Reasonfreaks

Posts Tagged ‘wav’

The Loopmasters series should need little introduction to most Reason users. With releases in eleven, sub Genres of Electronica these guys have become one of the major players in this increasing market.

Their recent release, AFRO-LATIN Producer, adds another 1350 samples to their extensive library. Do not assume that this is a CD of cheesy Latin percussion/ bongo loops; this is a real feather in the cap for these London-based lads, and is a powerful addition to a refill library.

The CD comes in the usual formats – Rex Loops, NN-XT patches, WAV loops and one-shot samples, includes a second CD of WAV samples for easy auditioning. Sounds are mostly stereo, high quality and meticulously organized and labeled.

Of course, within, you will find an array of percussive loops, anything from authentic Bossa nova or Samba to Brazilian techno or Drum and Bass to keep your feet moving. In fact, the percussive loops are so extensive that there are separate files for Drums and Percussion, both containing sub-folders by BPM.

However, the real jewel was the amount of “live musicianship” on the disc. It seems that Loopmasters have put together some fine session musicians to record these loops and samples – including: Guitar, funked and jazzed up. Keys, some classic Rhodes loops, Bass lines, FX to name a few.

There is an incredible brass section, which includes sub-folders of trumpet and sax, both demonstrating riffs, trills, solos and more, which sound like they captured the essence of a Cuban waterfront or an Argentinean ballroom. Furthermore, there is such a large amount of such samples, that it allows the user to layer loops with more choice.

Overall, this is a new direction for the Loopmasters, and as a result, a disc that is more outstanding. These sounds can easily be incorporated into Electro/Lounge tunes such as can be heard on the Costes compilations for example. Fine for D&B, funky house, Acid Jazz, Funk and so on. Anyone who is looking to add a bit of “spice” to their recordings ought to consider this disc and is a must have for anyone into anything Latino. Let’s smoke a cigar.

Homepage: http://www.loopmasters.com/

Downbeat and Leftfield is an extensive sound collection. You will find a host of sounds covering styles like HipHop, DownTempo, Ambient and more. The sound quality is nothing but staggering thruout the collection. You will find all types of sounds like loops (rx2, wav), drum hits, multi-samples (NN-XT) and one shot samples. Some of the drumgrooves are played live which gives a great feel to them. Others are programmed with great care. One thing i do find is that the drumloop collection could have been bigger. There are basically 22 main loops with some variations per loop. I would have liked to see less variations and more original loops, but what’s there really is of a good quality and after all more isn’t always better. The loops come in wav and rx2 format plus you”ll find the individual drumhits used in the loops in their own folder for making even more variations to the loop or to simple mix the different drumhit kits with each other to come to totally new loops. Endless posibility’s!

Also present on the CD are instrument and bass loops. The instrument loops include the well known vintage keyboards as well as pads, strings, woodwind (Sax and Flute) and vocoder loops. All very musical and of a high quality. The bass loops are groovy and mainly made with bass guitars with a few of them made with sythesizers. There’s some really funky bass riffs in there which will definately inspire many of us.

The structure of the CD is somewhat chaotic at first glance. Directly on the CD you will find folders for the different types of sounds which could have been presented in a more compact way for faster browsing. But this ofcourse doesn’t take away anything of the quality of the sounds on offer. You’ll definately love this disc if you are into hiphop, dnb, downtempo, triphop, etc, etc.

Homepage: http://www.loopmasters.com

*If you want real, pure, original funk, you have to go to the source and when it comes to funk, the source is James Brown. – powerFX*

I couldn’t agree more and with this refill you get really, really close to the source. And then i mean really close. This sampleset is just one big bunch of funky dynamite. Screaming to be used in all sorts of productions. The drums are played in by Jabo Starks (John Jab ‘O Starks). And this guy played drums on more James Brown classics then anyone. If the words ‘Sex Machine’ and ‘Good Foot’ mean anything to you, you’ll just be in heaven with this collection of super samples!!!

The cd contains the following material:

-Bass
-Guitar
-Percussion

Refill with:

-Drum
-Bass
-Guitar
-Percussion
-Construction kits

The Rx2 files:

This Rx2 collection is really great! When i listened to the loops. I just had a smile on my face the whole time. The loops are so funky. Unbelievable. They rex files come in different variations. You get drumloops. All live played by Jabo Starks (John Jab ‘O Starks). Wich are really great. They all sound a bit dark. Just like a James brown record would sound. With all the little details. Just Maximum Funk if you ask me.

These loops are just awesome. They range from 80 to 160 bpm. I can’t stop playing them. They all got the ‘James Brown’ kinda funky groove in it. And they are usable as oxygen. Everyone of these loops is just good.

Top Material!!!

You will also find Bass Guitar loops wich are also very funky and fit right in with the drumloops. Some funky wah guitar loops are also present. And they are all really usable. How many times have you come across useless wahloops wich are totally out of rhytm. Yeah you know what i mean. Well. Look no further!!
These loops are perfectly in rhytm. And they sound great to!

You also get construction kits of Rx2 files. With these files alone you can build whole tracks. In these construction kits you will find loops like a drumloop, a bassloop and a guitar loop. And you will find the loop wich has all of the elements allready in it. Use this if you don’t want many Dr.Rex players in your arrangement.
But i don’t think that’s gonna be a problem after hearing this collection

You get the following building blocks to build up your own killer funk track:

And there’s really a huge bunch of ‘m in this refill. Cool thing is that also here you get the Rx2 files seperated from the refill to modify in Recycle.

The Drums and Drumkit:

With this set of excellent drum samples you can become Jabo Starks. Well, at least you can try
This set sounds so natural that if you strike a few drums. You will hear that the sound you’ll need has been provided.

You might say: Just one redrum kit. But you can browse thru the samples on the channel of the redrum. Makin it a Jabo Starks machine

Great Stuff!!

A really impressive collection of loops and sounds to create super funky tracks with. If you are looking for the real funk sound. Look nu further. This will be the best 49$ you’ve ever spend on a samplecd.

Homepage: http://www.powerfx.com/