Stakka's DnB Plates - Music Tech - February 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Acclaimed drum & bass producer Stakka has been writing hardcore, jungle and D’n’B music for more than 20 years and has released records on many labels, including Ram, Renegrade Hardware, Liftin Spirits and TOV. In 1997, Stakka & Skynet formed Underfore & Audio Blueprint Recordings. They created their own sound and released many critically acclaimed Neurofunk albums such as Blazin, Clockwork and the deeper album Voyager.
Stakka’s DnB Plates is number 17 of Digital Redux’s ‘A’ Class series and sees the producer digging through his samples vault for a journey into some classic drum’n’bass sounds.
The DVD includes 24-bit Acidized Wav, AIFF, Rex2, Stylus RMX and ReFill formats with around 717MB of audio content. The bulk of the pack come in the form of ten stomping 174 and 175BPM construction kits that range from dark and techy Metalheadz-style beats to more bouncy Andy C wobblers. There’s a fair amount of variety in the ten folders, with plenty of highly useable FX, stabs and drum fills.
The rest of the pack forms a kind of classic jungle toolbox of breaks, percussion loops and bass sounds. The 293 one-bar drum loops are divided into three folders called Killers (containing slightly over-distorted and aggressive beats), Shufflers (some cracking classic jungle breaks) and Steppers (straight D’n’B grooves with slight variations and different drum sounds).
The Top Loops folder features rigid 8th- and 16th-note hi-hat, shaker and tamb rhythms, plus a selection of short live percussion loops. Finally, the excellent Bass folder contains 100 single-note bass samples ranging from fat Reese synths and deep bass dives through to aggressive stabs and low rumbles. It would perhaps have been nice if the pack had included sampler instrument patches for these, but at this price you can’t really complain about that.
If you are after some cutting-edge, hi-fidelity synths and beats then you may want to look elsewhere. However, if you want tight selection of highly usable classic D’n’B sounds, then this pack represents excellent value for money.
Verdict: Classic jungle breaks and sounds at a great price. Ideal fro aspiring drum ‘n’ bass producers.
Rating: 8/10
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