Review: Sample Magic NuDisco

Product: SM22 NuDisco
Format: Digital Download of Apple Loops, REX, Stylus RMX, plus Reason NNXT, Logic EXS-24, and Kontakt 2.
Genre: Nu-Disco, Electro, Retro
Distributed by: Sample Magic
Price: £39.90
Demo: Audio demos on product page.

NuDisco is the latest release from Sample Magic and covers the sound of a style I was previously unfamiliar with. If you're as uninformed as I was, NuDisco mixes elements of 70's disco with 80's funk and electro and gives the resulting music a more modern, polished sounding remix utilizing current dance music techniques such as side-chaining, bit-crushing, and glitching. Got it?

Sample Magic's NuDisco library aims to provide the user with all the elements they need to build their own NuDisco tracks. Nearly 400 one-hit drum sounds and nearly 500 loops are divided up into categories for basslines, drum loops, guitar loops, full music loops, synth loops, tops loops, and vocal loops. The drum loops tend to favor typical 80's electro favorites such as the Roland TR-707, the Emu SP-1200, and the Oberheim DMX. Very 80's sounding reverbs (gated and otherwise) are used throughout, but the compression and punch/stomp of the loops is more consistent with current production standards.

The musical loops are similarly well constructed, and more importantly, the elements they provide are ones you might actually want to use. Almost all of the riffs are extremely catchy and could be just the spark you need to get started on a new track. The juxtaposition of cheesy 80's synths with modern stutter edits and other studio trickery is an interesting one and everything here is beautifully done.

I really had no complaints with this library. The music is catchy, the production quality is excellent and current, and the individual elements work with one another extraordinarily well. As always with Sample Magic libraries, this also includes a helpful PDF booklet containing info on the equipment used to make these loops, as well as tons of very helpful production tips to help you polish your tracks further. If NuDisco is your game, definitely give these a look! [10/10]