April’s top ten loop sellers saw The Crate: Ultimate Urban Samples hold its position at the top. There were a few new arrivals to the top 10, including the latest in the Xtended Series, Punk N’ Ska, a collection of modern punk, classic punk and ska construction kits. Also from the Xtended Series, Americana Country, shot into the top ten after being released midway through April. Another new arrival making its first appearance in the top ten was Beatage: Clinton Sparks Collection of Awesome Beats, Drums and Sounds. Clinton Sparks has produced for some of the biggest names in Hip Hop Rap and R&B including T-Pain, Ludacris, and The Notorious B.I.G.
As expected, the April release of RiG: Urban Workstation came with a big splash as it was by far the top selling instrument of the month. This complete rig of instruments, loops and sound FX for urban production promises to be one of the years best selling products.
For this month’s pick we are going to look at a couple of outstanding percussion libraries. These aren’t collections of standard shakers and tambourines but instead you will find Riqs, Dehollahs, Tablas, Tavils, Kanjeeras, Dholak, and many other percussion instruments from both the Middle East and India.
First, let’s look at Rhythms of Arabia. Rhythms of Arabia is a finely crafted collection of percussion loops from the Arab world. Inside this product you’ll find over 1000 loops played in various different rhythmic styles from that region. The product is organized by BPM with various folders of different instruments contained within. The loops are recorded dry, giving you the freedom to place them in your music with ease and maximum flexibility.
Score of India contains a few similar instruments to Rhythms of Arabia but stands alone with it’s own unique vibe and feel. As you may assume from the name of this product, Score of India is a perfect fit for any film/tv score needing a boost of energy and drive from authentic Indian percussion. Whether you are scoring an action packed drama, a soaring landscape, or a high speed chase scene, you’ll find a perfect fit with these loops.
Today we have a very special announcement. Ueberschall has now made their download format available for their ENTIRE catalog! That’s correct, you can now purchase Ueberschall products as downloads from the Big Fish Audio website. To celebrate this occasion we were able to get an exclusive interview with Wenzel Mehnert from the Ueberschall team.
Who and what is Ueberschall?
Ueberschall is a label for professional sample libraries. Our big strength is the versatility and the authentic quality of each of our libraries. With more than 30 different producers we have released over 100 different libraries. From soul, funk, rock and pop to score & SFX sounds to all kinds of electronic music. Our catalogue covers 40 different music styles and is still growing! This is the reason why customers from all over the world and from different branches of music trust in Ueberschall when it comes to music production, movie scores, web and multimedia projects of any kind.
What makes the Ueberschall Elastik and Liquid Plug-in engines so special?
Ueberschall libraries come with a free sample player. You only pay for the soundbank and get a flexible sampling tool on top. There are two different players:
Liquid Player. The Liquid Instrument Series (L.I.S.) offers new ways to control and redo sampled lines and phrases! In close cooperation with Celemony (Melodyne), Ueberschall developed a way to have Liquid allow you to pitch and stretch single notes of a complete lick and suit it to your personal needs.
Elastik 2 Player. The Elastik 2 Player manages all Elastik libraries in one engine. It comes with a whole range of desirable features: The self-explanatory browser, designed for fast access to any loaded sound libraries. The central Loopeye surface focuses all attention on the loop and keeps several innovative DSP functions. The sequence mode allows you to slice up the loop and edit each part individually – on the fly. The random button offers unforeseeable inspiration, plus many more.
Tell us about the brand new Inspire Series.
The Elastik Inspire Series crosses the path between Construction Kit libraries and usual loop libraries. Each volume keeps 2GB of loops and phrases that work perfectly together with each other. You can use them in combination with already existing projects or you can create new “Inspire Kits” on your command.
Using the “random” button, the “Inspire Kits” can be altered and new combinations of instruments can be created automatically. The selected sample will be replaced by a randomly selected sample of the same instrument class – no matter what genre. This allows the user to create complete new and never heard construction kits. All samples fit perfectly together and the results are 100% copyright free!
