Warbeats Product Reviews

Review: Tascam US-144 Audio/Midi Interface

JZM — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:54:34 GMT

Well I got the tascam us-144 last month(January) and I've had little problems with it.The Tascam US-144 is a computer audio/midi USB interface.The US-144 comes in perfect with my setup.I have one midi controller which is hooked through USB and an ASR-10 which I have hooked up through MIDI into my Tascam which works perfectly for me.The US-144 also has Line Ins for a mic(which supplies phantom power) + guitar in and MIDI in's and outs.

When I first got it I had a some problems with it and driver support for my operating system(vista) but was helped shorty after.So that didn't last too long.If you have Vista and has this interface then check the tascam website for vista drivers.

One bug I notice is in FL Studio(Only happens in FL) whenever I open a project or even a plugin serious latency problems start up.That problem is most likely the driver version and will probably be solved within the next driver or firmware version.

Other than those problems I'm satisfied with the US-144 it does all I need it to do and is very helpful in my setup.Another lovely thing about it is it comes with a copy of Cubase LE.

I give it a Warbeats rating of 8/10

For more info visit

http://www.tascam.com/products/us-144.html

http://www.tascam.com

Tascam US144 USB 2.0 Audio/MIDI Interface

Review: Sounds in HD Vol. 1

NFX — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:51:54 GMT

I got a lot of drum sounds. So many that I'm almost embarrassed by the sheer number of sounds I will never use.

I won't claim to be an expert in drum sounds, but I know a thing or two and when I hear a new drum kit, I'm very critical on first listen. I was recently asked to review a new drum kit from Warbeats member Zeph from Sounds in HD and here it is:

First, the Sounds in HD Vol. 1 drum kit clocks in at just over 200 samples at a total uncompressed size of about 51 megabytes. The samples are categorized into folders by type: Kicks, Snares, Claps, etc..

Each folder has a good number of samples and there is a healthy variety of sounds in each folder. A very respectable kit by any means.

My first listen to the samples and I'm struck by something very positive... These samples are among the best engineered sounds in a kit I have ever heard.

The sound volume levels on these are all perfect. I dropped a few into a new project to get a feel for them and they all sit together in the mix as-is, volume and EQ perfect with one another.

I'm very impressed with not only the clip-free loudness but also the clarity and lack of residual noise and click that I often hear in commercial kits claiming to be "industry standard".

The kicks are all thumping, the snares are cracking and the assorted percs would make a Timbo track jealous.

Digging deeper, I check for the way the sounds are cut. All perfect.

Well almost... See I can't let this review go without a little bit of criticism. So here is what I didn't like:

This kit will make the newbies sound too good! That's just not fair to the rest of us that have been collecting and making our own kits for years. Struggling with compression and EQ and everything else.

OK.. If you haven't guessed by now, I love this kit.

One of the traditions I have when reviewing a drum kit or sound module is to see if it inspires me to create something out of the box and yes the Sounds in HD Kit Volume 1 did that for me. Look for my beats in the feedback section soon ;)

The price is normally $49 but has been dropped to $39 for a very limited time as of this writing.

{wbplayer=1299}

I urge you all to get to the Sounds in HD Website and take a listen and take advantage of the special price before the offer expires.

Warbeats Rating: 9 / 10

Review: Make Money by Making Beats eBook

NFX — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:43:14 GMT

I know how to make beats but making money from that skill isn't one of my strong points so I'm always looking to grow and improve in that area.

I recently got a hold of the "Make Money By Making Beats" eBook and gave it a read. This is a no nonsense guide to promoting your work and getting yourself heard online as well as offline.

The eBook comes in a standard PDF format. It's a very easy read and doesn't over complicate the concepts that it covers.

At a solid 28 pages, it is not a overly detailed and stuffed with meaningless rabble.

This guide is NOT for those looking to make beats. It's for those interested in selling their beats period.

Some people can make beats all day for the love of the art and others want to capitalize on their talent to make some ends - this is for you.

