Double Bass Mania II: The Return of the Beast takes it over the top with a relentless onslaught of fast and furious double bass grooves. With 800+ double bass grooves, groove variations, fills, one shots, and samples, Double Bass Mania II stands alone as the brutal choice for creating the heaviest of heavy metal tracks. Whether you need modern metal grooves in the vein of Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, and Children of Bodom or the old-school aggression of Slayer, Pantera, and early Metallica, Double Bass Mania II is designed for one thing: to pound out the relentless rhythms of your next metal track.

Double Bass Mania II is all about power and speed. With a cohesive collection of grooves spanning tempos from 75 BPM heavy rock to 300 BPM metal blasts, the disc will satiate any metalhead’s need for speed and brutality. If you’re a metal guitarist, bassist, or songwriter, Double Bass Mania II: The Return of the Beast will quickly become the weapon of choice in your arsenal. Metal drummers will also find the loops an invaluable source of inspiration and education as well. No matter what your goals are - writing demos, recording a future CD release, or expanding your metal chops - Double Bass Mania II opens the doors to all things metal.

Double Bass Mania II Features:

• Multiple Styles of Metal, from Hard Rock to Blastbeats: Chug along with the mortal tempos or blast it out with insane speed
• Wide Range of Tempos: 75, 90, 100, 110, 120, 140, 150, 180, 200, 220, 280, 300 and a supplemental 200+ folder
• Rhythmic Pairings: Beta Monkey constructed DBM II to include complementary tempo sets. Grooves from the following pairings 75/150, 90/180, 100/200, 110/220, and 140/280 allow songwriters to cut or double time signatures at will
• Superior Rhythmic Realism: 1, 2, 4, and 8 bar segments capture the full aggression of authentic metal phrasing
• High-End Production and Gear: Big drums hit hard in a big room. It’s not all that complicated
• Cohesive Groove Sets: All loops are taken from the same recording session (all grooves, fills, etc. are sonically-matched)
• Fully-Sampled Drum and Cymbal Samples: The sample kit section includes multi-velocity samples of all the drums and cymbals recorded
• Available in 16 or 24 bit “acidized” WAV, AIFF (Apple Loops), and REX2 formats

Visit Beta Monkey Music for free previews and to order Double Bass Mania II for only $29.99.

For more information, visit their web site at www.betamonkeymusic.com.

Posted in Loops, Samples

Today Toontrack Music released Superior Drummer 1.5.6 for dfh-Superior, Superior Custom and Vintage and Superior Vintage add-on.

The first RTAS version available of the Superior Drummer samplers for dfh-Superior, Superior Custom and Vintage and Superior Vintage add-on is compatible with ProTools 7 and above for all platforms (M-Powered, LE and TDM/HD - PC and Mac).

In addition the release features the following bug fixes and improvements:

• Graphic meltdown affecting Logic/DP-fronted TDM/DAE systems
• Improved multiple instances support on multiple CPUs
• Various transmute related bugs fixed
• Setting Fade mode back to Note On once Aftertouch or NoteOff had been selected was ignored

This update is recommended in particular for users who had experienced graphic issues with the previous release, and, of course, ProTools users with compatible systems.

Superior Drummer 1.5.6 is of course available as a free download for all registered and registering users of dfh Superior and Superior Custom and Vintage.

Posted in Samples, Software

MPCsounds.com has just released ‘Urban Percussion Loops’, a new loop library featuring hip hop and urban percussion loops for the Akai MPC1000/2000/XL/2500/3000/LE/4000 drum samplers.

Designed with hip-hop producers in mind, the library is organized into 4 hip-hop industry tempos: 87bpm, 92 bpm, 97bpm, & 102bpm. All 4 tempo groups contain 25 original percussion themes each, including 2 variation loops per theme: “Main” and “Fill”.

A variety world & ethnic instruments were used to produce all percussion loops including the agogo bell, berimbau, cabasa, cajon, chaker, chime, congas, cowbell, clave, djembe, doumbek, gankogui, guiro, nubell tree, pandeiro, rainstick, sleigh bell, talking drum, timbale, tombek, triangle, udu, plus more.

