Big Fish Audio Blog

What up BFA bloggers!?   Hope your week is going as well as it is here in the Big Fish Bowl. We’ve got great things in store for this week in downloads so you should be sure to check em’ all out.

Prime Loops hits us up with two great downloads in XXL Dance FX and XXL Dirty South Drums.

Loopmasters sends a nicely sized update of downloads this week.  Drum Drop in Dub Vol. 3, Distant Rhythms, Indian Emotions, Voice of India, Alien Robot Vox (really cool, you should check that one out), ATJAZZ: Deep & Analogue, Indian Sessions 2, Scott Rockenfield Rock Drums, House Builds & Breakdowns, Thomas Penton 1/2/3/Complete, Drum n Bass Rough Connections Essentials Vol. 3, Drum n Bass Rough Connections Vol. 1, and Drum Drops in Dub Vol 2 Pack 2.

Future Loops also brings in some goodies this week with Zion Train Dub Selections, Jungle Guerrilla, eVOKTIVE, Saxx Jaxx, Mindsteppers, Funky Guitar Progressions, and Tribal Percussion.

Annnnnnnnd last but definitely yours truly, Big Fish Audio brings you Hazardous Hip Hop Vol. 1.  It’s pretty awesome I must say, and worth a listen so make sure to stop by our website (www.bigfishaudio.com) and see all these new packs!

It’s cool to see some our Electri6ity users posting their own youtube videos.  Nicely done!  We hope to see a lot more of this so feel free to drop us a line if you’ve got a video of you using Electri6ity that you think we should check out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu6pkkqwyfQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_OLB-cog9o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMHS364DD4

Hans-Jörg Scheffler puts Electri6ity to use in a Moto-X video on Vime

Music Tech Magazine Review August 2010:

From Stevie Wonder’s triumphant Glastonbury gig this year all the way back to the Temptations, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye in the 60s and 70s, the classic Motown sound has had a massive influence on modern music. Detroit Soul is the latest library form Big Fish Audio, created in conjunction with Funk/Soul Productions, that aims to capture the sound of the great soul and R&B artists of the Motor City.

The dual-layer DVD contains around 2.8GB of 24-bit WAV content in ACID WAV, Apple Loops, REX and Stylus RMX formats. This breaks down into 626 loops across 28 construction kits, plus a folder containing the individual multi-track drum recordings. As with many of the previous Big Fish Audio libraries, the quality of the performers, the recording and the mixing is top-notch. Instruments include drums, hand percussion, claps, bass, guitar, piano, Rhodes, organ and trumpets, plus alto, tenor and baritone sax.

The exquisite production places each instrument perfectly on the soundstage, with just the right amount of ambience for each part gluing the whole sound together and instantly evoking images of the large-scale recording sessions of yesteryear.

Tempo ranges from 53 to 200BPM, with Curtis/Marvin-esque ballads sitting next to more upbeat funk/soul grooves. Each kit contains around four parts for each instrument, which generally include an intro, several variations and an outro or fading tail note that helps make the pack more flexible when arranging. Although trumpets and saxophones are all mixing together into one horn section, they deserve special mention as the dynamic stabs and falls are fantastic. The inclusion of the original multi-track drum recordings only adds to the flexibility of a superb collection.

Whether you are composing for a 60s or 70s-themed TV show or wanting to add some authentic Tamla vibes to your songs, this is a beautifully written, beautifully recorded, high-quality collection of toe-tapping tracks.

Verdict

A high-quality set of instrumentals with an impressive authentic vintage soul feel.

Interested in a little behind-the-scenes? My name is Brendan Hogan; I am the sound designer and programmer for Violence and I’d like to take you on a tour of some of my favorite parts of this new library. Violence is the culmination of a series of experiments that I have been working on for some time now and documenting on my blog Impossible Acoustic. While I own and enjoy many multi-sampled recreations of acoustic instruments, I’m fascinated by the potential of sampling to create entirely new sounds and instruments that straddle the line between acoustic and digital. Some of the instruments in Violence sound acoustic, some sound electronic, some are in between, but they are all made from multi-sampled recordings of a single violin.

The 82 instruments which make up Violence are organized into four categories: Melodic, Pads and Sound Effects, Drum Kits, and Tempo Synced. I’d like to take a moment to pick one of my favorite instruments from each category and tell you a little more about them and what went into their creation.

MELODIC

There are a lot of interesting melodic instruments in Violence, made from some pretty unusual sources, for example, plucking the strings with a guitar pick instead of fingers. Or striking the body of the violin with a soft mallet to create marimba-like tones. There’s also a very silly instrument called “Gnome Child” created by wetting my fingers and rubbing them across the tailpiece of the violin. The resulting sound has a sort of vocal quality kind of like the cuíca and other friction drums. There’s also an extensively multi-sampled instrument made by striking the violin strings with chopsticks which includes controls for realistic bounces and rolls.

One of my favorite instruments in the melodic section is called “Organ from Harmonics” which, as the name suggests, is made from lightly processed recordings of bowed harmonics. This instrument sounds great at its default settings, but like most of the instruments in this library, by altering the default knob settings you can create a whole range of unique sounds. In the following demo track, I’ve taken many different instances of the “Organ from Harmonics” and created a whole series of unique sounds simply by changing knob settings. With the exception of one instance of “Altered Kit”, the following demo track is made entirely from “Organ from Harmonics”.