There are a lot of tips in this book that I had never thought about and the part about how to improve your chart position on soundclick was a real eye opener.

I was also surprised to see some information on SEO (search engine optimization). While this is not a concept that a non webmaster would care to know of or understand the importance of, it is very important for the online aspect of your beat selling. After all you want to be able to be on the first page of Google when someone searches for where to buy a beat.

Finally there are several pages of contact mailing addresses and phone numbers to labels, A&Rs, Entertainment Companies and other industry types.

Getting down to the bottom line, is this book worth the $12.99 investment?

If YOU are worth that investment in your self and your future I have to say "Yes". The contents of this book are worth more than the $12.99 asking price.

It's packed with easy to digest, no nonsense information and it's really up to you to put the machine of your own success into motion after reading this eBook.

Warbeats Rating: 8 / 10

for more information see: http://www.makemoneybymakingbeats.com

M-Audio Axiom 25 Midi Controller Review

JZM — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:05:24 GMT

The axiom 25 has definitely improved my skills as a producer.Im sure any controller could do so but the axiom has been really helpful.It has 8 functional pads which I usually assign the FPC plugin and use with no problem.The keys take some getting used to but they definitely have a nice feel to them.

Theres also 8 knobs which in FL you can assign to any knob in FL such as the volume knob or slider or the pan knob.Anything that has the linking function.FL automatically recognizes the pitch bend wheel on the controller and assigns it to the pitch knob in FL.The mod wheel is pretty nice to which you can assign to an knob also.

The only downside for me with the controller is that the transport controls dont work with FL.Meaning there is a play,stop,record button but they dont work with FL.There are ways the get them to work though.

The price is very well set for the controller too.I picked it up for 180 from guitar center.

I dont think I missed anything but if you have any questions about the controller please go ahead and ask.I'll be more than happy to answer them for you.

Modern Beats Kits

Muso — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:56:36 GMT

I have a library full of Modern Beats kits, and I have to say that they are the best that I have tested.

The most recent kit I that I bought was Vintage Machinez 2 for 40.00.

It has about a hundred or more sounds and they are good quality.

I give it a 9/10.

I also like the Brass Elementz, and the Neptunian Drumz are my favorite.

I give them a 10/10.

Review; Roland Fantom Soundfonts from eBay seller "recordingselite"

NFX — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:10:48 GMT

It's a big gamble to buy sound packs from eBay. Often times it's a mostly samples you can find elsewhere or you see the same products sold by different people. Or the sounds just don't sound as good as they promise.

I took a gamble on some sondfonts beging sold by an eBay seller named "recordingselite"

The description promised to deliver ALL of the patches of a Roland Fantom X6 multi-note and multi-velocity sampled. Too good to be true? Read on...

The price is kind of higher than what I would want to pay at $69 but I think compared to a real Fantom this is not expensive and it's a lot of work to capture every patch in a mutisampled way even with automated tools. I respect that.

I use the Buy Now button and to order a copy. Actually I also ordered the Triton Extreme set too but havent even loaded them as of the writing of this review.

A week later I get 11 DVDs and as I am copying the 35+ GB to my audio drive I realize I'm going to run out of space.... :) My entire soundfont collection prior to this was about 50 gigs and that took me almost 10 years to collect. Be sure you have the space before odering these sounds as I was scrambline to find room.

The DVD comes with a VST capable of importing and playing the soundfonts, but I prefer to use just the soundfonts with the FL Soundfont player so I didn't install it.

Let's get down to the real meat and potatoes....

The Good

Quality is excellent on these bad boys. These are some of the nicest soundfonts I have ever heard. SoundFonts can't compete as well as some of the other more modern samplers as far as features, but I use them extensively and know their weaknesses.

They are multi-sampled which means many notes across the keyboard were recorded and mapped to minimize the degrading quality when mapping a sound up and down the note range.

They are also multi-velocity at 3 levels. This means that they were recorded at a low, medium and high key pressure. So low notes sound softer and higher velocity notes sound harder.

