So, after the great success of Total Science Drum and Bass Vol.5 and BHK Rough Connections Vol.4 Loopmasters aren’t taking a backward step. Oh no good peoples of the free Earth NOT on your LIFE!

Enter ASC into the sample CD arena with:

ASC Experimental Drum & Bass

Click Here To Download Free ASC samples NOW

Now, I you probably know me as a bit of a tear out tech producer but the minimal experimental sound is really growing on me. Producers like Jubei, Skeptical and Ulterior Motive are just unbelievable right now so I was definitely keen to check out this sample pack from a veteran now of the Drum & Bass scene and see if I could fit a few new sounds into some new beats on working on.

So, lets just stuck in…

Sampler patches

Nothing unusual here. You get your Kontakt, EXS24 and NNXT and SFZ files.

Bass Hits

You get a nice little collection of 20 Bass Hits. The best bit about the samples are there pretty varied but they all have just the right amount of bottom end. Some are heavy whilst some have a bit more reverb and sound a little more techier. What A.S.C was aiming for here was quality NOT quantity. My favorites would have to be the Donk sound of 16, the heavyweight 3,10 and the tech sound of 9.

Drum Hits

Kick Drums

40 Kick Drums a couple of them I really like. Mainly mostly very Deep Subby kicks but so saying that there is quite a lot of variation. If few dud kicks in there as well which is a shame.

Snare Drums

Okay so the same number of snares as kicks which is 40. Once again variety is the name of the game here but I managed to find 7 or 8 really good snares to use. I don’t know what reverb he used on them but its sounds awesome. Just the right amount used as well which is nice. Also the fill up the stereo field really well so they sound big! Some of the snares probably ain’t going to like but the pack is experimental after all!

Perc Hits

30 perc sounds on the experimental side. Nothing too crazy though. Fizz, pop bang kind of thing. Incidental noises but sounds that can definitely add something to your tune. Especially if you’re into the minimal steppers that are going around right now like Jubei, Skeptical, Ulterior Motive and Alix Perez. Actually I have a light stepper that would benefit from a few of these Perc Hits!

FX

Just a small collection of 10 samples here. Nothing much to report. Fizzy lazer types of sounds. Moving on…

Noise Layers

Awesome folder of 16 noise samples. First person I know to really give you a collection like this! (That I can think of anyway)
These little guys can add that bit of dirt and ambience to your tunes if used correctly. (Just put them low in the mix) Anyways, big up the A.S.C for adding these little beauties!

Atmospheres

A.S.C is well known for his moody atmos/ambient DnB so I was really keen to hear this folder of samples and he didn’t let me down. All 20 samples are moody and would work in movies let alone tunes! Expertly crafted with the right amount of reverb and fx. The samples are constantly moving so you never get bored with the sounds which is an indication of the skill involved in creating these sounds.

Bass Loops

Mixture of good Bass loops and to me NOT so good Bass loops. Processing wise the loops are heavy and could definitely kick start off your creative process. Just don’t count on all of them to do so.

Drum Loops

Great collection of mostly experimental flavored Drum n Bass breaks. You get the odd really nice break here and there which is nice. The experimental breaks are indeed experimental but NOT over the top and if you’re into minimal DnB you’re going to be in heaven! I myself have handpicked quite a few breaks that I think would be an excellent start to a few steppy tunes! Hybris here I come!

Music Loops

40 really good music loops. Quality through and through here. Just like the atmospheres the samples here just spell out quality damn it! Plenty of variety so what ever mood your in you should find something suitable to kick start your session. The sounds are made up of layers and layers of samples and the right modulation and fx. Brilliant.

In Conclusion

I would have say the ASC Experimental Sample Pack is a real winner. Sure it could have been a bit more “experimental” but then where do you draw the line? There has to be plenty of usable sounds in a sample pack and this one has plenty and that’s good enough for me. The samples are really well produced (the music loops are amazing) and their is plenty of them so you really do get your money’s worth.

If you love ASC or just want to get some chilled/ambient/experimental sounds into your productions then buy this little beauty straight away!

Click Here To Download Free ASC samples NOW

Back To Your Roots

If you’ve ever had writers block in the studio ( and lets face it who hasn’t?) or can’t finish a tune or other catastrophes then have a crack at getting back to your roots and sampling some shit. Now for some that might mean going down to the local $2 used record shop but for me that means chugging my way through the mountains of sample cd’s that I have on my HDD and in my CD wallets.

