Howdy, I’ll get straight to the point because I have not one sample cd to review but two!

1. Loopmasters Bop – Minimal Drum & Bass

2. Loopmasters A Guy Called Gerald – Deep Techno Sessions

Loopmasters Bop

I’ll start with the the Loopmasters Bop sample CD. Minimal drum & bass is all the rage right now so it comes as no surprise that we see a sample cd emerge from the ether. This time Russian producer  Bop has been given sample cd duty after a string of high quality releases on Hospital records and Med School.

The Sample Pack is the usual affair:

# Over 570Mb of content
# 460 Wav samples
# 216 Loops
# 245 Single Sounds.
# 33 ready to play Reason NNXt, Kontakt, Halion and EXS24 Patches
# Apple Loops, Reason Refill or Ableton Live Versions also available

How does it sound?

Positives: Great selection of minimal drum grooves. Definitely 100% authentic sounding. Great Kicks, Snares, Hi  Hats Awesome synth loops – light/airy/dreamy/vibey loops and great pad/atmos/glitch loops.

Negatives: NOT enough instruments patches and the instrument patches that are there are boring and not very inspiring.

Look, if you want to write in the minimal drum & bass style and are having some troubles then Loopmasters Bop will definitely help you out loads! Check out the samples HERE.

Loopmasters A Guy Called Gerald

A Guy Called Gerald is a pioneer in electronic music and I for one was keen to hear this sample pack ever since his Future Music interview. GCG has carefully sampled all his vintage gear and created his own refills. In his own words:

“My aim is to give you all a deeper understanding with as much enjoyment as is physically and mentally possible using the three elements more frequently missing from this music – the basis of all dance music : RHYTHM, MELODY and BASS.

The sounds herein contain patterns that create specific air movement sequence in earth atmosphere used at the correct pressure.  The sounds will transport you to the groove simulator 1st level : the holographic key to die hold activation.

This package is an attempt to capture some of the sounds and loops so future generations can attempt to connect to the mother groove.

Enjoy!

Anyways, this is a TECHNO sample pack but I wanted to see if we could draw some inspiration from the sounds. Generally I find Techno/House sample cds a waste of time but hey I was willing to give this a shot because it was Gerald!

How does it sound?

Well, er… no. I was right in thinking that this was not going to work for drum and bass production. The drums are all wrong and the bass loops are boring or not usable. In fact this was the general theme for the whole sample pack.  Sure there was the occassional sample here or there that “had” something but they were few and far between.

The drum samples were the usual suspects( Drum machine style and vinyl  samples). So the usual 808′s and vintage breaks kicks, snares and hats.

The Bass instruments were solid but pretty much only came in one flavor which is that House bass style. So nothing new there and certainly nothing that you shouldn’t have in your Sound Library already.

So, I couldn’t and wouldn’t recommend Loopmasters A Guy Called Gerald if you want to make drum and bass. I think its strickly for the House/Techno peeps. I know you are a hard headed lot so if you need to check it out click HERE.

After many months of creative sound design and sonic manipulation we are extremely proud to announce the release of our first Drum Tools library – Minimal Techno & Tech House. Check out some of the FREE SAMPLES HERE.

Drum Tools 01 by Wave Alchemy offers over 1900 exquisitely produced electronic drum samples. All sounds in the collection have been built from the ground up using a jaw-dropping array of analogue circuitry and exclusive high-end outboard gear. Great care has been taken to capture the tone / vibe and warmth of the equipment used and all sample editing and file naming has been done by hand for maximum precision.

The drum samples in Drum Tools 01 have been created by the creative layering and processing of drum machines, exotic synthesizers / modulars, field recordings and the recording of live drum and percussive instruments.

Drum Tools 01 is an essential purchase for any electronic music producer looking for high quality, 100% original drum samples. Although designed with Minimal techno & Tech House music in mind, Drum Tools 01 would also make an essential toolkit for producers of House, Trance, Electro or even down-tempo / hip-hop styles.

The Power of DrumnBass Drums

DnB Drums! Who doesn’t love them? Nobody that’s who! Whether it’s the funky shuffle of a funk break sped up to 172bpm or the fierce and chaotic rhythm of the Amen break smashing up the dance, nobody on this god given earth could deny the raw and awesome power of dnb drums!

At its birth DnB (or Jungle as it was known in the mid to late 90′s) was actually created at a slighty slower bpm then what we find today around 160bpm in most cases  and in some cases slower even still! However I don’t want to fill your head with the history of DnB, that’s for another article. You want to know about how to make these most powerful of drums of which I speak!

Its All About The Layers

First and foremost I think its important to know that it doesn’t matter what style of drum n bass you produce all styles use plenty of layers in there drums, and when i mean plenty, i mean PLENTY! Get used to it. Get used to hearing the term layers and get your head around the fact that in order to get your drums to sound right, your going to have to start to use layers. Now, I’ve written another article about dnb and layers here. So check that out when you can.

A Quick Note To Self

You can’t just go and rush off and layer up 13 different types of drum breaks on top of each other… it just doesn’t work like that! Careful selection of layers is crucial. I hate to say it but with time you get better picking which layers will go with what. Some people like to layer up different drum breaks by the sound of the break , their character if you will. Maybe a crusty floor funk break on top of a punchy drum machine style break perhaps? Which ever way you go about it, think about what you are trying to achieve first. Get used to using a Spectrum Analyzer when working on your drum breaks. My favourite as analyzer is called Span and its made by Voxengo.

Getting Busy With The Drum Breaks

There is  a few methods that I have personally tried when it comes to creating a break.

Method 1. All audio. Cubase is well known for its ability to manipulate audio and its real strength shows up here when it comes to creating tight beats. Cubase even comes with its own audio slicer tool built in. Very much gets the thumbs up from me!

Method 2. All midi. Normally load the breaks up into a sampler like Native Instrument Kontakt 3 or Battery 3 or Logic’s EXS24 and get cracking!

Method 3. Combination Style. Sometimes I’ll mix it and combine the two styles together. Mainly because i’ve got a huge collection of kicks, snares and hi hats etc to beef up any breaks that need “beefing” up.

Noticed i haven’t mentioned the word REX anywhere? Now, in the past I’ve been guilty of staying up all night “recycling” my breaks to the break of dawn. Its a practice i rarely do anymore. I’m really comfortable chopping drum breaks now in Cubase so by working strictly with audio it’s one less chore i have to do now.

Take your time whilst learning how to layer properly. It will take time my friends and that’s no doubt. Stick to one of the methods and check the results to see if that style of writing drums agrees with you. If not, then move onto the next method. Rinse and repeat. Oh and also, “have fun whilst your doing all of it! It’s meant to be FUN!”

Hope that helps.

Peace out

Dj Dauntless
If you get a chance check out the Snowball USB Microphone by Blue. I love it for recording podcasts and guitars or whatever.