We recently announced our new Xtended Series and received a tremendous amount of interest. Among the response were requests for more information about the series. We had a chance to sit down with Phil Symonds, one of the creators of the Xtended Series, and ask him a few questions about this incredible new series.
What exactly is the Xtended Series?
The Xtended Series is really a concept more than it is a particular loop library. At its essence it’s the idea that you should be free of limitations when creating music and you should have complete freedom over your music creations. As a music creator, you want to have the ability to create as fast as those creative thoughts come to you and you want the ability to be more expressive and more in control of your productions.
So the Xtended Series is simply that, a new no compromise, no holds barred, give the user every little nuance, every little detail that would be captured at the recording session. After all it’s really the subtle nuances that create interest in tracks, creates tracks that breathe, tracks that don’t sound “programmed” or give those programmed tracks a greater sense of realism. The Xtended Series is about giving the user all of the options from the recording session, all the variations in verses, chorus, prechorus….give them all the solos, all the vamps, all the intros and outro sections. Give them the complete live played multi drums for each and every kit in the Library. The Xtended Series gives the user the complete recording sessions as they would get if they hired the best producers, best players, best engineers, best studios in the world and then had the top editors on the planet to come in clean, time, edit and make the tracks 100% usable. Basically, freedom to tweak to your hearts content!
Who will find this series most useful?
I really feel like any music creator will find this series extremely useful; but I would say its definitely geared more for the serious music creator who desires to be unique, different and wants their production to stand out.
I would say that if someone really isn’t discerning in their taste then this product is definitely not for them!
The Xtended Series was specifically designed for the creator who wants to have an extreme amount of truly authentic loops to add into their current productions or simply someone who wants to get the creative juices flowing when starting their new projects….the libraries in the Xtended Series are jam packed full of terrific song starts.
I also feel that this series is going to be a breath of fresh air for those artists out there who like to push their music to the edge by mixing genres in their projects. Think of cutting edge producers like Timbaland and Will.I.Am (Black Eyed Peas), these producers are constantly mixing genres of music together that you would never ever think to put together and come up with some of the most unique, cutting edge and obviously successful commercial music out there. This series is going to be a real treat for those users because every loop in this library series is so legit and the most authentic material out there.
Why did you create the Xtended Series and what was your inspiration for doing so?
The series was really birthed out of a growing frustration with a lot of the composers, producers and writers we work with in not being able to find what they were needing in a lot of the libraries out there. They would mentioned that they wanted more variations of playing and variations in song sections in the libraries they used. A lot of clients simply wanted sounds and music genres that have never existed in loop libraries or were never really created in an authentic manner. When we first started hearing these difficulties we would simply just create one of a kind custom libraries for them or help them produce these types of styles for their various musical needs. Then, funny enough, after awhile quite a lot of our clients started suggesting we create our own sample libraries and put them out. Honestly we really didn’t take it serious at first because we had really made our business out of crafting high quality custom projects for those who could really afford the expense that such undertakings incurred. Then, one day when we were working with a client that we’ve been longtime friends with, they said the same things that everyone else had, only that he added the fact that he was tired of paying so much money for our services. We just laughed because in that moment we finally realized that this would be a way to give creative power to a much wider audience.
Our goal would be to do the same thing we always do, make the absolute best sounds and productions possible; but bring them to a greater audience and give more than just the top dogs in the industry access to the best production and sounds. We wanted to create a killer library series for those that don’t necessarily have a huge budget, but need those big budget sounds. We knew we’d have to create a library that was on the same high standards that we always work on, we’d have to make no compromises in the writing, playing, engineering and production of the project and we knew that we would have to make a series that we would want to use ourselves and that became the criteria for each library in the series…. No compromise!
We wanted to work with the best sample loop library company out there and we’ve been using Big Fish Audio Loops since we can remember, so they were the obvious first choice. We had a meeting with the Big Fish Audio team and basically talked with them about everything that we really wanted to do, the high standards, the massive libraries, the interesting and unique music styles and they saw our vision and completely shared it! I guess that was a little more than a year ago and in the meantime we’ve all been putting in some of the longest days we’ve ever put in. It’s funny though, that when you really love what you’re doing, time seems to become non-existent… these sessions have been some of the most exciting sessions we’ve ever done. We’re really proud of the work that is going to be available. I think it’s going to shock some people how we’ve approached these libraries. We basically said what kind of stuff do are clients ask for….Ok, check! Then what are all the things we’d want in a library…check, check, check!
Its really a no holds barred approach to making construction kit and loop libraries.
What’s the biggest difference between the Xtended Series and other loop libraries?
Well, there’s so many differences; but I’d say the biggest difference is the complete freedom that the Xtended Series enables the music creator. Freedom of choice and not having to be tied down to one choice of loop, one choice of playing variation, one song section…freedom to create music as its supposed to be created, with dynamics and variations. I’ll also just briefly mention the other differences as well because they’re just as important.
The amount of content in these Libraries is also a huge difference when compared to most other loop libraries.
The Xtended Series gives the user gigs upon gigs of completely usable content with no filler. The Xtended Series libraries offer users gem after gem after gem of hand crafted, high quality loops that they’ll be able to use for years and years to come….there’s just so much great material in these libraries.
We created the Xtended Series libraries to have massive depth in each and every kit. We went really deep with this series so that you’re now able to have tons of variations, nuances and plenty of options for your tracks. I have a feeling that this series is going to spoil people in the sheer number of choices.
You get every single file in WAV/ACID, Apple Loops and REX formats. So, if for example your working in the REX format, you’ll never have to worry that the perfect loop for your production isn’t going to be included in your format. Each and every file has been formatted and is included for your creating pleasure. Also, another big one is that we wanted to provide the user with the complete multi drums for each and every kit in every library in the series. So not only are these live played, acoustic drums, captured incredibly well; but you get the entire song in this manner to remix if that is your desire or simply to just grab pieces of the kit.
Also, every one of the libraries in the Xtended Series has been hand-crafted and edited with extreme attention to detail and feel. This basically means that you’ll now have the ability to “mix n match” different sections of the songs with one another, various instrument grooves and song sections, kits with different kits and also use different Xtended Series Libraries with one another for an endless amount of variations. Again, freedom to create on your terms!
What types of libraries (genres/instruments) do you plan on releasing in this series?
I’m not able to mention them right now since were still finalizing quite a few of them for upcoming releases….. but I can tell you that we have a huge number of Libraries coming out this year! There are a number of libraries that we’ve created that are going to be first of their kind in their respective musical genre; musical styles you thought you’d never find loops for. These particular libraries were originally conceived because clients would come to us and say, man we can’t find any samples in this genre or that genre, can you create some for us. And so we thought, why shouldn’t everyone have access to these kinds of sounds. Now you will!!!
All I can really say is that be on the look out on the Big Fish Audio website because were finalizing some massive libraries in genres that are going to completely freak people out …should be really cool to see people’s reaction to these bad boys!