OMG there are so many sounds on here. I may never get around to hearing all of them because there are so many. The Pianos, Guitars and Strings are all very usable and I will be using them a lot.

Sounds are not looped but are sampled at a length adequate for most tempos. I did not find any sounds that cut off prematurely

The Bad

There is one major standout problem that I need to let you guys know about. The soundfonts only go as low as C3. Internally it says the samples are as low as C2 but for me they only map as low as C3. This is for every patch. So bass sounds, guitar, piano etc that need to be played at the lower octaves won't work. (results may be diff when
using the VST that comes with it)

There are a few minor issue that only effect a few of the presets. First, some of the velocity levels are set too low. This is most eveident in some of the guitar patches that play bends at high velocity values. They play at a lower velocity than they should and makes playing them realtime difficult. This is easy enough to fix post recording the score by manually editing them but it is a pain.

Second, some samples are offset by silence. You might play a note and it plays no sound for a few hundred milliseconds. I have inspected the raw samples inside the soundfont and can see that they were recorded with this silence at the beginning of the sample. These are not common but they do exist.

Most of these problems are fixable with a soundfont editor like Vienna. I have made a few corrections for my own use and everything is cool.

The Ugly

Sequenced/Arpegiated presets are not tempo sync'ed. To handle this, you would need timestretch and this not a capability of the soundfont specification. This is not a negative point, it's just how it is so expect that up front.

The Conclusion

Would I buy again knowing all this? Yes.

You might think the price is high, but really you are paying pennies per soundfont. And there is a lot of time and effort in creating this pack.

Overall I am very happy with the purchase. Of course I would have like some of the problems I mentioned to not be there but luckily I know how to fix them so I can deal with it. And let me be clear, with the exception of the "no notes below C3" gripe, only a minimal number of presets are effected by the other problems.

The sounds are amazing and a few of them will be "go to" sounds for me.

Since the price and quality means most to me and I do know how to correct some of the issues with these sounds, I gave it a better score than I normally would have.

Warbeats Rating: 8/10

You can see recordingselite's eBay page here: http://myworld.ebay.com/recordingselite/

Ronald Jenkees (Disorganized Fun) CD 2 Release!

GP Studio — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:37:07 GMT

Im sure there are many huge fans of Ronald Jenkees here on warbeats, Ive been a huge fan since first hearing about him and the review here on warbeats. I know this is a place for software review, but maybe there should be a forum for album reviews :)

This second album by RJ is off the chain! The quality of the production is over the top as usual and as Ive recently experienced copyright issues on youtube as many have RJ's tracks will make a nice compliment to anyones video productions and if its for non-profit its legal to use them. Thanks Ronald!

Here is a video I put together to support his second CD release. Ive bought both CD's now and Im really impressed with his work and time and effort to make a quality product.

check him out at www.ronaldjenkees.com or jenkees.com or youtube.com/ronaldjenkees

FLipEXP Review

JZM — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:12:32 GMT

First off let me tell you about what the FLipEXP is.

The FLipEXP is an expansion pack for FL Studio brought to you by www.theflipsideforum.com.The exspansion pack consists of various samples , sytrus presets , FPC presets, various skins for FL (one of which is exlusive and the rest are non-exclusive I think)a bunch of plugins and a lot of other helpful and nifty little things.

I know what your thinking."Wow that must have cost a bundle"

Well you are incorrect on that thought.The whole pack only cost 8$.

I was overly-pleased when I recived it.From what I know the orders are done manually but I recived my pack only 2 hours after purchasing.The samples were all crisp + clean.The presets were all wonderful as well as the skins and the scores.The cause for this is also good.Buying a pack helps keep their site running.So I guess what about sums up this short review.If you have any questions about the pack heres some links

http://www.theflipsideforum.com/index.php?topic=3386.0

http://www.theflipsideforum.com/index.php?board=39.0

and to purchase it go here http://www.theflipsideforum.com/Purchase.html

Overall I was satisfied 10/10

BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-660

Justin Ruff — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:06:18 GMT

Firstly, for those that don't know, the BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-660 is a classic drum machine made by the BOSS / Roland company. It is a standard 16 pad drum machine that features over 250 samples (I believe the exact number is 255 or 256).

