it is effective. You have the flat loop and its own FX version and both them are available for Kontakt (with dedicated user interface) and Live Drum Racks. You can filter, effect, granulate and mix the flat loop and its FX version to obtain evolving sequences or you can play them with your keyboard. These libraries are loop-based yet extremely customizable.

Are these new series going to replace the previous one? There were some excellent packs delivered by CS over the last 2+ years... Or is a new thing which Cluster Sound will release alongside the existing Tech & Minimal House series?

We have preferred to approach new music genres in a second time and giving priority to technical innovations and new products. We will continue to release all-in-one packs but our next titles will be also designed for specific software or organized by content (Loop-based / Multi-sample / Drumkits). These new series allow us to experiment with the software features and to offer different kinds of products for different customers’ requirements. I can tell you that there will be very interesting news especially for Ableton and Native Instruments users  who will benefit from amazing drum & synth based instruments.

Who are these new products designed for? Is it more studio work or stage performance?

In all cases DJ-producers sell or share their music with the aim to play in the clubs and lot of them use computers and midi controllers in their sets. This is because DJs need to customize the music with a personal touch, they want to change the music as much as they like and create something special and exclusive, even during their performances. The current sound libraries can already be used in this context but as usual, everything can be improved. I cannot go into details but a new series for live performance is in progress..so stay tuned :-)