SAMPLE PACKS

DJ Tiësto, the world's number 1 DJ! (The DJ List). No other DJ can claim to have won it three times, let alone consecutively. His hit singles include "Flight 643," "Lethal Industry," "Suburban Train," "Traffic," "Just Be," and "Adagio for Strings". He and his producer Dennis J. Waakop Reijers are in great demand as remixers, too. Without a doubt: Both are real legends.

"Oliver Schmitt delivers a great sample cd: "Club Revolution Vol.1" ! Not just loops with kicks filtered off, full spectrum! Big sounds, revolutionary and unique in it's kind. He is one of the best sound producers we know! We've used several of his synthie sounds on our latest and future tracks, too. Besides that, he's really a nice guy!"

Seven artist albums and 15 hit singles. That says it all. Piet Blank and Jaspa Jones have been hugely important in the history of electronic music. They are global players in the best sense of the word, with a worldwide reputation to match.

"After being a fan of the sound sets for Vanguard and ES 2, Sounds of Revolution delivers a new exciting Sample Collection "Club Revolution Vol.1". Really fresh and excellent sounding samples for update club music production. It’s not like the usual collection of loops, like other CD’s, which you heard like a 1000 times. They are exclusively produced for this CD, with much love for the details. Even the kick free loops are not just low cutted, they are just programmed without the Kick, leaving the sound spectrum untouched! This gives you much more opportunities and they are fitting perfectly into your sound context. Two Thumbs up!"

For the better part of the last decade Ernesto van der Meij & Edwin Koelewijn (better known to the community at large as Ernesto vs. Bastian) have been crafting their very own electronic dance formula. In that time the Dutch duo have propelled themselves to the forefront of trance (& dance) culture, through stellar productions, revered remixes and show-stealing DJ performances. With Ernesto at the deck controls and Bastian the master studio-head, together they form a perfect musical symbiosis. With club hits like ‘Who’s The Starter’, ‘Stranger In Paradise’ and ‘Thrill’ and all-out anthem-calibre works like ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in their discography, they’ve brought roadblock queues to dancefloors the world over.


"The Sound Of Revolution Series are not only one of the biggest and diverse sample packages available at the moment, but most important is that they are unbelievable usable! Looking for a fresh sounding loops for EDM or any other musicstyle...you got it. Looking for a tight fitting bass sound...no problem. At the moment we are working on a couple of new Ernesto vs Bastian tracks and remixes and all we can say about that is that we used quite a bit of the massive sounds of SOR. Recommended! 5 STARS!"

The value of a good samples pack can often be judged on three things; the quality of the sounds, the amount that they inspire, and ease with which you can then incorporate the sounds into your own tracks. German sound wizard Oliver Schmitt spent nearly a year painstakingly creating all the sounds and loops for his first sample pack, Club Revolution VOL.1, which easily ticks all these boxes. [...] contains a massive collection of extremely usable effects. The main samples comprise 650mb of 16bit, 44.1 WAVs. Whilst this may not match other packs recorded at 24bit resolution, it allows for twice as much content - and the sound quality is excellent. Also included are 522 patches for Kontact and EXS, which map every single sample and loop to the keyboard.

This really is a professional pack made by a producer for a producer, and this is backed up by the long list of testimonials from cutting edge artists who are fans of Oliver's work. There's no hand holding here either: what you get are hundreds of individual hits, sweeps and loops that you can incorporate into any style of electronic music. Oliver clearly understands exactly what kinds of sounds make up a complete dance track and has covered every single base with staggering variety. The only drawback is that, with so many quality samples on offer, you'll find it hard to decide which ones to use.

VERDICT: An essential toolkit for anyone writing electronic music.
Rating: 10/10 plus the Music Tech Excellence Award

"...One of its unique selling points is the inclusion of kick-free drum loops, a feature we’d like to see n more sample packs."

[...] varied, authentic and powerful produced [...] Here we don`t have only menue-programs, where you can audio test the same samples via the keyboard - added are real playable programs for each single tonal sound. Considering the frame of possibilities this is real luxury. [...] Club Revolution can now compete with top dog Mutekki [...] Oliver Schmitt sets a course regarding the sound: His samples sound even a bit rougher and cooler than the ones of Mutekki - a good alternative or supplement. Try it out!

"The loops were programmed exclusively for this CD[...] a lovingly compiled production for dance styles"

"Treibend, frisch, groovy! Auch hier wurden sämtliche Kick free - Loops von Hand neu programmiert und zum bouncen die Kick gemuted und nicht etwa ein bereits vorhandener Loop gefiltert. Das Frequenzspektrum bleibt also komplett erhalten. Man hört, wie ich persönlich finde, im direkten Vergleich mit anderen "abgesampelten" Loops einen klaren Unterschied. Diese Loops matschen nichts zu, sondern lassen sich extrem gut im Mix platzieren. Alle Loops wurden mit 140 BpM aufgenommen. Die Loops liegen zum Teil als Construction Kit vor. Die "2" und "4" ist meist so ausgedünnt programmiert, dass man sich aus dem mitgelieferten Fundus an Claps und Snares selber die passende aussuchen kann.

Wer zu den Loops eine passende Kick sucht, sollte ebenfalls unter den 311 mitgelieferten Kicks fündig werden. Von Hard-, Distorted- bis hin zu Soft- und Sub-Kicks ist wirklich alles dabei. Da auch die Kicks von Oliver Schmitt neu programmiert wurden, klingen sie entsprechend gut. Wie bereits im Interviewteil des Tests zu "Electro House Revolution" zu lesen war, hat Oliver Schmitt die Kicks aus einzelnen Bestandteilen zusammen gesetzt und bearbeitet.

Aber auch die restlichen Kategorien werden gut bedient. Effekte, Percussion, Vocal-Bits, Claps, Snares, Cymbals, Percussion, Toms etc. Die Vielfalt und dennoch gleichbleibend hohe Qualität bei dieser CD ist wirklich bemerkenswert. Hauptgrund: Bis auf die "cutted" Sounds (s. Übersicht) sind alle Samples sozusagen handverlesen. Unschöne Artefakte sucht man hier umsonst. Hier wurden die Single Sounds nicht aus einem Loop freigestellt wie bei anderen Libraries.

Eine gute Idee sind die "Overview" Sounds. Man kann die Sounds der Kategorien Bass, Acid, Synth und Sounds schnell auf der Tastatur vorhören und lädt sich anschliessend den passenden Sound in den Sampler. [...] Zum Redaktionstipp fehlt mir persönlich nur noch die Kompatibilität zu REX und Co. An der Qualität der CD ist ansonsten nichts auszusetzen!

Fazit

Auch der ersten Sampling-CD von Sounds-of-Revolution merkt man die Liebe zum Detail an. Nicht nur die Loops, sondern auch der überwiegende Teil der spielbaren Sounds wurde neu programmiert. Alle tonalen Samples enthalten im Namen die Tonart! So sollte es sein. Preis-/Leistung gehen nicht nur aufgrund der Vielfalt voll in Ordnung. Neben 1a Loops erhält man einen gut sortierten Fundus an Drum- und sonstigen clubtauglichen Einzelsounds in hoher Qualität. Wem so etwas noch in seiner Sammlung fehlt, der kann hier bedenkenlos zugreifen."