Essential Studio Drums Review

We’ve seen plenty of drum libraries over the years, from the varied expansion packs for Superior Drummer and EZdrummer to live grooves from the likes of Beta Monkey Music and The Loop Loft. However, the majority of these packs focus on the sound of more traditional kits for metal, funk, soul or rock.

Manufacturer Prime Loops
Price £19.95
Contact info@primeloops.com
Web www.primeloops.com

The team took a classic Pearl Export kit and ran it through Neve channel strips, Thermionic Culture compressors and Prism Converters to create an incredibly tight and powerful sound that is used for all the loops in the pack. The hats and cymbals will rattle your eardrums, the kick is solid and heavy but with plenty of space for a large bass line, while the cracking snare will cut through your mix like butter. We hate to think how many drum sticks were broken during the making of this loud and punchy pack!

You’ll find a total of 57 drum grooves and 21 fills spread across four folders of 100, 110, 120 and 128BPM. Each file has both dry and wet versions, and the whole collection is available in your choice of WAV, Apple Loops, REX2, Live Pack, and ReFill formats.

The actual grooves themselves are relatively straight and safe, without a great deal of variation bar a few more interesting tom-based rhythms. You could argue, though, that this solidity would work well for dance music styles as you probably don’t want anything overly complicated.

Ideally, we would have liked to see more versions of the same groove, both with and without hats and cymbals, to aid in building an arrangement. We especially enjoyed the blistering fills, though, which would be perfect for anyone looking to add some excitement to the drop on a harder-edged breaks or DnB track. In addition to those already mentioned you also get a collection of 35 heavy-sounding one-shots, with several variations for each kit piece.

Although this isn’t a massively flexible library, it has its own unique, brutal sound and would be a good choice for adding a live, energetic edge to electro punk, breaks or other electronic genres.

Verdict 

A pack of simple but solid grooves, with a blistering, snappy and upfront drum sound.

8/10