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November 2007 MusicTech Magazine Review: Pure Country IV: Nashville Brushes in 3/4 and 6/8
 Although there’s certainly no shortage of drum loops to choose from, it can sometimes be difficult laying your hands on more genre-specific material, especially when you want a real kit played by a real person. Fortunately, Beta Monkey has turned out a particularly useful line of drum loops, many of which focus on particular styles – jazz, country and metal being just three – that are often overlooked by other samples developers. At just $30, the libraries are also extremely competitively priced, making even the occasional ‘dabble’ easy to justify.
Pure Country IV follows on from the success of previous Pure Country releases, although this time the focus has been shifted towards 3/4 and 6/8 brushed grooves. Despite its relatively low cost, the recording quality is superb, capturing the lightness and detail of the brushes, a neatly rounded kick drum, and just enough ambience to give the kit a sense of life and roominess. Pleasingly, the recordings have also been kept relatively clean (an important part of the Nashville sound), and this provides plenty of scope for you to add compression and EQ as you see fit.
All of the 300+ loops are clearly labelled, with count-ins, variation grooves, fi lls and so on. Tempos range from 52–165BPM. We also enjoyed the multi-sampled hits, which we quickly arranged into some useful programs for our EXS24 sampler. It’s also interesting – despite the ‘country’ tag – how transportable these grooves are to other genres, making Pure Country IV well worth a look if you’re a fan of brushed playing in general. MC
Source: MusicTech MAGAZINE November 2007 - www.musictechmag.co.uk
READ THE FULL .PDF VERSION HERE...
June 2007 Recording Magazine Feature/Review: Beta Monkey Double Bass Mania II: The Beast Returns!
A great write-up from Recording Magazine, one of the industry's best. The author makes some interesting observations about what sets Beta Monkey apart from the crowd...read on!
Beta Monkey Music Double Bass Mania 2 By Paul Vnuk Jr.
Double Bass Mania 2 is the newest drum (not bass!) loop collection by Beta Monkey Music, and its subtitle, “The Beast Returns” should give you an educatedguess as to its content (in their words)—Brutal Metal Loops.
Format / Medium / Compatibility:
Double Bass Mania 2 (“DBM2”) is available directly from Beta Monkey Music’s web site (www.betamonkeymusic.com) in either16-bit WAV, 24-bit WAV, REX2, or Apple Loops (AIFF) format (chosen at time of purchase).The loops arrive on a single compact disc housed in a standard DVD case and (based on your above choice) should work fine in the current lineup of DAW/Loop programs for Mac or PC, including ACID, Cubase, Reason, Live, SONAR, Logic, GarageBand, and so on. We received the 16-bit WAV files for review.
Content / Organization:
DBM2 contains over 800 loops in a wide range of tempos and also includes 75 additional multi-velocity samples and a folder of breakdowns, one-shots and extended fills.
DBM2’s drum loops are organized into folders in the following tempi: 75, 90, 100, 110, 120, 140, 150, 180, 200, 200+, 220, 280, and 300 BPM. There are also folders for the abovementioned one-shots and multi-samples.
The loop files are primarily labeled as “grooves” or “fills” with additional prefixes and suffixes that refer to tempo, kit piece, and musical phrasing. For example: “110_RC_Groove_02f “ translates to “110 BPMRide Cymbal Groove number 2 with a fill”.
Documentation / Royalties and Licensing:
While there is no booklet, the CD contains both .TXT and PDF files of creative suggestions, file nomenclature, legalese, letters of thanks, the Beta Monkey catalogue and the how, why and where DBM2 was made.
DBM2 contains the usual “Lawyer Speak” End User agreement, and they sum it up nicely in English as: Use the loops in your musical compositions only, do not use them either altered or unaltered in commercial product (i.e., other sample/loop libraries).
Sonics and Craftsmanship: All of this library’s grooves were taken from the same sessions and recorded on a single kit. The kick drum tones are well defined, tight, and punchy, the snare tone is thick, and the cymbals are crisp and full.
The sonic balance of the kit is good, and while the obvious focus is on the power of the kick and snare, and the crash placement is tasteful, I do wish the ride and hi-hats could have been a bit hotter in the mix.
Ambience-wise there is enough hint of the room so the loops sound natural, but not so much that adding your own additional verb would cause a problem.
