In case you missed it, Beatserv has a new pack. Go get it:

“(h)IDM is a collection of four independently processed kits constructed separately for optimum use with Battery 3 and Ableton Live. With an emphasis on heavily processed and manually reconstructed sounds, (h)IDM is geared specifically toward the making of Intelligent Dance Music. All samples were originally recorded in Beatserv’s own studio using AEA microphones and Lavry Blue conversion.

I’ve been working recently on a new pack for Beatserv, called Vintage. We’ve released it for free, for a couple reasons. First, it’s a collection of vintage drum machines, and most of our target customer base likely already has emulations of these instruments somewhere in their virtual instrument collection, or actually owns the original hardware units. And second, it’s our first fullscale implementation of an Ableton Live Pack, involving use of Live features that don’t translate to our other usual formats, like NI Battery. Our future packs will likely have Live implementations closer to this new format than our previous “megakit” layouts, which work in Battery, but are not as elegant in Live.

If you’re an audio producer, go download the FREE Live Pack (the pack also contains some exclusive beat loops and WAV samples of all the hits), and also partake in our 20% off sale!

Beatserv has a large collection of samples taken from vintage drum machines (extracted and sent to us from Matt Walker, I think). We’ve been toying with ideas on what to do with them for a while now, and I’ve made a couple beats with them, but I finally started a project that’s fun, useful, educational, and simple at its core.

I’m creating drum kits in Ableton Live that follow the source hardware, but remain useful in a DAW. I’m not a gear slut, so I’m seriously not attached to any usability quirks the old hardware has. In full disclosure, I never have actually used any of the old hardware, so this project involves a fair amount of research on my part. At first it may seem ridiculous that I’m emulating hardware I’ve never used, but I understand the need for sound generation and usability above nostalgia. Think of it like running the hardware through a Beatserv filter. Each of the kits has useful dials for compression, reverb, EQ scale, more extensive ADSR and other settings that the original units often didn’t (Don’t worry, I’m retaining as much vintage character as I can stomach, with controls like “Snappy” and “Accent”). I’m also adding a “motion” dial to each kit, which is a chain of effects unique to each rack that adds a little extra Beatserv spice.

Part of the fun is that the whole project is currently in Ableton Live, and only uses Live effects and features. In the past, our kits have started in NI Battery and moved to Live. Those massive kits don’t quite follow the agile model that I find most useful about Live’s Drum Rack. So these new retro kits will be small and interchangable. Want a 909 kick in your DR55? Just drag and drop it. Want to switch out the whole kit on the fly? Just select a different preset.

So whether or not the kits are translatable to Battery is an unknown at this point, which could certainly affect the saleability of the set. But Live users will love them.  Also, the whole thing doesn’t necessarily follow the whole Beatserv mission of new creativity, although the added features in each kit are pretty slick. Perhaps we’ll have an addition to the Beatserv free series? Well, it’s a lot of work, so we’ll see.

“An expanded version of our top selling pack from Series 1 and 2, Dark Downtempo 3 integrates elements of dub, trip-hop, and down-tempo into an essential set of tools for cinematic chill-out production. All 30 beats include multiple variations, breaks, clean, and processed hits.

Dark Downtempo 3 was composed using all original samples by drummer/percussionist Matt Cordier recorded with Lavry conversion, AEA Ribbon mics, and the Placid Audio Copperphone for a distinctly intimate and vintage sound.”

www.beatserv.com

My contributions to Beatserv’s Clash have been published:

Based on the Iron Chef concept, the Clash beats were played and recorded by Beatserv’s own Corey McCafferty before we sliced, diced, re-sampled and reassembled them into entirely new loops.

Both the original live loops and at least three interpretations of each are included as 42 distinct beat sets, a total of over 300 loops including multiple variations and breaks.

All loops are available as digital downloads in 24-bit WAV and Apple Loops format. Also included are three kits of processed individual hits (244 total) in Native Instruments Battery 3 and Live 8 drum rack formats.

Visit www.beatserv.com to investigate