Sample CDs from Big Fish Audio, E-Lab, and Native Instruments
Sep 1, 2002 12:00 PM
Big Fish Audio
Breakbeat 3
Despite all of the great wax out there, digging for original breaks can be an expensive and time-intensive proposition. I love to search for dusty vinyl diamonds hidden in thrift stores, vintage shops and massive Internet-mining sites such as www.gemm.com, but sometimes it's nice to just line up a batch of loops and see what fits. Luckily, Big Fish Audio has augmented its Breakbeat series by serving up a fat disc of funky two- and four-bar acoustic drum-set grooves and useful one-shot drum hits sonically spruced for your dancing pleasure. Although you may hear occasional vinyl or tape noise, breakbeat enthusiasts will call it ambience. For a mere $99, Breakbeat 3 offers several crates' worth of grooves that tip their hats to artists such as Dan the Automator, Norman Cook and DJ Shadow, as well as fit into styles such as hip-hop, trip-hop, downtempo, funky breaks and other break-reliant genres. The one-shots are particularly rugged and inspiring — perfect for building new grooves or layering and sprinkling on existing loops for added flavor. The tempos predominantly fall between 80 to 100 bpm and are sequenced on the CD according to tempo: slow to fast. Each break is followed by its component one-shot samples. The audio CD is accompanied by a second Acidized-loop CD, featuring pretrimmed loops that are ready to be stretched to your heart's content. When you're cooking up your next chill groove, take a break and try out Breakbeat 3.
— Dave Hill Jr.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 4
Big Fish Audio; tel. (800) 717-3474; e-mail info@bigfishaudio.com; Web www.bigfishaudio.com
E-Lab
Nu Directions — Phuture Sound of House
The YMC boys, Yan and Cpook-E, return with yet another stellar sample CD, this time for house heads. If you're familiar with their Abstract Hip-Hop and Nu Groove RNB collections, you know what to expect: outstanding production, killer sounds and booty-movin' grooves. Nu Directions ($99.95; two CDs, audio and WAV) starts with five Inspiration Kits that should satisfy fans of Naked Music and Om Records' deep-house styles. Then it gets to business with an expansive assortment of instrumental and rhythm loops and a massive selection of drum, percussion and cymbal sounds. All of the kits and loops clock in at either 125 or 130 bpm, making it easy to fit individual pieces together to lay down a wicked groove or create an entire song. The collection offers a wide variety of sounds, but the emphasis is on jazzy electric pianos, acoustic drums, guitars, bass, brass and wind instruments. However, many of the loops are processed with filtering and other effects to give them a funky, electronic feel. The most useful sounds are the percussion loops, which you can lay on top of a preexisting groove to give it new vitality and rhythmic variety. Also noteworthy are the “no bass drum” loops. Who knew that a pair of Swedish producers could create grooves this soulful? Maybe they should change their names to Yo! and Bfunk-E. Nu Directions is highly recommended for anyone who likes their house deep and funky with a jazzy edge.
— Chris Gill
Overall Rating (out of 5): 5
E-Lab (dist. by Big Fish Audio); tel. (800) 717-3474; e-mail info@bigfishaudio.com; Web www.bigfishaudio.com
Native Instruments
Battery Studio Drums
Native Instruments' latest drum sampler, Battery (see the review in the September 2001 Remix), gives DirectX and VST Instrument users the ability to tweak the living daylights out of one-shot percussion samples, trigger multiple sample layers, synchronize loops, reshape waveforms and pitch-shift the original samples. Battery-roll please: Let sample libraries begin! NI's first offering from its SoundLine division, Battery Studio Drums ($99), boasts more than 1.1 gigabytes (more than 3,000 samples) of professionally recorded acoustic drum and cymbal one-shots on two CDs. The high-quality 24-bit sounds are virtually effect-free. The hits on BSD are clean and tight, and the eight to 16 velocity layers for each voice will please trigger-happy drummers and aurally aware producers alike. But unlike Battery's default drum library, the theme on Battery Studio Drums is quality — not variety — offering primarily vintage,“collector-quality” snares, kicks and hi-hats: 10 traditional drum kits, 11 chromatic snare kits, two stereo kits and three tom kits. The first five drum kits are large RAM-intensive affairs (greater than 70 MB) suggested for, but not limited to, pop, funk, jazz, rock and soul; the smaller kits (less than 30 MB) are geared toward blues, grunge, hard rock, hip-hop and breaks. The chromatic snare and tom kits are perfect for programming fills and effects, and the mammoth Stereo Kit Large (195 MB) provides an awesome, expressive drum experience.
— Dave Hill Jr.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 3.5
Native Instruments; tel. (866) 556-6487; e-mail info@native-instruments.com; Web www.native-instruments.com
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