“A Million Ways To Break: Volume 1” by KicksAndSnares.com
What’s good, MM Heads! It’s your man BROADWAY here to review a new drum break compilation from Kicksandsnares.com.
In the past few months, the music production game has been blessed by some pretty ill and unique drum break kits from various drum providers, creating a trend of great sounding break products to be had.
Jim Bond of KicksAndSnares.com not only continues that trend, but is also taking it to a new level of quality and variety. A Million Ways To Break not only provides you with great sounding & hard to find drum breaks, it also provides a streamlined and organized group of drum breaks to make a producers workflow and creative experience much easier.
I spent some time with this kit and in that time, I’ve found it has almost evolved into a no-brainer decision that whenever I want to use a raw drum break, I’ve gone directly to these breaks. I have many break kits from quality drum providers. It’s just seems AMWTB was created so that the end user, the producer, would be able to jump right into a session and load up these breaks and get busy.
There are three vital stand-outs for me in this kit:
- Comprehensive break-downs and chops of each Drum Break. This is where A Million Ways To Break stands out from the rest of the kits out there. Beyond the basic drum break samples, additional pre-chopped loops & pick-ups of the breaks are provided. It sounds so simple & obvious, but this is something nobody has done on other break compilations yet. To take it one step further, Jim Bond created unique loops and pick-ups by manipulating the breaks in unique patterns you would NOT find in the break itself. This is extremely clutch. It opens your options up so much, while also allowing you to be free to do something with the break, if you so choose.
- Vintage, rare, unique breaks. I haven’t heard not ONE of these breaks before. Jim Bond really dug into the crates for this batch of breaks. Not to say you won’t come across some breaks you already know. But even if you do, the pre chopped samples and edits will have you reaching for these breaks first.
- Processing and break quality. These breaks are all WARM and CLEAN. A few do have a little more obvious vinyl noise, which may be a plus or a minus depending on your style. The mix and processing of these breaks is as good as you’ll get. You won’t have to do much tweaking when you drop them in a session, from there it’s just personal preference of what you want to get out of the sounds.
The only negative I would have to throw in here would be that these are samples, not original drum breaks. But until someone comes out with an original break series that can replace the personality, quality and variety of traditional drum break samples, products like this are still relevant and extremely useful.
Bottom line… cop A Million Ways To Break. If you like breaks it’s a must buy & for numerous reasons, probably the best break kit currently on the market. BROADWAY seal of approval.
Until next time, 100!