Atsiã *****
MULTI-FORMAT
Pop music owes a huge debt to the rhythms of Africa, but despite the increasing popularity of African music, its instrumentation and musical structure remain something of a mystery. Sonic Network's new library throws light on the subject in the best possible way, giving users hits and grooves on a large number of African drums and percussion instruments. Atsiã (meaning 'show off' or 'display') features the traditional drums, bells and shakers of the Ewe tribe of Ghana, collected by US percussion meister Joe Galeota. The Ewe instruments are supplemented by other West African percussion, plus a few extras from Brazil.
The library contains 25 drums of different shapes and sizes; tuneful kpanlogo and apentema hand drums, the forefathers of modern congas, perform a selection of conga-like open and muted hits, accents and slaps. A larger, floor-standing drum, the atsimevu, makes a deeper, more dominant sound, contributing a large variety of hand-to-skin hits and stick hits on the side of the drum. More familiar to some will be the djembe, African drum of choice for metropolitan buskers and hippy beach gatherings, firing off its usual deafening salvos of thumping bass tones and clanging high-pitched accents.
Other drums include the deep-toned sogo and boba, the smaller kaganu (played with long thin sticks), and Buddy Holly's favourite, the kpegisu. At the bottom end of the ensemble, dunumba and sangban bass drums, a Brazilian surdo, and the beautifully-named tamalen (a rectangular frame drum from Ghana) sound their deep, resonant low notes. African drummers sorted out their information technology a long, long time ago, so next time your email server goes down, pound out your messages on the library's dundun or tama talking drums instead. (You could even do your texting on Atsiã 's Nigerian log drums — much more fun than poking about on a bleepy little mobile.)
As well as this cornucopia of drums, Atsiã gives users a full complement of bells (but no whistles), providing deftly performed samples of five pairs of gankogwe (aka 'agogo') bells, toke bells and frikywa (an iron mini-bell played with a metal thumb ring). It also offers a versatile selection of shakers, including the Brazilian afoxe, Ghanaian axatse, shekere and caxixi, and good old maracas, probably the world's best-selling percussion instrument. In addition to the single hits, there are a large number of one-bar four/four and six/eight rhythm loops, played on the individual instruments at various tempos. Grouped together into groove menus, these loops are designed to be layered, creating an endless array of wonderful interlocking patterns. Lots of fun, and instructive too.
The samples, brilliantly recorded with a very classy room ambience, really leap out of the speakers. Even played by an unfunky European dude like myself, programmed grooves sound almost unnervingly 'live' and realistic, partly because many of the drums were sampled at three or four dynamic levels, but also because the hits are authentically played and musically well-chosen. The keyboard layout is also very helpful, intelligently dividing the drum hits into 'weak hand' and 'strong hand' hits mapped in adjacent octaves — perfect for two-handed programming.
Offering about 420MB of samples, Atsiã is a specialised library, but its colourful percussion textures and infectious grooves will appeal to a wide audience. I can strongly recommend it for its sounds alone, but I was impressed by its detailed documentation (unfortunately, supplied only as a PDF file), the most interesting and erudite explanation of African drums and percussion I've yet seen. All in all, a great introduction and a useful auditory guide to a fascinating, sophisticated rhythmic world. Dave Stewart
Gigastudio, Kontakt, or Soundfont CD-ROM, $229.95 (around £133).
Sonic Implants +1 617 718 0202.
Blister Pak *****
AUDIO+WAV
Drum hits; you just can't have enough of them can you? Being first and foremost a rhythm-obsessed programmer with an already bulging hard drive full of drum sounds, it came as little surprise to me when this new sample CD from Big Fish arrived at my door to review. The first audio CD contains all of the single drum hits, while the second mixed-media CD holds the remaining audio and the complete collection in WAV format.
After kicking off (if you'll pardon the pun) with the ubiquitous, and rather disappointing, demo track, we plunge straight into a large bank of drum samples. How large? Well here's the breakdown (sorry): 640 kicks; 400 hi-hats, cymbals, and tambourines; 532 snares and claps; and 366 percussion effects. Firmly geared towards electronic music (all the samples included on the CD are synthetic) the quality of these single hits is excellent. The kicks range from scratchy blips to huge subby monsters, whilst the snares cover just about every noise you could want, from hard techno blips to harsh snaps and ambient ripples. The hats and cymbals are equally good, and the percussion covers both traditional sounds and more extreme synth squeals and burps.
In addition to the single drum hits, Big Fish have included a bank of 175 percussive phrases, which range from downright odd sounds to weird mini-riffs, and 114 tonal hits. Both of these sections are excellent for finding those small, odd noises to add flavour to a breakdown or even inspire a whole new idea from scratch. The tonal hits in particular are very good, ranging from spooky bell-like pulses to rough parps and crashes.
Rounding things off in some style are the 68 collections. These are small groups of hits bundled together providing themed miniature drum kits. The names of these kits give a good indication of the weird and wonderful sounds on offer, from 'horridness' to 'trash can lids' or 'bowl mic' — nice.
