Regular readers of this column should be quite familiar with the vast variety of loop libraries Big Fish Audio has to offer. This time out, we examine three diverse sets of WAV and REX-ified loop libraries: Breakbeat Jazz, with "original sounding breakbeats, mixed up with vinyl style Rhodes chords, jazzy basses, and FX"; Loungin' House, with "luxurious floor filler beats, mixed up with sexy Latin style percussion, lush chords and more"; and Nu Jazz Funk with "Brazilian flaavored sounds and moods." Do these libraries impress the non-loop based musician like me? Read on!



Format/Compatibility/Organization/Content



Each library is presented in two formats; standard 24-bit WAV (loops and one-off samples) and ReCycle REX2 (.RX2) loops. The REX2 formatted files can be imported into Reason to make your own ReFills, translated by Spectrasonics' Stylus RMX with the SAGE Translator, or loaded into any host that supports the .RX2 file format.

Each disc also offers exactly 50 MP3 files that show off what you can do with the included sounds. They are there to provide inspiration only, and cannot be used commercially.

Each disc is broken down into 5 directories: the MP3 examples, the WAV loops, two REX2 directories, and the individual one-off sampled WAV. The WAV loop directories are further subdivided into BPM with percussion or musical elemt types. The REX2 directories are divided into individual instrument or element types/ Finally, the individual WAV sample directories are divided into instrument types.



Installation/Copy Protection/Documentation/Legal Rights



For this review, we only looked at the RX2 files imported into Spectrasonics' Stylus RMX. Installation of the REX2 files was as easy as dragging and dropping the REX2 directories onto the Stylus RMX Sage XPander translation program. It took approximately 10-15 minutes for each disc to "expand" onto the drive.

Copy protection for these libraries are just like I like 'em-no copy protection whatsoever. This leaves you to mix, match and modify the library as you see creatively fit. A welcome experience, albeit becoming more the exception than the norm.
Instructions for these libraries consist of two small files on each DVD; the detail of the licensing agreement and the instruction for converting the library into Reason Refills and Stylus RMX loops. The only thing I really thought was missing was the key each of the musical passages was played in.

The legal considerations for these libraries should be no surprise and are right in line with the rest of the industry. You, the purchaser, are the sole licensed user, but you do not own these libraries. You may not sell, transfer, or allow other unlicensed users to use these sounds in their productions. While you may use these sounds creatively in your commercial productions, you cannot isolate the loops or make your own libraries out of them for commercial sales.



In Use



For my own personal music endeavors, using full-on loops in my productions has very much been a no-no. I want control over every aspect of a performance, and typical loop libraries do not provide that type of access. If I don't like the snare, I want to be able to remove it. Fortunately, working with this looping trio, I had complete control to make full-on loops if I so chose, or pull in and out any percussive or musical element at my whim. Combining that with the power of Stylus RMX, I felt I could leverage their creativity, but under my full and very granular control.

Let's check out each of these loop libraries in more detail.



Breakbeat Jazz



Breakbeat Jazz is a smooth and satisfying collection of slow 90-100 BPM grooves. This four Gigabyte collection provides 5949 WAV and RX2 loops. This is broken down into 502 Drum & Music loops in WAV format, 2197 REX2 loops, and 3250 DRum, Music and FX samples in WAV format. Total installation size of the REX2 loops that had been translated by Stylus RMX come out to the be 9 Gigabytes. This quite complete percussion collection is replete with kicks, snares, hi-hats, vinyl clicks and pops, bass guitar chords, congas, shakers, tambourines, and various other percussion and elements.
The variety for each of the major elements was excellent. Not only was the rhythmic variety good, the actual drums themselves had a good diverstiy of sounds to boot. Mixing and mathcing various parts worked extremely well. I could almost randomly combine drum elements and it would layer beautifully together.

Fortunately, the "vinylization" of the library seems relatively unaffected by the clicky/popping of the record pllayer. This meant if I dindn't like the viyl effect, I culd substitute another kick from my library with something else. I'm sure otherwise the cumulative effect of all that vinylization would have been overwhelming.

Overall, Breakbeat Jazz was a very pleasurable experience, and a breeze to work with.



Loungin' House



Loungin' House is a very rhythmically straight-ahead collection of 120-130 BPM loops. This four Gigabyte collection provides 8180 WAV and REX2 formatted samples. Broken down, this equates to 503 drum & music loops in WAV format, 2616 loops in REX2 format and 4960 Drum, Music & FX samples in WAV fomrat total installation size on my hard drive of just the REX2 loops came out to be 8.4 Gigabytes in size. This collection is forged with kicks, snares, hi-hats, shakers, and other musical and percussive elements. In fact, the hi-hats alone had over 500 loops to choose from!

For the most part, I found a lot of the "core" elements-such as he hi-hats and kicks-felt a bit plain but complemented the more ehythmic musical elements quite well. Because of the drumming simplicity (to be expected with this style of music), it was almost guaranteed you could layer alomost any percussive element over another. But because of it simplicity, a lot of this library felt very "same-y" for the drums. House music is not my forte, so maybe I didn't qquite "get" it. On the whole, Loungin' House felt like it was more about the quantity than the quality. Fans of the house genre will probably get a whole lot more satisfaction out of this library-the quality of the samples is still uniformly excellent.



Nu Jazz Funk



Nu Jazz Funk is a "funky" collection of 115-120 BPM complex percussion loops that makes you want to boodie (straight from the mouth of my two-year old son). This four Gigabyte production provides 6377 WAV and REX2 loops. This breaks down to 566 Drum and Music loops in WAV format, 2838 loops in REX2 format, and 2973 Drum, Music and FX samples in WAV format. Total installation size for the REX2 files comes out to 10.3 Gigabytes total on my hard drive. This collection contains kicks, snares, hi-hats, shakers, mixed percussion, congas, music, effects and more.

Whhile the Loungin' House library had fewer drum categories that ran deep, Nu Jazz Funk provided much more variety of percussion elements, but not as many choices in each.

The rhythmic complexity of these loops is right up my alley; interesting yet not too busy. One caveat, though-you can't as easily 'throw' something together as with the other two libraries. The loops don't combine as well as those of the other selections, but that's to be expected with their innate complexity. This certainly wasn't a problem to me, but merely a point worth mentioning.

Overall, Nu Jazz Funk is something I'd expect from a jazz collection of drums: high-quality percussionists playing high-quality drums.



Conclusions



For someone like myself who's unabashedly not a fan of audio loops, I was very impressed with the quality and quantity of these discs. Thie trio gives the breakdown of each element, and allows you to replace anything with anything. Add on the control that Stylus RMX provides, and this collection is a wonderful extension of the RMX library.

out of the three, Nu Jazz Funk was my favorite of the batch. Its intricate drumming techniques and variety really drew me in. Still, for someone like me who's more interested in a variety of percussive elements to add to my highly diverse tastes, all three of these libraries witll fit in very well with my productions.

If you're looking to just add to your collection of individual grove elements or put together full-on musical loops, all three of these libraries deliver the goods in spades. From the simple straightahead beats of Loungin' House, to the complex beats of Nu Jazz Funk, no doubt there's a little bit of something to please everyone for those looking for a good variety of mostly natural drum sounds.