alright while everyone here is menstrating over Operator, i figured i'd contribute something of substance...
While this CD was originally released in May '04, i've been meaning to get it since it came out.
On a high from the TrackTeam Audio offerings, i ordered Big Fish Audio's "Steve Stoll - Locked Groove" Ableton Sample CD.
Midi-classics.com had it for $46 (i highly recommend that online vendor btw).
While i really enjoy sampler and Impulse, i also enjoy mangling the feck out of a loop with ableton (thank you clip editor's Sample Offset/Transpose and resampling). So it was time to get a decent sample CD, and that meant finally getting my hands on this one.
If anyone isn't familiar with Stoll he used to be in the industrial band "Sister Machine Gun", and is a well known name in the Techno community, releasing some classic tunes on Novamute and Fine Audio Recordings.
down to the nitty gritty. This sample CD contains 347 loops. They're all available as either .wav with its Ableton associated .asd (more on that later), rex (.rx2), and CD-Audio. All 3 formats are on the CD. and all the loops are Stereo.
True to the "locked groove" concept, most loops are only 1 bar (4 beats) long, but not all. Now its not all just techno beats, and its not all one kind of techno. Yes there are some obligatory 909 loops, but only a couple of them. Most every loop on here is quite unique, and with some creative mangling in Live, Reason's Rex player, or even StylusRMX (both .wav and .rx2 work with RMX) you can make them even more unique. As i said its not just beats. Theres some creative Roland 101 stuff here, and other unique synth loops. Alot of the "beat" loops would seem over-produced upon first listen, but when you take into account the style of music you're working with here... much of that is somewhat minimal material. While it is complete with well produced FX and more than just a couple sounds put together to make a pattern (like many other Big Fish sample CDs), it is all also extremely layerable. There are some very creative broken beats on the CD as well, even some electro infused loops. The style of loops ranges from harder techno to more groovy tech-house, and its all quite balanced. I'd say if your tastes dip anywhere into the broad genres of house of techno, you would find this material very useful.
Now, about the .asd's. There have been a few loops that i've had to adjust loop points on the .asd's to make them loop "better" or more cleanly. I don't know how these loops slipped by but coincidentally they were some of the first loops i started working with and i started to get a sour taste about the precision of loop points on the CD. But that turned out only to be a few of them
Overall the material is very well produced and the best word i can use to describe the CD would be "Unique". As it should be, coming from an artist with a particular unique style, i'm quite pleased with the material. Its already gotten some light use for low frequencies on some things i am working on and i'm sure i'll use it as a resource for much of the rest of the year.
Check it out if you get a chance.
Steve Stoll 'Locked Groove' Ableton SampleCD Review
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thetonewrecker
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a bit of normality at last!