○： 巧みなレコーディングと力強いグルーヴ。

×： キックとスネアにもっとバリエーションが欲しい。

評価： ニクソン（大統領）の時代（70年代）を髣髴とさせる真性ロック・ドラム・ループ！



「．．．『Brutal Beats』は70年代クラシック・ロックのライブ・ループ集。天才ドラマー・Geoff Dugmoreが叩き出すグルーヴは、ディープでエネルギーに満ちている。重厚なキック、躍動感あふれるタム、魂を揺さぶるグルーヴ・・・これはまさにジョン･ボーナムの世界だ！事実、トラックも明らかにツェッペリン風。．．．また、それぞれのグルーヴは、何も手を加えていないバージョン、コンプレスしてちょっとディストーションをかけたバージョン、フィルターをかけたバージョン、テンポにシンクしたディレイを加えたバージョンなどなど、様々な種類のエフェクトを加えたバージョンが豊富に収録されているので、スタジオ兵器としてかなり使える。．．．70年代のドラム・サウンドが欲しいけど、それを実現するスタジオやマイクもなければ優秀なドラマーもいない、もしくはビック・ビートに似合う迫力あるサウンドが欲しいなら、このライブラリをショッピングリストのトップにもっててくるべきだ。」 Pros - Well-recorded kick-ass grooves.

Cons - Little variation of Kick and snare sounds.

Bottom Line - Solid rock drum performances that will take you straight back to the days of the Nixon administration.



Call it a backlash against mechanical programmed beats. Brutal Beats is all about live loops that take more than a page from '70s classic rock. The grooves are deep in the pocket and have plenty of attitude, thanks to drummer Geoff Dugmore. Stylistically, Brutal Beats is very Bonham-esque - you know, heavy on the kick, meaty toms tuned to perfection, and full of vibe. In fact, some of the tracks are blatant knock-offs of classic Zeppelin beats.

The recordings have lots of room and overhead sound - not much in the way of close-miked-drum sounds, which is fine by me. I only wish there were more variation to the kits; it sounds like the same kick and snare were used for the entire library.
With Brutal Beats you get a WAV CD-ROM plus two audio CDs. While this might sound like a lot, it is and it isn't. The tracks contain extended performances eight, 16 or more bars long, in addition to fills, intros, and endings. From beginning to end, nearly every track is tight; the time only wanders in a handful of performances. Each groove is offered in several ways: au naturel, compressed and lightly distorted, filtered, with BMP-synced delays, and so on. For those who don't already have any of these effects in their studio arsenal, BB's "theme and variations" approach is nice. I have lots of effects at my disposal though, so I would have liked some of the CD real estate devoted to more straight-up grooves instead of the processed versions. Second listener Greg Rule disagreed: "I like the creative processing throughout this collection. My only criticism, and take this from a person who has auditioned a ton of sampling CDs in the past ten years, is this: How many more rock drum sampling CDs does the market really need?"

Whether you're after a classic '70s drum sound and don't have the tracking room, microphones, and drummer to pull it off, or you're into big beat and want some monster beats to slice and dice, put this sample collection high on your shopping list.