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Cheers: +Inexpensive +Sound Quality +Very Usable
Jeers: -No Individual Instruments
Off The Record:
"Freaky Beat's Essential Grooves came up just short for me by not offering loops of individual elements, but other than that, they're
an excellent collection of material."
--Greg Geller
"Excellent jams, excellent audio quality, excellent value, need I say more?"
--Garth Fields
"As a DJ who drops a lot of Tribal House into my sets, buying the Essential Grooves package is a no-brainer."
--Dave Roberts
In today's ever-shifting musical landscape, it's not enough for labels to simply sell tracks and generate the same revenue as year's past. It's now
mandatory for everyone in the retail food chain to explore new opportunities that will ultimately create new profit models. Some ventures have yielded
dismal results, while others have uncovered a previously untapped oil reserve. One of the more successful forays has been to sell stems from successful
tracks, or well-known artists. Freaky Beat, a Spanish concern, has adopted the latter approach with their Essential Grooves releases.
The Freaky Beat Essential Grooves Pack
Freaky has tapped a solid roster of artists including D-Formation, J. Velarde,
Sergio Fernandez, David Ferrero and Roman Lieske, to provide musical material for DJs, producers and remixers. The offerings mainly consist of drum
loops, in various tribal flavors, although some of the artists, such as J. Velarde, also provide melodic episodes. Unfortunately, none of the musical
enterprises provide key information, or other relevant information that would greatly benefit remix artists.
Freaky Beat did an outstanding job of accumulating excellent material from the artists,
every one of the loops, especially on the percussion tip, are not only usable, but also inspiring. For producers, the material provides a rewarding
educational opportunity. The loops peel away everything except the rhythmic elements, revealing exactly how these artists are constructing their trademark
grooves. However, the loops are never parsed down to their individual elements, kick drum, snare, congas, etc., and this may be deemed a serious flaw to users
who want to delve deeply into tweaking the loops for their own productions.
For DJs, both analog and digital, the €20 Essential Grooves Pack is a treasure chest of solid riffs
that you can utilize in your sets as transitions, or to remix some of your record bag favorites on the fly. In fact, used as a DJ tool kit, Essential
Grooves will allow you to develop memorable sets, especially if you're into the Iberian sound.
At $12 per pack, Freaky Beat's Essential Grooves are a great value and recommended to anyone looking for high-quality loops that will elevate their game.