Grooves: 9

Variety: 7

Bank for the Buck: 8



Take a look at the pop charts for the U.S., Germany, or just about any nation with nuclear capability and what will you find? A blend of hip-hop and new-school R&B dominates. So it should come as no surprise that this outstanding sample library comes from Sweden's e-LAB. The name might ring a bell: I recently reviewed another one of their libraries, Abstract Hip Hop- also a stellar library. Unlike Abstract, however, which combines drum and percussion loops with other harmonic instrument samples like Rhodes, synths, strings, and such, Nu Groove R&B is all drum loops.



As with all of e-LAB's sample libraries, Nu Groove includes an audio CD and WAV CD-ROM, which contains all the loops of the audio CD plus individual hits. Best of all, id you don't want to mess around with time compression/expansion, you have a choice of Acidized versions of the loops or what e-LAB calls Loop Tools. Essentially, they've taken all of Nu Groove's loops and beat-matched them to 70, 85, and 100 bpm, making it easy to mix and match. All of this is neatly organized into folders, which is a nice timesaving touch. Load any of these tracks into a sampler of computer recorder/editor and you can easily create dozens of variations on the originals.



"I've been waiting for a sample CD that offers fresh Southern-fried R&B grooves a la Timbaland and Dallas Austin," said second listener Greg Rule. "I love the tight sounds and grooves in this collection. I also appreciate that these loops are longer than just two bars, plus variations are provided within each loop category- fills and breakdowns included. There are also some awesome West Coast-style grooves that nod to David Frank and his groove work with Christina Aguilera and Dream."



If you've been listening to tracks from Destiny's Child, Missy Elliott, TLC, and the like, you'll get the connection right away. "Many of these loops are loaded with stuttering triplets, spiraling hi-hats, and syncopated snares," adds Greg. "Cue up the 'Timba' loop, to name one, and you'll know what I'm talking about. Not too many straight eighth- or sixteenth- note grooves in the lot. And that's a good thing. We need more libraries like this- libraries that stand out from the crowded pack."



I ran into only one technical snag: I had no luck loading some of the WAV files from data CD into my Roland XV-5080. I suspect this was die to header information at the beginning of the WAV files. My workaround was to open the files in TC Works Spark and save the files as AIFFs.



Perhaps the only thing that could have been done to make this disc an even better value would be a wider variety of samples. As is, a lot of the loops use samples from the same sonic ballpark. Fortunately, though, it's a very happening ballpark, which is why this library stands out above the expansive pack of hip-hop-oriented libraries. In fact, we were nothing short of floored by the quality and freshness of Nu Groove, which is why it gets a Key Buy. No question about it, Greg and I will be adding it to our A list.