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The Incomplete Orchestra On Tapegerm.com
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These sites sell loops. Quality stuff, I don't lin to slackers!
CAVEAT EMPTOR: For free packs, check the license out for each producer, some producers let you use them commercially, some don't.
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Recommended
Commercial
Producers
These producers have top quality product and customer service.
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These producers have top quality product and customer service.
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Heavily Recommended
Customer service A+
A small studio from some of the talent behind early Peace Love Productions loop packs. They've moved some classic material and are making new loop packs for small budgets and moderate budgets in house, techno, 8bit, downtempo and other modern styles.
Loop pack reviews in short
Mushroom Grooves - A+
Jazzy hip-hop / downtempo style beats that are easy to groove to. The BPMs range from 82 to 98. The price can't be beat, 10 construction kits and a folder of one shots to groove with for $6.50 to $12 USD it is a steal. (Price ranges are due to the format you want them in. .Wav customers pay $12. I paid $12. It's a good $12 well spent.)
Electronic Street - A+
Maybe you have Mushroom Grooves and "want some more." Electronic Street is your some more and then some. Loop quantity wise you get about 2.5 what Mushroom Grooves has. Quality and "width" wise you'll feel that you have more. Where Mushroom Grooves has that "dusty" feel, this pack has more of that uptown, "Need For Speed," "Fast And Furious" style hip hop and jazz. It has a nice mix of styles, hip hop style "record" sample and some scratch loops to help get things liver than normal. $25 it's a good pack and worth your dollar.
You can check out this pack at work in my remix of Uptown's "Dope On Plastic" on my remixes page.
Cinematic Synths - A+
Well first off there are no drum loops or anything like that in here. This is all synths, and like the name says, the focus is cinema. Mostly modern cinema, though you can find some antique flavor in there. It's only 9.50 USD so it's a good value for your money. There are 72 individual loops and 6 other bonus beats from other libraries. Most of the sounds are individual sounds, though a few are layers or near dupes of other sounds. All in all it's an extremely useable pack.
72 loops may not sound like much, but most loops are at least 9 seconds, and at least a 1/4 of them are 19 seconds long. These samples cover a range of themes from moody to bright, and come in a variety of tones and "instruments" (they are synths).
Iced Chillout Lounge - A+
Iced Chillout Lounge is a collection of 12 construction kits at the following BPMs, 63, 66,70, 75 80(x3), 85, 90(x2) and 105(x2). Basically enough for any lounge / jazz enthusiast to have enough basic material to get started with just what you have here and his or her own creativity, or a good loot pack to add onto the treasure chest of loops that the audio technician may have alreayd aquired the whole time.
Far be it from being solely horns, wind, and rhodes pianos, Soundtrtack loops gets back to the raw essentials and brings in mallets, pads and other atmospheric pieces to round this piece into a fully though out, downtempo piece that doesn't overemphasize the instruments that one normally finds in kits.
Mallet samples are hard to find, the ones in this kit are nice. And as usual, the drum bits are layered so you can bring in the drum beat from each construction kit, bit by bit if you wish.
Link
Tribal Tech Beats - B+
Whether or not you just like, or totally love Tribal Tech Beats depends on your taste in music, and taste in loop formatting. I'm not a huge fan of house, but it's a danceable, good beat. I don't avoid it, I just don't run to it. Soundtrack Loops creates its loops sets in many different ways, this one is very unique in that it is full of layered beats, rather than individual loop layer items. That is to say you could have a similar drum beat, performed five different ways with different other instrument / effects layered into them.
To be clear, there are no isolated sounds in this loop pack.
A B+ is one of the lower scores I give out, but this is a good pack. These beats are good and I put them to use, you can check out a sample curently on Tapegerm called "Robophonix Wurked Fur Me" created with this library and two packs from Peace Love Productions. The "low" score is only because I'm not hot on the formating.
It's $6.50 USD to $15.00 USD depending on your format. A good buy if you are into house style music.
Wolsfraektroes Music - Tech House & Progressive House Sessions - A
A solid banger from Wolsfraektores, albeit in a single BPM. If you're looking to make fast electronica, this kit is for you. If you want real instruments, this kit is not for you. It's full of loops, almost 300 and then about another 45 drum hits and 27 midi files.
There are ten construction kits, and then extra mixed beats, drum tops, drum hits, synths and basses. The construction kits are interesting and have multilayered drum elements. They are kept in mixed folders (bass, beats, etc.) rather than in separate folders for each individual kit.
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I'm not big on tech / trance / electro, though house is okay with me. But I like all music, any music I can feel the beat and roll with it. This is a good pack, even if you're not into the genre. Check it out.
