ONE-SHOTS
May 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander
RED SHIFT AUDIO DRUMULAR
VSTi DRUM SYNTH
Designed by Andreas Ersson — creator of the popular Iblit and Vandetta — Drumular is a modular drum synth VST instrument with 24 pads to a kit, each of which can be assigned its own form of synthesis. Modules include Classic 8-bit; Additive; the TR-styled Electronic with kick, snare, rimshot, hi-hat, tom, chirp, clap, cowbell and cymbal; One Shot; Sample Playback; GDSM; and Monobass. Each module contains its own specific parameters making for fast editing, and module oscillators can operate in mono or stereo. Monobass and GDSM are particularly cool single-oscillator monosynths ideally suited for rich sawtooth or pulse drum, sub-bass and boom sounds. Classic 8-bit and Additive are great for achieving raw, cheese-box and minimalist electronica beats. The spot on — sounding Electronic modules sport a large waveform display along with appropriate parameters. For example, Ekick features a Boom section with frequency control, sweep, decay and sine-wave sweep decay, while the Thump section provides a secondary oscillator and parameters with the ability to mix these and add analog drive.
Of the sample-based modules, One Shot is a straightforward sample player with no fancy sonic edit parameters, but it can be configured as many as 16 Velocity-switched layers deep. Sample Playback mode has complete pitch, filter and amp envelope parameter areas, and you can turn sample looping on and quickly adjust the start and end positions using slides. Importing of standard WAV files is supported. Drumular can sound as old-school or fresh for 2006 as you wish. Virtually every electronic style is covered in the 155 factory kits, but I immediately detected a strong leaning toward electronic dance/synth-pop. Lacking an integrated beat engine, Drumular is not about to oust the Machinedrum or µTonic from their forte, but at less than 40 bills, it does offer a surprisingly broad and exciting sound palette that you can't ignore.
RED SHIFT AUDIO
DRUMULAR > $39
At a glance: Highly flexible modular drum synth. Windows VSTi only.
Contact: www.redshiftaudio.com
ZERO-G VOCAL FORGE
VOCAL SAMPLE COLLECTION
Not long ago, incorporating convincing vocals into an original track meant that you had to know a great vocalist and ask them for a favor, piece together cheesy diva shouts from various sample discs, or slough it out your own damn self. Zero-G producers Mike Wilkie and Matthew Corbett say to hell with that, offering more than 1.2 GB of contemporary pop and urban vocals ensconced within Native Instruments' Intakt host for PC and Mac. What makes Vocal Forge different is that it provides not only vocal elements in various styles, but also elements that are guaranteed to work together sonically and contextually, from start to finish. Based around 14 original songs, you're given full-length structures including verses, choruses, backgrounds, harmonies, ad-libs and more. Several takes of each line are provided, often of different phrasings and mic approaches, so things never sound stiff and boring. The original instrument tracks are not provided.
Styles and vocalists range from clear and clean female Top 40 R&B, complete with lush girl-group style harmonies to smooth male R&B, oddly reminiscent of Seal meets Simon & Garfunkel. Also on call are a couple of powerful male and female MC rap flows; a sweet, young and slightly whiny-sounding pop vocal, not unlike Vanessa Carlton; two euro-dance cuts from a girl whose voice could easily be confused for Dhany (of Benassi Bros. fame); a couple nice female trance vocals; and a slightly gothic female operatic-pop performance that unfortunately falls short of being Amy Lee from Evanescence. Produced in Britain and drawing largely from Birmingham talent, nearly all of the vocals (including raps) have a distinct UK accent, which may put off some people. Still, the point of this collection is to present mix-worthy, flexible, royalty-free samples. With this, Vocal Forge succeeds brilliantly.
ZERO-G (DIST. BY EAST WEST/SOUNDS ONLINE)
VOCAL FORGE > $199.95
At a glance: Unique take on the vocal sample library concept. VST 2, DXi, Audio Units, RTAS.
Contact: www.soundsonline.com
LA RIOT DRE GHOST & THE MACHINE
DOWNTEMPO HIP-HOP SAMPLE COLLECTION
Famed LA Riot producer and loop-maker DJ Dre Ghost (Andre Bell) is back, this time hitting hard with a four-CD set containing 36 dark and mysterious hip-hop construction kits compiled across two data CDs and a third CD-ROM that has hundreds of loop effects, scratches and original clean and vocoded vocals from Dre himself. An added audio CD acts as a handy quick-reference audition guide, containing one- to two-minute full-mix song previews built entirely from the individual non-Acidized WAV construction kit elements found on the CDs. Kits are assembled in a tempo range that gradually increases from 60 to 103 bpm, with literally half of the kits on either side of 90. Elements common to all kits typically include drums, bass, guitar, strings and vocals, with piano, organ, clav and miscellaneous percussion/effects featured here and there.
As the tempos generally indicate, the grooves are of a sauntering, leisurely gait, nodding particularly in a Southern direction with booms playing the leading roll and tricky snare and hi-hat fills between kicks. It seemed as though the same few kit presets were used repeatedly, making the percussive variety of beats a bit narrow across the collection. Musical variety, though, is top-notch; I loved the Spanish guitar vibe going on in “Street Walka,” and the acoustic piano and electric guitar chunks in “Back Hangin'” are dope. Dre Ghost also programmed some tasty interplay between analog and resonant synth clavs on “Gravite,” and the synth horn stabs in “Slauson Blvd.” and muted guitar in “Country Funkin'” are the kinds of brilliant sound choices not everyone tries, but the pros know will work wonders in a mix.
LA RIOT (DIST. BY BIG FISH AUDIO)
DRE GHOST & THE MACHINE > $99.95
At a glance: 36 dark and mysterious hip-hop construction kits. CD Audio/WAV.
Contact: www.bigfishaudio.com
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