Straight Outta NYC | SoundsAndGear.com

What's up with Straight Outta NYC?

Well, it's a sample cd, not a sample pak, it actually comes on a dvd like most collections. I think the term sample cd is getting old lol...most now come on dvds with gigs of files.Anyway, according to the site:

"The heart of East Coast Hip Hop resides in one place: New York City. Straight Outta NYC is full of the life, the beats, the grooves, the melodies, and everything that is East Coast Hip Hop. Check out the beats, horns, guitars, synths, basses, clavs, fx, vocals and more.

Also included in each construction kit are all the drum hits broken out and a folder of drum tracks giving you the individual parts of the drums broken out for easy mixing, remixing or mixing and matching. All material comes in WAV, REX, Apple Loops and RMX format. Take the snare loop from one kit and match it with the kick from another or try any number of other combinations!


It's time to check out the Hip Hop flavors of NYC!"

...yeah, okay, I've heard this before. Someone claims to have captured the real "feel" of hip hop and it ends up being some cheesy unusable collection of cliche beats and riffs... let's see. So did Big Fish come real or cheesy? They came HARD! Man, I was definitely not sure about this one, I mean, the demo sounded okay...but a whole collection?


Straight outta NYC? I had to check it.

The production is top notch, the riffs and keys have a feel that you definitely can use. Some of the piano parts have that "sampled sound" so you can chop them up and have a sample based track without dealing with sample clearance. I love that. The elements are raw, rugged, and ready to go. The loops are long enough that you can get tons of chops for different tracks. They have those sick organs you hear in that east coast stuff, epic strings, even some of those rocwilder type synths and stuff... It's not JUST underground, they captured the whole entire east coast nyc style of music, from underground, to storytelling, to harlem club bangers.


What about the price?

Well this one surprised me...like many of you, I'm used to sample cds/dvds being around 99 bucks or more, no problem. This one comes in at 69 bucks, I think that's a heckuva deal. It's a not much more than the average sample pak you can download from many online vendors, but the amount of content you get is banannas. I think this is a great value, considering it's less than the average sample cd, good stuff. I think it keeps it in the reach of most folks, even if you're on the "one sample collection a month" diet, this one is a good deal.



So what's the final verdict?

I gave this collection a 4.5 out of 5 subs...very solid production. The only reason I didn't give it the full 5 is because I would have liked to see a folde or two of extra instrument riffs and such. They include the single drum hits, which I love about their collections, that way I don't have to chop if I don't want to. Great production, tons of variety even though it's strictly east coast, you get a lot of different styles. The price is right, and the loops are pretty long. All in all, another great release from Big Fish.

JK Swopes

To see this product in action, check out JK's video review at SoundsAndGear.com