Customer service A+
A massive loop site. Not sure if a producer is a legitimate company? Check Producer Loops out to see if they are there. Business partner of Inspiration Sounds which ships physical loop CDs as well as makes their own loop products. Their customer service is top notch!
On top of that you get free, royalty free use (not demos!) packs with every purchase, usually two. There have two large ones, "Funked Up" and "After Hours." Beyond that they have many high quality freebie packs from Prime Loops, Loopmasters and Bluezone Corporation as well as Smash Up The Studio and a few others.
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Customer service A+
If you haven't been to the Peace Love Productions website then you're new to loop music. PLP has some of the most inexpensive, and completely legitimate loop packs on the internet, as well as a wealth of free loops to find if you search around, and a newsletter that will give you new loops every few weeks or so. DJ Puzzle has done work for Sony, and has collaborated with other loop producers to stuff his website full of material.
The style of loops ranges from house, techno, minimal, hip-hop, dub, metal, jazz, even ethnic and chill.
One of the best things about PLP is a regular newsletter in which they announce their new products and regularly give out free loops to commemorate packs, promote packs and sometimes to celebrate the holidays or other random occassions. Contest happen as well! Sign up the for the newsletter, it's worth your time. And if you love music mixes, you almost always get a new mix of music with the free loop packs and especially packs commemorating the release of brand new packs.
I own and recommend:
Turntable Scratch - A+
Reggaeton Pack 2
Hip Hop Loops Pack 2
Best Of PLP Vocal Loops & Samples - A
( But don't buy if you plan to buy many of the titles where the vocals come from!!)
Joining the PLP Newsletter A+ A+ A+
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Customer service A+
Splurgo Audio has one great advantage over every other loop site on the internet: They're ballsy enough to give you a low-fi, non-use-sample-only, copy of every loop pack they offer. So unlike other sites where you can hear a few good loops in the demo or possibly the free pack and you have to guess about the rest, Splurgo gives you the whole pack to listen to so you know exactly what you're getting ahead of time. Every loop!
The quality of the packs ranges from top of the line, to quirky but interesting. The top of the line packs run from $5-$8 USD on average. Some range $8 to $16 USD, but not many that I recall off hand. The quirky packs run from $1-$2 USD with some useful, but small packs ranging in the $3-$5 USD range.
The content and flavor ranges from all modern styles and single instrument packs as well as various mood and FX packs. They also have some small loop packs for ethnic percussion and instruments great for artists needing a quick ethnic expansion without paying $50 and not being sure if they are going to get what they need.
They've got some freebies as well if you sign up for their newsletter and or sign up as a user / loop purchaser in their website. Lastly they have a points program where basically, if you spend $10 USD you get $1 USD worth in points, you don't even need to make a purchase to use your points, those are great for getting some of those more quirky packs.
Recommended packs: Bodhran (Irish drums), Koto, "Various Eastern Precussion," Zill, all the Harps. Don't miss the "Space Harp," (Vulcan Lyre) and the two packs of "British Male Speaking" and Caucasian Male. All are only $1 USD. They also carry a selection of steel drum loops (HARD TO FIND!) mason jar loops and various other rare samples such as penny whistle and german marching bands!??!?! Check them out.
And if you're looking for a jump start into India's music... you can get going on a $10 budget.
Titles in specific:
Koto $9.95 USD - A+ recommended
Japanese themed loops sets are not cheap, and they are hard to find. Splurgo has a good selection of ethnic instruments including the Koto and the Asian flute, among others. This pack has a good variety of Koto loops played at various BPMs. Download the free pack, since it has low quality loops of the entire package, and check it out for yourself. If you're going to do a traditional Japanese music influenced style, koto music is a necessity.
Asian Flute $3.95 USD - B+
A small, but very thorough Japanese flute pack. For the price and quantity of loops it can't be beat if you are on a budget.
Bodhran (Irish skin drum) $8.95 USD - A+
This pack is what you need if you're out for that authentic flavor of Celtic percussion. It's not too pricey and the loop quality is excellent. Some of the pices are separated enough that it's almost a multi sample kit. It can be if you splice it right!
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Customer service A+
One of the economy class heavy hitters of the loop industry. Good variety, deep packages and prices that won't bust yout budget. They have a newsletter and tend give out discounts through the newsletter weekly to monthly as well as give out freebies every three to six months. If you're curious about Prime Loops products, the discounts alone are worth subscribing.
And let me vouch for the quality, you won't hear any messed up dead air, speaker buzz and feedback with Prime Loops products. The production quality is mint.
