Deep Tech House is a library that explores quote "moody and melodic, deep and dirty house grooves" - something that honestly doesn't say much to me. As I've been discussing before, for me products based on genres are just damn confusing, and apart I could correctly say that this library 1) isn't about trance, 2) is not euphoric and 3) has a fundament in electronic music, the rest of my guesses were totally off the map.

Let's start with describing what Deep Tech House really is. Firstly it's a library that spans over 2,5 gigabyte including different formats: Apple loops, Wav and Rex, plus the sounds conveniently mapped up for samplers. The style is electronic house, a bit soulful, and at times indeed moody but at times event energetic and joyful. If I should give my own description of Deep Tech House I would say it's laid-back house but not as laid-back as Equipped Music's releases such as Smokers Relight. There are two tempos in this collection: 125 and 127(!). I asked Sample Magic about the reasoning behind these two tempos and the answer was those are currently the most popular in house music today. Maybe I'm a little bit too stuck in my world of elastic loops in Ableton Live, but I would have found it more useful with a bigger difference between the tempos, such as 127 and 110, but clearly Sample Magic are after the house connoisseurs here.

Let's break it down to the numbers:

Bass loops: 117
Combi loops: 74 (18 themes)
Drum loops: 215 (60 themes)
Music loops: 124
Synth loops: 119
Top loops: 113
Effect loops: 28

Total number of loops: 790

Kicks: 42
Snare & claps: 53
Hihats: 85
Percussion: 72

Tonal sounds: 80
Effect sounds: 26

Total number of drum sounds: 252
Total number of one shot sounds: 364

Bass loops (REX): 117
Combi loops (REX): 74
Drum loops (REX) 215
Music loops (REX): 124
Synth loops (REX): 119
Top loops (REX): 113
Effect loops (REX): 28


Drum loops
Although there are 213 separate drum loops in the collection, the majority of them are variations. There are 60 main themes and each theme comes in three to five variations. Personally I find this approach very useful. I don't know how many times I've found a loop that I simply love, but is so action-packed that it becomes boring after twenty seconds. With these, it's easy to dynamically build up a song and also gives the possibility to reorganize the loop and even isolate sounds.
The loops themselves are typical four-on-the-floor house. A steady kick at the bottom together with all the usual suspects: hihats, shakers, claps and percussion. What I like about these loops is that although they are aimed at steady beat house, they are both alive and dynamic. They are far from kick on every beat, snare on every second, 8th closed hihats and the open hihat on you-know-where. In fact, the programming is done in a way you rather feel the shakers/hats rather than hearing them. All elements except toms and kick wander in and out of the loops in a fluid way which prevents the loops from feeling static.
With that said, the style of the loops are careful and not too experimental. This is perfect for the producer who want to whip up a foundation for a song quickly - but for musicians who are looking for drum loops that kickstarts their imagination, these loops might be a little too polished.
In all fairness, creating drum loops is a tricky balance act. They should be inspiring, yet not too experimental. They should be plenty but also come in lots of variations. Some loop collections are instant idea-creators - some loops are ready for focused production, and that's the kind of loops that are in Deep Tech House.

Top loops
The Top loops is where you go if you want to lay down your own kick and snare, but need some rhythmic elements to swing it up. There are 113 loops in this category and just as with the normal drum loops, the percussive programming is very dynamic in terms of events. It gives more vibe rather than grabs the attention. These loops also goes way beyond the moodiness of deeper house - many of these loops could easily fit in an up-tempo feel-good tune. While the drum loops didn't entirely grab my passion - these loops made up for it.

Bass loops
There are a total of 117 bass loops in this collection and while you can hear that the sounds originates from sound sources such as organs, bass guitars, analogue or even FM synthesizers - the focal point is clearly not to steal too much attention. Besides the sounds are generally on the lower side of the frequency scale, the contents doesn't try to steal the show either. Sure - there are some fuzzy-ish loops but all in all, this is bass loops that you gladly can build other harmonies on, rather than serving them as the main dish.

