We're happy to announce a new review by Fred Grittner "Loop Roundup" ! This review contains Fred's findings on a number of acoustic drum and guitar loop sets. This is also the first review for the new Loops reviews section on our website. Have fun !

Review : Loop Roundup
By Fred Grittner 27th October 2006

This review contains my findings on a number of acoustic drum and guitar loop sets. I focused on loops that will primarily help songwriters and arrangers of rock, blues, country, country-rock, folk-rock, folk music. Loop sets have come a long way in the last few years, with the best sets giving computer-based musicians the ability to assemble convincing drum tracks by providing multiple loops for a particular groove. I have found that the best sets also are well-organized, with naming and folder conventions that speed the auditioning and assembly process. With the growing popularity of REX2 files, we have even more options for choosing, editing, and assembling realistic tracks.

All of the sets in this initial review are well-recorded. They differ a bit in the depth/breadth ratio and organization but overall I have found them useful. It is essential that potential buyers listen to the demos and read about the particular styles included with each set to make sure they get usable loops. Truth be told, however, any collection will have at least a few sets that are not suited to your particular taste.

DRUMS

Brain: One Stroke Done www.bigfishaudio.com

This set takes a different approach than most stereo loop sets—the drummer plays extended performances that are then cut into short sections. The styles in this package are more geared to modern rock and particular songs or a particular group. The drum “song” is cut up into many parts—they are often very similar but creative copy and paste techniques can increase the illusion of a “real” drummer. The simplest approach is to follow the layout of the loops from intro to ending, if you find a groove that works. You can contract or expand the drum track based on the structure of your song. The tracks are well-recorded and the amount of ambience is not excessive.

The wave files are not acidized, so in SONAR you must employ grooving clipping to enable time stretching. However, REX2 files are also available, so you can go that route. They converted nicely into Stylus RMX format. Also a number of the loop sets are heavily stylized and it would be difficult to reuse them in other projects. This is always the conundrum for loop developers: make simple, generic grooves that risk being too bland, or go for flashy, more powerful beats that draw attention to the drum part. I think of this in terms of film actors who play leading roles versus those who are typecast as character actors. I tend to employ character actors when using drum loops, as I tend to emphasize the words and vocals. However, this set is distinguished by great rock drumming in a great room. One last note: a version formatted for DrumCore 2.0 has been announced.

Groove Monkee EZ Drummer MIDI Drum Loops www.groovemonkee.com

Okay, these are MIDI files so there are no sounds tied absolutely to these beats. However, I recently got Toontrack’s EZ Drummer, a 16-bit multi-tracked drum kit that is simple to use and provides realistic drum tracks through its superbly recorded sounds and a humanizing function that produces subtle variations in the drum groove. It comes with a library of patterns which are very good, but Russ at Groove Monkee has upped the ante by updating his MIDI loop libraries for the EZD format. You simply drag and drop a folder of one of these EZD loop collections (Rock, Metal, Country, Jazz, and Funk) into the drum pattern folder. When you open EZ Drummer these loops areavailable for auditioning and dragging and dropping into SONAR or other sequencing software. Groove Monkee has structured files along the lines of audio loopers, labeling files based on their intended place in a song (verse, chorus, fill, etc), variations on basic beats, and their length. The sets include 8-bar grooves. If you get EZ Drummer, and I strongly encourage you to visit the www.ezdrummer.com website and check it out, it seems a no-brainer to me to pick up some of the Groove Monkee sets.

Smart Loops Hit Tracks www.smartloops.com

Frank Basile at Smart Loops was skeptical when I asked to include some of his Hit Tracks loop sets in this review, as the Hit Tracks are faithful reproductions of drum tracks on popular hit songs. However, I found the sets to be useful for creating songs “in the spirit” of the songs Frank modeled. You are not required to follow the song structure of the original recording, so anything goes. Of course, if you merely reproduce the original song structure you will be locked into a recognizable groove. I auditioned a number of sets, including “American Band,” “Call Me,” “Moondance,” “Respect,” and “I Can’t Explain.” The loops are well played and recorded; each song section is clearly labeled, and each set has plenty of fills and grooves. In addition, these sets are now available in REX2 format. I am looking forward to working with the “Moondance” set on a pop-jazz tune I have in progress.

Lonnie Wilson DrumCore Drummer Pack www.drumcore.com

These country and country rock grooves work as add-on sounds for Submersible Music’s DrumCore software. Audio and MIDI loops can be dragged and dropped into your sequencer. A updated version for use in DrumCore 2.0 now enables time stretching to match the tempo of your song—gone are the days when you were limited to the five bpm increments and the need to groove clip to get a tempo-matched loop. The styles are generic grooves that are essential for country music. There are brush drum loops as well as sticks. Wilson’s drumkit can be used to trigger MIDI versions of the loops or other loops in your sequencer. The loops are well played and recorded, with many variations of each beat. The bread-and-butter styles include a brushed waltz, half-time feels, train beats, alt country grooves, boom-chucka beats, ballads, and country rock stylings. I would encourage you to take a look at DrumCore 2.0. More add-on libraries are available for DrumCore and third-party libraries are in the offing.

