Inspiration Sounds recently released Pure Live Breaks Vol 1, a collection of drum grooves played by International Session Drummer, Gary Widlake.

Pure Live Breaks Vol 1 features over 270MB of rough and ready drumloops recorded at tempos from 95-130 BPM.

You get a little over 120 dry loops and the same amount of processed loops, in Acidized .wav, REX2, and Apple Loops formats.

The drum kit used for the recordings sounds nice and clear, with a thumpy kick and crunchy snare. Although the sound of the drums is identical across the various loops, there is quite a variety of grooves which fit well in pop and funk music, and can easily be used in other genres as well.

Looping live drums is always a bit tricky, dealing with cymbals and such. Inspiration Sounds has done a great job crafting loops with natural sounding starts and looping points.

The processed loops sound a little more aggressive (multi-band compression, some reverb perhaps) and are probably better suited for pop/rock or electronic music.

So what do I think?

It’s rather hard to program drums to sound live, which is good for people like Gary. I’m quite taken by the work he has done on these grooves. They are diverse and many loops can be cut up so you can improvise on them in your music. I personally like the sound of the drums a lot: tight & crunchy, though laid back & groovy.

Inspiration Sounds has put up a demo track and some free samples, so check those to see if you think these are some of the freshest and phattest drum grooves around.

Pure Live Breaks Vol 1 is available for download for £19.95 GBP (about $40 USD) from Inspiration Sounds.

Inspiration Sounds has released Pure Live Breaks Volume 1, a new sample pack featuring original and contemporary drumloops performed by international session drummer, Gary Widlake.

Pure Live Breaks 1 includes over 270MB of ‘rough and ready’ drumloops recorded at tempos from 95-130 BPM and presented in Acid, Apple Loops, REX, and WAV Formats. You get some of the freshest and phattest drum grooves around. These drumloops are totally current and they represent the earthy sound that has become popular in many styles of music today.

Pure Live Breaks Volume 1 features

• 270MB Content.
• ACIDized Wave Files, Apple Loops, Rex2 Loops.
• Loops from 95 to 130 BPM.
• Dry and Processed versions.
• All loops sync to BPM.
• PC/Mac Compatible.
• Royalty-Free (no exceptions).

Pure Live Breaks Volume 1 is available for instant download for £19.95 GBP / 24,95 EUR / $39.95 USD.

A a free sample pack with a selection of loops from Pure Live Breaks Volume 1 is available for download here.

Visit Inspiration Sounds for more information and audio demos.

Big Fish Audio is now shipping Garage Breaks, a sample library featuring heavy pounding guitars, buzzcut basses, and the sharpest, most crunchy and funky drum breaks.

Garage Breaks is the sweaty, dark place you always knew existed, where headbangers and clubhoppers find each other for a hot evening of pummeling. So crack open a loop or two and get pounding!

Garage Breaks features

• 2 GB on disc (973 MB of 24-bit WAV files).
• 500 WAV loops on disc.
• 40 Construction Kits with tempos ranging from 120 to 160 BPM (WAV, REX, Apple Loops and RMX format).
• Instruments Include: Drums, Bass, Electric Guitar, Horns, Organs, SFx, Synth, Strings, Percussion.

Garage Breaks is available now for $69.95 USD.

Visit Big Fish Audio for more information and audio demos.

Some interesting things I bookmarked on del.icio.us on March 18th, 2008:

• Squarecave: a DIY analog/digital synthesizer - The Squarecave is a hybrid digital and analog music synthesizer. It uses digital CMOS ICs to generate a sequence of oscillations of varying pitch and volume, and then pipes the result through analog filters (lo-pass, hi-pass, band-pass).

Hand-drawn schematic, working digital sequencer prototype and finished Squarecave.

• The HarmoNESica - That's a NES cartridge and a harmonica.
• The “Amen Break” and Golden Proportion by Michael S. Schneider - I became intrigued when I saw an image of the audio waves themselves because I immediately recognized the Golden Ratio in the structure of its timing. And I was surprised to find an even deeper relationship to the structure of the human body.