Big Fish Audio | EQ Magazine Craig Anderton | Bollyhood Beats Product Review
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Bollyhood Beats | EQ Magazine

Reviewer: Craig Anderton Back to Bollyhood Beats product details

Urban music is incorporating more world elements, but this sample library is full-on Dr. Dre meets Dr. Desai. 92 folders each have individual percussion loops, a hip-hop-type drum loop, some partial mixes (e.g., percussion track[s] without and without duff-a deep, tonal drum), and a full mix with all tracks. Tempos range from 57 to 110BPM, but the Acidization/REX/Apple Loops editing is excellent; I had no problem jacking the tempos up into the trance range, and some even work with drum 'n' bass. And yes, the beats fit in amazingly well.

The recording is clean and natural-so you can use as is, or hype it up. There's fine use of stereo; you can almost see the two hands working the tabla. Other instruments include shaker, clay pot, manjira, dholak, and other things you won't find at your local Guitar Center (unless it's in New Delhi).

I'm a big fan of spicing up conventional tracks with world loops. While the full mixes definitely shout "India," the individual loops have a kind of chameleonic quality that allows them to work in many different contexts. If you're scoring a Bollywood movie, you'll need more as this has no melodic components. But as you're paying only about 11 cents a loop, that's a good deal if you want above-average percussion. And notwithstanding the title, BollyHood Beats works in many different contexts. - Craig Anderton  

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