Reviewed by Christos from Ultrasun.
Sample CDs must be one of the hardest products to review these days.
In the past 8, or so, years there have been literally hundreds of sample
CD's released from various companies covering every sector of music you
can think of. You'd be forgiven in assuming that it would be very difficult
to release a sample CD that stands out from the rest and that there is
really no need in getting hold of the latest Trance or House (or other)
CD as many have come before them..
Trackbuilders by PowerFX is a simple yet great concept. Provide the
artist with building blocks for various different styles of music not
just one particular genre!
Exploring the disc you will find all samples (approx. 300) are available
as ACID-wavs and also as REX2 files.
The order of categorisation is simple: Bass, Drums, Rhythm and Synths.
For each you have a selection of samples in a variety of tempos and styles.
Search the Bass-folder for example, and you will find all sort of bass
'licks' and grooves along with single hits categorised according to tempo
and style of music. Easy! Scroll to your style of choice (2Step, Drum
n' Bass, Electro, House, Techno and Trance (phew), and also search for
the tempo your after (or the nearest as with REX2 files its easy to change
tempo of any loop).
The sounds are all 16-bit, 44.1khz, stereo files. The thing that really
stood out is the clarity of the sounds. They are all of a high quality,
and most importantly, complete in the sense that they dont sound like
they were just 'recycled' out of loops or recordings. It really seems
that the guys at PowerFX spent time and effort in 'creating' these samples
which to the user means that the sounds have a clean beginning and ending.
Most sounds are dry whilst some have reverb applied, and although I generally
prefer samples to be dry, I have to admit that the slight effects didnt
interefere with my positioning them in a mix in any way! Like I mentioned
earlier, the strongest point of 'TrackBuilders' (other than the quality
of the samples) is the wide range of musical styles that it provides.
Flicking through the sounds I found myself feeling inclined to start a
tune even on styles that I am not particularly involved in producing!
The samples very effectively provide a strong basis to generate ideas
for each particular genre by really targeting each style in an obvious
and direct way, yet maintaining originality and freshness!
An extra nice touch is the inclusion of demo versions of Propellerheads
Reason, ReCycle and ReBirth on the disc. When evaluating a product of
any sort the price has to be taken into consideration. Priced at $49.00
US (approx. $85 AUS), TrackBuilders is priced very well for what you get.
A sample CD which will give you the necessary 'kick-start' for that new
tune!
You can order your CD/samples from PowerFX
and select CD Shop/Download Sounds or you can win yourself a copy here.
Thanks to Bil at PowerFX for supplying the CD for review
and to give away.
© 2003 Any unauthorized copying or reproduction of
this article or part of it without the permission of the author is prohibited.
