CME Xkey
Soundware round-up
Big Fish Audio
Spark £85
Comprising almost 600 samples, Spark is a deep, dark
collection of ambiences, drones, textures, impacts and
more for sound design. Many of the sounds are
satisfyingly lengthy, although ironically, some of the
impacts seem to be cut short. Sonically, the mood is
cinematic and predominantly ‘sci-i’, and for musicians,
this would make a great FX and ‘background’ library.
www.timespace.com
n8/10n
CFA-Sound
Massive Electro House Tools €23
A well presented library of 65 patches for Native
Instruments’ Massive synth, accompanied by eight MIDI
ile construction kits – simply point each track to a
Massive with the speciied patch loaded. The setup
works well and the patches are fantastic – tough,
characterful, on-trend and making good use of
Massive’s macros to enable quick but efective editing.
www.cfa-sound.com
n8/10n
Raw Cutz
Crate Digger £15
Crate Digger opens with a set of ten vintage-style drum
loops before moving on to 74 “raw” one-shots
(presented twice, in B
minor and A minor) and 58 drum
hits. The loops are rather over-vinyl-iied but otherwise
tasty, and the one-shots – taking in guitars, stabs, horns,
keys and general miscellany – could ind a place in any
hip-hop/breaks producer’s sample library.
www.rawcutz.com
n8/10n
Luxonix
Toys In Wonderland $49
154 Kontakt instruments built on 41 multisampled toys
and gadgets including bells, fans, marbles and “four toy
analog synths”. The scripted interface just gives you
Delay, Reverb and Convolution depth to play with, so it
really is all about the sounds themselves – thankfully,
they’re excellent. Fun, weird, creepy and beautiful are
just some of the adjectives that come to mind.
www.luxonix.com
n8/10n
5Pin Media
Deep House Groove Elements £35
Produced by Adam Shaw, this 1.3GB grab-bag contains
so much stuf that it’s hard to know where to start. A ton
of Bass, Drum, Groove and Music loops are supplied,
split between 120 and 123BPM folders, while one-shots,
MIDI iles, multisamples, a Live Pack and more should
keep any house producer busy for the foreseeable. The
production quality is high and the funk is strong.
www.loopmasters.com
n9/10n
Samplestate
Deep House, Garage & Nu Disco £30
This 2GB package from Leeds-based label Love Not
Money capably spans its three named genres but
doesn’t really attempt to cross-pollinate them in any
radical new way – not that it necessarily should. The
drums, basses and vocal loops stand out, the
production shines, and there’s certainly nothing here
to complain about, but it’s all a bit predictable.
www.loopmasters.com
n7/ 10n
Noisefi rm
NF-01 $49
Yamaha’s dinky 1982 CS01 monosynth is brought back
to life in 102 Kontakt patches, as well as instruments for
Live and EXS24, and multisamples of each patch.
Featuring six tunable and mixable waveforms
(including noise), and a clear, fuss-free interface, it’s
easy to use and deinitely has a sound of its own. The
jury’s out on whether the price is a bit high, though.
www.noiseirm.com
n7/ 10n
Puremagnetik
Harpsikord $12
Possibly Puremagnetik’s most elaborate collection of
Live Racks yet, Harpsikord delivers various
conigurations of a multisampled “18th century-style”
double manual harpsichord, including 50 clips with
which to trigger them. While the straight-up emulative
Racks are ace, it’s the electronica-minded Zynth Racks
that we suspect most users will gravitate towards.
www.puremagnetik.com
n9/10n
Sample Magic
Ambient & Chill £35
1.3GB of mini construction kits, loops and one-shots
catering to a very particular (and musical) style of chill-
out. The Inspiration Loops are genuinely inspiring, the
drums are surprisingly edgy and the melodic elements
are evocative and versatile. Overall, A&C’s warmth and
analogue ‘crust’ are what set it apart, and although the
whole thing feels stylistically rather niche, the individual
samples would slide easily into many genres.
www.samplemagic.com
n8/10n
Drumdrops
70s New Wave Drops £30-50
Available as multitrack projects for various DAWs, stems
and mixes, or straight-up loops, Drumdrops’ latest sees
Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas laying it down
across 13 tracks, largely based on actual Costello
numbers. The performances and production are top-
notch, and the kit is kept appropriately dry apart from
the sound of the recording room. It’s just a shame you
don’t get a multisampled version of the kit to go with it.
www.drumdrops.com
n8/10n
108 / COMPUTER MUSIC November 2013
> reviews / mini reviews
CMU197.rev_mini.indd 108 9/25/13 7:03 PM