What’s up audio creatives across the world and internets. Stiltz checking in and I‘m here to give you the run down on this month’s drum library installment Breaks for Days: September. This is the first installment that I’ve personally had the opportunity to experience and was really excited to get a chance to work with them. That being said, let’s take a look.
First Look
The download and file organization is pretty straightforward. It’s one zip file which contains a single folder with each loop titled by month & day. This being the month of September, you get 30 breaks in total. Like I mentioned before, pretty straight forward, right? Based on the other reviews I’ve seen, this seems to be the norm for each installment as well. Although, one thing that would have been nice, is to know is the bpm for each break, but there are a few ways to come up with it on your own.
These Are The Breaks
The breaks come in 16bit .wav format so you can drop them in majority of the samplers on the market (hardware or software), and all DAWs. For this review, I tested them out with Maschine Studio and also with iMPC Pro on the iPad Mini. Each break is original and unique with style, tempo, groove, and feel. They were processed with saturation and recorded to tape, giving you this gritty and warm sound that translates well across many genres. Don’t worry, the majority of these are not overly processed like you’ll find with some of the other libraries out there on the market. These are processed enough to where they leave you room to do your own additional processing to taste. There are a few that have been run through a LoPass filter and I wasn’t really feeling the sound too much. Some breaks are great for chopping individual sounds to layer with other sounds in your arsenal and some you could just straight loop and call it a day. All comes down to personal preference.
The library has this natural loose feel that can get you hyped like when you find that gem off that one record when you’re diggin’ in the crates. I’m not going to front, the September 1 break off-top had me reminiscing about the b-boy days and all I wanted to do was hit the floor. BUT, those days are behind me now and the beatmaker/producer in me just wanted to chop them up for a beat. The breaks that really caught my attention in this installment, besides September 1, are September 4, 7, 10, and 29 – just to name a few.
Conclusion
I found this library very useful and convenient to just grab a break and start writing. Sure, there were a few breaks that weren’t to my liking, but those mainly came down to the sound character, rather then the groove itself. I will most definitely be checking out the previous months, and look forward to processing them as well. In the end, I was impressed, overall, with the drumming and recording of the breaks. So, if you want to check them out and purchase a copy yourself, then head on over to The Drum Broker. Thanks for tuning in and don’t forget…have fun writing music! Peace.