ONE-SHOTS
Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander
AUDIO BOMB/BEST SERVICE DANCEHALL VIBES VOL. 1
HOT AS JERKY, SMOOTH AS RUM
In the midst of literally hundreds of hip-hop libraries covering styles from all coasts, one can easily get bored with the sameness. So, taking a virtual plane ride to the Caribbean via 30 of the hottest Jamaican dancehall construction kits (95 to 119 bpm) was a welcome break. Inspired by the sounds of Shaggy, Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Elefant Man, Mr. Vegas, Nina Sky and others, the 2.2 GB of kits are supplied on DVD in both REX2 and Acidized WAV format. Each construction kit also comes with a folder of single hits for augmenting or building a groove from scratch. Mapped drum kits are also provided in NN-XT, HALion and SoundFont patch formats.
Construction loops are 4 to 16 bars long and include minor variations along the way that are generally excellent for mapping out verses, choruses and bridges. Melodic instrumentation is kept fairly minimal. In fact, bass lines are rarely provided; the club-heavy grooves build around the kick and low-end percussion. But when melodic phrases are provided, they're both sonically and musically inspiring. I love the jangly acoustic and smooth electric guitars that toe the line between early reggae and more refreshing Brit or SoCal ska. Real horns, strings and ethnic instruments are played with impressive chops, and there are even loops of synths, DJ scratches and very cool effect drops, all time-sequenced and ready to roll. In both full and grouped stems for mixing, the drum parts are absolutely bangin', many with stompin' club-oriented hip-hop beats featuring monster kicks and crackin' snares and claps, while others sport a more intricate rhythmic identity.
AUDIO BOMB/BEST SERVICE (DIST. BY EAST WEST/SOUNDS ONLINE)
DANCEHALL VIBES VOL. 1 > $99.95
At a glance: 30 of the freshest sounding dancehall construction kits this side of the Jamaican streets, yah mon. Acided WAV and REX.
Contact: www.soundsonline.com
RADIOACTIVE BEATS HOUSE LEADERS 2: CLUB MADNESS
BRINGING BACK THE 808
North Carolina multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer Michael S. Davis Jr. has grown from his modest roots of creating hip-hop beats in the late '80s and early '90s to an expanded sound and musical palette that now includes technology-heavy house and techno. But his fondness for the Roland TR-808 is stronger today than ever. Available exclusively as a 314 MB download through AudioBase.com, this smart collection of 365 Acidized WAV/Apple AIFF beats and phrase loops mingles modern commercial club and experimental techno beats with early rap beats and 808 sensibilities.
Inside five “style” folders and a folder of assorted techno effects, beats reside side by side with phrases that can be used interchangeably. Each folder has a single specified tempo (Dance 130 bpm, Dirty House 90 bpm, Miami Club 120 bpm, Pop 115 bpm, Hype 97/100 bpm), making beat mixing rather effortless, and contains between 40 and 110 drum, percussion, synth, bass, vox-edit and effects loops. All instrumental phrases are in C major, further simplifying mix-and-match song arrangement. What's really cool about Club Madness is how it transcends so many modern club styles, all the while using the TR-808 both nostalgically and cosmetically to glue the more contemporary and harder-edge sounds together. The Dance and Dirty House beats sound a little overprocessed at times, with tight flanging, phasing and narrow distortion burned in with no dry originals to work from, but as a whole, the collection is brilliant — especially at this price. The freestyle-soca vibe of the Latin hip-hop inspired Miami Club set was especially inspiring for remixing. These would make awesome bridge beats for digital DJs to lay over any mix and create uniformity in a set.
RADIOACTIVE BEATS (DIST. BY AUDIOBASE.COM)
HOUSE LEADERS 2: CLUB MADNESS > $29.50
At a glance: Unique and highly inventive progressive house and techno loops with early TR-808 inspired rap-beat sensibilities. Mac and PC compatible.
Contact: www.audiobase.com
BIG FISH AUDIO DRUMS OVERKILL
IF IT AIN'T HERE, YOU DON'T NEED IT
Drums Overkill is the most gargantuan collection of electronic-, dance- and urban-flavored acoustic drums I know. We're talking 27,000 drum and percussion sounds pre-mapped into 1,200 kits, with hardly a sample of overlap. A double-DVD set, disc one contains the powerful NI Kontakt 2 Player and compatible library, featuring a custom script allowing you to assign various effects (compression, bit crushing, distortion, saturation, lo-fi, filters, reverb, delay, chorus, phaser and flanger) to specific hits. The second DVD delivers the same samples but in open WAV format, complete with patches for Kontakt, EXS24 and HALion. These programs can easily import into GigaStudio, MachFive and Battery.
Kits are roughly classified into 16 musical styles, including comprehensive '80s vibes, contemporary hip-hop and R&B, house, techno, garage, trance, hardcore, drum 'n' bass, Top-40 pop, vintage '60s and '70s, big-beat jazz and more. Each kit has that big-bucks producer sound of being laboriously custom-built from the ground up, with expertly processed, panned and tweaked subs/kicks and snares/claps to ensure each sound can be layered and still fit the sonic pocket. The keymapping is pretty nonstandard but is done in such a way that each of the 1,200 kits is actually several complementing sub-kits (and/or added percussion and effects) arranged in more easily playable octaves. The real treasure trove for veteran beat junkies is the more than 5,400 samples lifted directly from 155 drum machines. Virtually every blockbuster and ultrarare beatbox made since the '60s is sampled dry and authentically, including dirt and noise where present in the original.
BIG FISH AUDIO
DRUMS OVERKILL > $299.95
At a glance: More than 27,000 single hits and 1,200 kits sourced from nearly every classic and esoteric drum machine ever made. Two-DVD set. Kontakt 2 Player in stand-alone or VST/Audio Units/RTAS/DXi.
Contact: www.bigfishaudio.com
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