This is just a quick video showing how to chop samples manually in Ableton Live then assigning them to a drum rack.

It’s a quick way to slice samples and still have control over your sections.  I showed how to automate chopping in the video how to use ableton live to chop samples like an mpc.

This one is for all the questions I got regarding how to have more control over your chops before you slice and assign them to the drum rack.

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

Whas good yo!

Back with another review for ya, this time we switchin it up from loops and libraries to sound effects!

I know what you’re thinking, but trust me, just go along for the ride

Who is Wave Alchemy and what is the SFX Collection?

Good question, Wave Alchemy is a sound design company out of the UK that prides themselves on 100% ORIGINAL and ROYALTY FREE sample collections.  When they first contacted me and sent over a this product for review, they had just launched their new site, where you can get their libraries as well as free downloads. That was about 30 days ago almost… sorry Dan!

Anyway, according to the site:

Wave Alchemy’s award-winning sample library - SFX Collection 01 offers over 1.5GB of 24-bit 100% royalty free sound effects samples created using the very finest of vintage and new age electronic equipment.

All of the samples in SFX Collection 01 have been crafted from the ground up with many being enhanced by classic studio effects processors.

The sheer volume, quality and diversity of sound effects included make this library an essential addition to any producer’s sound arsenal.

Collection Quick Specs:

• Contents: 782 wav files in 8 categories
• Formats: 9 sampler patches for Kontakt, Hailion, EXS24, NNXT, and SFZ
• Price: £44.95 or about $67.79 I think…not sure of  my conversion skills!

How does it sound?

pretty dang good I must say. When it comes to sound fx, you usually don’t get anything very useful without investing in a huge expensive library created for sound designers and film composers.  You usually get a bunch of the same, corny, genre-specific rehash that floats around on eBay and fisher price toys.

These are different, there is a quality to the sound itself that screams professional, I can’t quite put my finger on it, I’ll just say “the process by which they recorded and effected the sounds produces and orgasimic sensation when entering myear canal” hahahaha.

Seriously, the sounds themselves are well produced and unique and the quality of the recording is top notch.

They lend themselves to all types of genres and applications, and that’s what I like about this collection.

What’s the bottom line?

Finally!

Finally someone produces a sound fx collection that is more than just a corny attempt at filler material.

These sounds are unique, inspiring even. I was tempted to create compositions based on single sounds from this collection, no lie.

I assumed it would be another mediocre sound collection, or “too dancy” and genre specific, but the sounds are great for transitions, foundations, and secret sauces in tons of applications and productions.

I give it a 5 out of 5 subs, because I was that impressed. I was fully expecting to give it a slightly above average 3.5 out of 5, but after playing with it, that’s impossible.

If you need a solid collection of sfx that you can go do time and time again for various applications, this is it…serious.

go on over and check it out SFX Collection 01

and don’t forget to download Wave Alchemy’s Free Samples!

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

Got a new collection of videos coming to ya, where I’ll be “In The Lab” with Nova Loops, reviewing a bunch of products they sent over for me to checkout.

They have a ton of sounds in various styles, so I’m going to go through a bunch of their construction loop sets and makin a track using only their sounds.

In this video I am using their Urban Pop Egos Vol 1 collection.

Quick-Stats:

• Format: 25 construction loop sets
• Content: 924 total wav, rex, and apple loops
• Price: $64.99

It’s a “Pop style” collection. So I just found some stuff I liked and chopped it up.

Let me know what you think about the sounds and the track, and look forward to more installments of “In The Lab with Nova Loops”

If you like it, go checkout Urban Pop Egos at NovaLoops.com and tell em saintjoe from SoundsAndGear sent ya over! Maybe they’ll hire me one day lol.

leave a comment below, peace!

It’s Friday again, so you know what that means!

Time for another Big Fish Friday!

This week they sent me a guitar sample collection from the “Off The Hook” Series.

This is a well known series in the sample cd market for urban and hip hop production.

Let’s check it

So what exactly is Off The Hook Guitars?

