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Download Old School Flavours Vol 2: Vintage Soul |
Press Reviews |
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Author: Future Music Magazine, UK
"The Old School Flavours take on 70s soul drum loops is in keeping with the rest of the OSF range, an authentic set of classic drum grooves. Nine different drumkits playing 30 loops apiece is the format. The loops are each divided into a four-bar main groove loop, a four-bar simple version and a four-bar breakdown. The standard of these loops is very high, and both sound and feel are captured impeccably, with some excellent flappy kick drums and loose snares capturing the vibe to a tee. Tempos run between 76 and 122bpm, with the bulk of the loops hovering around the 80-100 mark, as you'd expect given the style being covered. If you're a swingbeat or soul producer you'll find plenty to get your teeth into here, and many of the loops will also lend themselves quite happily to trip hop or mellow jazz tracks and even downbeat retro funk."
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Author: Sound On Sound Magazine, UK
4 out of 5
"A solid slice of the '70s is served up in volume 2 of this short but interesting series of audio CDs from Zero-G. As the name suggests, Vintage Soul focuses on the drumming styles that held together a huge number of classic soul, disco and funk tracks from the end of the '60s all the way up to the early'80s. This 99-track CD is packed with a varied selection of 4-bar drum loops reflecting upon and realistically recreating the kind of rhythm tracks you can hear in countless Motown, R&B and early disco hits.
The drum loops are organised according to tempo and style, within nine main categories. In each there are five basic song patterns (at a number of different tempos) and each of the 4-bar loops comes with three variations at that tempo. It sounds a bit long-winded, but it isn't, and once you've found a loop that works well, you're given the full version plus a 'slimmed-down' mix (to use, for instance, in a verse) and another variation that would work as an intro or fill. In practice, picking out a loop and slotting it into an existing track is both fun and easy to do.
The loops themselves are superbly performed by the library's creator MJ Dunne and have clearly been inspired by a vast back-catalogue of classic '70s material. Clever use of drum types and recording techniques gives a real and believable feel to any track looking for a retro sound, and this release will provide instant gratification for any would-be Sam and Daves, Marvin Gayes, Four Tops, or even (gulp!) Village Peoples. Tagged onto the end of the CD are seven tracks of the individual drum samples used in all the loops.
Their layout is intuitive and very easy to follow, so programming new variations of loops is not as much of a chore as it could be. As before, these sounds are highly authentic, with just the right mixture of vinyl grot and sonic depth. To tempt you to look at the other discs in the series, Zero-G have also included an interactive track which, when loaded into a PC or Mac, gives you an excellent demo of the kind of material on your disc, as well as a look through the kind of sounds featured on the rest of the series.
On the downside, it does occasionally feels as if this release is a tiny bit too retro for its own good, and as a result the loops don't always have as much in the way of a stereo spread or modern effects processing as you might expect. Also, where other similar releases offer you a few bass, guitar and keyboard riffs thrown in, Vintage Soul concentrates only on drumming. If you can live with that, and don't mind the fact that all the discs in this series are currently only available in audio CD format, prepare to be transported back to the decade that fashion forgot, for a festival of soulful precision drumming. In a word: Lava-lamp-tastic."
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