The “Elastik Inspire Series” represents an inexhaustible source of inspiration especially for creative people in the music, film, multimedia and web industry. Due to the high quality of Ueberschall products, the created tracks can be immediately integrated into one’s own projects without any further treatment.
Last but not least, what’s on the coming up for Ueberschall?
When it comes to sample libraries, Ueberschall will keep on releasing new libraries that hit the spot. For example, we have a ton of new volumes for the “Elastik Inspire Series” and construction kit libraries for all music genres. Apart from that, Ueberschall will keep the focus on new functions for their sample players Liquid and Elastik. New ideas are already realized and just need to be developed. The future for Ueberschall is going to get very interesting!
Big Fish Audio would like to thank the crew at Ueberschall and Wenzel Mehnert for taking the time for this interview and filling us in on what’s to come. Be sure to check out all the Ueberschall products here on our website.
RiG: Urban Workstation will ship on Friday April 8th. Your opportunity to pre-order and save is running out so order RiG by the end of the day Friday and save $50! Click here to order.
Pre-order RiG now, and also receive free shipping. Use Coupon Code SHPRIGFREE.
RiG: Urban Workstation is a complete collection of Instruments, Loops and Sound FX for Urban Production. This Virtual Instrument contains over 1200 patches and 26GB of samples. You get multi-sampled instruments as well as a wide variety of loop-based instruments.
| The Sound
Big Fish Audio has joined forces with the engineers at Vir2 to create a virtual instrument tailor-made for the hip hop and R&B producer. You don’t have to weed through instrument after instrument to find the right sound since each instrument in RiG has been recorded and edited to create instant inspiration for you, the modern producer. Easy to use The easy to use RiG interface places all parameters right in front of you allowing you to quickly customize your sound to create that perfect fit for your next hit track. RiG includes a custom synth step fx editor allowing limitless combinations of gate effects, arpeggios, sequenced pan effects, attack and decay, and low and hi pass filters. You will also find a loop playback interface allowing you to access and edit individual slices of the included loops. RiG is divided into seventeen main category folders: Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Drum Banks, Drum Loops, Electric Guitar, Ethnic, Horn Section, Keyboards, Orchestral Hits, Organs, Percussion and Harp, Percussion Loops, Piano, Sliced Loops, Strings, Synths and Vocals. |
In the month of February Ambient Skyline has climbed back into the number one slot with The Crate: Ultimate Urban Samples in a close second. Indie: Rock Collection Vol. 1 and Metric: Odd Meter Drumloops broke into the top ten for the first time and for good reason. Indie: Rock Collection Vol.1 perfectly captures the sound and feel of some of today’s most popular Indie bands, while Metric: Odd Meter Drumloops is the answer to those looking for drums not in 4/4.
Electri6ity edged out Q for the top instruments spot while MOJO: Horn Section and Voxos: Epic Virtual Choirs followed closely behind.
New from Sonokinetic is a one of a kind library featuring pacific warrior & tribal music. HAKA is a testament of these ancient musical cultures in song, chant and dance.
Scraping the surface of this vast cultural heritage Russ Landau and Sonokinetic invested in producing a collection of samples that are unmatched in authenticity, realism, power and beauty. Lomax would have been jealous and anxious if he’d knew what would be possible with modern technology.
This library is guaranteed to help you impress your opponent and proclaim your strength and prowess in order to intimidate your opposition. Recorded on location deep within the Vanuatu, Samoan, Hawaiian, New Zealand and the Marquesas Islands, this is original tribal warrior music that we discovered and captured in high quality audio. With this production we’re proud to present you a testament of these ancient musical cultures in song, chant and dance.
The intelligent scripting and use of the Kontakt sample format makes this sample pool of live performed music and dance fit right in, or be the base to work from for, your compositions and productions. Built in a single Kontakt patch, this new setup will give you the flexibility to construct your own instrument by selecting and adding groups of samples and simply dragging them to your midi keyboard. So gone are the days that you had to weed through tons of patches.
Note: This library requires a full retail version of Kontakt 4.1 or later. It is not compatible with the Free Kontakt Player.