I own and recommend these titles:
Planet Of The Orchestra - A+
If you're crusing for some ethnic / world sounds to jazz up your downtempo, techno or more authentic pieces, this is it. More than 100 loops in ethnic genre from China to Japan, Americana, Tibetan, classical Europeon, gypsy, Arabic and more. If you're just getting into ethnic music I recommend this pacakage.
These loops are not single instrument loops, but fully orchestrated loops ranging from 80 BPM to 135 BPM. For 17 British Pounds it's a solid value, I've found all these loops to be very useful. There's not a style of music I can't reasonably "faux" in a moment with this loop pack handy.
Orchestra & Classical Strings Loops - -A
The percursor to Planet Of The Orchestra, this pack is more slanted towards Europeon classical material, cut up for hip hop and backing pieces. The limited range of BPM (86 to 95) is the only drawback this package has, but the price and quality of the loops compensates. These loops can be reshaped / re-timed in various ways that overcome the BPM issue.
The moods of the samples range from dangerous to reasonably happy. But most are somber in quality. Once again, excellent for hip hop production. And for 15 British Pounds it's a good value.
Ambient Funk - A+ recommended
Prime Loops took the lessons they learned from their newest heavy hitter loop packs and forget ahead with new concepts in styling loop packs. Ambient Funk is a ride through classic grooves bearing flavors of old cafes, smoky jazz clubs and kung fu action sets. The sounds vary in tempo, and are dark, gritty, happy, moody, psychotic, calm, resolved, scared. Basically, you have an iron hand of dusty, musty grooves with this loop pack in hand.
There are 380 individual loop files.
There are 10 "theme" sets lettered A through J, where these loops are actually brothers to 3-6 other files that make up a particular musical phrase, once put together that is a complete song, for the length of the loops. And these loops aren't short. Each theme set has at least 3 patterns in it, a few have as many as 9. I figure there's at least 54 different soundsets in entirety.
The quality of the loops is spectacular, they are more than clean and crisp, they are full and loud. You won't be tweaking your decibal settings to get that full sound, you may have to lower the volume on this Ambient Funk if you're mixing Prime Loops with inferior sounds! For 25 British Pounds it's a solid buy!
To hear a sample of this pack, stop by my remix page and check out my remix of "Derelicts Of Dialect" by 3rd Bass.
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Customer service A+
P5 has a variety of loop packages starting from $20. They focus on popular styles, but carry a wide variety of loops and packages. There are freebies galore here, check them out. Make sure you sign up for the newsletter, you should regret missing out on these loop sets they give out just for reading their newsletter!
Join the newsletter!
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Fat Loud Blog
Customer service A+
Fat Loud has HIp Hop, RnB and Club scene loops you have to hear and enjoy with your own ears! Don't believe my text, click the link and hear for yourself!
Join the newsletter and read the blog, or you'll be missing free stuff and the latest news!
After Hours - A+
After Hours is a collection of loud, fat and "smoky" loops and jazz-esque kind of sounds to make steamy, hot hits with. Best of all it's free with any purchase at Producer Loops, or free when you sign up for their newsletter.
Check out a sample of this pack in my remix of Kid N' Play's "Rolling WIth Kid N' Play."
Modern Sessions A
10 contruction kits with mixed BPMs from 70 to 165, and drum multi-samples labeled for each construction kit they came from. Like it's name suggests "Modern Sessions" is full of modern hip hop / RNB flavor. All styles are respresented, but basically one flavor per construction kit. So unlike some other kits where you might get say, 10 kits where 2-3 kits carry a similar flavor and BPM, such is not the case here. Each set is unique and the loops are nice and long.
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Commercial
Producers In Alphabetical
Order
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Although their selection is a bit small, their samples are of good quality and worth checking out.
I own and recommend "Classic Keyboards" and two of the split catalogs from the Ethnologic series. Only part of the series is offered individually, carefully consider before you place your order. And useful hint, stay on their newsletter for a month before you order, they do send out a special sale regularly.
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A multi-sample / loop company that also sells old LPs, breakbeats and other samples more for DJ use... or those with enough bank to pay for sample use. But when they sell original loops... why? Check them out and join their mailing list for freebies.
KIT REVIEW: "Ill Skinz"
Score: A+
"Ill Skinz" is the free kit you get for becoming an "afifiliate" of Bangin-Beats.com by posting the same banner link you see on this page. Is it worth posting this banner to your website to get a free mutli-sample kit? Yes! Here's what you get in the kit:
Five kick drums sounds.
