Hip Hop Bundle
The good folks over at PluginBoutique.com have an offer you may wanna check out. This is especially for those who make BoomBap soulful styled beats. In other words, if you are looking for that grit and rawness, this could be for you. This hip hop bundle comes with 6 parts and I have reviewed all them in the 2 videos at the bottom of this article. Basically, this package will supply you with 3 plugins and 3 sample packs.
Plugins
1. VinylStrip
From the creators of Audio Thing, this plugin makes any audio source sound like its coming off real vinyl. It has various parameters that can be adjusted to suit your needs.
Pros
- It has presets for quick and easy creation
- You can create and save your own custom settings
- Works with any sound
Cons
- Installation instructions are a little unclear and hopefully they’ve fixed that by now
2. Beat Machine
This hip hop bundle contains 2 plugins from the guys over at DopeVST. One of them is the first version of Beat Machine which has tons of kits you can work with. Each kit has 4 gritty sounds like kick, snare, hihats, misc..
Pros
- Sounds can be adjusted with volume, panning, pitch and reverb
- The ability to route individual sounds to separate channels
- Expandable allowing for even more sounds
Cons
- The pitch parameter seems funny acting and could be a glitch unless i’m mistaken
- Wish there were instructions on how to route the sounds separately
3. Bass Engine
The second plugin from DopeVST is Bass Engine which contains literally 300 bass sounds for your beat making pleasure. They are split up by decades ranging from the 1990’s – 2010’s (pretty clever I might add). There are 100 sounds per decade and you can find just about any style of bass you need.
Pros
- Adjustable parameters for easy tweaking including ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release)
- 50 Midi files of bass loops that can used for ANY sound you want
- Tons of very usable sounds which can be mixed with volume, pan, reverb, and glide
Cons
- Only 3 octaves, 1 more would have been great
Sample Packs
4. Hip Hop
Also within this hip hop bundle are 2 sample packs from the makers of RawCutz. The first is called Hip Hop which contains a Primo inspired fat chunk of funk, featuring stucccato stabs, chord cuts, simple horn stabs, guitar one shots, cracked noise, cranked beats and dirty, dusty chords. Muted basses, rhodes, chords and turntable noise are included at no extra cost.
Pros
- Includes rex files not just wav files
- Nicely organized folders
Cons
- Honestly cant complain
5. Crate Digger
This is the second pack in this hip hop bundle from RawCutz. It includes dirt fuelled collection of hits, stabs, chords and tones which have that original hard edged funky vinyl feel. Featuring gutsy stabs, deep chords, shimmering pads, edgy guitars, jazz notes, soft organs, dusty beats and fat kicks.
Pros
- Very authentic sounding samples
- Nicely organized folders including wavs and rex files
Cons
- Once again, i can’t complain
6. Jazz Drums Vol. 1
Last but not least of the hip hop bundle is Jazz Drums Vol. 1 which is a collection of sounds actually played by a real live drummer. Shout out to UK musician, Mark Fletcher who is the man behind playing the skins. In this sample pack you will get everything from musical tom flurry’s, intricate brush work to subtle cymbal embellishments and more.
Pros
- Bpm labeled for easy drag in beat making
- Stems provided for each loop
- Formatted for rex files and sampler patches including EXS24, Halion, Kontakt, NNXT, SFZ
Cons
- Could use a little more variety in the sounds of the snare
- Would have liked to hear some boomier sounding kick drums
Overall, I am pleased with this Hip Hop Bundle and just in case you want actual footage, here you go.
[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO0tn1b9Evk” width=”400″ height=”200″] [youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un2wQCefYPk&feature=youtu.be” width=”400″ height=”200″]