If I had to be really, really picky (who me?), I'd have to say it would have been nice to have had an example drum loop for each of the collection kits — however the samples are grouped, it's always going to be a slightly laborious task trawling through masses of single hits. But none of this can distract from the quality (or quantity) of content included here.
If you're looking for 'real' sampled drum sounds then this CD set is not for you, although there are plenty of realistic-sounding hits included. But if you produce any genre of dance/electronic music or are looking for something a little different to liven up your beats, then look no further, as Blister Pak is stuffed to the rafters with top-quality sounds that will be an asset to any drum programmer's palette. Looks like I'll have to get a bigger hard drive. Oli Bell
Audio CD and WAV CD-ROM set, £62.94 including VAT.
Time + Space +44 (0)1837 55200.
Dub Basis ****
AUDIO+ACID
This library is a collection of 50 dub and hip-hop construction kits, each one following the well-worn format of an extended burst of the full mix followed by the soloed loops and riffs, and rounded off by all the drum samples as single hits. Tempos cover 70-129bpm, with the majority hovering around a head-nodding 90-100bpm.
The kits themselves are quite complex, with lots of elements and layers to pick and choose from. In terms of style, the kits hover somewhere between the two reference points of dub and hip-hop, often mixing the two, but taking in a far wider range of darker, atmospheric influences. The laid-back feel and liberal use of synths and effects throughout the kits makes lots of the content useable for other genres, including downbeat or even ambient styles. Although inevitably a few of the kits are on the weak side, the majority are inventive and interesting to pick through.
As you would expect, there is plenty of emphasis on the low end, including a nice mixture of electric and synth bass. A few of the bass lines are muddy and lack definition, but the majority are well played and nice and deep. All the beats are well programmed and use a wide variety of drum sounds, both real and electronic, but are surprisingly polite and unassuming in places, perhaps owing more to the dub influences than any heavy hip-hop leanings.
A good chunk of the samples have a nice 'off vinyl' feel (which I'm sure a few are) and have then been run through the effects shredder to produce some interesting riffs and textures. There are also plenty of well-programmed atmospheres and the odd bizarre hit or riff to keep things interesting. On the downside, the brutal slices and ping-pong stereo panning on some of the samples get a touch samey after a while, as does the liberal (and again unsurprising) use of delay. Producer Sean Dvorak is also occasionally rather too heavy-handed with the reverb for my taste, but on the whole all the samples are well put together and recorded.
Although described as dub and hip-hop construction kits (and both influences are in evidence), this collection doesn't really sit easily in either camp, which may confuse the purists. Having said that, Dub Basis contains a good mix of both synthetic and 'real' sounds which, combined with its inventive kits and dark 'smoky' feel, could appeal to producers of most kinds of downtempo electronica. Oli Bell
Audio CD and Acid ised WAV CD-ROM set, £62.94 including VAT.
Time + Space +44 (0)1837 55200.
Evolution ****
AUDIO+ACID
This is another of those collections of weird sonic manglings aimed at the connoisseur of experimental dance music. Ostensibly aimed at techno, ambient and industrial, these sounds would be usable wherever way-out futuristic sound design was required. Metallic grindings, electronic squelches and robotic malfunctions are the mainstays of this collection, with an overall dark sci-fi feel.
There is heavy emphasis on analogue synthesis and effects, although abrasive granular-style textures also abound. I found the synth programming particularly good, as real effort had been put into creating the kind of movement and expression usually lacking in such libraries. Many of the sounds also had great bite, really tearing their way out of my speakers! Effects major on the distortion, but there's also some brutal flanging and phasing in places. Delay and reverb are mostly used fairly carefully, although nothing is free from abuse in this library!
The sounds are is divided into four sections, corresponding to folders on the CD-ROM. Probably the most usable section if you're hoping to spice up an existing track is the Single Sounds, where you stand some chance of being able to find a one-shot blurp or zwee to fit. However, if you're starting from scratch then the Metaphysical Loops and Drum Loops are likely to be the first ports of call. Both these sections could provide the rhythmic basis for a track, but bpm values are unfortunately only given for the latter (90-150bpm). Finally, the Esoteric Sequences section contains extended sound collages which could be used on their own as sound effects beds, or else chopped up into a selection of extra one-shot samples in the vein of the Single Sounds.
I liked this collection a lot, especially for adding aggression to more 'vanilla' productions, but I suspect that entire tracks built out of these sounds might constitute a breach of the peace! If your idea of relaxation is stretching out on a bed of nails to the strains of Aphex Twin, then I'd guess that this library will float your boat, but for most people's tastes Evolution will be a bit like Ribena — best used in diluted form. However, given the keen UK pricing, you'll still be getting good value even if you only end up using it in a supporting role. Mike Senior
£29.95 including VAT.
Time + Space +44 (0)1837 55200.