Phat Beats From the Box | Music Tech Magazine

Another fresh face in a slew of new releases from New York-based Big Fish Audio, Phat Beats From The Box is a remarkable audio and .WAV collection of human beat-box grooves. If you're not familiar with this kind of sample material, you'll probably find it astonishing that the rhythms are produced by vocal sounds and not real drums. Not only do they have a great feel to them, they're also impressive in terms of depth and range.

This is a world where a sniff through the nose becomes an amazingly effective hi-hat beat sandwiched between vocalised bass and snare drums. A certain amount of processing is undoubtedly used, but for the most part it's the skill of the artists and their extraordinary microphone technique which creates the aural illusion.

On PBFTB, the vocalising also extends to other instruments such as brass – though this is rarely as effective. The CDs follow the construction-kit format of more mainstream collections where each full mix is followed by a breakdown of the individual sounds and elements. Unfortunately, this is where things start to unravel. Once removed from the context of the loops, the individual sounds simply don't have the impact of real drum and percussion instruments. And with just 47 loops included, the collection doesn't distinguish itself as particularly good value for money.

A collection of highly effective and useable grooves, but limited in scope.