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Reviewer Background:
My background has been a dj and programmer for about 4 years. Quit djing to get serious about production and Ive been making music on and off for about 2 years now. My choice in the type of music varies, but I enjoy making mostly experimental downtempo and drum & bass. I have a fairly humble set up now after selling most of my gear in my studio to help put money down on a house (I keep telling myself it was worth it but its hard to fight off the tears that well up in my eyes when I reflect:). My studio currently consists of an expanded Roland JV-1080, Nord Lead 2, and a pc stocked with a shitload of programs. I think Ive used every conceivable music application on the planet and currently fiddle around mostly with sonic foundry, steinberg and propellerhead software.
The Drum 'n' Bass X-Citers Sound/Cycles has been a staple library on my system for about two years now and I probably consider it one of the most helpful librarys of sounds Ive ever owned. Its a blessing for drum breaks, especially with the available rex format which can be used in Propellerheads Reason. I split the wav files manually for individual drum hits, and as rex files its even easier to program a beat within the Reason sequencer interface. The cds have your standard d&b sounds containing both effected and non effected samples. There are some decent pad samples, although I would never use them as I prefer to create my own atmospherics (and do a much better job if I do say so myself). In all truthfullness, I use the cd set more for drum resources than anything else. Overall, these are some very high quality, usable samples which I wholeheartedly recommend for anyone in need of some solid d&b loops.
Overall Rating: 10
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and the amount Ive gotten for its price. Im very selective when paying for sample discs mainly because I feel most sample discs are overpriced for what you get, however, this is definitely a cd set which is well worth the price and then some. As stated above, there are a wide variety of "staple" d&b sounds, but overall, I would consider it more specialized due to the quantity of drum loops as well as the fact that almost all the loops are geared toward the breakbeat/d&b genres.
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