How to Use this Library

Even though this library is as basic as simply calling up any patch and playing a note, there are a bunch of subtle details I would like to share with you to help you get the most out of this library. SO – in this section I’ll go down the list of Patches and describe the different groupings with some observations on ways to use them so you can use these with more knowledge as well.

BASS and BPM BASS: These are the 808 SUB Bass patches. Presented both in playable patches where one bass sound is mapped across the whole keyboard (BASS) or with a MIDI File attached to play some useful sequenced patterns I composed (BPM BASS). Please note at the end of the BASS Patches there is a patch called “BASS – SUB BASSES ALL MENU” – this contains ALL of the Sub bass patches, mapped on every note starting on C1 up to A3 – there are Bass samples of different lengths and even some with subtle to radical bass glides included. These are really fun for making more complex bass patterns with more going on than just a single note booming all the time.

The BPM BASS patches are set to transpose when you play different notes so use them on the note that sounds right to you and if your song has chord changes you CAN play a different note if you’re one of those adventurous 808 Sub Bass players. Ha!

BPM CHORD: These are experimental patches which will probably lead to me making an even bigger library of just these types of patches at some point in the future. The basic concept behind these is that one of the cool features built into Propellerheads Recycle 2 rhythm chopping program (used to process ALL of the Rx Patches will come to soon) – there is an option that says “Add Slices at 1/16ths” which will add perfectly timed slice marks on every 16th note between the Left and Right locators. So if you set things up, it will divide ANYTHING into a rhythmic loop! So I used this on different audio I created of chord progressions or even of single notes that I then chopped into a 16th note rhythmic Patch. Layer these with any of the drums and they will be in perfect sync which makes the BPM GROOVE Patches found later in the library really fun because now I can have a sequenced 808 SUB Bass AND a rhythmic Chord pattern playing along with the drum grooves.

So the reason this library is called RAD is because of the addition of both the 808 Sub and these rhythmic Chords added to make this drum loop library able to go to some really interesting places that would otherwise be impossible.

RAD, Right??   😀 

BPM CLAP, BPM DRUM, BPM HATS, BPM SNARE, BPM PERC – this is the heart of this library and consists of Drum grooves ranging from a single percussion element all the way to very complex grooves with percussion and radical sound design all in 1 patch. I did my best to help you know WHAT type of groove element you will find with how I named these patches:

Right after the Tag header (BPM DRUM for example) there is the indicator of what that Patch is built using:

Rx = a Recycle 2 groove file. Some are simple elements but most are full drum loops in a single patch. Some of the funnest Sound Design based patches will have V1, V2, V3 etc at the end of the names. These were really fun to create using lots of different applications to create complex drum loops.

After the Rx Patches, you’ll find BPM patches using 3 different Drum Kits:

• Lofi – Lofi drum samples. This is the same drum kit I created and included in our UniLofi drum loop library. The patterns found here are typically sloppy with more live timing instead of perfect timing. If you want to change that, drag the MIDI File from MIDIBox into your DAW and then quantize that data and have your DAW play the drum groove instead of MIDIBox (In fact, make sure you click the “B” bypass button in MIDIBox so that the groove is now played from your DAW. Additionally, you can simply bypass the MIDIBox pattern and then sequence your own groove in your DAW from any patch with Lofi in the name.
• Skip 808 – this is the 808 Drum Kit I created and can be found in our free 808 Drum Loop library for Unify. It’s a very nice variety of Roland 808 samples up the keyboard and these patterns are all over the place from Urban to Techno. Just like with the Lofi Patches, if you click the “B” bypass button in MIDIBox for any “Skip 808” Patch, you now have the ability to play the drum kit and sequence anything you like in your DAW using this drum kits sounds.
• Skip Chill – is a drum kit with a bunch of Chill in genre focused drum sounds. If you own SuperMacho Drums, you’ll be familiar with this drum kit – however I did edit some of the samples to make them much shorter than those found on the same notes in the original kit just to make them work better in more genres.

Because these 3 drum kits have full samples that didn’t come originally from a drum loop, they will hit MUCH harder in a mix so it’s fun and beneficial to add one of these to some of the Rx drum loops to make the groove even stronger – that’s why these 3 kits are here!

BPM GROOVE – this is where all of the elements come together to create truly RAD Drum Grooves with 808 Basses and Chord Progressions! All of these have lots of layers and all of them have a slightly different Macro Knob assignment layout with Macro Knob #8 “MIXES” giving you a bunch of different mix options by turning on and off different layers of the groove. In all of the BPM GROOVE patches, the MIXES knob will play ALL LAYERS when that knob is at 0. After that, there is no predictable layout to what layers will play together – you’ll have to figure that out – OR – open up the assignments for Macro Knob #8 and modify them to your liking.

The main idea behind the MIXES knob is that by simply turning on the recording of Automation in your DAW, you can now easily play a note, move this knob, play new notes to make rhythmic variations for your song. I didn’t program in fills or anything quite that elaborate but you can get some really nice variations depending on where Macro Knob 8 is at. Try it out!

There are 2 BPM SPIT Patch and 2 PAD Patches that add a little extra fun to this library but I didn’t go too crazy here because the BPM DRUM and BPM GROOVE patches are what this library is really all about.