!llmind Blap Kit 808 and String Breaks Review

For hip hop producers nothing and I mean NOTHING, is more important than how hard our drums hit. Whether it’s a simple kick from a DR-5, that perfectly sampled snare from our favorite break beat vinyl, or the knock of the classic 808, the drums are the backbone of our productions. As of late in our quest for drum kits, New Jersey producer !llmind has been providing the market with incredible “Blap Kits” containing some of the hardest hitting drums on our favorite records. !llmind is back, but this time not only is he making our neck snap, he’s provided us with some DOPE strings to make that perfect beat.

When we purchase this pack, we notice out the gate you have 27 brand new 808’s. Just what in the hell are we going to do with 27 808’s?? The answer to that is anything we want. Each 808 is unique and different in its way. Some provide us with that two 15” subs in the back rumble, while others are punchy and to the point. When I loaded these into my Native Instruments Maschine, I tested the accuracy of the pitches. Just as suspected, each 808 starts on a “C”, meaning making those dirty 808 rolls will be a piece of cake. While most of the punchier 808’s leave us wanting more, they also knock just right. In addition, !llmind has provided us with 5 Bonus 808 snares.

Now onto the part of this kit that had me intrigued the most, the string breaks. !llmind provides us with very (VERY) realistic string sounds. It’s almost like he had a 40 piece orchestra in studio and was the conductor. Everything ranging from quartets, solos, and full on ensembles can be found in each of these breaks. We can load these samples into our Maschines (or MPCs, or FL Studio, or Reason….. you get the picture) and begin chopping with ease. These are also (what I consider a producers 2 favorite words) royalty free! Also the sound is incredible, I did have a gripe (a small one, but a gripe). The labeling on a lot of these string samples is awful (Section 11_03 or Section 14_02). It’s hard to tell what each sound is. There are also samples with the exact same label (there are 13 samples labeled “Section 1_01” and it happens a lot more) so we may find ourselves going into our sample folders and renaming. ALSO (I guess 2 small gripes.), since we are provide with stems, a lot of the samples don’t have any sound on them for close to two minutes or longer. So there will be a lot of loading the sample and truncation involved just to get a preview of the sample. A major inconvenience for those that enjoy a quick work flow.

At the end of the day, !llmind provides us with some goodies to continue to be creative with, and that’s what we all purchased his kits for anyways. Enjoy 808s and String breaks. I most certainly am.

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James Jaxin

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Product Review Specialist MaschineMasters.com