I was very impressed with
the tooling of the loops. They are expertly cut and tightly quantized, which is very important for proper manipulation and playback in loop based programs like Live or ACID. The loop points are smooth and with few exceptions the drum and cymbal transients blend seamlessly.
Like most libraries these loops have a tempo threshold of roughly 20 BPM down and 30 BPM up before they became compromised with artifacts or sound unbelievable, but thanks to the abundant tempochoices this is not likely to pose a problem. (Speaking of tempo, this may be the first library I have reviewed with BPMs in the 300 plus range!)
Style:
The “metal” genre covers a lot of territory from slow and heavy to speedy and furious, and this library keeps up quite well, and while Double Bass is its name, that’s not its only game. There are meat and potatoes hard rock riffs, machine gun snare work, cymbal mayhem and thundering tom fills too.
As long you stick to logical tempo choices (for example, not throwing 75 BPM loops and 300 BPM loops into a 180 BPM song), most every file will play believably into the next, and with the additional one-shots and multi-sampled hits, crafting fist-flying, stick-twirling, head-banging anthems should be a synch! (Excuse me...cinch.)
I can’t shake the name Tommy Aldridge from my mind as I listen to these loops, it’s like the Beta Monkey boys trapped his soul in these beats—think early Ozzy, Whitesnake and Steve Vai.
Summary: Given the sheer number of drum libraries in the world, it is surprising that there are very few which focus solely on this musical style and do it so well. At a paltry $30, even if you are not in the metal-client capital of the world, adding this flavor to your drum library is just a fun no-brainer.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have the sudden urge to watch some re-runs of MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball...
Price: $29.99.
More from: Beta Monkey Music, www.betamonkeymusic.com.
Paul Vnuk Jr. (vnuk@recordingmag.com) is a recording engineer, producer, composer, and sound designer living in Milwaukee. Enter his musical world at www.majale.com.
February 2007 Music Tech Magazine Feature/Review: Beta Monkey Double Bass Mania
Beta Monkey Music Double Bass Mania: You don’t have to look very hard at all to find every sample you could possibly ever need if you like to make techno and electronica in your studio, but for those into the rock and metal genres, finding something suitable to keep the beat behind your latest composition can be a much trickier prospect. Fortunately, Beta Monkey Music has the solution in the shape of this stunning collection of fast and aggressive breaks and blastbeats...
Of course, see more of what Music Tech has to offer each month at www.musictechmag.co.uk. Great British magazine with a monthly DVD.
November 2006 Recording Magazine Review: Beta Monkey
Music Jazz Essentials
DOWNLOAD .PDF of REVIEW HERE
Beta Monkey Music Jazz Essentials by John Rossi III
Jazz Essentials (Drum Loops for Traditional Jazz) is a collection of pure Jazz drum loops, executed over a vide range of tempos, played on classic acoustic Jazz drum kits.
Delivery/Format/Compatibility and Installation:
The Jazz Essentials collection is delivered on one CD-ROM in ISO 9660 standard format compatible with both Macintosh and PC computer platforms. The product is available in three loop formats: ACIDized WAV loops, Apple Loops, or REX2 loops. You specify which format you desire when ordering; the ACIDized WAV version is reviewed here. All loops in all versions are recorded at 16-bit/44.1 kHz.
Jazz Essentials contains no autoloader program so, unless your computer is configured to automatically display the contents of the disk, it will await your manually opening, browsing and selecting the content you want to use. No loop playback software is included, so you are required to supply an application that can work with one of the supported loop formats in order to use these sounds to their fullest potential.
Organization/Licensing:
Jazz Essentials is organized as 17 loop folders, each containing loops associated with a cohesive theme, played at the same tempo. Within each folder a substantial number of loops are organized by section. Each folder contains a count-in loop, one or more roll filled loops, at least one intro loop and one ending loop, and a wide variety of verse loops (each with its own subtle phrasing nuances and rhythmic variations).
There are four 100 BMP themed folders, four 120 BPM themed folders, two 170 BPM, three 250 BPM, three 295 BPM and one 350 BPM themed folder. In addition, folders containing multi-velocity one-shot samples of all of the drums and cymbals from the kits used in loop development are included.
There are no licensing restrictions for use of these loops in any musical arrangement.