GUITARS

Fab Tranzer—Vintage Telecaster www.fabtranzer.com

I stumbled across Fab Tranzer’s website and found this tasty collection of Telecaster guitar loops. Fab has recorded blues, rock, swing, and country loops in a variety of tempos and keys. Moreover, he has included a library of guitar chords played in short and long variations. The Telecaster tone is impeccable—bright and hot. In addition, each 24-bit, non-acidized loop is clearly labeled for tempo, key and loop type. For anyone looking for some seriously bad-ass rock and blues guitar loops, this set should not be missed.

GuitarWavs Guitar Loops Collections www.guitarwavs.com

GuitarWavs has released 8 loop collections —seven guitar CDs and one bass guitar CD—in 16-bit, acidized wave files. The collections include acoustic blues, nylon string, steel string, electric 12-string, low strung, dropped tuning electric guitar, modern riff electric guitar, classic riff electric guitar, modern riff electric guitar, and an electric bass collection. I sampled several of these disks and found the 12-string disk especially nice. The 1,100 loops on this disk were recorded at 120 bpm and include picked and strummed chord progressions on different parts of the neck, along with strummed solo chords. There are clean loops and distorted loops as well. The acoustic blues disks provides enough material to construct realistic backing tracks, while the nylon string guitar disk contains numerous chord progressions recorded at 120 bpm. The only downside on several of these collections is the decision to record only at 120 bpm. You cannot slow guitars loops too far before they become unusable. However, these collections cover a wide variety of guitars and styles. The website includes demos and a listing of each loop in each collection, so you have plenty of information on which to base a purchase.

Nine Volt Audio Electronic Guitars Vol. 1 and Stylin Basslines: Electric and Synth Edition www.ninevoltaudio.com

These two collections come on DVDs that include guitar and bass loops in Reason Refill, REX2 and Stylus RMX formats in 16-bit audio. Stylin Basslines is the newest release, the first bass library designed for Stylus. The loops were carefully edited so that they can be used at virtually any tempo without introducing unwanted audio artifacts. The disk contains 130 Stylus RMX suites and 566 bass grooves, as well as 150 Stylus multis that use the bass loops and bonus electric guitar loops along with the core Stylus content. The electric bass guitar loops offer up bass riffs and bass lines based on specific chord progressions. Many of the suites contain multiple variations, which gives you additional options when constructing a song. In general the electric bass loops fit with pop, electronic, funk, and dance styles. The tempo variation is astonishing—you can play a loop at 70 bpm or 130 bpm, for example, and it will sound great. I also shifted keys a few steps in either direction and the loops sounded fine. The synth bass collection is definitely slanted toward dance and electronic styles. I think Stylin Basslines would be very useful for composers of soundtracks and commercial jingles. The grooves sound great and present distinct feels. I layered one bass line with drum and percussion loops from Liquid Grooves and had a wonderful, multi-layered groove up and running in a minute or two.

Electronic Guitars relies on beat-synced filters, delays, modulators, and other rhythm-based effects to radically reshape the sound of an electric guitar. Like the bass loop collection, this set is aimed at dance, electronic, and funk styles. Many of the loops are percussive riffs that add life to a track. However, there are some atmospheric loops that would work well in setting the mood for a song. The loops are stretchable in RMX, so this collection of 500 grooves actually covers lots more ground. The key of each loop is contained in its file name and when you encounter a chord progression, that is listed as well. Armed with these two loop collections, a few add-on sets for Stylus, and the original content, you could put together convincing grooves and songs without much trouble. The included multis with Stylin Basslines will give you a good idea on how to assemble percussion, bass and guitars.

Whole Lotta Country www.bigfishaudio.com

Bigfish Audio recently re-released this late 1990s collection of country instrument loops and single-note samples in multiple loop and sampler formats. The disk contains banjo, electric guitar, high string (Nashville tuning) acoustic guitar, mandolin, dobro, pedal steel and fiddle loops. The wave files are not acidized but REX files are included which can be converted into Stylus RMX format or used with a REX player. The loops were played by Larry Campbell, who played in Bob Dylan’s band in the late 1990s through 2004. The playing and recording are top-notch. The single samples have been turned into Kontakt, Halion, EXS24, and NNXT patches. I have found the dobro, banjo, and pedal steel patches useful. This set suffers in comparison to more recent loop collections in terms of the number of loops in different tempos and keys. However, for the price it is the most economical way to obtain quality bluegrass and country loops and samples.

Grittner is a performing songwriter with two albums to his credit. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it His website is www.fredgrittner.com.