Big Fish Audio | Sound on Sound John Walden | Nu Metal City 2 Product Review
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Nu Metal City 2 | Sound on Sound

Reviewer: John Walden | Rating: 5/5 Back to Nu Metal City 2 product details

Big Fish Audio (BFA) seem to be releasing a spate of follow-up titles. Hot on the heels of Funk City 2 (see opposite) comes a second helping of Nu Metal City, which was well received when released in 2006. As with the first volume, Nu Metal City 2 provides a number of loop-based construction kits - 25, to be precise, containing over 900 loops (more than 1GB of sample data). Two further folders contain about 180 additional 'hardcore' drum loops are simply more of the same as those included in the main kits, while the guitar loops are mostly in the 'special effect' category - various random noises with a good dose of distortion. All the loops are presented in 24-bit, 44.1 kHz resolution, and the key and original recording tempos (which range from 70 to 185 bpm) are specified for each of the construction kits.
As might be expected, given the library title, the loops are dominated by drums, guitars and basses, but they're joined by the occasional synth, atmosphere and scratch effect. The sounds are spot on given the genre: aggressive drums, aggressive basses and, erm, aggressive guitars. The guitars are particularly impressive, with a range of overdriven and distorted tones that, the odd gentle and melodic arpeggio aside, range from heavy to downright thunderous. The basses sound solid and the drums suitably big, with lots of splashy cymbals (perhaps occasionally a little too splashy?) and some nice fills. So you get good quality here, but the quantity box is also ticked, with each of the kits containing between 30 and 40 individual loops. This means multiple drum, bass and guitar loops in each kit, and plenty of variation. For example, there are usually at least two main guitar riffs per kit, with variations, and some further guitar ornamentation (such as chords, stabs and scrapes). With similar variety amongst the drum loops and enough bass options to do the business, it is really easy to create the foundations of a complete musical piece from the lopos of a single kit.
The loops are right on the money in terms of style: the're more Sepultura or Pantera than LInkin Park, but add the right vocal and they could work for both the radio-friendly end of metal and more extreme forms. Big Fish Audio have packed a lot of bang for the buck into this collection, and while I suspect that nu-metal bands will want to record their own performances, media composers or solo metal heads looking to add some convincing modern metal to their own productions should find that Nu Metal City 2 provides them with an excellent starting point. John Walden

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