In Use:
Jazz Essentials is not for everybody. A thorough understanding of Jazz rhythmic structure and drumming techniques is probably necessary to get the most out of this outstanding traditional Jazz drum loop collection. Casual listening to the verse variations in a given theme, for example, might belie the fact that there are any differences at all between the loops. Careful listening, however, uncovers the subtle phrasing nuances that account for the differences. In fact, it is this degree of subtlety that makes this collection thoroughly usable in the hands of somebody who understands the Jazz idiom.
In addition to the subtle differences in phrasing, the loops are offered in 4, 8, 16 and 32 bar segments that make this loop collection unique in the world of Jazz-oriented drum loops. Another thing to note is that all of the loops in this set are of traditional Jazz. There are no “Latin”, “African”, or other ethnically flavored rhythms included here.
I’m not a Jazz soloist, but I was able to produce a few very convincing tracks using these loops with Sony ACID Pro 6, taking advantage of ACID’s loop building structure to develop the rhythm tracks (these drum loops and a few very compatible Jazz upright bass loops), and then adding backing piano and solo sax using ACID Pro 6’s linear multitrack capabilities. In all, once I had mapped what I wanted to do, these loops were easier to use than I initially thought they would be.
Summary:
These loops will allow anyone with sufficient determination to build a drum track that sounds like it was played by a live drummer. The greater the degree of the user’s proficiency with Jazz structures and phrasing, the more natural this loop collection will be to use. The bottom line is, if I can use them, somebody that actually knows what they are doing can really use them.
Visit Recording Magazine for More...
December 2005 Remix Magazine Review: Beta Monkey
Music Drum Werks V
We just happened to be flipping through Remix
and caught a review of Drum Werks V - short but
sweet review of one of our most versatile and
popular discs. Half the price, twice the loops!
MINIREVIEW: BETA MONKEY DRUM WERKS V5
By Jason Scott Alexander
This independent sample shop has been churning
out slamming acoustic-drum-groove discs at near-breakneck
speed for more than two years. Specializing in
100 percent acoustic material, Beta Monkeyís
economy-priced libraries, to date, have covered
everything from double-bass hard rock and metal
to country, blues, pop and hip-hop. In Drum
Werks V5, the skilled BM team sets its sights
squarely on sizzling, energy-soaked rock, alt-
and power-pop grooves presented in a toolbox manner.
What you get are more than 570 MB of 16-bit WAV
loops (738 in all) including beats, fills, intros,
endings, hi-hat and ride cymbal patterns, and
one-shots arranged into tempo-based folders. Confidently
casual and polished-feeling throughout, these
folders span 12 different groove genres, from
75 bpm classic rock to straight and occasionally
swung 100 to 50 bpm‚range rock and pop to straight
and shuffled 180 bpm blister grooves. What's more,
a folder containing a copious amount of multivelocity
single hits awaits assembly into a complete drum
kit for augmenting the provided grooves or rolling
your own.
The loops come just as I like them, intimately
raw and underprocessed, preferring to leave the
treatment to mixdown. The really cool thing about
this disc is that every groove, fill and hit is
sonically matched, pristinely recorded off the
same kit and taken from the same recording session.
This makes for a cohesive library of uniform ambience
front to back, where you can mix and match elements
from not only within a single folder but also
across the entire disc. The smart inclusion of
cymbal swells, tom variants and several intricately
played hi-hat and ride cymbal patterns (with and
without snare backbeats) for each groove genre
makes creating a complex and dynamic-sounding
arrangement possible. Whether building a contemporary
pop track from scratch or looking for brilliant
session drumming to remix, Drum Werks V5 is a
go-to loop collection for ballsy, realistic results.
For more information about Beta Monkey, visit
www.betamonkeymusic.com.
Read
the article over at Remix here...
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September 2005 EQ Magazine Review: Beta Monkey
Music Alt and Modern Rock III Drum Loops and Samples
By Craig Anderton | August 2005
"Another acoustic rock drum loop CD? Yes,
but you get 11 construction kits (614MB) with
groove and one-shot endings, and 83MB of individual
hits for $25.99.
The 24-bit sounds are crisp and well recorded,
with enough room ambience to give some "air",
but "dry" enough to accommodate adding reverb.
There is no overkill compression or EQ, either.
The loops are logically arranged as grooves and
fills; while thereís no documentation, the loop
names are intuitive.
The style is rock, but there is one folder each
for shuffled, triplet, and funk grooves... these
are extremely useable loops that slide right into
rock tracks, and minimal processing gives you
lots of latitude. If you already have rock drum
CDs, this one offers no revelations. But if you
need rock drums, you can't beat the value for
money."