It’s just what it says, a huge collection of guitar construction kits from the “Off The Hook” series.

according to the site:

When it comes to Hip Hop and RnB loops, Off the Hook has set the standard. Once again, Anthony Myers raises the bar with this incredible offering dedicated to urban guitar loops.

Off the Hook Guitars gives you smooth acoustic and electric guitar loops, licks, leads, wah wah, riffs, rhythm parts, and more.

These 40 live recorded construction kits contain several guitar parts that work great together, or they can be used individually to give you that sexy guitar feel you’ve been lookin’ for.

As a bonus, you get the drum mixes as well.

It all comes in WAV, REX, Apple Loops, Acid and with a special RMX installer.

What type a variety in a guitar cd?

Surprisingly, quite a bit.

The way they did this one is very nice. You get a full construction kit based on guitars.

You get the full guitar mixes, as well as the individual guitar riffs and parts.

They even put the drumloops in there. At first I didn’t care about that but once I heard them it was fun to chop them up and get some new drum sounds

The styles are all over from laid back and jazzy, to sexy rnb, to even some funk styles

How about the production and sound quality?

Top notch, period. Having this collection is like hiring the best session guitar players you can find.

Everything sounds authentic and well-played.

The sound quality is superb but that’s a given for Big Fish, they always have good quality. And remember, this is a professional sound library, so it has to deliver the goods.

What about the price value?

The price is pretty common for a sample cd, right at 99 bucks it’s not over-priced nor under-priced.

I’m pretty used to sample cds being around this price so it’s not out of the norm, and for the quality and amount of content, I think it’s a good deal.

This may be a little on the higher end of the scale for those of you not used to purchasing sample cds, but to those that know, you can spend quite a bit more for a good quality cd/dvd.

The sheer amount of content and quality makes it worth it, I have sample cds from Big Fish that I purchased years ago that still get regular use today.

So what is the final verdict?

Hands down, no question 5 out of 5 subs. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this good.

I was pleasantly surprised with the drumloops! They were awesome and a great way to chop up some new drums.

I’m all for the royalty free goodies man, I prefer not to sample from records/songs because I don’t want to pay royalties.

So when I do sample, I love stuff like this. Dope quality, lots of content, lots of options, and even some nice drums.

Go listen to the demos of Big Fish Audio: Off the Hook Guitars and see what I mean.

If you’re looking for a nice collection of guitars, this is definitely an option.

I know I know…what up wit Scott Storch?

He blazed the charts for a while, then….I dunno, last I heard it was some money issues.

It’s all good, things happen, what you can’t front on is that dude is NASTY when it comes to the keys.

So today we looking at some Storchy style piano samples sent in for review from p5audio.

Just what is the Scorchin Piano collection?

from the site….

Scorchin Piano Producers Pack contains the both the Loops and the Licks from the Scorchin series!  We are talkin 152 Piano Loops in the style of Dr. Dre and Scott Storch,  nearly 900 licks cut from both our Scorchin Loops and from tons of bonus tracks in the session!  These loops and licks are recorded on a Beautiful Grand Piano through class A microphones, Apogee converters and an Avalon Preamp.   From the haunting dark piano riffs of Dre, to the edgy sounds of Scott Storch this product is chronically smokin!!!

Scrochin Piano Licks contains 152 Piano Loops, and nearly 900 Piano Licks in ten popular hip hop tempos.  They are mapped across the keyboard for easy use in your favorite sampler.

Scorchin Piano Producers Pack contains the both the Loops and the Licks from the Scorchin series!  We are talkin 152 Piano Loops in the style of Dr. Dre and Scott Storch,  nearly 900 licks cut from both our Scorchin Loops and from tons of bonus tracks in the session!  These loops and licks are recorded on a Beautiful Grand Piano through class A microphones, Apogee converters and an Avalon Preamp.   From the haunting dark piano riffs of Dre, to the edgy sounds of Scott Storch this product is chronically smokin!!!
Scrochin Piano Licks contains 152 Piano Loops, and nearly 900 Piano Licks in ten popular hip hop tempos.  They are mapped across the keyboard for easy use in your favorite sampler.

