Don’t act like you forgot… it’s time for that Big Fish Friday baby! You already know!

Today I’m going into another style of music, checking out a house music sample cd that big fish sent over.

Mirroball: Silky House Music…

let’s get it.

Mirrorball? What type of title is that?

I like the title, gives you a visual don’t it? A nice new age looking lounge spot, mirroball in the middle chillin…

But what is really in this collection?

According to the site, it’s a mashup of laid back house grooves with some RnB and Pop tendencies!

Sweet disco house with a touch of R&B pop. Mmm, mmm, it doesn’t  get any better than this! It’s almost chocolaty, it’s so tasty.

Ranging from slower radio-friendly tracks to full-tempo club house, all with an extra helping of sugar.

The rhythms are strong and propulsive, and the basslines make it hard to stay seated. Go ahead, dance around your studio if you want!

You can kiss your low-carb diet goodbye with these 32 construction kits.

Sweet disco house with a touch of R&B pop. Mmm, mmm, it doesn’t

get any better than this! It’s almost chocolaty, it’s so tasty.

Ranging from slower radio-friendly tracks to full-tempo club

house, all with an extra helping of sugar. The rhythms are strong

and propulsive, and the basslines make it hard to stay seated. Go

ahead, dance around your studio if you want! You can kiss your

low-carb diet goodbye with these 32 construction kits. All the

drum tracks and hits are included, so you can forge your own beats

and twist and turn the loops however you’d like. Mirrorball is

truly a silky house experience.

All the drum tracks and hits are included, so you can forge your own beats and twist and turn the loops however you’d like. Mirrorball is truly a silky house experience.

Quick Specs:

• Content: 32 construction kits, 1.8 gb of 24bit wav files, plus other formats
• Format: apple, rex, rmx, acid, wav
• Price: normally $99, but $74.96 til next year. (Big Fish having a holiday sale)

What does it sound like? How’s the production?

I like house, it’s a very smooth type of music…however I don’t actively produce house music so I don’t know all the lil tricks of the trade, I just make what I think is house lol.  It’s good to have a collection of samples in the proper style that I can play with.

Production quality is top notch as always, not distortion or clicks and pops unless required

The production style is very good as well, it’s not straight up house, it definitely has an RnB or sometimes even a Hip Hop slant.

Gives you a lot of different content to work with, uptempo stuff, even some smoother ballad type loops and riffs can be found in here.

All around it’s a nicely produced product.

Tons of synths, from pads to arps to leads to other weird stuff. Nice thick bass, and a boatload of smooth sexy keyboard and organ riffs.

What’s the bottom line?

It’s a great product, and a nice deviation from the normal house sample collections. It definitely has more of an urban feel too it.

I give this one a 4 out of 5, it’s a great product. I would have liked to have more brass, and maybe some more strings in there, but there’s plenty of sexy keys, synths, and bass to make up for it.

Overall good product, and the price is even better right now during Big Fish’s holiday sale.

Check it out at bigfish.com

http://www.bigfishaudio.com/4DCGI/detail.html?1386

leave me a comment, let me know what you think.

Is it Friday already!?

Dang!

Well it’s time for another edition of Big Fish Friday…time to take a look at some more samples sent to me by big fish audio.

This week, we’re gonna get a lil jazzy on ya!

Talkin all that Jazz…

This isn’t one of those “hip hop jazz hybrid” collections, this is straight up for people looking to compose jazz music.

This is perfect for us! No matter if you’re not making jazz, a lot of urban producers like to sample jazz records, myself included.

So anything that can give us an authentic sound without worrying about royalties and sample clearance…bring it on baby!

What’s in this Jazz Session?

My personal description would be ” a gang of smoke flowing hole in the wall bare chicken bones on a napkin type sounds”

But that’s not really technical enough so, here’s what they say on the site:

Jazz Sessions is a unique sample collection bringing you all the vibes you would hope to hear at any great jazz club, and adds swing, soul and solid jazz attitude to your productions!

Featuring a huge 3Gig library of jazz samples played by seasoned professionals and captured with maximum realism and authenticity. Jazz Sessions is the consummate tool for jazz-influenced producers worldwide, whether you are looking to make pure traditional jazz, nu-jazz, broken beats, or are looking to melt a pure jazz feel into another style of music – Jazz Sessions will deliver what you need.

Okay, that sounds good but what does it actually sound like?

