(Desperately) seeking loops! – Part 2

Primeloops, an english dynamic production house trading in Loop libraries, quickly made its way through a chaotic and overloaded-with-demands field thanks to its constant ability in releasing new products and to an aggressive marketing strategy. But if the “old fox-like” strategy as for their market approach (along with a seriously bombastic website) could lead us to suspect a sham operation, we would be absolutely wrong.

As a matter of fact, from the very first listen to the loop demos, downloadable for the website, one can understand how the Primeloops project is, in fact, supported by a quite remarkable quality and great management about the available products, and, to top it all off, with a really affordable price list. It is worth mentioning the presence of a good amount of formats for the vast majority of titles, including the ultra-classic Acid Wav and Rex.

In this occasion we’re trying to “unbox” three of the libraries by the house from London, Electro House, Shoxx Filter House attack and Urban Takeover, respectively of electro, house and hip-hop/urban-style.

Electro House Shoxx

Available in 9 formats (including acid, Rex and Stylus Rmx), it’s entirely dedicated to electro house genre production. It’s not just a collection of single drums and percussions but a four-section body: drums, bass, synths and SFX.

Right out of this drum section come about thirty “full loops” equipped with the useful “Tops” and “Kick” spin-offs which allow to work (as well as combine) the two main loop components separately, i.e. bass drum and the high-range rhythms (hats, snares, percussion and so on), giving its use a rather long term guarantee as well as the chance to process and customize any loops in a more effective way. In fact it is possible, for example, to work on the top loops while processing them and leaving the kicks unchanged, which would be immediately altered a soon as you should work on the “full” loop. Lastly we can find the single hits (about a hundred) in order to create new beats or simply to customize them (for example, creating fills, intro, flames).

The audio quality is pleasantly usable. Nothing much about its production but every frequency is well set and therefore very easy to work in the mix. The general reaction of the loop is fine, even when overloading them in the final process as well as the typical overused frequency “scoop” within a selected musical genre.

The synths and bass section gives a good, though not so vast, selection of sequences, indeed very usable, offering at least one variation per sequence, both for bass and synth. Still here the audio quality is fine and ready to be properly “pumped” in the production process. A short collection of effects, mainly uplifters and trancegated risers, are the last remaining titles, synchronized and fitting the purpose. Maybe some more downlifters would have helped, but there are particular libraries for this kind of samples, therefore we can absolutely consider it a minor sin. The overall library is sure enough of usable quality and of good sound balance.

Filter House Attack

Perfect for venturing in the modern French house music after David Guetta’s, the Filter House Attack packet includes 327 loops and single shots which are divided in six categories (drum loops, drum shots, bass loops, chords, filtered grooves and synth loops).

The drum loops are produced both as full mix and as top (the rhythmic part except for the bass drum), which makes them extremely usable, even though it dramatically reduces its number. This way we will not find hundreds of different drum loops but nonetheless they will be much more versatile. The presence of the single shots within the distinctive folder allows us to create new loops which can be combined to the already existing ones, as well as any other possible fill and variation.

The basslines are rather stiff featuring a proper punch. The style is highly tech-electro, so they are full-bodied and shaped, rich in harmonics and, via the filter, several rhythm nuances can be added to the riff. The chords show a rather anthemic feature, and they are often of a considerable length in order to fully open the filter (originally the loop starts with a closed filter which opens up while the loop gradually repeats itself). Both synth and key chords are included as well.

The filtered grooves section is bit less easy to understand since it includes almost finished and filtered products (full arrangement), still of a considerable length in order to take advantage of the filter. Indeed they are very suitable as intermezzo/bridge but yet somehow constraining. Lastly the synth loops offer an interesting number of riffs, with a good usability and presence within the mix. The sound quality result a little bit more like a “finished product “in comparison to the packet we’ve reviewed earlier, but anyway everything leaves room for additional work on the sidechain and master side.

Urban Takeova

It’s one of the many available offers on the Urban/Hip Hop side by Primeloops. It’s a “construction kits” library, a very common format among these types of products. The format consists in locating the loops within a small number of folders which include everything we need in order to create fully arranged loops. The loops are provided both with their basic components (bass drum, bass, several synth interventions, single real instruments…) which can be mixed as we like within an almost never-ending series of submixes, and also within premixed components (as, for example, the full drum beat) for those who would simply use a beat on the fly for their project.

There are ten kits, a good variety though some of them seem to be somehow derivative. Anyway, on the whole, the number of parts provided per kit is good enough anyway and, above all, it makes the library a useful tool-set when it comes to inserting single components of urban flavour within different contexts. The quality, also in this particular case, is appreciable and the mix is “moderately” produced, leaving some room for any intervention on the mixing and for the final process. It’s worth mentioning, as we did before for the other libraries, a section which is dedicated to single shots for drums and percussions, very useful for those who feel a little uncomfortable working with predefined loops or like to combine beats of their own production.

To sum it all up

The products that Primeloops has to offer appear to be well-located and well-made. There aren’t any useless parts to mention, something very usual to do when it comes to libraries, and the overall taste about the musical parts is quite remarkable. The quality about the mix, which is not overly produced, makes it quite suitable for a creative mixing and mastering work.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Producer: Prime Loops
Website: http://primeloops.com/

Italian to English translation: Umberto del Giudice