Loopmasters recently released SFX Collection 01, a sample library featuring over 1.5 GB of sound effects by Wave Alchemy.

After reading some of the comments on this release I figured I’d give it a spin.

Now I kind of promised myself to stop posting reviews of products that I don’t have all that much to say about (since those end up containing mostly info that is already available from the product page), but I liked this library so much I figured I’d just post a mini-review.

What do you get?

In short, SFX Collection 01 offers over 1.5 GB of 24-bit sound effects, created using the “finest of vintage and new age electronic equipment” (check the kit list on the product page for details).

Wave Alchemy divided the effects into 8 categories: cymbal fx, downlifters, impacts, short fx & hits, stabs & acid hits, sweeps & drones, textures, and uplifters.

Although I think these categories have some overlap — e.g. impacts could also be in the short fx & hits folder, up and downlifters also have sweeps etc. — it is nice they didn’t chuck everything in one big folder like I probably would have done (it’s all sweeps, wobbles, blips & blobs isn’t it?).

You also get a bunch of instrument patches (EXS24, Kontakt, sfz, HALion, and NN-XT) so you’re ready to start using these effects in your sampler right away.

So what do I think?

The effects in this sample library are simply fantastic; high quality and great variation in sounds. I enjoyed the short fx the most. Big bass hits, retro arcade bleeps, distorted feedback, etc. Lots of unique sound effects in here.

One thing though. Many samples have been heavily processed, e.g. with the lovely Sherman Filterbank, Eventide H3000, TC Electronic M3000 etc. This makes these samples sound great on their own, but some of the big reverb and delay effects might not always work so well in your productions.

The sounds were apparently created with dance music in mind, so the ones with a delay effect probably work best around 120-130 bpm (I did a quick check on some of the samples and it seems this is the general bpm range used).

Wave Alchemy SFX Collection 01 is available as a download for £44.95 GBP (~$70 USD) from the Loopmasters website.

More information: Loopmasters / SFX Collection 01