Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Review: The Rogue Element - Twisted Electro Sample Library


Library: The Rogue Element Twisted Electro
Format:
Wav, Acid, Rex2, Reason Refill, Live Pack, Apple Loops, Halion, Kontakt, EXS, SFZ, Stylus RMX, Live Presets and NNXT
Genre: Electro, House, Dance
Distributed by:
Loopmasters
Price:
Download £24.95
Demo:
On the
product page

"The Rogue Element - Twisted Electro" is the latest in Loopmasters acclaimed Artist Series and features the technical wizardry of one DJ Medcalf who has is one half of the sleazy beat merchants Disco of Doom and has had his hands in collaboration with many other artists. As with most of Loopmasters collections, Twisted Electro consists of both loops and sampler instruments in numerous formats. Specifically, there are 30 sampled instruments (including drum kits), 137 electro drum loops, 32 bass loops, and 40 musical loops.

The sounds and production quality are, as we've come to expect from Loopmasters, excellent. What sets this collection apart from the myriad of other electro-oriented sample collections is the more aggressive, nasty sounds used. The bass loops are gritty and in your face without losing the funk and hookiness a dancefloor hit needs. The drum loops are an interesting combination of dirty, clean, and highly technical sounds and exhibit a lot more creativity than your standard 4 to the floor stomper. As a bonus, many of them are without a kick drum, allowing you to customize your productions the way you like them. It's unusual to find such a nice balance of glitch and stomp, but this collection has nailed it and is a good choice if you want to add some progressive, unusual elements to your beats. Helpfully, many beats include variations, and in any instances where the kick drum has a tone to it, the key is provided so you can fit it into your track without it clashing.

The individual sampler sounds consist of tons of nicely-produced drum hits, a couple basses, some tempo-based FX, and some eerie, atmospheric pad sounds. As always, I wished there were more of these instruments, but what is here is excellent and compliments the loops very well.

If you're a producer looking to add some grime and technical flourish to your tracks or remixes, this collection offers a good place to start. The sound quality if great and the entire collection is brimming with originality that is sure to catch your listener's ears. The drum and percussion loops in particular would lend themselves well to a number of genres, not just electro, and their creativity give a unique shot in the arm to just about anything track you throw them on. Highly recommended. [9/10]

3 comments:

Madden Wachsenhoff said...

the "electro" in the title of this sample pack is misleading

Tom said...

Eh, perhaps. Whether it's correct or not, a lot of people nowadays use 'electro' as shorthand for electro house, which is really more where this collection is aimed. Regardless, there are demos on the site, so people can check out beforehand and know what they're getting.

Robert said...

it seems to be a common thing for sample collections to be labeled with the entirely wrong genre. like the aggro-electro pack from sonivox that's pretty much all hip hop sounds.
I've also seen the term industrial put on a lot of things that obviously aren't even close.