Ready for the media - the combi loops
According to Sample Magic, the combi loops can be regarded as more or less complete musical starting points. In this library they are 18 different main ideas, and each idea come in four different variations. For me - this was the first thing that went directly into my trash can. They are too well-chewed for my taste and if I should be hard it's a bit of a paradox that Sample Magic states they're not into, quote: "join the dots style construction kits". But in all fairness I do see a value in them: they are very useful if you are a media producer and are in quick need of background music for film, radio or internet. As they come in a few combined variations - without drums, just drums/bass etc, it's easy to create evolving background music. But for me - end station trashcan.

Synth loops
The synth loops are mainly of the type that rather stays in the background. There are a few melodic riffs that definitely could be put up front, but that's the exception rather than the rule. Most of the sounds are stabs in various variations: synths, strings, sounds that once were an acoustic piano and electric piano-ish. Although these sounds doesn't provide instant extatic gratification to the user - their true value is when you start building your own melodies upon them. Just as with the drum loops, these loops doesn't steal much attention. For example, they work very well to provide a short break/break-state between two similar musical parts, such as two verses.

Music loops
The music loops are similar to the synth loops in that respect that they aren't Look-at-Me-attention grabbers. Basically they are the same as the synth loops but have more elements mixed into them, which makes the loops more eventful. Personally I prefer as clean material as possible, leaving me to decide what to combine with what. Thankfully these loops also come in a number of variations with different instruments activated.

Effect loops
The effect loops reside somewhere in the grey zone between tonal and rhythm loops which make them much more inspirational and interesting. At least from a creative point of view. Although there are only 28 of these, this is a good place to start if you're after some percussive sounds but where traditional percussion sounds just don't cut it.

One shots (tonal sounds + effects)
Among the loops, there are the single drum sounds and a bunch of chords and other one shot sounds. In total there are 106 single sounds: 44 chord stabs, 36 bass & tonal sounds + 26 effects). The chord sounds feel soft, fresh and usable and some of the effects could easily fit in a dark horror movie. But apart from the chords and some of the effects, these sounds are fairly standard.

Drum hits
I don't know where the kicks originally comes from, but after my test of software drum machines, I can smell Rolands kilometers away, and obviously processed, this definitely smells Roland. All flavors are here: punchy, clean, layered with small snippets of hats, deep booming kicks that reminds of the 808. In general - the kicks are clean and have quite little distortion applied to them.
The snares and claps are more varied - they comes in pure electronic form as well as electronic/acoustic hybrids that are well balanced. I liked the snares a lot - mostly because of the crispy snappiness of the snares.
Layering is done with the hihats as well. Some sounds are layered with bongos(!) and of course real snares, but in contrast to the other parts, here some of the hihats goes all the way to its acoustic origins. The snappiness is also very pronounced in this section.

Conclusion
When I listen to a new sample library, I rarely care if it's uplifting electro house, trance or satanic gospel - a good sample or an inspiring loop can be just about anything. With risking showing how helplessly out of touch I am - I cannot entirely label this as Deep Tech House. While there is a huge part of the samples that most definitely can be labeled as dark and moody, there is a substantial part that is not, but gives more of a feel good-vibe. Bad/Good? Neither. It's just the problem of labeling.
What I've always been impressed by Sample Magic is that the percentage of usable sounds and loops are so damn high. Generally when going through a new sample library, I always sort out all sounds and loops I don't like before integrating it into my own personal library. With most of the releases from Sample Magic, the libraries are more or less intact after my search for unappetizing apples. Deep Tech House is a library that is done in a way which leaves you with room for your own harmonies and melodies. The library is also thorough - the material range from complete musical clips to individual sounds. Deep Tech House is a mature and not too experimental library, and is a good choice for the producer who knows what he/she wants.

Sample Magic Deep Tech House
Web: www.samplemagic.com
Price: 50 UK pounds for download. 60 UK pounds for DVD.
Good: Very high quality. Basslines are great and so are the kick/snare-free loops. The kick and snares are very snappy and haven attitude.
Bad: Nothing really, the tonal one shot sounds may feel a little uninspired, but they are not bad in any way.

Review copy: thanks to Sample Magic for NFR review copy.