I recently bought one of these off of eBay (which is really one of the only places to get these anymore, as they have been out of circulation for years now) and I am extremely pleased with what I received. The samples, ranging from Pop styled drums to the legendary 808, sound crisp and incredible. It is an extremely easy interface to use and I was making tracks on this baby within an hour.

For someone into the retro hardware, this would be an excellent edition to your collection. It works with MIDI and/or audio outputs, so you have a wide range of options for your drum tracks. I have recently started to make my drum loops on the DR-660 and import them into Fruity Loops and I have received results more satisfying than a normal digital kit can provide.

If you can get your hands on one (they range from $75 to $200, I paid $84.80 for mine after shipping), then it is WELL worth the money. It's just an incredible tool that will assist your production, especially if you are looking to establish that old school vibe.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Review: (Image Line Publications) FL Studio Bible

JZM — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:38:16 GMT

The FL Studio bible is a must have for any true fl studio user.The fl bible is a promotional book Image-Line put in stores such as guitar center and skips music stores to promote fl studio. It's a filled with information from front to back on subjects you might already know and subjects you should and need to know.

I thought the information in the book was amazing.From front to back it kept me interested.The book contains over 400 pages, with interviews of the Image-Line crew, notes ,and tips on fl studio. What kept me interested were the notes and tips. I honestly felt like a better user of fl studio after I read the book a few times.

I really don't have anything bad to say about the book at all.I'm glad to have it and I always keep it near me when I have fl studio open for reference. So I'd give it

A Warbeats rating of 10/10

You can buy it at a Guitar Center near you or online

http://www.cafepress.com/flstudio/248097

Review: KORG microKONTROL

Mr Thraz — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:55:33 GMT

today I'll be reviewing the Korg microkontrol, korgs 37 key mini keyboard controller. this baby has

eight encoders, eight sliders, and sixteen trigger pads. Each encoder and slider also has an LCD (sub display) that indicates the parameter and the transmitted value, with the backlight color changing between orange and green to distinguish between the encoder and slider.

when I saw this baby I had to have it. I had just bought my laptop for doing mobile production and all the controllers being touted for being mobile were one octave but the mk had 3 octaves plus 16 pads and a joystick.

after getting it home I realized I was in for a for trouble, when I opened reason everything mapped automatically. the pads went from drum pads in redrum to transport controls in the piano roll. the sliders and pots mapped as well.

I had a similar experience in ubuntustudio when I saw it was recognized as a midi device through the usb “out of the box”. (thank you korg!! you will get more of my business.)

opening fl was another story, the keys mapped but that was it, it took a few months of learning midi maps and commands to make it useful in fl but I now find it an indispensable part of my setup.

the Korg microkontrol is solidly built and travels easily, the only other complaint I have (other than the poor flstudio midi support) is that the key bed feels a bit springy for my taste.

Bad: bad midi support for fl studio( but few company's have good support for fl's odd midi implementation.) very small, spring keys.

Good: maps perfectly to reason and abelton live, is recognized as a usb midi device in Linux and while it is not easily configurable to fl it can be done.

Warbeats Rating 8/10

for more information visit: http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=microkontrol&category_id=8

GoldBaby Drum Kits

NFX — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:39:41 GMT

This is my first full fledged review of a product I purchased. I'm compelled to write about this because it is one of those purchases where I felt I came out ahead of the curve.

First, let me describe what I'm talking about. GoldBaby is a company based in New Zealand that makes a few drum kits and sample packs for various DAWs like Reason, FL Studio etc.

I had stopped buying kits for a long while because I was always disappointed in the few usable sounds I would get. Fortunately, that's not the case here.

GoldBaby is not some mega corporation that churns out kits with fancy names trying to make you believe they are the same kits used by the hot super producer of the moment. GoldBaby is a small - possibly one man operation.