You see, even though you can write a tune with just some drums and some bass the reality is you is going to need some more sounds. Pads, FX, Swooshes, Vocals, Movie snippets are all required in your work. Ok, maybe not in all your work but you get the point. Anyways, like I made the point in an earlier post about drum n bass production.  Collect and prepare  all your samples first before you start arranging. This makes the arrangement part that much easier and mixing down the track will NOT be a living nightmare.

Anyways, to help me with this NOT so enjoyable task I’ve enlisted the help of Ableton Live and its brilliant audition/explorer window. (narrow strip down the left side)

So, all I do is…

1. Set the BPM at 172-174

2. Import a break. (Probably one of mine)

3. Pick a sample folder

4. Start auditioning some sounds and dragging in the ones I like

5. Oh… I use the arrangement view, NOT clip view. (hit TAB button)

6. After I have finished with the folder I will Collect All and Save (file menu)

7. Delete folder

8. I have also worked out that if you “consolidate” all the samples you like you can find them

easily in the project folder for use later on.

9. Just save what ever sounds you like. FX, Bass, Drums or whatever. The idea is to just weed

out the crap samples from your HDD first.

What Generally Happens…

What I find usually  happens is I’ll quickly get some sort of groove/vibe going straight away. I’ll find a pad/atmos sound and then some stabs and then fx. (I suppose it depends on what sample cd I’m auditioning. ) I’ll lay out the samples in some of sort of arrangement that makes sense e.g. Swooshes at the end of bars, Hits at the beginning etc. Then if its a solid vibe I’ll save the project under a descriptive name e.g. Jungle vibe and move on. I’ll mute the parts and continue on finding samples.

This is a great way of working quickly and efficiently. Being able to work quickly as a producer is a skill that can not be underestimated. I’ve been searching for years for a work flow that could get me good results but still allow me flexibility.  Ableton has given me what I wanted and I’m a happy man indeed.

What About Me…

Ok, what if you don’t use Ableton Live? Well, I suppose you could use Media Bay in Cubase or the Add media in Logic. However, I just don’t see them as good. Don’t get me wrong they ARE good but just not as good as the one in Live. Also you could try using Kontakt Sampler and using the “next sample” feature which gives you the option of playing the samples but I’ve found that to be hit and miss.

What Next?

After I’ve gotten all my samples together its time to work out their pitches and weed out the samples that just don’t fit the track. Sometimes I’ll place a “holding Bass” groove in there to project to see how all the samples fit temporally and continue on with either finding more samples or doing a quick arrangement. Right now at the moment I’m NOT 100% on mixing down in Ableton Live but I’m giving it a go anyways. Its not perfect by any means but I’m willing to live with the restrictions.

So, I hope you get down and dirty and find or create some phat ass sounds to use in your projects. Also, if you haven’t tried Ableton Live yet give it a shot, it might work out for you and that ain’t not bad thing!

Mr Carbone Returns

Mr Davide Carbone is back with another Drum and Bass sample pack called S:amplify brought to you by those lovers of everything sampled Loopmasters.

I knew something was cooking when Mr Carbone himself asked a few questions to the “Gridsters” on DOA about what he should include in the “next” sample pack. This Is a smart man I thought to myself, getting user feedback is so important in today’s day and age and more producers/companies should take notice.

Its clever and makes a hell of a lot of sense. So without further ado:

Check Out Samplify HERE

Loopmasters Samplify- What’s on the inside?

Well, to start with, you get 1.4gb of samples. Which lets be honest is plenty. I prefer quality over quantity and S:amplify doesn’t disappoint. All the major formats are covered from Kontakt, EXS24, Reason Refill and Ableton Live so it really doesn’t matter if you’re a Cubase, Logic or Reason junkie, Davide’s got your back.

Inside you get bass loops, drum loops, keys and synth loops, musical loops and percussion loops. Drum Hits and Bass Hits and FX all in 24bit 44.1khz quality.  All the loops in Loopmasters Samplify sound great, are well eq’d and compressed and come prepared so that all you need to do is drop them into your sequencer of choice. You don’t know how much faster this makes the whole tune making process! This leaves you with more time to think about the all important creative stuff.

One criticism I have of Loopmasters Samplify is that there is way too many Sax and Heavy Metal Guitar loops. Sure they sound good but I few different sounds would have been nice as well. Also, there could have been a few more Ride Loops, Conga Loops and the definitely more stabs! You can never have too many Stabs in your personal sample library! So, moving on then…

The Ableton Live test…

I fired up my trusty Ableton Live  and set the tempo to 174 and got busy. First things first,  I started by  looking for a vibe-y atmosphere sample that I could work from. Loopmasters Samplify has quite of few of these types of sounds so what ever genre of Drum and Bass you make you won’t have a problem getting started. However, there is a lot of sounds geared towards the lighter side of drum and bass so “liquid lovers” have got it good here. Maybe a few too many keys for my liking but hey, you do what you can.

