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Filed under: Audio •

Big Fish Audio: Textured Beats

Some libraries try to give you a wide variety of flavors. Others have a strong consistent flavor of their own that permeates every kit or loop, frankly telling you “take me or leave me.” For what it’s worth, Textured Beats is one library I’ll take.

So, what is that strong, consistent flavor? You may have heard the saying that writing about music is like dancing about architecture – which translates to you should go to Big Fish’s web site and listen to the demo file to make sure your tastes are the same as mine. To my ears, the beats here are a sleek synthesis of a rock feel with an electronica sound, utilizing a nice combination of programmed synthetic and acoustic sounds.

The result has a deep vibe and a lot of impact, with the occasional ringing “gonk” snare or chugging Latin feel for contrast. The so-called percussion loops actually contain a mixture of hi-hats and fairly straight-ahead hand drums, making them versatile “top loops” (an additional layer you can add on top of other rhythms for complexity and interest). Meanwhile, the synths are strongly in the cutting, rhythmic PPG/Waldorf/Wavestation instrument territory. The production is clean - even on the “distorted” sounds - with a great dynamic range and lots of bandwidth; the results are saved in 24 bits at 44.1kHz.

The layout is a bit different than many other Big Fish or other construction kit libraries. Rather than organizing the loops into songs, this collection has folders of Beats, Instruments, Textures, Percussion, and Combos, plus a Distorted folder and a small collection of SFX (sound effect) Hits. All but the SFX folder are 2-4 bar rhythmic loops divided by tempos ranging from 54 to 190 bpm. The higher tempo loops can be treated used in half-time (layered on top of other loops originally created at half the tempo) as most of the Textured Beats are not as skittish as trance or drums ‘n’ bass loops; I personally prefer the lower tempo loops, as they fit more detail and nuance into a bar.

Now here’s the twist: It turns out that all of the loops of a given tempo – regardless of which folders they are in – are indeed part of a family, with about 2-11 Beats (about 7 is typical), slightly fewer Textures, a couple of Percussion loops, and one Instrument sub-folder typical per tempo. Further deviating from the standard formula, the “Textures” are not pads, but instead rhythmic synth parts that remind one of Wavestation wave sequences with timed echoes. The “Instruments” are also wave-sequence-like, but in this case the sequence is played at each semitone in an octave for melodic (yet still tempo-locked) performance. These members of a family are then combined to create a set of (drum roll, please) Combo loops, although you could certainly vary the arrangements yourself to compose patterns that evolve over time.

The bottom line is a lot of material (1.5 gig of samples and over 1300 loops per AIFF or WAV format at a list price of $99.95) with a consistent sound that can be neatly combined, used solo, or mixed with other loops.

As noted earlier, I’m reviewing music construction kits that can be used with desktop audio software to create underscores and soundtracks for video and motion graphics. Click here to read a primer on creating music using “loops” and other audio snippets such as these.

(FTC Disclosure: All of the sound libraries I’ll be reviewing were given to me by their vendors in the hope - but not expectation - that they would be reviewed. I have no other relationship with these companies.)

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