I purchased 3 kits from them after listening to the demos at the GoldBaby site. I got the MPC60 Pack 1 and Pack 2 and the Tape 808 Kit. Downloads were instant after payment and I had started 3 new tracks with these samples within a day.

Here's the thing... I have never gotten the quality of samples from any place that were as reasonably priced as these. It's a rare combination to find this quality - not only in the 24-bit sense - but in the care taken to cut and normalize and create the samples. Everything sounds great and feels tight.

The two MPC60 packs have a classic MPC60 color (some say phatness) to their sound because they were sampled into an original MPC60 first, then resampled direct to 24-bit WAV.

MPC60 Pack 1 is a collection of 541 samples of various TR machines (808, 909, 707, etc). Now I have all these in some form in my collection already and it is a good series of kits to have in one bundle. Having the MPC60 phattened sound to them is a great bonus.

MPC60 Pack 2 is a collection of 466 sampled vinyl drums and absolutely blew me away. These sounds are mix ready and will give you instant hip hop credibility. I am so glad to have these in one kit. Before this kit I could take hours searching my HUGE library of kits extensively for usable sounds. Again, these are nicely phattened by the MPC60.

Tape 808 is the real legendary TR-808 (the actual machine!) recorded using some vintage gear to reel to reel tape and then sampled.

You get 407 samples total and if you played this kit along side some classic electro hip hop like "Planet Rock" you couldn't tell the difference. I have at least 4 other 808 kits that will get ignored now. This one has that classic tape saturation that just adds something you can feel and hear to make it pop a little bit more.

Now the absolute selling point for me is that the price is so reasonable. I bought the WAV version of these packs.

The MPC packs cost $14 each and the Tape808 cost $19. Under $50 for all three kits and they are all very usable sounds that I will be putting into many of my future tracks.

In conclusion these kits get the bonus points because of the quality and price combination:

Warbeats Rated: 9 / 10

Visit http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/

Review of Cockos Reaper DAW

2nd Man — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:10:50 GMT

Cockos Reaper DAW

Billed as a fully featured multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing, and mastering environment. Probably most comparable to Pro Tools than any other DAW.
Hated by many but dearly adored by some.

Alot of people look for alternatives to FL, maybe to advance their production, but can't afford the pricier DAWs. Reaper comes in at $225 or just $50 for non-commercial use (i.e. home use). It is my understanding that with the non commercial license you can't sell beats you've made using the program, but you can upgrade your license.

I came across Reaper in a search for an alternative to FL, as I was tired of the demo but didn't have the money for it. Reaper has a great demo with it, its completely unlimited, allowing you to save projects and render files. It has a trial period, but you can still use it after it has expired, you just have to considor making a purchase everytime you use it.

Right, enough about that, whats the DAW like.

Well first its a multitrack sequencer, different from FL which has a pattern and playlist model. You have an ongoing sequencer, which goes along with time. Whether this is better or not is up to personal preference, but it makes more sense to me than a pattern and playlist model. Reaper natively supports VST, VSTi, AU, DXi, DX and JS and comes with hundreds of JS mixing plugins (Reverb, EQ, Compressors etc) as well as a dozen or so of very good Cockos VSTs. It handles every type of media file imaginable, WAV, AIFF, OGG, FLAC, ACID, APE and wpm. Another advantage of Reaper is its size, the installer is just 4mb, and the program loads and runs very quickly, (I've been running it on a computer with Vista and 512mb :P), this also means you can run it off a USB stick, meaning you can carry it around with you (I don't condone taking it to school though :D). Its a very powerful DAW, allows many midi and audio editing features, has low latency, has a 64bit audio engine and has excellent midi support and audio recording.