Anyways, I found a nice energetic keyboard loop easy enough and found a nice sax loop to go over the top. Next, I added some nice shakers and tambourines. The Perc Loops are pretty damn good. They fit well in the mix and have all the bottom end taken out of them which saves you so much time! Just wish there was a few more!

Drums- Its all about the drums…

Moving on I found some nice punchy drums that had the energy I was after pretty quickly. The drums in Loopmasters Samplify are great quality. They hit hard and sound good in the mix. I then applied a little high pass with my trusty Cambridge EQ to give the Sub a little room to breathe. You don’t even need to get all crazy with a hundred layers of beats. Just 2 was enough to take care of the rhythm section. That’s when you know the beats are slamming!

The Bass…

The first Bass loop i tried was a little disappointing. It sounded great but It was severely lacking some proper low end. I tried everything to get some low end action but came up short so I picked another sample. No problems. Loopmasters Samplify has loads of quality bass loops for you to use. So, what next?

The Rest…

Now that I had the main idea/theme down finding the rest of the samples was easy. The folders are well organized and the files are conveniently marked with BPM, Key Signature and Type. Sweet! A grabbed a couple of sweeps and a couple of hits, applied some FX. It couldn’t be easier.

The final thing to do was a quick arrangement, add some effects like delay and automation and perform a quick mixdown and voila!

Complete.

From start to finish it took me 3 hours which isn’t it too bad.

In Conclusion…

Loopmasters Samplify is spot on. You get great beats, bass and fx and all the samples are high quality and should be a part of your personal sample library. The musical loops are great because you really can find that bit of inspiration quite quickly and get moving on a tune fast!

The samples are really well produced so you don’t have to worrry about all mucking about with compression or eq but most importantly the beats are phat! Whack them into your tunes for that instant dance floor pressure. Mr Davide Carbone and Loopmasters have done it again.

Check Out Loopmasters Samplify HERE

The Loopmasters Ray Keith Sample CD Challenge

Here’s the story: I’ve had a couple of weeks to test out the Loopmasters Ray Keith Drum & Bass Vol.1 Sample Pack and you know what? It’s KILLER!

This time around I didn’t just want to add the samples to my existing tunes to check them out, I wanted a new challenge.

If I could get a track or two up and running using JUST the samples from the Ray Keith Sample Pack I could work out the depth of the pack and its ability to smash up the DANCE FLOOR!

==>>GRAB RAY KEITH ORIGINAL DRUM & BASS  VOL.1 HERE<<==

The Evil Plan Is Hatched!

The quickest,easiest and nastiest way to check out how phat Loopmasters Ray Keith was, is to use Ableton Live 8. As you may be aware I’ve been using Live 8 more and more and more for this type of thing because its a perfect fit. I fired up Ableton Live,  set the BPM to 172 and BOOM away I went.

The Bass

First stop was the BASS. I normally start with drums but I’ve found that if I start with a  music element first I don’t get bogged down so much with the technical mumbo jumbo of building beats.

Well, how was the Bass then? All 100% quality. There is quite a wide selection of Bass Loops so if you’re after something gritty or smooth or dark or jungle sounding or what ever Ray got you fully covered. There is also a nice selection of Bass one shots for all you peeps out there that want to get down and write your own b-line, in the future I’ll be using one of those sounds but for now I just wanted to get up and running. I quickly selected a bass loop that had a nice steppy riff to it and moved on the beats.

The Beats

I won’t lie to you. The beats in Loopmasters Ray Keith are awesome! Once again you get wide selection of loops to choose from and every one of them has a vibe and sonic flavour. The only downside here was not enough Percussion loops to my liking but hey nothings perfect right?  Whilst i had the Bassline rolling I was able to audition a few drum loops. It was a hard choice but I managed to pick a drum loop that had a nice shuffle rhythm to it that worked with the bass line.

The single  drum shots are all gold. You get solid Kicks, Snares and Hats to play with. Whilst the numbers may be small the quality more then makes up for it.

What does this mean for you?  Your beats should never sound weak on the dance floor again!

The Rest…

Continuing on I moved onto the more musical side of things, like Pads, Atmos, Blips and then FX sounds. Here, the same thing again. A fine selection of loops to choose from in a variety of styles but I really could have  done with more FX sounds like swooshes and risers etc I know from experience people on the dance love these sounds. The FX sounds that are there, are 100% Classic Ray Keith sounds so if your after instant Jungle badness (who doesn’t?) you’re sorted.

