Review: The Raw Cutz Super Pack – 5,000 Breaks, Cuts & Samples

Raw Cutz is a new label by Erik Svahn of E-Lab and Equipped Music, and Loopmasters sample boutique owner Matt Pelling.

Together Erik and Matt have formed Raw Cutz, and hope this site will inspire musicians old and new to make exciting Hip Hop, House, Drum and Bass and other experimental forms using some of the inspirational sounds, swung beats, processed kits and found sounds that Raw Cutz and its Producers will be releasing regularly on this imprint.

The Raw Cutz Super Pack takes the 30 launch releases from the new imprint, and bundles them in a giant pack with no less than 5,645 individual samples, good for 3.3 GB content.

Whether you are looking for Punchy Kicks, Crisp Snares, Mellow Rhodes, Ethereal Vocals, Dubbed Out Basses, Glitched Jazz Guitars, Drifting Flutes, Funky Horns, Ambient Sounds, and Dusty Breaks – these smoking beats are guaranteed to add the flavour, punch and inspiration to your productions that you have been looking for.

Raw Cutz Super Pack features

• 300 81-99BPM Raw Break Loops
• 3,510 Raw Cut Music Samples
• 778 Raw Kick Samples
• 468 Raw Snare Samples
• 331 Raw Hi Hat Samples
• 302 Rex2 Files

The pack comes with everything listed above in respective folders. You do get file listings of each of the 30 individual packs that make up this super pack, but if you want to find the sounds that are from the same pack you’ll have to use the file name tags to locate them.

A collection of 300 break loops (10 loops per pack) is good for 110 individual breaks, and 190 no kick/no hihat type variations. They have a nice vintage vibe, though when you audition the bunch some of the themes start to sounds a bit the same-ish. Of course nothing keeps you from chopping the breaks up, and since you also get over 1,500 one-shot drum samples so can easily make your own breaks anyway.

For me, the next bit – the “Raw Cut Inspirational Music Samples” – is what this pack is all about.

One of the first sample libraries I bought was E-Lab’s Xclusive Wav Xtension (10-disc pack including the X-Static Goldmine series). I remember it cost an arm and a leg (back then anyway), and it seemed that a lot of the content was simply lifted of existing recordings – nicely processed, but not very original nonetheless. Some samples were blatantly ripped from commercial tunes, but I always loved the vibe of these samples. Especially the melodic one-shot stabs/hits are fantastic, and this is the kind of sampling that in my opinion has its merit.

The music samples on the Raw Cutz Super Pack are much the same. Bass, guitar, electric piano, flute, saxophone, organ, atmospheric sounds, etc.
Short 1 or 2 second sounds, all with that fantastic vintage funky, soulful vibe. While the sounds mostly have a Hip Hop feel, you can easily use them in other genres as well. Many samples have that lovely delay and reverb processing that you would hear on early drum & bass records.

The Loopmasters website says:

These exclusive samples have been crafted carefully by our top producers using technology including MPC and SP1200 samplers, Technics 1210 mk2 decks, Analogue Tape Machines and vintage mics and instruments including Fender Jazz Guitars, Double Basses, Horns, Rhodes Pianos and much more besides.

I have read that text a few times, and I guess it doesn’t actually exclude crate digging. To be honest even if these samples weren’t created from scratch I don’t really care. Sampling has always been part of Hip Hop music production, and I would feel totally comfortable using these samples in my work.

Check the sound examples below to get an idea on what kind of sounds you can expect.

So what do I think?

This pack is perfect for beat makers. The Raw Cutz Super Pack will save you tons of time, no need to go crate digging!

The 3,500+ sounds are just what you need to create the perfect vibe for your Hip Hop tracks.
Yes, the breaks are nice, the single drum sounds are very useful, but for me, this pack is all about the brilliant stabs, chords, hits, bass & guitar licks, atmospheric fx, etc.

The samples are processed with care to get a great vibe, totally inspiring and full of character.

Get your samplers ready, serious head bobbin’ is inevitable.

More information: Loopmasters / Raw Cutz Super Pack

Hey there, I'm Ronnie and I run Rekkerd.org. I'm a bedroom music producer and guitar player, and I love chicken vindaloo & all things glitch.