Sounds great right? So why is it not so popular? Well its not easy to use, it claims to be intuitive and flexible, and it is, its skinable, you can dock windows and have it customised as you like, but its not easy to use. When I first got it, it tooks hours just to

get sound out of it, same thing happened to rocsta (who pointed me towards it btw), as well as problems getting midi set up at first.
Do not expect it to run like FL, you wont be able to make beats in it so quickly. For example, say u have a kick drum wav you want to use, and want to play a 2bar loop. You have to create a new track, add a VST to it (Sampleomatic), load your wav file up in that, configure the VST (change the pitch, make sure its playing on the midi note you want, make sure note off is off etc etc), then arm the track for recording data from your midi, then arm the track to monitor what your recording. Hit record and play your 2bar loop. Then go into your piano roll and trunctuate the peice to be exactly 2bars and then loop it as many bars as you want. Complicated right, just to record a kick pattern.
But, once you get used to it, its great. I use it to track into atm and mix with, so I'm mainly using it for audio and its great for it.

But its certainly not a great DAW for making a beat quick.

It does support ReWire, so I strongly recommend wiring FL into it, though I can't comment on this myself.

Strengths - Incredibly powerful DAW, with some great features that even some of the leading DAWs are missing.
Weaknesses - Not easy to use, you will have to learn alot and be very patient with it. Not easy to quickly make a beat in or get down an idea.

Conclusion - If you've spoken to me you'll know I love Reaper and hate it. I love working with it, then it'll bug me so much I want to throw my computer out the window. Certainly try out the demo, its a small program, leaves no mess in registry and is unlimited, but be patient with it. But if your just looking for something to make beats in quickly, then this probably isnt for you.

Rating - If your looking a DAW to handle audio as well as midi and have patience and no money- 8/10
If you have no use for a multitrack recorder and don't work with audio much - 2/10

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

Review: ILL Chemistry Platinum Producer Package

NFX — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:41:56 GMT

I've had these kits for a while and I was planning to do a full review. But there is one big problem... The package is HUGE! There is no way I can adequately go through every sound kit on this massive collection.

It clocks in at 23 Gigs (about 50,000 samples) O. My. God.

It would take me weeks to go through this thing.

Although I can't review it properly I can say that the kits I have heard (it also has non drum sounds) have been all on par with other commercial kits out there.

The price is a little steep for some, but if you consider how much you get.. Refills, Loops, Videos, Drums.. 7 mufuking DVDs of material. It is probably one of the least expensive items you can buy.

I'm sorry I can't rate this, there is too much but I can give it a stamp of approval.

Warbeats Approved.

More information: http://www.illchemistry.com/documents/124.html

DopeKitz Drum Kits

JZM — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 08:31:54 GMT

DopKitz.com
Well I purchased the DopeKits a while back but I'm going to tell you about it now.

I bought one kit from DopeKitz and the only reason I bought one was because I was pretty disappointed with the sounds from it so I never got another.The kit was 12.99 I believe and it only consisted of about 12 sounds.So about a dollar a sound.I really don't think that was a fair amount of money to pay for the sounds.Very little of the sounds are use-able but I did use a few just to get my money's worth.There pretty high quality sounds but they aren't constructed well.There are a few cool sounds though.Some to my liking.

The kit I bought was The All Star Kit I believe.There may be better kits on that site but I never purchased anything else from there so I wouldn't know.All in all though id give the kit a strong

6/10.

Review: PimpMyMPC Producer and CEO Kits (WAV Format)

NFX — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:19:23 GMT

I'll be reviewing a couple of WAV kits sent to me by Eric Daniels from PimpMyMPC. As you might guess from the name of the site, the kits are marketed primarily for the MPC market, but they also come in Battery, Reason and WAV formats. An important aspect to these kits is that they will be ready to import into your MPC right away since they come pre-packaged with the program files for almost every MPC model from 500 to 4000

My initial impression is that the kits are solid and tight. The samples are all 44.1Khz at 16-bit. The WAV files do not have any clicks and are perfectly cut to allow sounds to finish and without any excessive dead air. The sounds are also carefully normalized so that they all have the same relative volume.

The collections consist of drum hits, short instrumental riffs and sound effects. I was impressed by the way the many of the WAV samples are not needlessly stereo. This not only means they take less space in memory but it's easier to make them sit right in the mix.