Preview and order from the
Alt and Modern Rock Loop Series...
******************************************************************
 July
1, 2005 Review - Sound
on Sound Magazine July 2005
Five stars for Drum Werks Vol. V? Too
much! We really have to start raising our prices
if everyone keeps saying such nice things...
Drum
Werks Volume 5 *****
ACID
Beta Monkey Music are a US-based company specialising
in competitively priced drum loop collections.
Their various titles are mostly aimed at rock,
pop, and blues styles, but the catalogue also
includes libraries suitable for country, rap,
and hip-hop. The library under review here is,
like most of the other titles, based around a
collection of 16-bit Acidised WAV files. In this
case, the CD contained some 700MB of acoustic
drum loops and single hits. The loops are organised
into a number of tempo-based folders (ranging
from 75bpm up to 180bpm), while separate folders
contain collections of one-shots and single hits.
The titles of the various folders give a good
idea of the loop styles available: 'Funky Rock
Swing', 'No Nonsense Rock', and 'Alt Rock Grooves',
for example. The playing is excellent throughout
ó where required it is straight and powerful,
but there is also plenty of more intricate stick
work to be found in the more funky or shuffle-based
loops. Both the recording and subsequent editing
also seem to have been well done. The sound is
crisp, with nice biting snares, plenty of sizzle
to the cymbals, and a solid kick-drum sound. The
loops seem to have a little processing applied,
which gives them a nice natural ambience, but,
thankfully, this is not overdone, so it was easy
enough to add a little further reverb if required.
The real strength of the library is the range
of loops provided. As well as the usual one-,
two-, and four-bar patterns and their variations,
there are some really excellent fills, intros,
endings, and breakdowns provided. This really
does make it easy to construct a complete drum
track with a minimum of fuss, including all the
necessary elements needed to glue the basic sections
together and enough variation to make it sound
'real'. This is further enhanced by the excellent
collection of single hits. While these could easily
be used to construct a multi-velocity drum kit
within a sampler, they can also be used to ornament
a loop-based track. The various cymbals, in particular,
are good ó and all sorts of crashes, swells, and
choked hits are included. The loops also have
a fairly consistent sound across the folders,
so it is easy to mix and match material for further
variety.
I'd have no problem using these loops for any
style of rock, from nu metal through grunge
and into more pop-orientated indie styles, but
they could also work in funk, blues, and straight
pop. The other remarkable thing is the price,
particularly as this includes worldwide shipping.
Indeed, Beta Monkey also offer various bundles,
bringing the price per library down even further.
This is an absolute steal - so much, in fact,
that I ordered half a dozen more libraries myself!
These arrived very promptly and are now being
put to good use in my own studio. Excellent value
for money and highly recommended.
John Walden
Acidised WAV CD-ROM, $26.99 (around £15).
Beta Monkey - 1.203.231.3783
Click here
to email
www.betamonkeymusic.com
Review can be found online at Sound
on Sound Magazine.
******************************************************************
 Check
out what Recording Magazine had to say
about our Drum Werks Vol. V in the April 2005 issue
of Recording Magazine:
"These drums are all one kit, recorded very
cleanly in a damped but not totally dead room.
All the emphasis is on getting the sounds down
as simply as possible, leaving sweetening to the
recordist. For any given tempo there can be a
couple of dozen different grooves with different
elements emphasized or left out, plus halftime
and doubletime loops, intros, fills, and enough
extras to assemble a very convincing drum track.
Special attention is paid to hi-hat and ride patterns,
with tons of variety presented for each tempo.
Those little touches combine with the overall
clean and clear sound of these drums to make Drum
Werks 5 a real treat for engineers who like to
put their own audio magic on instrument tracks
rather than having them arrive all dolled up and
ready to go. Beta Monkey has a wide variety of
products organized by style and data format; check
out their website for more details.
Oh, one more thing: did we mention this library
costs well under thirty bucks? Instant no-brainer!"
Mike Metlay - Recording
Magazine
******************************************************************
Read more praise about Beta Monkey's
full line of loop and sample discs from the following
sources:
What are people saying about our stuff?
We get tons of emails thanking us for
the quality stuff we put out. We can't include
them all, but we try to pick the ones that really
show the enthusiasm and dedication our customers
are known for. And, let's face it, our customers
tell more about our products than we could ever
dream up. Read more
testimonials from actual customers and users here.
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