Electrolyzium 2 is full of the latest complextro, progressive and electro house elements, and is available in multiple formats, including Acidised WAV and REX2, Apple Loops, Reason ReFill and Ableton Live Pack. (The format I'm reviewing here is Acidised WAV and REX2.) The main bulk of the library is loop based, with the loops categorised into four folders: Bass Loops, Synth Loops, Drum loops and Top Loops. All the loops hover between 126 and 130 bpm, but the included REX2 versions make altering the tempo beyond those constraints easy.
Having been impressed by the previous Electrolyzium library, I was intrigued to see how Samplerbanks could improve on it. My first impression of Electrolyzium 2 was that the soundset is bang up to date. The overall sound is stronger and more aggressive than its predecessor, and shows a welcome progression that would justify you buying the new library even if you already had the previous pack.
In my review of the original Electrolyzium, I remarked on the understated nature of the bass loops. This new collection shows a distinct improvement in this respect, with content that is more aggressive and really grabs your attention. Listening to the Bass Loops folder brought a huge smile to my face: the loops are fat and aggressive, and packed with the type of glitchy edits that are all over electro house and complextro at the moment. Many of the bass lines already have a pseudo side-chain pumping effect imprinted onto them, which, in a sense, makes them less flexible, but I like this decision, as the idea is well executed.
The Synth Loops section is packed with great content and recalls the work of Deadmau5 and Benny Benassi. The loops helpfully imported into Logic following the key and tempo set in the global tracks section. I would have liked a few more chord progressions in this section, but apart from that, I can't really fault it.
The Drum Loop and Top Loop sections are really polished; in fact, it's almost frighteningly easy to create a slick-sounding piece of electro house with this sample pack. However, a few half-time drum loops would have been nice as a bit of variation from the four-on-the-floor loops.
In addition to the loop-based content, Electrolyzium 2 has a comprehensive library of single-shot drum hits comprising kicks, snares, hats and percussion sounds. The percussion sounds really should be better labelled as, at the moment, finding a specific sound means auditioning all 166 one-shots.
To sum up, Sunny Lax, the producer of Electrolyzium 2, has done a great job. This is an absolutely cracking sample pack that is crammed with stand-out content and, at only $48, represents excellent value for money. I have no hesitation in recommending it to you. Geoff Smith
£29.95 including VAT.
$48.31