And Finally…

Listen, I think  the Loopmasters Ray Keith Original Drum & Bass Vol.1 Sample Pack is a definite must have in your studio. You can use the loops to phatten up your own breaks, bass, fx or whatever or you can use the loops to help kick start your creative juices. Once you got a tune up and running you can pull the loop out and go from there. Click the link below to grab your copy of Loopmasters Ray Keith today.

==>>GRAB LOOPMASTERS RAY KEITH ORIGINAL DRUM & BASS  VOL.1 HERE<<==

GRAB DRUM & BASS CONNECTIONS VOL.3 HERE

The kind people over at Loopmasters have released Vol.3 of the BHK Drum & Bass Connections series. This time Drum & Bass Connections Vol.3 – Essentials concentrates itself entirely on the ever so difficult Drum & Bass “drums” side of things.

So if you’ve ever suffered from some of these problems:

1. Weak or Thin drum breaks.
2. Drums that have no energy.
3. Crappy Drum hits.
4. Boring drum Breaks.
5. Spent hours looking for some usable breaks but been disappointed.
6. Spent hours looking for that something “extra” to toughen up your breaks and hits but with no luck.

Then look no more. Drum & Bass Connections Vol.3 is full of tough, punchy, ballsy breaks with a superb collection of drum hits to back up any of your own Drum Breaks that you might have lying around. Just this weekend alone Sci Phi and myself managed to get some of the drum breaks and hits into a tune we’re working on  and I also managed to use some of the breaks to help me get some new ideas rolling in Ableton. Yep that’s right, I’ve been getting into Ableton a lot more lately because I managed to find a suitable way to integrate Ableton into my workflow.

What Do You Get?

• 148 x Kicks
• 142 x Snares
• 105 x Hihats
• 25 x cymbals
• 40 x Percussions
• 31 x Ghost Snares
• 13 x Shakers
• 27 x Shuffles

Plus:

• 16 x Reason Redrum Kits
• 4 x Battery 3 Kits Each with 4 Combo drum Kits
• 14 x D’n'B Drumloops ( ACID WAV & Appleloops)
• 14 x Rex.2

Who Should You Use it?

Anybody who wants to produce tough gritty Drum & Bass with punchy weighty drum breaks that will destroy the dancefloor and work the crowd up into a frenzy! Drum & Bass Producers who make Neuro-funk, Techy rollers or Tech Step should NOT hesitate to get the pack but let’s not forget the Dubstep massive. This is perfect for the Dubstep lovers out there and the drum breaks/hits should find there way into some heavy tunes.

What I’m NOT So Crash Hot ABout?

Well, don’t get me wrong, I think Vol.3 is a really great pack but there are a few things I would like to have improved for Vol.4.

1. I think there should be more breaks. 14 Breaks is just not enough.
2. There is a lot of high content in the breaks around the 20hkz range and higher, which is too much.
3. A lot of the drum hits sound a bit “samey”.

Loopmasters Official Blurb:

BHK  provides a new exciting set of drum sounds and loops to add to your ever growing sample collection.

Essentials Volume 3 contains new loops layered drum hits all re-worked from Special Edition Volume 3 Dub Step , Rough Connection  Volume 3 and Special Edition Volume 2 DnB.

A cool collection of new 24 Bit  drum loops were also created specially for this pack.  The BHK loops are in Acid wav, Rex.2  and Apple Loops for drop and rock performance in any Daw. The drum hits are in both 16 Bit Wav & Aiff.  formats.

The pack contains a staggering 531 drum hits great for Drum and Bass, Dub Step  Break Beat, Hip Hop, and pretty much any electronic music style you which to create.

Native Instruments users will be pleased to know we have included 4 Battery 3 kits from Rough Connections Volume 3. Each Battery 3 Drum Kit has 4 usable Combo kits so your ready to start programing patterns directly after loading it  into your DAW. 16 ReDrum Kits are also included for Reason users.

BHK provides some really raw and layered drum hits so you can create your own new snares layers with ease. Each hit is pumped just enough so you can effect each sample without running into head room issues.

This flexible Industrial Strength drum pack has more then enough license free content to make Essentials Volume 3 your go to source for modern synthetic drums.

BHK Essentials Volume 3 has everything you need to create authentic sounding drum tracks and loops all in one pack.

Do yourself a favour and grab Loopmasters BHK Drum & Bass Rough Connections Vol. 3 and put an end to your weak thin breaks for good. You deserve phat driving punchy breaks and so do your fans on the dancefloor.

GRAB DRUM & BASS CONNECTIONS VOL.3 HERE

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