Several sounds "sickes" "bassri" that are not kick drums but are deep, bass file and can be used to layer onto a kit or other sound for that extra fatness. Four percussive sounds "shaker" "froggy" one that sounds like a stick hitting a rim and wooden block. These are good sounds. Two instruments sounds (brass wind) that are related but could be used individually.
And about nine snare / clap sounds. In total you have 25 files at about 784kb when you unzip the sucker. And unless you are on some weird webhosting program that's robbing you blind and you don't have the bandwidth for a banner, this little kit is definitely worth it and you will have the inspiration to do at least one song from it, though I bet a lot more. The total sound style varies enough to cover three-four songs without re-using sound elements, and that's if you use just this kit to put your percussive sound section together with. It's worth it and Bangin-Beats has quite a lot of other material worth checking out. And once again, get on the mailing list, it's free, you get free stuff and coupon codes.
For a limited time you can download a free preview of an experimental song I put together using the kit above and some of my own sounds produced through some old instruments I've picked up. It's right here "Have Fun With It (Version 4)"
Also, but for an UNLIMITED time you can download a free pack of loops I made from the sounds I created here:
If you do not have a website and or are not interested in the affiliate program, "Ill Skinz" can be purchased here."
KIT REVIEW: "Bumpin Uglies"
Score: A
Taking a stray chance to see what many loop providers offer, I've taken a chance to review and use some sounds from Bangin-Beats.com. This is my second sortee using their sounds to drop bombs with.
"Bumpin Uglies," a single sound set.
First, let's get down to some details. Wav file sounds, 25 sounds in total for about 1.3 megs unzipped.
You get about five kick sounds.
About ten snare-ish sounds.
One instrument sound.
Then a random sampling of hats, stick clicks and wood blocks.
If you're looking for boom and bap, you won't be disappointed by picking up "Bumpin Uglies" it does have some bump. But as you might suspect, this multi-sample kit is geared towards R&B so there are some deep kicks and good snares, but they're kept, keeping in layman's terms here, within control. You have more room for your bass and the snares won't intervene with your vocals. There are enough random perc elements to get a variance of sound going no matter how your style, but only one instrument sound which I found mildly disappointing. Of course it doesn't make or break the pack, but sometimes being able to belt out a tune using just the kit is nice.
If you're on a budget and out to make some R&B, you can't go wrong with an individual download. If you have more they have bigger bundles that I've listed below. The kit gets a straight "A" from me. Not an "-A" because the kit doesn't come up short, but lacks that extra flavor that incites the producer to... well... to borrow a title name from their own page "eargasm."
If what you're looking for is testimony that Bangin-Beats has good material, that I will happily say that they do. The percussion in the song "Ugly Stepchildren" was made using only this pack (no relation to a Bangin-Beats drum kit named "Ugly Stepchild Drums")
http://soundcloud.com/coru/ugly-stepchildren-preview
The kit "Bumpin Uglies" is avaialable in the "Bang Drive." Which is a USB port loading, memory stick that's on sale and also comes with a nice assortment of multi-sample instruments. See this link for details.
If you just want the kit itself, it is available here:
(clean layout
semi
confusing
menu
system)
Join the
mailing
list
Customer service C
For Two British Poounds you get twelve drum construction kits, and one sample loop to clone from, or simply use as a drum loop. There are several flavors of Beat Treat packages including Neo Soul, Hip Hop, Live Drums, Neo House.
I subscribe to and recommend:
- Chill House
- Live Drums
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It is
new
5
for
value
If you don't know Big Fish Audio, you're new to loop music. BFA is one of the kingpins of the loop industry. They have inexpensive packages, expensive packages, packages from other producers and old packages that are worthwhile, but at heavily discounted prices.
They also have weekly specials and a newsletter.
I own and recommend "Wall Of Vinyl" (1)(B+), and "Jazz Quartet." (A+)
Just on
their
mailing
list
Loops and VST of authentic Chinese instruments. Their sounds are awesome, they have free VSTs and a loop pack to check out. Worth a look!
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Awesome sounds, and really big demo packs where you get multi samples AND two construction kits! The DVDs are just $40 and free shipping if you're in the US.
I own #20 Cinematic Dialogue.
I will review when it arrives in the mail.
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Customer service A
Looking for the most authentic world sounds you can get? There are many that I havne't touched yet, so I can't claim to have seen them all. But the production quality of Discovery Sound loops is well known in the loop music industry.
I own and recommend Okinawa Tradition.
$55 USD.
this
site but
if you
go to
loopmasters . com
you can
get some
there.
Electronisounds is a producer I've been meaning to try the product out of. Their packs are affordably priced and packed well enough of material to be satisfied and to keep me checking and interested.
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A new provider of loops and samples hits the scene, exploding with quite a few packs.
