Myloops Trance Cosmos: Elements Volume 3 10/13/2010
Review of Myloops Trance Cosmos Elements Volume 3. This is a library that gives you the fundamental building blocks for creating traditional massive-club trance.  Trance Cosmos Although I consider myself to be a fairly intellectual person, there are moments where I place myself below the intelligence of a slug. Let me give you a few of the major highlights.
1) Some dumb nut convinced me that the Mac eventually would end up the same way as Atari, and since I was stupid enough to believe that, I bought a PC and were living in exile for fifteen years something until I finally bought a Mac. For me, it felt like coming home (although, I am kind of glad because of this since the painful software and hardware mutations from Mac anno 1995 to Mac 2010 have gone by without me noticing anything). 2) The same influence hit me when some other nut in a magazine (obverve the power of the printed word!) said that as soon as a style get's popular, you've already lost the wave. This was maybe five years ago, and they talked about trance. Point being, never listen to anybody. Add Comment Sample Magic Organic House 09/26/2010
Review of Sample Magic Organic House: Autumn is here and what better way is there than to warm yourself with some uplifting haus? Sample Magic shows us the way.  Sample Magic Organic House House. No matter what kind of music I listen to, I always come back to house. It's like coming home. Tech House. Minimal House. Uplifting House. Old-old-school hiphop (which I consider to be house in its most original form). Whatever. House is Home. Without dragging sexual preferences into this blog, I'd like to say there are only three types of clubs I honor with my royal presence: 1) dark, atonal techno clubs 2) where ever Plump DJs are performing and 3) gay clubs. No matter how straight or bent you are, there are few places that play better, more danceable music than gay clubs. And in gay clubs, they play House. Real House. Not the minimal technoish-kind nor the silk-like tones of smokey Rhodes of laid-back house. No, Real House is upbeat in a feel-good manner. The Only One (tm) you actually want to start clapping your hands to the beat without feeling like a moron. Sidsonic Libraries Tubes! 09/02/2010
Review of Sidsonic Tubes! Tubes is a sample library specially designed for sounds passing of old dusty vacuum tubes. As with all products Sidsonic - Tubes is not for the person who enjoys tubification in small, well constrained, amounts. Ass-Blasters set to burn!  Sidsonic Tubes! Tubes, tubes, tubes. They are all the rage and fashion and have been popping up in all kinds of instruments, mixers and pedals, but also in quite unexpected gear, such as the 2002 Aopen PC mainboard with a built-in russian-made tube to ensure your pleasure while listening to Gorillaz. It's all - of course - about distortion. As with recording to magnetic tape, distorting a tube doesn't clip in the nasty way it does with a/d converters and transistors. The headroom brings something extra. You've all heard about the wonders and magic about TUBE SOUND that brings WARMTH to your mixes. If I sound less than convinced - let me explain my cynicism here. When I read about some hot-shot dance producer talk themselves wet over the WARM sound of their latest gear, I get so tired I cannot finish reading. You wanna hear the truth? You damn morons hear what you want to hear. Period. Review of Sidsonic Libraries Circus Circuit Bending Library: German soundmakers take circuit bending to the next level.  Circus Circuit Library Berlin based soundmakers Sidsonic are relatively fresh on the library scene, but have succeeded to make quite some fuzz with their two first Kontakt-based libraries Circus Circuit Bending Library and Tubes! While this review only concentrates on Circus Circuit - it's quite clear that Sidsonic is not an ordinary bunch of sound designers. Circus Circuit is (obviously) about circuit bending and Tubes! is a library created from the mad innovations by Eric Barbour/Metasonix. In other words: these boys like it odd. While circuit bending is widely known to most people by now, it doesn't hurt putting yourself in the right state mind seeing Picachu making funny noises while being electrocuted. Sample Magic Ultimate FX 06/28/2010
Review of Sample Magic Ultimate FX: While Ultimate FX offers all typical effects for the dance floor, it takes the concept of effect libraries one step further, by inviting you to lay the last finishing touches.  "Genres come and go, dancefloor tastes change, new influences permeate studios but some things in dance music are staples: sonic fundamentals that are permanent fixtures in the producers’ arsenal. Effects are such staples." The above is a direct quote from the manual of latest library from Sample Magic, Ultimate FX. During the last three-four years I've developed a habit of always reaching for my Vengeance effect libraries when in any kind of troubles during production. A few well-placed effects can spice up any track quite a few notches. Whatever people might be saying about Vengeance - for dance music - their effects libraries are among the best, if not the best. As being a serious effect junkie, my pulse took a bungy-jump the moment when I saw the words 'Sample Magic' combined with 'FX'. Being a fanboi is a double edged sword. I'm not only expecting to get a good library with effects, I'm expecting it to make my current libraries a thing of the past, make my upcoming 8-bit remix of Miami Porno Machine perfect and cure my aching tooth. Make no mistake you gentlemen over at Sample Magic. Fans are cool to have, but most of