Electro Magnetic Pulse | Sound On Sound Magazine

Created by Perry Geyer of Cybersound, Electro Magnetic Pulse has a title which could place it in a number of musical styles. However, the emphasis here is on breakbeats with attitude, aimed at styles such as Electro, Big Beat, and the more experimental end of House. In testing, I auditioned the WAV files using Acid Pro v4 and the set contains over 400 individual loops (approximately 270MB in total) spread across nearly 100 construction kits. In the main, each kit consists of between two and seven loops - although a few contain more - and a demo WAV is included with each kit showing one way the loops can be put together.

The construction kit titles suggest that they are aimed at those with a more experimental side to their musical production; Insectoid, Atomize, Dr Demento, Mind Sweep and Offworld are typical examples - this is more Bill Laswell territory and not for those looking to complement their chart-orientated R&B or pop loop collections! These loops would suit a club/dance setting and, given the hard-edged, high-technology tone, they would also work well within a film or advertising context featuring urban, industrial, or futuristic images.

While there are exceptions, the vast majority of the loops are dance-orientated drum loops, originally recorded within the 110-140bpm range. However, this is far from being just another straight drum-loop collection. As well as a solid kick/snare-driven beat, the bulk of the loops contain other percussive elements and many feature some filtering or other processing. From synthy bleeps, vinyl scratches, over-the-top snare reverb, big booming kicks, or beat-synchronised filters, these loops generally feel quite busy, especially when used at high tempos. Indeed, in some contexts many of them would work as a musical bed with only a modest amount of anything layered over them - just enough not to worry about the terms of the licence!

Within each construction kit, many of the loops provide variations around a consistent style of rhythm and, given how full-sounding many of the loops are, it is actually easier to sequence them rather than layer them. However, if you do want to layer some material over these beds, there is little in the way of strong melody or chord sequences within the collection - some mixing and matching from other libraries or live playing would be required to add these elements.

While I'm all for the multiple formats that many modern sample sets seem to be supplied in, I'd hesitate to say that the quantity of material supplied in Electro Magnetic Pulse represented a bargain in the current market. However, the quality of what is here is really high and, having experimented with the loops for the purpose of this review, their creative potential is obvious - good stuff! - John Walden