Dopeness, pure finger snapin, diggin in the crates, authentic jazz dopeness!

Seriously, the riffs,  licks and loops are well played and definitely have a certain “feel” about them.

Heck man, I heard the breathing and foot tapping when demoing some of the flute riffs!

Like I said, it’s not jazz with a hip hop affection…it’s straight up jazz from the horns to the drums.

So this would work well for folks trying to actually compose jazz records, but my purpose would be to put together jazz compositions that I can then slice up like I would on from a jazz record!

Works perfect, recorded right, no distortion whatsoever.

One thing I didn’t like though, the release noise on the rhodes multisample…it was pretty loud, but that’s okay, there are plenty of rhode loops and riffs to use, and I’m sure I could tweak the multi in Kontakt if I wanted. But I had to let ya know about that one.

Okay, so it sounds good, sounds authentic, what about the pricepoint?

The price is right baby! Just like a majority of sample dvd libraries, this comes in at 99 bucks, and with all the money you save in royalties…I think it’s a good trade off.

BUT, they also did something very nice, probably for folks like us. You can download separate section from the collection for 29-49 bucks!

So if you want JUST the flutes, or the keys, or guitars, or brass…you can do that. You may not want the drums and bass…maybe you just want the instruments. Go for it then!

Final thoughts on the library?

If you can’t tell by now, I really loved this one. I’m a jazz music lover, even just for listening pleasure, but also for sampling and music production.  To be able to add some nice authentic jazz sounds to your music that actually sound good, it’s always a pleasure. Especially when the library is made for jazz musicians and not “jazzy hip hop samples”

I like those too, but sometimes you just want some real jazz infusion for ya grooves.

This is a 5 out of 5 straight up no questions about it. Great content, tons and tons of samples, multiple formats, and if you don’t want the whole thing you can go with individual sections!

bottom line is, if you like to use jazz samples, you definitely should check this library out.

Go listen to the demo at Big Fish Jazz Sessions and tell em I sent ya

What do you think?  Leave me a comment below.

It’s the end of the week so you know what time it is

BIG FISH FRIDAY BABY!

I got some fresh fish for ya today… this time we gonna get a lil more rugged and look at some hip hop samples big fish sent me.

Straight Outta NYC baby!

What’s up with Straight Outta NYC?

Well, it’s a sample cd, not a sample pak, it actually comes on a dvd like most collections. I think the term sample cd is getting old lol…most now come on dvds with gigs of files.

Anyway, according to the site:

“The heart of East Coast Hip Hop resides in one place: New York City.

Straight Outta NYC is full of the life, the beats, the grooves, the melodies, and everything that is East Coast Hip Hop.

Check out the beats, horns, guitars, synths, basses, clavs, fx, vocals and more.

Also included in each construction kit are all the drum hits broken out and a folder of drum tracks giving you the individual parts of the drums broken out for easy mixing, remixing or mixing and matching.

All material comes in WAV, REX, Apple Loops and RMX format. Take the snare loop from one kit and match it with the kick from another or try any number of other combinations!

It’s time to check out the Hip Hop flavors of NYC!”

…yeah, okay, I’ve heard this before. Someone claims to have captured the real “feel” of hip hop and it ends up being some cheesy unusable collection of cliche beats and riffs…

let’s see

So did Big Fish come real or cheesy?

They came HARD! Man, I was definitely not sure about this one, I mean, the demo sounded okay…but a whole collection?

Straight outta NYC? I had to check it.

The production is top notch, the riffs and keys have a feel that you definitely can use.  Some of the piano parts have that “sampled sound” so you can chop them up and have a sample based track without dealing with sample clearance. I love that.

The elements are raw, rugged, and ready to go.

The loops are long enough that you can get tons of chops for different tracks. They have those sick organs you hear in that east coast stuff, epic strings, even some of those rocwilder type synths and stuff…

It’s not JUST underground, they captured the whole entire east coast nyc style of music, from underground, to storytelling, to harlem club bangers.

What about the price?

Well this one surprised me…like many of you, I’m used to sample cds/dvds being around 99 bucks or more, no problem.

This one comes in at 69 bucks, I think that’s a heckuva deal. It’s a not much more than the average sample pak you can download from many online vendors, but the amount of content you get is banannas.

I think this is a great value, considering it’s less than the average sample cd, good stuff.

I think it keeps it in the reach of most folks, even if you’re on the “one sample collection a month” diet, this one is a good deal.