The ‘Urban Percussion Loops’ library contains 100 MPC PGM files for the MPC2000/3000/4000 versions that auto-load all 200 percussion loops included in the library. MPC1000/2500 versions feature easy sample loading via USB.

The loops library is available on MPC Zip Disk, MPC CD-ROM, & Download. Prices start at just $39.95.

For more information, visit their web site at www.mpcsounds.com.

Posted in Loops, Samples

The Owerland steel string guitar has been recorded with mono and stereo microphones and later mixed down, equalised and compressed for a discrete ready to use stereo sound suitable for melodic playing and arpeggios.

This is a well treated guitar sound that works in a mix for a broad range of music styles.

The Owerland Guitar SampleSet contains 182 Stereo WAV samples mapped in 4 velocity layers divided into 2 programs; “Owerland Picked” and “Owerland FX”

The SampleSet contains:
2 programs for HALion/Kontakt versions (24bit 44.1 KHz)
2 programs for SoundFont version (16bit 44.1 KHz)

The SoundFont versions are 100% compatible with all virtual samplers supporting the SoundFont format, like Gigastudio, HALion, Kontakt, EXS24, VSampler, NN-XT, Dimension, Sfz, Audigy and Emulator X.

All formats are included when you buy Owerland Guitar so you can download whatever format you like or all of them.

Owerland Guitar costs $29 (+$11 if you want it on CD).

For more information, visit their web site at www.precisionsound.net.

Posted in Guitar, Samples

ModernBeats.com has just released volume 2 of its ‘Urban Anthemz’ instrument loops series for all major MAC and PC music software.

Urban Anthemz 2 contains 400 loops of urban melodies, riffs, and hooks where styles range widely from ganksta hip hop loops all the way to unheard of modern hip hop melodies & hooks.

Urban Anthemz 2 works seamlessly with all other ModernBeats loop series where each series utilizes same group & tempo layouts. This allows users to build full productions within minutes by mix-matching & layering loops from each series together. The library is organized into 4 popular hip-hop industry tempos: 87bpm, 92bpm, 97bpm, and 102bpm. Each of the tempo groups contain 25 original loop themes including 4 variation loops within each theme: “Hook1″, “Hook2″, “Verse1″, and “Verse2″. That’s 400 loops across the Loopset with a total of 100 original hip hop melodies, riffs, & hooks per tempo.

A myriad of instruments & effects were used to design the loops such as ethnic woodwinds, orchestral woodwinds, full brass sections & stabs, trumpets, saxophones, ethnic strings, sitars, dizus, erhus, guchins, yangchins, pipas, tremolo strings, violins, cellos, pizzicato & exotic plucking, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flamenco guitar, wah-wah guitar, banjo, harps & harp glissandos, classic pianos, baby toy pianos, xylophones, marimbas, metallic bells, tines, synth pads, analog synths, sound effects, ambiences, atmospheres, plus more!

The ‘Urban Anthemz Vol. 2′ library is offered on CD-ROM or as a download. Prices start at just $59.95.

Universal Format Compatibility:
Sample Accurate Acidized WAV, Stereo

For more information, visit their web site at www.modernbeats.com.

Posted in Drums & Percussion, Instruments, Loops, Samples

NevaFong have announced the release of “Envelight Set” for Cakewalk Z3ta+, a new loadable wavetable set with 57 new waveforms and a sound set of 128 top-notch sounds.

Long-standing work experience with various synthesizers made it possible to create sounds which will be interesting both to beginning users and experienced musicians wishing to add new elements in their compositions.

The wavetable set includes 57 new waveforms. Unique waveforms are created on the basis of FM, additive, and subtractive synthesis and experimental modulations.

The soundset also includes 128 high-quality presets sorted by categories: Bass, Fat, FX, FX tone, Keyboard, Lead, Pad, Various.

Background and solo sounds are powerful and soft, with exotic and classical flavors to suit any genre.

Envelight Set costs $45. Demo mp3s are available for download on the Neva Fong website.

For more information, visit their web site at www.nevafong.com.

