Tech House & Minimal - Loops and Samples

Music Tech Mag Review - Tech House and Minimal

By: MT (Music Tech Magazine) - 21/03/2011

We were mightily impressed by Wave Alchemy's last sample pack (Deep Tech & Progressive) when we reviewed it a couple of issues back, so are happy to see the latest release arrive in our inbox.

Tech House & Minimal follows a similar vein and is stacked with chunky house beats, basses, synths and percussion to inspire your latest tracks.The pack is available as a download in WAV and REX, Apple Loops, Ableton Live or Reason formats - you get 930MB of 24-bit content. Where appropriate there are aslo instrument patches (10 drum kits and 23 multi-sampled synths) for Kontakt, EXS24, NN-XT, Battery, HALion and SFZ.

This collection carries off where the last one left off, with inventive, creative sounds and world-class production throughout. Once again, these are some of the best electronic club sounds and available and can easily give an instant, club ready polish. By comparison to Deep Tech & Progressive, the drums are a bit more grooving and kick-drum heavy, the basses more throbbing and the synth loops more melodic. Having said that, there are still plenty of quirky sounds and rhythms demonstrating imaginative production and generous use of effects. It's a wonder that Wave Alchemy can still churn out so many new drum sounds, but there are 401 finely crafted drum and percussion hits spread across 10 instrument patches.

The main addition here are 23 playable multi-sampled synth sounds that have been created using a variety of analogue gear, including the Korg MS-20, Moog Voyager, Future Retro XS, Waldorf Pulse and more. Most of these are brighter and more agrressive than the pitch-bent minimal sub loops in the bass folder, but as they all drip with analogue warmth, they are a great addition to an already tasty package.

In a perfect world, we'd like to see fewer loops, but have variations on each drum pattern and extended progressing synth lines to aid with arrangement. That aside, this is another stunning release that will be of interest to anyone looking for cutting-edge club sounds.

Verdict

Another world-class library of club-ready sounds that's packed with inventive production and creative programming!

Rating 9/10

Waveformless Review - Tech House and Minimal

By: Tom Shear (Waveformless) - 25/01/2011

"Tech House & Minimal" is the latest offering from UK sample developers Wave Alchemy. This collection contains not only the loops and drum sounds consistent with their previous offerings, but also features some outstanding multi-sampled synth sounds.

The drum loops in this collection are divided into tempo-based folders at 125, 127, and 130 BPM. If you're using the REX versions of these loops, this is less of a concern, as the loops are all sliced very well and translate over a broader range of tempos with very few artifacts. In addition to full drum loops, some "top only" loops without a kick drum are also available allowing you to customize the beats with your own kick parts. In addition to the drum-oriented loops, there's also a generous selection of bassline and synth part loops, allowing you to build full arrangements from the loops alone if that's your thing. As always, the melodic loops contain the key they are in as part of the file name, so finding compatible loops is quick and simple. The general style of the loops is very quirky, creative, and - dare I say it - light-hearted. Despite the minimal precision of the loops, I found a lot of them to have an almost cheerful tone to them.

As you might expect from a Wave Alchemy collection, the sound choice and production is outstanding. While the loops trend to the lighter end of the spectrum, the sounds are all extremely clear, present, and punchy as hell.

Understanding that you'll probably want to augment these loops with some programming of your own, Wave Alchemy has included over 400 one-hit drum samples. These are separated into folders marked Glitch & FX Perc, Hats, Kicks, Snares & Claps, and Synth Perc. The sound palette here is unmistakably electronic, mixing expertly compressed and EQed electronic kicks and snares with bloops, sweeps, and tweaks consistent with the collection's quirky mood. The sounds are an interesting combination of retro analog funkiness with unmistakably modern production - tight compression, near perfect EQ, and nice stereo separation where relevant. Most of these sounds would be at home in just about any style of electronic dance music, but the percussive effects will be of particular interest to those looking to add an unusual flavor to their rhythms.

The collection would be a great value if this is all it contained, but Wave Alchemy has also included 23 multi-sampled synth sounds sourced from machines like the Korg MS-20, Moog Voyager, FutureRetro XS and more. These sounds are all great and sound as analog as you would expect from machines like these. Stylistically, they'd be useful in pretty much any style that favors vintage synths, not just tech house and minimal. I would LOVE to see Wave Alchemy release a collection of nothing but multi-sampled synths. The synth sounds share the same high production quality as the drum sounds, and I think it would be of great interest to musicians who love the sound of real analog, but can't afford the price of entry.

I keep waiting for Wave Alchemy to screw up with a sample library. Not because I expect them to be incompetent, but because their collections are so scarily consistent in their excellence. Not every library may be to your stylistic preferences, but you can be assured that what's there is going to sound great right out of the box, so you can spend your time making music instead of trying to tweak sounds to perfection. Highly recommended!

Rating 10/10