So what’s the final verdict?

I gave this collection a 4.5 out of 5 subs…very solid production. The only reason I didn’t give it the full 5 is because I would have liked to see a folde or two of extra instrument riffs and such.

They include the single drum hits, which I love about their collections, that way I don’t have to chop if I don’t want to.

Great production, tons of variety even though it’s strictly east coast, you get a lot of different styles.  The price is right, and the loops are pretty long.

All in all, another great release from Big Fish.

You can hear the demo on their site at Straight Outta NYC

let me know what you think, leave me a comment below.

I always love to hear your opinon, good or bad!

Welcome to the first official “Big Fish Friday”

Each Friday I will be taking a look at something from bigfishaudio.com

They are one of the largest and most well known providers of sample cds and sample libraries in the industry.

I have established a relationship with the company where they will send me out various products throughout the year so that I can review them on the site.

Most of their products are in the sample cd range, as well as instruments, but the also do some sample paks as well.

I’m pretty sure I bought my first sample cd ever from big fish audio lol.

Anyway, today we’re going to look at one of their downloadable sample paks, Club Bangers RnB

So what IS Club Bangers RnB?

according to the site:

Club Bangers R&B Pak contains eight fresh and new R&B construction kits that are ready to drop in the clubs.

Edited and formatted to the highest standards, these kits are ready to go in nearly any music sequencing application.

All the content is included in acidized WAV, Apple Loops, REX, and RMX formats Once you get started, you’ll notice how easy it is to get great pro-sounding tracks together.

Smooth and sexy these jams are instant hits. The sounds are clean and tight and at this price you can’t go wrong.

Only 8 Kits? Is there much variety?

Yes, there is tons of variety.

You’ve got to remember, Big Fish is known for producing some of the most popular sample libraries around, and most of them carry a higher price tag, most starting around 100 bucks.

That’s not bad, that’s actually the norm for a full sample cd, I’m talking stuff with gigs and gigs of samples.  But with the download paks, they are allowing pretty much everyone the opportunity to get the same Big Fish quality at a lower entry point, something for everyone.

The variety of the kits is actually pretty good, I was expecting them to all sound the same but each takes it’s own direction and doesn’t really copy the others. Some are synth heavy, others more ballad or piano based, while some are heavy on the strings, it’s all good, and they all sound great.

If that wasn’t enough, they also give you the individual drum tracks AS WELL AS the individual drum hits, I love when construction sets come with single drum hits, so I don’t have to chop the drum loops myself.

What about the sound and production quality?

This is where the collection stands out and I was very pleased with the sound.  The synths range anywhere from soft and smooth to hard and in your face, all with no distortion…unless of course it’s on purpose.

The keys are recorded well, the bass has great low-end, and the drum loops KNOCK. The drums themselves are what surprised me the most in this one, I know Big Fish brings the pain when they do instruments, so I didn’t expect anything but the best.

I was NOT expecting to open up a highly usable and down right bangin set of single drum hits.

The styles and production in this pack are very diverse, the loops are long enough to get many chops from it, or even loop it up as is and lay a great foundation for your next RnB joint.

And the price-point?

The price is right baby!  Don’t expect to 4 to 7 gigs of stuff this high quality for 29 bucks, but you do get enough content to keep you happy and you will not feel cheated with this purchase.

29 bucks puts it right in the price range of many who are used to buying the single sample packs from many online sample providers.  But it allows you to get a taste of the Big Fish, and also gives you a glimpse into what you can expect from their larger sample collections.

I like this addition to their site, it allows everyone to benefit from their years of producing high quality sample content no matter what your budget is.

Final verdict? What is the rating?

I went into this not knowing what to expect, as you know I’m not a huge construction pack fan, but I’ve been known to use them in my own way.  I was able to find some loops and sounds to chop and that ALWAYS makes me happy.

I give this collection a 4.5 out of 5 subs, it’s really great, the only reason I had to not give it a full 5 subs is that there were only 8 kits, had there been 10 to 12 kits I would have given it a 5 out of 5.

Either way, it’s dope, a great value, and let’s many people get into the Big Fish sound that may not have the budget for their larger libraries. ( I will review some of those for you as well)

If you’re looking for a nice collection of RnB sounds and loops, as well as some bangin drums, you should definitely checkout Club Bangers RnB Pak.

Well produced, sounds good, and fun to use.

Let me know what you think below.