Product Reviews

No sooner had Apple announced Soundtrack as a standalone application than AMG, the company behind countless sample CDs over the past decade, set to work recompiling some of its most popular titles to take advantage of the new Apple Loops format. We lent an ear to the first fruits of this enterprise.

160dB is subtitled 'The Drum & Bass Interface', giving a clear indication of its crashing snare breaks and frenetic drum loops. Divided into folders of sound types, you get Breaks, Live

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Drums, Upright Bass, Sax, Rhodes, Atmospheres, Analog FX, Misc FX, Gated FX, Drum Hits and Basses. With up to 68 files per folder, there's a lot on offer.

Much of it is excellent. There are a lot of mellow flavours designed to juxtapose the relentless drums. In particular, the sax, Rhodes and upright bass loops are brilliant at defining a mood, featuring fluid, energetic playing. Laid over any kind of drumbeat, these can be very inspiring, while the massive Atmosphere samples and FX automatically add a moody vibe to any scene. For £30, the jazzy instrumentation is worth getting.

All AMG's Apple Loops titles are licensed for use in Soundtrack or any 'AV-synchronised musical compositions' only. The loops will work as AIFF files, but buy the audio version of the title if you want to use them in standard songs. All three CDs are solid collections of professional-sounding loops collected by genre, although mixing and matching loops across genres is a rewarding exercise. The quality of the samples is excellent, and which one you go for depends on your tastes.