From the producers of the KEY BUY and FIVE STAR Award Winning CHEMICAL BEATS, BRUTAL BEATS is loaded with the most intense and aggressive drum grooves ever. Recorded and mixed in Townhouse Studios in London.

Brutal Beats is a tour de force of loud, rocking, edgy loops. With extreme re-mix variations utilising propriety software and hardware, and some of the latest processing devices, Brutal Beats has an edge that no other loop based CD can beat.

Featuring 47 live drum kit performances based on classic 70's rock tracks performed by Geoff Dugmore, one of Britain's most in-demand session players.

With precise timing for each and every beat, grooves can be looped at any point with exact sample accuracy! We've also included multi-velocity hits for each drum, so if you're into programming your own loops, you can give them the Brutal Beats edge!

The beats include intros, fills, verse & chorus grooves etc. A massive variety of grooves are provided, including straight and shuffle feels, slow blues, odd-time patterns and many more. You will find a huge range of tempos from under 60BPM to over 200!

All performances were recorded in the legendary stone room, Studio 2, at Townhouse Studios in London, with full 24 track digital recording mixed down to stereo, featuring the finest microphones, valve EQ and Urei compressors.

Every bar has been painstakingly edited to loop perfectly, while retaining all the feel of a great drummer. 'Straight' (mildly compressed) and 'Compressed' (pumping) mixes of all performances are provided, with up to TEN stages of digital and valve compression and limiting. Over 100 radically mutated dance remixes are included. The individual hit library is also provided to allow maximum flexibility and creativity.

Geoff Dugmore's Credits:

Deborah Harry, Stevie Nicks, Killing Joke, Tina Turner, John Paul Jones, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Bryan May, Bob Geldof, Gabrielle, Art Of Noise, Dido, Tim Finn (Crowded House), Steve Booker, Marc Almond, Dusty Springfield, Diana Tribute Album, Mark King (Level 42), Swing Out Sister, Thompson Twins, Paul Rogers, Mike Scott, Fine Young Cannibals, Gypsy Kings, Trevor Horn, Bob Clearmountain, Steve Hillage and many, many more.

Formats

Brutal Beats includes ACID/WAV format for the ultimate in compatibility.

Press Reviews

Behind the cruel name of this sample...

by Sound On Sound Magazine, UK

Behind the cruel name of this sample library lurks Scottish session drummer Geoff Dugmore, whose playing has graced dozens of hit records. Brutal Beats reveals Geoff's '70s roots; recorded in the Townhouse's stone room, this cheerful Celt bashes his way through some classic rock beats with many variations, intros and fills. These performances fill two audio CDs, and also appear on a third disc in Acidised WAV form; the library is completed by 66 drum and cymbal single hits incorporating four-way dynamics, ranging from a tender pp to a brutal ff.

It's been said that Geoff Dugmore plays as if his life depends on it, and his loops certainly generate considerable forward momentum - where some drummers lie back behind the beat, Geoff always urgently pushes it on. His adopted style on this title is basically loud, uncompromising rock; simple enough in conception, but featuring occasional unexpected, interesting snare displacements. Although its musical antecedents are pretty undisguised (names such as 'Emigrant Song' and 'Stairway To Devon' should give you a clue), this is more than a historical rehash. Beats like the raving, ride cymbal-driven 'We're Gonna Hoover' deliver pure, transcendent rock energy, as potent now as it was back in the '70s.

The kit sound, soaked in a fairly cavernous room ambience throughout, is bludgeoningly heavy. Tempos start off at a comatosed 50bpm and rise to a panic-stricken 235bpm. Most loops are in 4/4, a few are in 12/8, and there's even a dash of progtastic 9/8 and 15/8. Geoff's loops are not confined to a two-or four-bar format -- the 100bpm 'Fright Night' starts with solo hi-hat for four bars, introduces kick for four more, and ends with six bars of full kit played with ferocious intensity. The slower tempo beats offer no sonic or dynamic relief: the compressed mix of the 80bpm 'Dazed & Refused' (please, no more bad Led Zep name jokes) slams home like a sledgehammer, more slow bruise than slow blues.

Each loop is presented in straight, heavily compressed and processed versions, with the latter often comprising three or more sonic variations. These are typified by the unrestrained use of plug-ins, sometimes to the point where the kit is transformed into a series of filthy, flanged, gated, metallic noises -- musically irresponsible, but hugely enjoyable nonetheless. There are also some thin, toppy 'transistor radio' mixes. Not all these treatments are entirely successful, but some are great, rivalling BT's madder experiments -- the wicked 'princely mix' of the 112bpm 'Wanton Kong' is pure Breakz From The Nu Skool.

I've always enjoyed heavy, ambient drums, and this CD has definitely captured Geoff Dugmore's positive musical energy. The edits are not always seamless, but the one or two minor glitches I heard would be undetectable as soon as other sounds were added. Imaginative sound processing adds a contemporary edge to the retro-rock feel.

Pros - Well-recorded kick-ass grooves....

by Keyboard Magazine, USA

Pros - Well-recorded kick-ass grooves. Cons - Little variation of Kick and snare sounds. Bottom Line - Solid rock drum performances that will take you straight back to the days of the Nixon administration.

"Call it a backlash against mechanical programmed beats. Brutal Beats is all about live loops that take more than a page from '70s classic rock. The grooves are deep in the pocket and have plenty of attitude, thanks to drummer Geoff Dugmore. Stylistically, Brutal Beats is very Bonham-esque - you know, heavy on the kick, meaty toms tuned to perfection, and full of vibe. In fact, some of the tracks are blatant knock-offs of classic Zeppelin beats.

The recordings have lots of room and overhead sound - not much in the way of close-miked-drum sounds, which is fine by me. I only wish there were more variation to the kits.

With Brutal Beats you get a WAV CD-ROM plus two audio CDs. While this might sound like a lot, it is and it isn't. The tracks contain extended performances eight, 16 or more bars long, in addition to fills, intros, and endings. From beginning to end, nearly every track is tight; the time only wanders in a handful of performances. Each groove is offered in several ways: au naturel, compressed and lightly distorted, filtered, with BMP-synced delays, and so on. For those who don't already have any of these effects in their studio arsenal, BB's "theme and variations" approach is nice. I have lots of effects at my disposal though, so I would have liked some of the CD real estate devoted to more straight-up grooves instead of the processed versions. Second listener Greg Rule disagreed: "I like the creative processing throughout this collection."

Whether you're after a classic '70s drum sound and don't have the tracking room, microphones, and drummer to pull it off, or you're into big beat and want some monster beats to slice and dice, put this sample collection high on your shopping list.

590 samples go to make this collection...

by Computer Music Magazine, UK

590 samples go to make this collection of live drum loops, breaks, hits and fills, and all are listed according to their tempo and time signature. Each beat is presented in its raw state, with heavy compression and a variety of effects applied. The breaks are loose where you need them to be but tight to tempo. They loop perfectly and are presented with fills and breaks on the same track.

This can mean some heavy editing in places, and even ReCycle! freaks may have headaches as many of the hits carry quite long delays. Use them in a track, however, and they offer perfect tempo integration, and they are easily edited down. On top of this , you're provided with all the recorded hits of an entire kit - each one four way multisampled - with which to build your own kits. Not a bad offering at all, we'd say.

Rated 8 out of 10