PADS AND SFX

Artists and scientists alike know that the most striking discoveries often happen purely by accident. One of my favorite instruments in the “Pads and SFX” category is an instrument called “Rhythms of Grass”. This instrument came about while I was recording samples for the percussion instrument “Bow Kit”. I was hitting the neck of the violin with the back of the violin bow; first softly then harder, harder, and harder when, as I should have anticipated but didn’t, the violin bow broke. This ruined my plans for the rest of my studio session so I began casting about for other ideas. Still holding the broken bow in my hand, and the recording still rolling, I took the hairs from the broken bow and looped them around the back of the g string and began pulling it back and forth. The resulting sound is similar to a properly bowed note but much rougher and with more prominent overtones. I continued to experiment with bowing in this fashion and the resulting recordings found their way into several instrument, most predominantly in “Rhythms of Grass” which sounds like this:

DRUM KITS

The percussion instrument “Bow Kit” is my favorite drum kit and it is also one of the simplest. Other drum kits feature heavily designed sounds, with each sample carefully and individually processed. The “Bow Kit” on the other hand, is made up entirely of acoustic samples. I bowed muted strings, bowed above the neck and below the bridge, bowed the bridge itself and the chin rest. I also used the back of the bow as a drum stick, which resulted in unintended consequences as I have already mentioned. All of these samples were then subjected to only one form of processing: re-pitching. I am frequently amazed by how transformative the simple act of re-pitching can be. In the following audio clip, you will hear a rhythm made from samples of bowed squeaks and back-of-the-bow strikes all at their original pitch. Immediately following, is the exact same rhythm with the samples re-pitched. Listen to how drastically different they sound.

Each drum kit in Violence comes with controls that not only allow you to quickly and easily re-pitch each note individually, you can also save and re-load your custom configurations thereby creating a whole series of unique drum kits all from the same instrument.

TEMPO SYNCED

For a while now, I have been playing with the idea of “playable loops”. Most loops are pre-determined static events. You press a button, hold it down and let them do their thing. You can change the tempo and change the pitch, but beyond that you don’t have much control over them. There is one such instrument in Violence which I have appropriately named “One Trick Pony”. It’s a cool loop, and could be very useful in the right situation, but generally my goal was to make all the instruments, even the loops, playable, versatile and dynamic. One instrument which exemplifies this philosophy, is the instrument in the “Tempo Synced” section called “Chopstickin”. As the name suggests, this instrument was made by striking the violin strings with chopsticks. By alternately muting and un-muting the string at different locations, I created a rhythm of tones and overtones which sound like this:

This performance was then repeated on multiple strings and at different volumes. I also recorded separate release samples so that when a note is released quickly, it rings out and the instrument behaves much like a traditional multi-sampled instrument would. However, when a note is held down, the full loop plays. Here is an example of what can be done with just this instrument alone.

Hello BFA bloggers! Andrew here, stopping by to give the word on what’s new in the world of downloads.

This week we’ve got some new packs by Loopmasters. Samplify by David Carbone, Dubstep and Grime Vocals, Audio Injection: Minimal Techno Vol. 2, BHK Fidget, Jamie Ball: Banging Techno, and BHK UK Mashup.

FutureLoops also hits us up with some new high quality downloads this week.  We have Table Loops: Total India, Jungle Veterans, Electronic Beats & Grooves, Drum N Bossa Beats, Distance Dubstep, and Dexter Sinister.

Smart Loops, a company who specializes in multi-track drumloops sends us their best in, Medium Straight Country-Rock 1, Medium-Fast Shuffle-Blues 1, and Medium Straight Rock 3.

To finish us off for this week, Prime Loops brings us home with Da Sound of Bounce, Dubcore Assault, Electro House Shoxx, Fingalickin’ Hip Hop Grooves, Ghetto House Grooves, Liquid Techno Grooves, Bleep Machine, and Nu Eastern Grooves.

That’s it for this week in downloads, make sure to check out www.bigfishaudio.com for the newest and hottest loops, samples and instruments!

Big Fish Audio kicks off its 50/50 Summer Sale! Now through August 25th save 50% off 50 of our hottest top-selling products. Both downloads and boxed products are included! Time is running out on these amazing deals.

Get your hot savings with coupon code SUMRS. (Input code at checkout. Discount will be applied to your shopping cart when using coupon code.)

Looking for drums and percussion? Read what Recording Magazine says about Epic Drums, Elemental Studio Percussion and Cinematic Percussion.

Big Fish Audio has partnered with VIP Loops to bring you the new Platinum Series, which includes three brand new titles, Tri State Knowledge Beats, R&B Radio Killas and That’s A Hit Pop Edition.

VIP Loops Platinum Series is the result of over 8 years of sample sound and loop library experience, and decades of professional music production experience. This product line is created by a team of professional musicians, engineers, producers, and sound developers who are passionate about bringing you the very best in loop library and sample sound products. The loop sets, sample sounds and individual loops are hand picked providing a superior product every time.

Credits from the VIP Loops Platinum Series production teams include Flo Rida, Jason Derulo, Jodeci, Mariah Carey, Tu Pac, Nate Dogg, Chris Brown, New Edition, George Clinton, NFL, BET, HBO, Jersey Shore, The Bachelorette, and many more. The team’s work is responsible for millions of records sold worldwide. This series promises to deliver the most modern hip hop, rnb, dance, urban pop, and rock products available. The VIP Loops team offers the Platinum Series exclusively through Big Fish Audio and plans to release a massive collection of the very best loop library products available to date.