Both the kits I viewed had 64 samples each which maps out to 4 banks of 16 pads on the MPC. I assume these layouts are just as smart as the samples themselves and I wish I had an MPC to run em through.

The samples themselves are excellent. As I have mentioned before, I have a massive collection of kits (most of which I never use) so I know a bad kit when I hear one and this is not a bad kit in any way. It will be moving to my favorites folder immediately.

The kicks are deep and you can feel 'em bump. The snares and claps are snappy and cut through nice. I don't know if Eric EQ'd these bad boys or just knows how to pick a sample, but they are almost flawless and very inspiring.

If I had any gripes about these kits it would two things, both of which I can easily overlook.

First, the samples are not named in a human friendly manner. For example, a kick sound might be named PROD3X45 and a snare PROD3X12. I understand if you get these pre-mapped to a Battery kit or and MPC this probably is not an issue.

Second, I don't use a lot of sampled instrument riff and hits normally so I probably would not a use for about 16 or so samples per kit. That said I could definitely hear a place for every sample in a song even if it's not my style.

Overall these kits are two that I am happy to have in my collection and I have to cut this review short because I have some inspiration to take advantage of.

Warbeats Rating 9/10

For more information please visit the PimpMyMPC site: http://www.pimpmympc.com

Review: SonicSpecialist.com Volumes 1 and 2

JZM — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:04:38 GMT

I'm reviewing some kits I purchased some time last year from SonicSpecialist.com. Out of all the kits I have purchased and gone through over the past years I must say that these two kits are the some of the best.

When I first bought them I was a little doubtful because of the price, but I forgot about the price once I heard how perfect the sounds were.

I honestly have no complaints about the sounds at all. All the sounds are clean, crisp, sharp and every other good audio term you can think of. I had to do very little EQing to them because of how well they sounded. They are also royalty free which is good.

Also from what I read on their site some big-time producers use those kits too.Some of them include Mysto and Pizzi and Larry Gates. So if you ever wonder where those producers get some of their drums sonicspecialists is the place.

The two kits I bought were Volume 1 and Volume 2 which are priced at $75 each.Each kit had about 150 sounds in it which were various style kicks , snares ,snaps ,crispy claps , hats ,and percussion so I got around 300 sounds for 150$ which I think is pretty good especially for the quality of the sounds. The only semi-bad thing about the kits are the prices but as I said before I totally forgot about the money after I realized how much I loved those sounds.

So in conclusion I give it a Warbeats Rating of 9/10

for more info: <http://www.sonicspecialists.com>

Video and Text Review of the KRK10s Sub

GP Studio — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:12:38 GMT

Today im going to be reviewing the Rokit KRK10s its the 10" Sub that just flows so beutifully with any krk setup you might own.

To start with i recorded a video but its really going to be hard to distinguish how nice this sub really sounds because i have a very cheap video camera with a bad mic and and even with alot of lamps on its hard to see much, but its posted below.

My first impression of this sub was WOW this thing is amazing, it knocked pictures off of most the walls before i realized how much adjustment i could get out of it. It has a -30 + 6db gain, a high frequency filter, xlr 1/4 and rca inputs and outputs. The book says its only 150 watts RMS not sure how that translates literally but it rocks when you want it to.

Its a very nice compliment to my krk 5's which without proper adjustment dont have much low end and this thing fixed that right up for me. I dont think i would recommend this unless you have an eq to go along with your other speakers cause your going to want some extra adjustment to make the sound match your room.

Otherwise i found this to be a very good investment for my studio and the clean look i have now with a complete KRK setup, axiom keyboard and my laptop, well imo its just beautiful to look at sometimes and very nice to listen to and make music with.

This bad boy is selling for 300 bucks so its still not a cheap investment but definately not a bad one especially if you dont own any kind of sub.

Want your product reviewed?

Administrator (NFX) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:39:46 GMT

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Review Guidelines - Reviewers read first!!!

Administrator (NFX) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:36:42 GMT

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