Do I have to sound like the Pianoman man?

You know how I feel about “producer” kits and samples.

I don’t really want to sound like a specific producer, I more like to have generally good samples, not specific producer kits.

So when I broke these open I wasn’t sure what I’d have to do…would I have to run over to p5audio and smack someone around?

Hmmmm….I’m not all into smackin folks unless they deserve it!

What do they sound like? Are they quality?

Like all of p5audio samples we’ve looked at, the quality is top notch.

They never put out anything less than awesome when it comes to the quality of the recording.

No distortion, no clipping, no drowning out the sound in effects.

Good, clean, crisp piano samples.

What about the variety? Will I sound like a “Still Dre” clone?

Nope! I’ll admit, I was worried about this too.

But the riffs and loops in this collection are all over the place, various styles are covered.

Of course Storch didn’t have just one style, so that’s good that they didn’t focus only on “Dre” style pianos.

There’s stuff in here for those mobb deep bangers, them slim shady salutes, and many more types of piano styles.

Yes, there is that classic Storch/Dre magic in there ready to feed your favorite sampler.

What’s the verdict man? Do they get the approval?

Good quality, tons of loops and samples, and a great variety.

This makes for a good collection, a very good collection.

It was much more versatile than I expected, I thought I was going to have to hand out an average score for this one.

I give it a 4.5 out of 5 subs.

Very solid product from a proven leader in sound sample production.

I suggest you go on over and checkout the scorchin piano samples. You can get loops, or licks, or like me…both.

Let me know what you think below. And I also want to know what you think about “producer” sample collecitons.

Lets discuss it, leave me a comment below.

So you ready for another set of samples to be reviewed?

This time I’m on some Arab music….I love ethnic samples.

Problem is, I don’t like clearing samples from records, and I don’t feel right not clearing them.

So I stay on the lookout for royalty free sample food.

Arabian Breaks, inspiration all day and all night

When I looked on the platinumloops website, I saw TONS of content.

But the new arabian breaks product looked very interesting.

The demo on the site proved they sounded pretty good, so I had to review them on the site. They kindly sent it over for review.

So what’s in the collection?

You get some loops, fully produced loops too. Not just single sitar loops, or single arabian drumloops.

These loops are full and authentic sounding, just like all those middle eastern records in your crates…only they don’t have the dust.

We can fix that with fx though

They also put various one shot samples in here.

Hits, stabs, short riffs, and single notes…so you can get your own creation even more unique.

How do they sound?

They are very good.

I really like how well produced they are, even down to the smallest detail, it’s like they came straight from the source.

The strings, the drums, the voices, all mix together perfectly to give you an authentic middle eastern flavor.

They are not distorted in any way, not overly effected, they are just right.

What’s the bottom line?

The bottom line is this is one of my favorite sample packs this year!

The variety of the various produced loops gives you tons of music to samples.

The fact they are fully produced and not just single instruments also gives you a more authentic sound.

I’m giving this collection 5/5 subs because it’s just a must have for anyone that likes to have some world sounds in their music.

Go over to platinumloops.com and checkout arabian breaks….

tell em Joe sent ya, maybe they’ll gimme some samples or something

So what do you think about these arabian sounds?

Let me know below by leaving me a comment, I want to hear your opinion.

So, I’ve been learning and playing with Maschine from Native Instruments…I must say it’s awesome.

I’m currently using the beta update so as soon as the full update is released I’ll give you my review.

But I’m still going to show you little tips, tricks, and some of the workflow.

In this video I just want to show you how easy it is to import your samples for use in maschine.

When you do it this way, you can browse through your own sounds right from the hardware controller, just like internal native instrument sounds.

This is important for me, as I use maschine without having the monitor on or the software is minimized. I do EVERYTHING from the controller.

Maschine is dope, straight up, probably my favorite released product so far this year. Serious.

What do you think?