This is Knowledge online's first sample CD review. It's a privilege to have the honour of typing it.

 

I like Loopmasters. They've come along leaps and bounds in the last few years. Today, they boast a functional, stylish website, and have some reputable artists creating their sample CDs (like Deadmau5, for example). The marketing of Loopmasters products is tight and, whilst ultimately it's only the sound we care about, it's nice to see them fleshing out finished products.

 

Producers are often torn over where to begin ... should they make their own sounds, steal obscure ones or just use a sample CD? Considering that Rihanna's international smash Umbrella was crafted from a solitary Apple Loop, it just goes to show that the obvious option is sometimes best.

 

Another good example of a sample CD being effective is during the creation of Andy C and Ant Miles' genre-defining 'Valley of the Shadows' 12".  The hollow, ghostly pads that give the track that little bit extra were taken from a Future Music sample CD, Ant Miles once said.

 

Containing exactly 852.209 MB of samples, first up we have "Multi Samples", which is basically a large-ish collection of synth samples. The 22 folders contain just enough samples to map to a keyboard (and suffer accelerated or decelerated pitches between the original notes). One half are bass sounds, the other half are synth chords and swells. To be honest, they're nothing you couldn't create on the average synthesiser, so I wasn't too impressed by these.

 

Next we have "Single Shot Samples" containing "Bass", "FX", "Pads", "Single Drum Hits", "Synth" and "Vocals":

 

 

This is what Pure Drum and Bass is all about. The basses are varied and, stuck into a sampler, produce quick, fun results. FX are clever, simple and well thought out - again, good when loaded into a sampler. Pads really come into their own - there's a whole manner of them from warm liquid to abrasive filth and ... in that sampler ... they work.

 

"Single Drum Hits" contains individual "Kick", "Percussion" and "Snare" folders, each boasting solid, useful bread-and-butter singles that I will probably use in my own productions.

 

"Synth" has some good samples, which are better than the Multi Samples - much more varied [especially the Detroit-style ones].

 

The less said about the "Vocals" the better - they are simply embarrassing and only useful to brighten the mood in the studio in the dark hours.

 

It doesn't spoil the package though - next up are "Loops", containing "Drum", "Music" and "Percussion" snippets. They're good, educational for beginners and well-engineered. These loops are available in both WAV and REX formats.

 

Sampler patches are available for most of the samples in formats like Kontakt and Halion.

 

Download the demo samples here.

 

Full version: £24.95.

• Loopmasters

Related Links:

• Free Samples: Jungle Ammunition
• Loopmasters Mad Professor Samples
• Untold Dubstep Producer Sample Pack
• Download 20 Free DnB/Dubstep Samples
• Free Samples: Zed Bias

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