Posted in Computer, Recording, Samples, Software, Synth, Technology

The Musical Genome Project is a new sampleset series by Nucleus SoundLab for Wusikstation, Reason 3 and SF2/SFZ. MGP concentrates on inexpensive, sub-$30 libraries focused around specific musical themes. The goal of MGP is high-quality sounds everyone can afford.

ChordWaves I is the first sampleset in the Musical Genome Project series. ChordWaves I contains a variety of synth chords programmed on modular synthesizers - which are ideal as song-starters for all forms of electronica. They also make excellent atmospheric textures when run through appropriate effects.

The Wusikstation version contains:

• Over 450mb (32-bit) of raw samples
• 16 multisamples comprised of nearly 150 waveforms
• 100+ Wusikstation v3 presets by a variety of professional sound designers

The Reason 3 Refill contains:

• The same samples as above, compressed into a 150mb Refill
• 24 Custom Combinator Patches
• 16 NN-XT Patches

ChordWaves I is now available for the low price of $14.95 (single-format), $19.95 (all formats - Wusik/SF2/SFZ/Reason) or shipped on DVD for $24.95.

For more information, visit their web site at www.nucleus-soundlab.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Loops, Music, Recording, Samples

Beatsbymail.com has just released their Soul Bassis Vol.1-5 Collections and Get Da Synth sample collections.

First up is the Soul Bassis collection. These bass guitar loops and riffs will put you in the move to groove. Each volume contains some of the funkiest soul riffs and loops with varying tempos. You’ll get everything from funk wah basses to those smooth ghetto neo soul sounds.

Also on deck are the Get Da Synth Collections. The packs are filled with everything from the east to west and north to south styles. The tempos range from 70 to over 100 for a wide variety. There are even long synth one-shots so you can create your own melodies.

Each loop and riff pack cost $17.97 with special package deals.

For more information, visit their web site at www.beatsbymail.com.

Posted in Loops, Samples, Synth

Sonomic, home to the largest online library of samples, sound effects, and royalty-free music, and Zero-G, one of the world’s largest and longest established developers of Sample CDs and soundware, are proud to announce that over 120 Zero-G titles are now available as Downloadable CDs from Sonomic.

Downloadable CDs offer all of the sounds from a physical CD title as a single compressed file that can be downloaded with one click. Zero-G Downloadable CDs include numerous Keyboard KeyBuy, Future Music Platinum, and Sound On Sound Five Star award-winning titles, such as Chemical Beats, Jungle Warfare, Planet of the Breaks, Total House, Deepest India, Funk Guitar, Phantom Horns, NY Cutz, Nu House, and many more.

For more information, visit their web site at www.sonomic.com.

Posted in Computer, Loops, Recording, Samples

BandmateLoops.com is proud to unveil two new loop collections today. Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums features premium acoustic drum loops suitable for jazz and other compositions. Bandmates Synth Player - Bass Freq offers synthetic bass lines and effects for building out the “low end” in dance, hip-hop and electro-style projects. Both collections are available in Apple Loop, Acidized Wave, Rex2 and ReFill formats.

BMT-027 Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums

Seriously cool jazz is the hallmark of legends and Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums has got the rhythm and style to make it happen. Pristine acoustic performances cover a generous range of light to medium riffs. Jazz Drums features a live, balanced sound that is suitable for most jazz applications. Tempos range between 80 and 130 bpm.

BMT-027 Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums is available now via electronic delivery for $11.95 USD.

Available formats: Apple Loop, Acidized Wave, Rex2 and ReFill.

BMT-029 Bandmates Synth Player - Bass Freq

Build a better, more powerful low-end for dance, hip-hop and electronica with Bandmates Bass Freq. Get ready for a tantalizing array of rich synth bass lines and accents designed for maximum groove flexibility. Bass Freq’s well-balanced tone also allows for excellent layering effects.

BMT-029 Bandmates Synth Player - Bass Freq is available now via electronic delivery for $15.95 USD.

Available formats: Apple Loop, Acidized Wave, Rex2 and ReFill.

For more information, visit their web site at www.bandmateloops.com.

Posted in Loops, Recording, Samples