In the interests of furthering my video content, I’ve decided to, instead of just playing the song with a write-up, make a proper video review of the sample pack as well as the text review if you prefer to read than to listen!   If you have any suggestions to improve the review, be sure to leave a comment!

Oh, and before anyone asks – I do get paid for adverts on my site from primeloops, but I was not paid to make this review – I do completely independant reviews so they can be credible and objective – if this pack sucked, I’d say so.

Contents

Introduction
Value for Money
The Loops
Making a Song
Versatility
Overview


Introduction

Hi, I’m Dave from boyinaband.com and welcome to my review of the Drum and Bass Drum Loops sample pack from primeloops.com.

I’m a big fan of Drum and Bass.   I’ve produced several songs incorporating elements of the genre in my band, done a 7 day tutorial on it and from that I know the key to good DnB is, shockingly enough, quality drums and bass.

Bass-wise I’m an advocate of making your own synths from scratch, just so you can get something a little different from the crowd of people using presets, but this review is not about the bass – it’s about the drums.   From laborious trial and error I have discovered the best way to get great sounding percussion is by starting with great samples.

I’ve been using Primeloops’ Drum and Bass Drum Loops sample pack in my productions for a while now, so I have a lot of practical experience with it, but to show you some of the things you can do with it, I’ve thrown together a quick drum and Bass song.

Value for Money

I usually leave this ’til near the end, but I just have to say it straight away – this pack is crazily good value for money.

113 drum loops at £12.95 – this equates to 11p per loop, and when you hear the quality of these loops that’s when you’ll realise how amazing this is.

The Loops

With 113 DnB drum loops you’d be excused for assuming there’d be a tonne of repetition within them.   I was pleasantly surprised upon flicking through the loops to find very few amen breaks, and even more surprised to hear so many variations – I actually struggled to find a generic sounding Drum and Bass “uhn—tsh…uhn-tsch” sequence in here.

If I have any criticisms to level at this pack, it’s that it’s geared towards heavier, more intense productions – chilled liquid dnb producers will find that only about maybe 20-30% of the loops are suitable for their productions.   This pack really shines on its heavier loops, meaning dark and mainstream DnB producers will love this pack.

Within those heavier loops though, there’s loads of variety – Minimal, massively compressed, glitchy, ethnic percussion… even Clownstep, this pack is full of interesting beats and sounds.

Making a Song

As I mentioned, there are not many generic DnB loops in this pack.   Of course, you could make one on your own by re-arranging an existing loop, but the point is that this pack exudes creativity.   It helps you come up with more varied DnB, it inspires you to write things to a differently syncopated beat, while maintaining the pace the genre is known for.

For example – in this pack I’ve got this “Iron Virgin Break”, which has a ridiculously cool syncopation to it, and I put the bassline and lead synth down to follow that syncopation, making for a cool, different feel than I would have got had these samples all been the stereotypical Drum and Bass Beat.

It was horrendously easy to chuck in some quick loops, add a bit of compression or EQ to them and have instant fills to the track.   Layer these loops up and re-arrange them a bit and you’ll have some unique sounding beats which retain the professional quality this pack provides.

Versatility

Not only are these loops perfect for Drum and Bass, but some of them are ideal for other genres too… Hip Hop sprung immediately to my mind when I slowed down this loop “Sine Break” and it was about 15 minutes later that I had a fully fledged hip hop loop on the go.   I’d say about half of the loops could be turned nicely into a slower paced genre without feeling too cut up and unusual – though if you’re a glitch hop producer that could work out nicely for you!

Overview

This pack is:

  • Brilliant Value for money
  • Inspiring to work with
  • High Quality
  • Versatile

As I said – the only thing I could potential criticise is the lack of loops suited for liquid DnB, but perhaps that should be another sample pack altogether.

This is absolutely brilliant for any beginner DnB producer who wants to take the leap into producing high quality tracks, or for a more experienced producer who could use some inspiration and fresh sounding samples to give new life to his tracks – these are ideal for layering too, so there’s no need to feel like you’re cheating by just using pre-made loops.

All in all I give Primeloops’ Drum and Bass Drum Loops sample pack 95% – it does what is says on the tin and it does it well – 113 brilliant quality drum loops ideal for producing Drum & Bass.

Be sure to check out the Demo mp3s on Primeloops.com as well to check out some great examples of what this pack is capable of:

Drum and Bass Drum Loops Sample Pack

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October 18, 2009 at 11:55 pm by Dave
Category: Drum and Bass, Review, Sample Packs