Review: Wave Alchemy Deep Tech & Progressive

2010/10/28 in Reviews, Sound & Samples

Right during the pro|tone startup phase we got our hands on a sample pack by Wave Alchemy, impressing us a lot with respect to what you pay and what you get. This left us waiting for new stuff to come, which is why we got excited about the review inquiry of “Deep Tech & Progressive”, a fresh and all-new product from the Wave Alchemy. Join us again and gain some interesting insights…

Startup

First of all, the product is available in different formats (Wav & Rex – Drums only – Ableton – Reason – Apple Loops); uur review focuses on the Wave & Rex version, which includes patches for the most common samplers (Battery, EXS, Halion, Kontakt, NNXT and SFZ) and delivers a total of 1.35 GB content:

Drum Hits
15 crash cymbal
196 electronic percussion
37 hihats
144 kicks
65 claps & snare
135 world percussion

Soundeffects – 62x

Loops
111 bass loops
149 drumloops 125 bpm
178 drumloops 127 bpm
107 drumloops 130 bpm
104 synth and combi loops

Getting deep…

Listening to the drum sound section you qickly recognize the typical Wave Alchemy style: clear sound with a touch of analog warmth and color. A huge plus is that you’re unlucky in finding “dirty” sounds which often are proof for ripped samples: these are freshly made and processed. Especially the crash/cymbal/hihat section sounds like “right out of the box”, directly from the drum machine. Effects are carefully used, just the way we like it. By the way also true for claps & snares.

Kicks range from punchy to pumping and subby, a complete care package at first sight. However, we’re missing variety here, maybe some mild layering or heavier effects – some kicks sound just too similar.

Electronic percussion was created to be smooth and clean, without excessive effects, thereby building a solid fundament for creativity. Surprisingly, this product also included word percussion with water drums, djembes, chimes and others – quite something fancy to spice up a house track!

The sound effects section offers predominantly sweeps and lifters, all with a smooth and decent sound to it, often with a charming analog touch. Still, as this is the effect section, some heaver effect use would have been a plus to offer a larger variety. Something we definitely miss here are hits and impacts…

And deeper…

Let’s come to the main part – the loops. Well, there are the bass loops, quity inspiring samples from deep to subby and 303-ish, not missing out on modern and driving ones. To get a cool effect, one should add a dose of sidechain later on. Althought basses are not the favored loops, this is still a nice addition to make this package a great overall deal. By the way, the tune of each of these loops is noted in the respective filename.

Drum loops are split by bpm counts, overall offer huge punch and reveal lots of fine, detailed work. Still, it could have been worth considering to split them into bottom/top/perc/tonal, especially as there are tonal elements included here and there. However, we have to talk about a really critical point now: as good as the loops are, many of them are provided with a kick. Don’t get us wrong, the kick fits very well each time used, but still it really narrows creative possibilities with the loops as reverse, cut’n'rearrange is just too often impossible…

As you can hear above, these are 2 really nicely kickin and driving loops, but the included kick makes it impossible to use the personal favorite kick. Sidechaining or lowcut is not really an option as it heavily destructs the overall impression and would be inconvenient extrawork anyway. Hopefully, Wave Alchemy provides a kickfree version as well the next time…

Let’s switch over to synth and combi loops – a really great collection to add to your existing library. Typical pluck loops, chords with subtile pads and athmospheres – very inspiring work with a variety of facettes and the true highlight of this product.

Get ready to listen to a little demo containing several elements of “Deep Tech & Progressive”. Please respect the copyright.

Summary

How to sum things up now? Deep Tech & Progressive delivers well-crafted and inspiring samples all over the place, at great and professional quality and attractive pricing. Without the kick issue our rating would have been very easy – however, this doesn’t keep the product from being top-notch overall. Our highest recommendations!

wavealchemy.co.uk
Wave Alchemy Deep Tech & Progressive (39.95 £)

Tags: loops, progressive, sample pack, synth, tech house, wave alchemy