 |
Download Loopmasters Downbeat & Leftfield |
Press Reviews |
|
|
|
|
Author: Music Tech Magazine (September 2004)
DOWNBEAT & LEFTFIELD Music Tech, September 2004
“If you move from Zero-7, K&D, Royksopp, Lemon Jelly and Fila Brazillia over to Leftfield, Good Looking, Ninja Cuts and Grand Central in a single sitting, then this CD is for you.”
It’s always helpful to know what to expect from a sample collection and the sleeve notes for Downbeat & Leftfield go further than most in giving you a flavour of what’s inside. Hip hop, chill out, industrial, jazz, lounge, world music, drum‘n’bass… all are represented in this highly eclectic mix, although this does mean that no single style gets anything like comprehensive coverage. Of the 1,000-plus samples included (in .WAV and Rex2 formats and Reason NNXT refill patches for multi-sampled instruments), just about the only common theme is that all the samples have great feel – and even that isn’t always easy to identify from a single synth note or a bass sound. That’s why, in general, it’s the looped material which is the most successful and – given the ease with which synth sounds can be produced in software form these days – arguably the most worthwhile.
The collection covers drum loops, drum kits, percussion, bass sounds and loops, instrument sounds and loops, SFX sounds and banks and vibes, as well as atmospheres – all beautifully recorded and well documented. The CD is part of Loopmasters’ Origin series which, by the end of this year, will comprise 12 titles, released in batches of four. However, there’s no sense of Downbeat & Leftfield feeling incomplete without its sister titles. On the contrary, all the CDs are complete in and of themselves.
A rich and varied source of sample material... 7/10
|
Author: Reasonfreaks.com (November 2004)
DOWNBEAT & LEFTFIELD ReasonFreaks Review (8/10)
Downbeat and Leftfield is an extensive sounding collection. You will find a host of sounds covering styles like HipHop, DownTempo, Ambient and more. The sound quality is nothing but staggering througout the collection. You will find all types of sounds like loops (rx2, wav), drum hits, multi-samples (NN-XT) and one shot samples. Some of the drum grooves are played live which gives a great feel to them. Others are programmed with great care. One thing I do find is that the drumloop collection could have been bigger. There are basically 22 main loops with some variations per loop. I would have liked to see less variations and more original loops, but what's there really is of a good quality and after all more isn't always better.
The loops come in wav and rx2 format plus you'll find the individual drumhits used in the loops in their own folder for making even more variations to the loops. Endless posibilities!
Also present on the CD are instrument and bass loops. The instrument loops include the well known vintage keyboards as well as pads, strings, woodwind (Sax and Flute) and vocoder loops. All very musical and of a high quality. The bass loops are groovy and mainly made with bass guitars with a few of them made with sythesizers. There's some really funky bass riffs in there which will definately inspire many of us.
A very complete collection with high quality sounds, you'll definately love this disc if you are into hiphop, dnb, downtempo, or triphop, and want something new and original to use in your music, so go and buy it!
|
Author: IDJ Magazine (January 2005)
Eclectic sounds and heavyweight beats? That'll be the latest release from Loopmasters!
The latest release in Loopmasters Origin series is called Downbeat & Leftfield, and though the loops and samples available don't exceed 100BPM it's a more versatile product than the title might suggest.
Containing a wide array of loops, multi-samples and single hits, covering beats, bass, lead lines and atmosphere, Downbeat & Leftfield does a good job at covering all bases, with every sound and sample available in either WAV or REX2 format.
First of all let's have a look at the beats, which will be pure inspiration if you're writing hip hop or dub funk. The loops are split into three tempo divisions (80, 90 and 100BPM) plus there are a total of 21 kits to freestyle with. Add to this a vast array of percussion and fills and you've got a broad drum library that will keep even the most adventurous beat-smith satisfied for time. While with loops being available in REX2 format they can be instantly processed to sit comfortably away from their natural tempo.
As for bass, Downbeat & Leftfield does well in this department too, with loops and hits both available. The loops come in 80 and 100 BPM categories and seem to focus more heavily on warm electric bass, from smooth to tuff but funky, plus there are a handful of more twisted ones for good measure. A bit more useful however are the additional patches for the NN-XT sampler (found in Reason) and these are all excellent, allowing you to carve out some particularly powerful low-end in a flash.
So, with your beats and bass laid down you will also find a wealth of other instruments and synth-sounds with which to pepper your productions, again served up as a mix of WAV and REX2 files as well as patches for Reason's two samplers, NN-XT and NN19. Here you can choose from sound banks featuring guitars, keys, strings and pads, plus there is an SFX bank as well as a further folder containing some sweet atmospheric washes and scratch samples. For beginners and pro users alike, there's no argument that this is a great value set of sounds.
(Score 4/5)
|
Author: Sound on Sound Magazine (April 2005)
The Loopmasters Origin Series, of which this library forms a part, aims to offer 100-percent copyright-free loops, multisamples, and single sounds in a value-for-money format. All the CDs in the series include WAV loops, REX 2 files for all the loops, and some Propellerhead Reason instrument patches. As suggested by the title of this CD, the collection of samples here were all recorded at lower tempos (100bpm and slower), while the musical content is both dark and somewhat quirky — hence the 'leftfield' tag. The library totals some 700MB of data, with 275 REX 2 loops, 700 WAV files, and samples for 21 different drum kits included.
A good chunk of the collection is made up by a mixture of over 100 live and programmed drum loops recorded at 100bpm, 90bpm, and 80bpm. There is some good stuff amongst this lot that would suit anything from hip-hop through to chill-out. The sounds are nicely produced and not over-processed, with some of the percussive elements lending a darker feel to the grooves created. The tone is not lo-fi gritty, but it does conjure up a 'serious' hip-hop mood, so think Nelly or Snoop Dogg rather than Goldie Lookin Chain or The Beastie Boys — although you could get to the latter with suitable extra processing. A separate folder of percussion loops, drum fills, and other drum 'extras' is also included.
Aside from the drum loops, the rest of the collection provides a diverse set of instrument loops and sounds. These include a folder of bass loops (plus a small collection of Reason NNXT bass patches) whose moods match the drum loops very well, so there is plenty of scope for mixing and matching between these. A further folder of 'instrument' loops is subdivided into guitar, keyboard, pad/atmosphere, strings, vocoder, and woodwind (dominated by solo sax lines) groups. This is a pretty mixed bag. For example, the keyboard group includes a good number of chilled Rhodes loops while, in contrast, the pad/atmosphere set provides a mixture of both chill-out and much darker moods. Two further folders complete the collection. Firstly, a sound effects folder contains various bleeps, bloops and other noises — all very disturbing. Secondly, the Vibes & Atmos folder contains a mixture of bed-style pads and sound effects, plus a collection of turntable scratches.
In use, there is plenty to get your teeth into in this collection, and the loops from the various groups can easily be mixed together to produce a complete musical arrangement. The single hits, REX 2 loops, and instrument patches (for Reason users) add extra flexibility. For styles moving from Zero-7 chill-out through to darker hip-hop moods, Downbeat & Leftfield has plenty to offer.
(Score 4/5)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Download 300MB of Samples, Loops & Reason Refills for FREE when you sign up to our Weekly Newsletter:
|
