If you're into any style of electronic dance or downtempo music and you haven't heard of eLab, you're missing out. This Swedish soundware developer has been consistently putting out top-notch titles for years. Ballistix -- the latest eLab import -- is aimed at nu-school breakbeat and big beat producers who fancy their beats at 135 and 140 bpm. It's packed with drum loops and complete arrangements. On the audio CD, material is presented as construction kits; beats and/or music phrases, main loops only, percussion only, soloed music elements, and individual drum hits. The CD-ROM is thoughtfully organized into folders of beats, music elements, and one-shot drum samples. The latter make excellent fodder for Reason ReDrum or other sample-playback beatbox.



Ballistix is right up the alley, style-wise, of such ace producer/programmers as BT, Oakenfold, the Crystal Method, and such. Subtle tweaks to individual hits within the patterns add extra interest to the loops -- they're not just static from beginning to end, although they're only a couple of bars long in most cases. Granular-like buzzes, high and low kick combos, sudden starts and stops -- it's all here.



I've been working Ballistix for months now and each time I reach for it, I always find something to inspire and motivate me. If you're looking to inject up-to-the-second breakbeats into your tracks, you can't go wrong with this library.