One-Shots December 2007
Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander
SCARBEE BLACK BASS
FOUR-STRING MOJO
Recorded with flatwound strings for disco and funk, Scarbee Black Bass is a painstakingly captured Kontakt 2 instrument (not stand-alone) totaling 2.74 GB of data. The single NKI file folder and related samples folder took the better part of two minutes to load on a P4 dual 3.4 GHz machine — a bit of a session stopper. But it was definitely worth the wait. Immediately, Black Bass stood out with a natural, almost effortless sound filled with gorgeous overtones as you riff up and down the keyboard. Every note on every string has been sampled with sustains, mutes, harmonics, fast grace notes, cross-hammering and more. Thanks to some brilliant scripting, Black Bass plays the way a bass player does, automatically selecting the best-suited string for a given note. That really adds to the authenticity. Alternatively, you can control string selection using keyswitching in the bottom octave of the keyboard, along with index finger/middle finger alternation. Additional keyswitches above the bass' playable range let you select preferred fret positions for each note, triggering appropriate fret-noise along the way.
For the most part, articulations occur naturally and without the need for keyswitching, making Black Bass most enjoyable to play live. Crucial for funk, slides can be triggered at any speed, along with chord recognition for authentic fingering, and random insertion of pickup hits adds realism. It's all pretty damned impressive. The interface features user-adjustable performance parameters, controller assigns, an effects section with some pretty sweet presets and onscreen help. Everyone needs an incredibly authentic funk bass, and workstation presets just won't cut it. Scarbee Black Bass is the remedy.
SCARBEE
BLACK BASS KONTAKT 2 LIBRARY > $99.95
At a glance: Outstanding flatwound '70s disco and funk bass. Requires full version of Kontakt 2.2.3.
Contact: www.scarbee.com
SONY CREATIVE SOFTWARE DRUMS FROM THE BIG ROOM: THE MIXES
NOW IN STEREOPHONIC SOUND!
In distilling its acclaimed five-disc collection of Steve Ferrone (Eric Clapton, Duran Duran, Tom Petty) multitrack drum loops — originally released as Drums From the Big Room in 2005 — Sony Creative Software handpicked only the composite stereo files to create The Mixes. Recorded at the now defunct O'Henry Studios and mixed by Grammy winner Greg Ladanyi, the sound is large, lively and oozing soul. Sixteen sessions across five genres each contain upward of 40 to 50 loops, providing plenty of chorus and verse variation, fills, count-ins, intros and outros. The rock families, such as “Go Deeper” (85 bpm), offer tons of rolling patterns with lots of ballsy low-end and rich room character; the tom fills are especially enormous, deep and brooding. In the same category, “Big Bottom” (74 bpm) has an earthier '70s rock vibe about it, via some magnificent preamp and compression choices that lend it an early-U2 or Police sound. In “Down & Dirty” (173 bpm) — a charging number with happy bounce — I hear anything from contemporary renditions of Bowie's “Modern Love” to Katrina and the Waves' “Walking on Sunshine,” only done up modern indie/punk-style. The Dancehall loops really put a smile on my face, as did chopping up the smoky brushed downtempo grooves of “Tighty Whitie” or the speedy 200 bpm funk of “Sweet 13.” Likewise, “Check's in the Mail” (86 bpm) from the pop folder is great for piecing together a tough hip-hop joint out of its Acidized bits. Incredibly powerful and captured to perfection on vintage kits, you dare not EQ or compress this collection for fear of losing the magic.
SONY CREATIVE SOFTWARE
DFTBR: THE MIXES > $69.97
At a glance: Two-disc collection of 24-bit rock, pop, jazz, R&B and reggae drum loops performed by Steve Ferrone and mixed by Greg Ladanyi. Acidized WAV.
Contact: www.sonycreativesoftware.com
UEBERSCHALL GROOVE SHADOW ELASTIK
BACK-BEATEN PATHS
Devoted entirely to polyrhythmic backdrops to layer behind your main beat, Groove Shadow Elastik is filled with abstract effects loops, stretched circuit-bends and atmosphere-based sequences. These elements have been grouped to form more than 400 “shadows,” or thematic folders, and are derived from incidental sounds that occur in nature and industry, including electrical components, machinery, musical instruments, phrases, audio manipulations and a variety of other stranger sources. Each shadow is made up of four layers, split into four frequency ranges — 1,600 unique loops across the entire 3.5 GB collection. Ueberschall even included more than 4,000 original source sounds, relevantly mapped throughout the programs, so that you can finely augment or create your own custom shadows.
Shadows are categorized by light, medium and hard intensities, which sounds cool in theory because it allows you to approach your groove-building dynamically. But in practice, those guidelines aren't very well executed and had lots of false alarms and misappropriation.
The Elastik player's “loop eye” interface proved to be the ideal host for such a library. Layers and elements can be individually filtered, panned, reversed, pitch-shifted, time-stretched or sent to separate outputs. By adjusting the start and end loop-points, I was able to mesh whole elements or partial sections together in perfectly locked time. You can even auto-splice elements down to a granular level with the results mapped across the keyboard when you're feeling all Aphex Twin-like. Groove Shadow Elastik feels as much at home for film and game composers as it should be for triggering live during performances or DJ sets.
UEBERSCHALL (DIST. BY BIG FISH AUDIO)
GROOVE SHADOW ELASTIK > $119.95
At a glance: Processed rhythmic-loop elements derived from incidental sounds designed to reinforce main grooves. Driven by the Elastik loop-player interface.
Contact: www.bigfishaudio.com or www.ueberschall.com
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