us are insane. At the first glance, Ultimate FX seem to deviate little from the walked up path of dance effect libraries. We've got cymbal hits, down-falls, fills, hits, impacts, noise loops and uplifters. The usual gang. As with many releases from Sample Magic, the tempo dependent sounds come in two flavors: 125 and 128 bpm. While the tempo police and audio connoisseurs might appreciate the finer details of these two tempos, I personally feel it's a wasted opportunity. I am aware that not everybody lives in the world of simple elastic audio a la Ableton Live, so I won't take my criticism further. But still. I would have appreciated two more different tempos, such as 125 and 110. The good thing about it is that the 125 bpm sounds and the 128 bpm sounds are not the same. No wasted space on doubles in other words. Prime Loops Ambient Illusions 05/04/2010
Review of Prime Loops Ambient Illusions: ambient music - it's not just refreshing to hear something something more soothing - mixing styles is an old, effective trick to create new ideas.  It must be the oldest trick in the book, but it is still one of the most underused ones. Yes - it's time for our monthly reminder of The Value of Contrast. Among all the shiny sports cars in bright colors, the black matte is the one that immediately grabs the attention. In the metro you'll immediately spot the one with a red jacket - or yellow - in the sea of dark, greyish, anonymous coats. To be able to go faster, you actually don't need to go faster. It's way more effective of adding something going slower, and you'll get the illusion of higher speed. Best Service K-Size FX Edition 05/02/2010
Review of Best Service K-Size FX Edition: 1400 effects and atmospheres specialized for dance music might sound like nirvana for the modern producer - but is a rather mixed library complete with some very clever stuff and instant sleeping pills.  The first thing to notice after a first, quick listen is that Best Service isn't too clear about the structure and idea behind the library. The website nor the enclosed pdf documentation sheds any light of what the categories mean. Ok - pretty much everyone can figure out what upsweeps, impacts and atmos mean - but modulations? or PreArrangementFX? Straight out from the virtual box - K-Size FX Edition is big. 1400 wav effects spread over 1,33 gigabyte is quite a lot and multiply that with the additional formats for acid, rex2, Stylus RMX, NNXT, Live 8, Kontakt 3, Halion, EXS24, Battery 2 and Apple loops. For the sake of clarity this review focus only on the wav format. Rex-lovers only get the loops pre-chopped. Industrial Strength Computer Core 04/09/2010
Review of Industrial Strength Computer Core. With so many well-polished libraries out on the market, it was just a matter of time before something really ugly got released: welcome Computer Core.  Behind this pack of samples is a fellow named Steve Vasquez, a DJ, producer and sound designer who teamed up with the label Industrial Strength which is distributed by Loopmasters. Despite its name - Computer Core is not a reference to blippy 8 bit sounds you might expect, but rather the opposite. The revival of gabber? Yes - almost. The head-banging hardness is certainly there.
Review of Sounds of Revolution Minimal Techno Revolution is a library for the techno producer with a focus on drum loops and single drum sounds.  Oliver Schmitt aka Sounds of Revolution is on a roll. Not only is his label Sounds of Revolution distributed by Mutekki Media who helped make Vengeance into fame, but lately he's got Tiesto, Timo Maas and Adam Beyer among his fans. When it comes to endorsement of famous artists in the same genre as yourself, for me it's hard not to become suspicious. All it takes is a photo of the artist smiling broadly next to the product, and at the next moment he's trotting off with a bag full of money to receive a truckload of free gear. But when it comes to endorsement for a sample library - even during my darkest and most cynical moments I simply cannot imagine Maas, Tiesto or Beyer not to afford a sample library for 80 euros. So no. For once I set aside my ideas of sinister conspiracy theories and accept that they actually dig the stuff. Which is not hard to believe anyway. Once you start to listen to it. As the title suggests, this library has a clear direction. After my initial listen I would personally mark this library as proper techno. Not pop, no trance, no endless carpets of evolving pads. It's hard, at times clinical and sparse - there are no trendy supersaws in here. In other words, this is a library for the producer who a new fresh platform to create techno with. Zero-G Disco Gold 03/14/2010
Review of Zero-G Disco Gold. Disco is one of those genres that refuses to go away - but paradoxically although there are quite a few disco libraries on the market - many of them are less than satisfactory. Most of them are in fact soulless, recycled and repackaged rubbish. Zero-Gs Disco Gold is thankfully not one of them and also mixes disco with the sound from the 80s - a move that proves to be very potent.  Whatever your personal thoughts about how catchy or cheesy disco might be - there is no way of denying it. The impact of disco on what we today call pop is fundamental. No matter what you think about the music of Bee Gees, Chic, Donna Summer & Giorgio Moroder - just load up any production by Stock, Aitken and Waterman and you'll clearly hear which path disco took since the middle of the 70s. The question poses itself naturally, if you're into pop, what better way is there to go back to its roots?
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