Soundengine
Sep 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Dave Hill Jr.
Junebug appeals to “mad producers, beat freakz, and sampleheads” with this rhythmic style sampling of hip-hop, trance, lo-fi, acoustic, dance, funk, and other kinds of “beatz,” albeit with varying degrees of success. The Electronibeatz CD (WAV/Akai, $79.95) offers 26 acoustic beats (though each section features acoustic and electronic beats), 14 effects loops, 41 “grit” beats, 91 hip-hop beats, 14 percussion beats, 43 trance beats, and 32 vinyl beats. With the notable exception of a 130 bpm trance-beats track, most of the CD's grooves clock in at 100 or 120 bpm.
The loops in the Trance Beats and Perc Beats folders are Electronibeatz's true ear-grabbers and are sure to please jingle jockey and club cutter alike. Junebug's intricate trance patterns boast minimal effects and maximum punch. Equally impressive, the Grit Beats section left me wishing for an entire CD's worth of these unusual and inspiring lo-fi, reduced-bit-rate grooves.
However, many of the Hip-Hop Beats sound a little like watered-down hip-hop. Most patterns are excessively busy, and the drum tones don't exactly keep it real. Whereas the effects on the loops are often well executed, cavernous and metallic reverbs occasionally destroy perfectly usable beats such as Hopbeats 8 and Hopbeats 54. Even so, amid the 91 hip-hop grooves lurk some gems, such as 100-Hop Beat-9 and 100-Hop Beat-19. The handful of grooves with more dry sound quality are the best choices for hip-hop producers, as they leave plenty of options for making personalized processing choices.
The Electronibeatz CD also includes 13 drum “kitz,” which provide a total of 553 samples of drum and percussion sounds. Sonically speaking, that is the disc's greatest asset. Although the number of sampled drum sounds available is massive, these electronic percussion samples are worth adding to your collection if you specialize in trance or techno tunes. Approximately half of the samples are labeled with numbers, whereas the other half have letter-and-number combos: k1, k2, and s4 for kick drum one, kick drum two, and snare four, respectively. The numbers-only samples contain drum sounds that are less traditional. Once you're aware of that ID system, it's easy to find the samples that best fit the sound you have in mind.
Need to know more? On the rapidly growing Soundengine Web catalog, you can preview each sample CD release in MP3 format. The beats will give you an excellent representation of what you'll find on the CD.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 3
Soundengine; tel. (610) 519-9283; e-mail sales@soundengine.com; Web www.soundengine.com
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