EQ Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 65)

SOUNDS BIG FISH AUDIO AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 RAVES So is it world, or rave? Both, in a way. It’s not as hard as, say, vintage Belgian rave, but the world elements are not new age—they’re very beat-oriented, and tend to hit hard. Some have a Brazilian vibe, some Middle Eastern, and some . . . uh . . . well, maybe Martian. This isn’t a conventional construction kit, with sections of multitrack arrangements grouped together in folders. Instead, you’ll find six folders of files at different tempos (90, 100, 120, 125, 144, 160) as well as some extras, like hits, pads, soundscapes, and effects. There are also presets for mapping sounds to EXS24, Reason NN-XT, Kontakt, HALion, and Stylus RMX. Recording quality is uniformly excellent—clean, but not sterile. Each tempo folder has three sub-folders: beats, music, and Soft Machines percussion. So, you need to “go fishing” to find the right sound; but the loops work well together, so it’s pretty hard to go wrong anyway. The Soundscapes in particular make great “glue” to ease the transition between different beat-oriented sections. Overall, this is an impressive set because of the quality—no filler, imaginative performances, and sounds that retain a certain degree of familiarity but also bring something new to the party. If you want to take dance/rave music into a different, more exploratory direction that’s international in scope, this is ideal. —Craig Anderton Contact: Big Fish Audio, www.bigfishaudio.com Format: Audio CD for auditioning, DVD-ROM with about 900MB of unique 24-bit/44.1kHz content, duplicated for WAV, Apple Loops, and REX files; presets for various soft samplers List price: $99.95 EAST WEST FAB FOUR VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Yeah, it sounds like a gimmick: sounds the Beatles used in their groundbreaking albums. But if you thought they’d only be good for doing a Beatles tribute album, you’d be way wrong. The star here is the sounds and production, not necessarily the Beatles; while the sounds recall the heyday of the psychedelic ’60s, they have an integrity and charm that works in all kinds of musical contexts. Fab Four uses the Play audio engine, which is stellar: 32/64-bit, Windows/Mac, ASIO/Core Audio, VST/AU/RTAS with convolution reverb, delay, artificial double tracking (chorus), and amplitude envelope. As you play the instruments, you’ll recognize many signature sounds—guitars, keyboards, drums, sitar (no brass, though)—but that doesn’t mean you have to play the licks they provided for the Beatles. In fact, using them in other contexts provides an intriguing combination of freshness and déjà vu; these are highly playable, “organic” sounds that have intrinsic merit and coolness, regardless of their lineage. The set is not cheap, but the quality is undeniable. I can’t imagine what East West must have gone through to track down these sounds (and get engineer Ken Scott on board), tweak them to perfection, and adapt them to a virtual instrument format. Bottom line: There are many great sound libraries out there, but this is a tour de force. —Craig Anderton Contact: East West, www.soundsonline.com Format: Virtual instrument with about 13GB of 24-bit/44.1kHz samples; requires iLok (not included) for installation List price: $395 SONY: MATT FINK—STARVU SESSION KEYS Having reviewed the other three members of Sony’s Artist Integrated series—Tony Franklin (bass), Siggi Baldurson (drums), and Parthenon Huxley (guitar)—we’ll turn our attention to former Prince & the Revolution keyboardist Matt Fink. Recall that while designed to work as stand-alone sample CDs, Artist Integrated libraries are also intended to function together as a “virtual band.” Fink tends toward rock/pop, with a hint of funk. The sounds lean on piano, organ, clavinet, electric piano, and synth, and are organized in Sessions— most include chord changes. The sounds do indeed lock in with the Artist Integrated libraries, but the other consideration is how well the sounds work by themselves. I find them generally phraseoriented, so they work best as fills and one-shots, rather than being loops in the sense of working as repetitive patterns. However, that also means one of the best things about this set is you can put together some really convincing keyboard solos by assembling some of the phrases. In fact, a hallmark of Fink’s playing is that it has a “live” kind of vibe rather than sounding like a “sampling session.” Bottom line: This set wouldn’t be my first choice if I wanted big grooves to start a song, but it has everything needed to flesh out arrangements with some hot leads, fills, and simmering backgrounds. —Craig Anderton Contact: Sony Creative Software, www.sonycreativesoftware.com Format: Two CD-ROMs with 1.17GB/535 files of loops; 173MB of demo song loops; 24-bit/44.1kHz List price: $99.95 www.eqmag.com MAY 2008 EQ 65 http://www.bigfishaudio.com http://www.soundsonline.com http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - May 2008

EQ Magazine - May 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Jamie Lidell, What the New Model of Record Deal Means to You, Part II, Andrew W.K. Tool Box Aerosmith Fast Tracks Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet DigiDesign Pro Tools LE 7.4 Cakewalk Sonar 7 Line 6 UX8 Studio Projects CS5 Art Tubefire 8 Jazzmutant Dexter MCDSP Emerald Pack Overloud Breverb KRK Exposé E8B Mackie MR5 Blue Sky Exo Monitor System Big Fish Audio Around the World in 80 Raves East West Fab Four Virtual Instrument Sony Matt Fink- Starvu Session Keys Room With A VU

EQ Magazine - May 2008

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