Hit Zone 2 | Music Tech Magazine

Spend $99.95 on a construction kit samples disk and you might expect the inspirational ingredients needed for a Top 40 smash. But many well produced libraries often disappoint, because the raw material isn't up to the job. Hit Zone 2 though, is an exception.

All 41 kits here are cameos of musical ingenuity that really do sound as though they've been lifted from a current chart hit (nothing specific, of course). Firmly on the pop, hip hop an R'n'B genres, each one contains a full version plus a breakdown of its intricately layered constituent parts. Well thought-out, there's nothing here that competes for musical or sonic space.

These Acidized .WAV and REX files cover just about every platform, but Reason users will be particularly pleased because each kit is supplied as a Reason song, along with an unpacked ReFill. There are a few extras thrown in, too, in the Bass and Beat Zones - a large variety of earthy synth basses and processed drum loops.

VERDICT:
Useful construction-kit samples set that'll appeal to anybody producing chart-style material. Very well produced and organized.