Drum and bass genre was always innovative in terms of sound design, especially sub-genres like Neurofunk. Crazy futuristic bass and straight punchy drums are the trademarks of the genre. It’s not a big secret that creating complex and interesting “neuro bass” sound is the toughest part when you are a Neurofunk producer – think of Noisia, Phace, The Upbeats and other popular artists.
This is why sample libraries like the Drum & Bass Neuro Science by Loopmasters are here to help. Dan Larson, the author of this pack, did a great job designing a complete and useful set of loops and one-shots when it comes to overall production quality and nailing modern sound design vibe.
Let’s look at the technical details. The library contains 796 MB of content with 407 individual 24-bit WAV files. There are 228 loops in total, including 63 bass loops, 96 drum loops (27 mixed drum loops, 25 kick and snare Loops, 21 top loops, 12 shuffle loops and 11 percussion loops), 17 FX loops and 52 synth loops. The included 179 single hits are made up of 10 bass multi-instruments (featuring over 75 samples) and 104 drum hits (24 kicks, 29 snares, 24 hi-hats and 27 percussive hits). There are also 232 REX2 loops and 21 software sampler patches included. Overall tempo is ranging between 172-174 BPM.
Bass loops are my favorite part of this pack. After careful (almost analytical) listening to them, I can say that they are perfectly layered and mixed in stereo. Some are edgy and liquid whereas some are metallic and mechanical, yet they all have properly equalized sub and mid-bass parts in the stereo field. You won’t have to worry about mono compatibility and frequency conflicts with these.
PRO TIP: slice and rearrange these bass loops in your DAW or audio editor of choice. New versions will sound as good as the original, or even better. I had a lot of fun recycling these bass loops into new and exciting variations.
Drum loops are powerful sounding and delivered in 3-4 different combinations per loop. If you don’t want to use the mixed drum loop, simply use the kick-snare version of it and layer it with some else (such as another hi-hat loop or your custom percussion sequence). The library also includes a bunch of one-shot drum samples which can be used to customize and layer the provided loops.
Synth loops are decent, and I think it would be best to place them between the drops because the previously mentioned bass loops already have lots of mid-range detail. The provided FX loops are dark and haunting, as they were obviously designed to add a bit of that grimy DnB atmosphere. They provide a nice contrast to the rest of the content, and I’m happy to see them included.
Overall, I am very pleased with the sound quality and the diversity of this sample library, especially considering that it’s focused on a single sub-genre. Drum & Bass Neuro Science is a great source of top quality loop content for your music projects, as well as a proper reference to use when working on improving your sound design skills.
More info: Drum & Bass Neuro Science (£24.95)
Loopmasters Drum & Bass Neuro Science Review
Drum & Bass Neuro Science is a great source of top quality loop content for your music projects, as well as a proper reference to use when working on improving your sound design skills.
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Sound Quality9
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Pricing9