Ethnic Flutes Vol 1 - A+
Ethnic Flutes Vol 2 - A+
Diamond R&B Vol 1 - -A
Diamond R&B Vol 2 - A+
Electro Hop
Bass From The Beast - A+
Hark Loops is a virtually unknown loop provider with a broad enough selection of high quality loop packs. You don't just pay a small price for your packs, you get TONS of sounds! Check the details on their site.
And the best freebies outside of Splurgo, Loopmasters and Producer Loops: They not only give you a demo song, they give you the loops for it!
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Customer service A+
Another heavy hitter, this time of the upper end of the economy class. Some loop packages are "affordable," others are "low end expensive." But the quality is spectacular! Absolutely spectacular, and worth your money! (Keep in mind this review covers only Loopmasters loop material, not those of the other third party producers sold on their site.) They do have some more "affordable" packs such as Indian Drum Guru and Jazzattic 1 and Jazzattic 2. All three of which I own and recommend.
One of the best things about Loopmasters is how they go out of their way to get loop artist CDs from well known musicians such as Todd Terry, Doodlebug of Digable Planets, The Nextmen, etc.
I also own "Jazz World" and strongly recommend it. The bass loops are superb!
Jazz World A+
Jazzattic 1 B+
Jazzattic 2 A-
Indian Drum Guru A
Keep in mind that the demo loops you download there are not for commercial use.
But no
commercial
use
Customer service A+ - They're even open on Chrsitmas!!!!
Where to start with Nova? They've got good stuff! Everything from HIp Hop to Techno, lounge and back. They've got kits styled after the hottest artist and they don't skip on production values.
On top of that, for $10 USD a month you can joing their platinum MVP plan, you get a free loop pack up to $50 in value a month and special discounts on the site.
Stop by the free remix page to check out mixes I've done with Nova Loops. So far:
I own and recommend:
Black Eyed Energy Vol 2. A
15 hype construction kits starting off at 125 BPM and ranging up to 155, multiple formats so you have wav, apple and rex. This kit is the second volume they've done in the style of the Black Eyed Peas. What you get is some seriously active drum loops accompanied by a mix that's somewhere between "standard" hip hop and "tech funk." You get some of the usual suspects you find in hip hop loop packs, pianos and guitars... some are played straight, others are reversed or otherwise effect. But you also get weird and or interesting effects like car alarms and deep sighs. There's plenty of synths and other audible goodies to flavor your mixes with. And not to waste your time layering cheap effects onto each other, each sound effect in each kit is presented to you separately. Some costruciton kits also have one shot drum samples.
Check out the demo on their site if you want to get a feel for this set, but I will tell you straight that it's pure banger. Every kit is full of energy, so even if you don't put it together like shown or even imitate the BEP at all, you'll have solid foundations to kick off any mix with. It's a good value for the price.
Check out Paula Abuld - Coldhearted The Incomplete Orchestra Remix - This uses the above pack.
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Tons!
Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects
Download the music and sound effects you need for your multimedia project today at Partners In Rhyme.
A good selection of video and audio loops. Worth a visit!
Yes!
Music loops
and video loops!
and video loops!
A good site with quality material.
I own and recommend:
Afro Latin Percussion A+
A funky, full sized pack of latin grooves very inexpensive. A must / good start up pack for anyone looking to explore Latin flavors.
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A small loop site with good, quality loop packs to offer.
I own and recommend:
Killer Bass Vol 1. A
An inexpensive, but variable pack of bass lines and grooves ranging in tempos and styles. They are all useful, but some seem underdeveloped whereas others seem overpowering. It's a good start up pack though.
Mass Destruction Kit A+
A vast arsenal of weapon sound effects, extremely useful and priced just in range! I cannot overstate the useful of this pack, I even put together a drum kit using it!
There's more than a few loop sites where the general idea is to buy loops or credits to buy loops individually. Usually I'm against this, you're usually buying loops that aren't very good or you're buying single loops from megapacks where you should just buy the whole megapack.
Soundsnap gives you access to producers who you can't normally buy their loops, and best of all you get 5 free each month. And if you want more, all you need to do is buy them. And if you're a big shopper? A year long subscription is what you need.
Check it out! 5 free loops a month? That's 60 free loops, a whole pack at some sites!
High quality samples and VSTs. My only "complaint" is that the material is so prime, it's not very affordable. But they do have some affordable range packages, check them out.
I own and recommend "Welcome To the Sampledome" and "Smoov Grooves.."
High quality FX and samples.
High powered VSTs and sample collections. Several collections are free when you register, even better ones are available after the first, second and third purchases. Worth checking out!