Sample Magic - sample dvd's and downloads for house, dance, electro and trance music

"Few soundware companies have achieved the level of consistent quality that Sharooz Raoofi’s Sample Magic delivers. An accomplished electro and tech producer in his own right, Sharooz’s Beatport releases clearly demonstrate his skill and commitment to real-world production values, not cheesy ‘me-too’ knockoffs.

We loved Sample Magic’s Minimal and Tech House collection earlier this year, so their latest offering – Nu-Rave – naturally piqued our interest. After spending a few evenings with Nu-Rave, here’s what we found."

Read the full in-depth review at Beatportal by clicking here >>

Beatportal, August 2008

"Taking its inspiration from electro house and the dancier end of indie, Nu Rave is a refreshingly authentic take on the genre, packed with loops that are inspirational and polished.

It's clear that a great deal of effort has gone into the production of this library, and while there's not a massive amount of unique material on the discs (about 800MB), it's reasonably comprehensive, although some ride cymbals would have been nice.

Overall, Nu Rave is one of the most convincing contemporary genre-based collections we've tested. If you're into the more noisy side of dance music, we recommend it without hesitation. Rating: 9/10."

Computer Music, September 2008

"We’ve seen some pretty great collections from Sample Magic recently, ‘Tech & Minimal House’ being a great example. Their in-house producer and engineer Sharooz really knows how to capture the sound of each genre he turns his hand to, and you’re left with some of the most useable and authentic sounds and loops on the market.

But ‘Nu Rave’ is a little different. Rather than treading any well-trodden or trendy paths, on this one he’s been allowed to run riot, creatively speaking, and the result is excellent. Influences range from Gallic house to breakbeat, taking in dirty little acid lines and electro-tinged musical loops. The result is a collection of sounds and loops that really do sound ahead of the game.

Not only do they sounds great, but they’re programmed by somebody who knows their way around a bit of manuscript paper too so they’re all meticulously labelled. Your root bassline note is F#? No problem, just pick a musical loop that’s labelled as such. Or take any other and you know exactly how much to transpose it up or down. All in all, a very versatile and well-produced collection. Verdict: 5/5"

DJ magazine, October 2008

"Supplied in more formats than you can shake a stick at, Sample Magic’s latest offering is Nu-Rave, a collection of loops and one-shot samples aimed at dance and electronica producers. I explored the WAV format with Acid Pro 6 and there was some 800MB of sample data (nearly 1000 files), all presented as 24-bit files, and sensibly organised into instrument-based subfolders. The majority of the loop fodlers are further subdivided into three groups based on the original recording tempos (120, 125 and 130 bpm).

Given that the library is most obviously intended for various dance styles, the drum and bass loops are key – and Nu Rave doesn’t disappoint. The drum loops actually cover quite a lot of ground, ranging from fairly straightforward patterns (mostly, but not exclusively, based around electronic drum sounds) through to more experimental material that includes both unusual sound sources and some nice processing. The bass loops are equally diverse but there’s some really good stuff amongst this lot that I’m sure would go down well in a club context, including some great lo-fi and processed riffs. Both the drums and the bass contain plenty of bleeps and bloops, and there are more of these in the tops and glitch loops folder, including hi-hats, percussion and occasional snares melded with all sorts of other weird and wonderful noises.

The synths and music loops folders provide plenty of ear candy, offering loops that are rhythmically interesting and provide lots of harmonic content, too. Most of the synth sources sound very analogue, and there’s some great filter and pitch-processing going on, which should be spot-on for modern dance, rave and club music. The vox and FX folders are fairly modest, but they do contain some good material, including some nice vocoded vocals. The combi loops provide a collection of two-bar pre-mixed loops, which are fine for instant gratification, but I suspect folks would prefer to layer their own. The collection is rounded off by a useful collection of about 130 individual snare, kick, hi-hat, cymbal and ‘hit’ sounds. The kicks, in particular, are very good.

The cover blurb describes Nu Rave as ‘the underground sound of Parisien house and indie-tinged electronica’ and, while Paris clubland is not something of which I have first-hand experience, the broad musical sentiment seems to be pretty accurate. These loops could easily work in anything from cutting-edge dance productions through Nine Inch Nails-inspired rocktronica. In the majority of the folders there are some paired loops included that have similar names but slightly different performances. However, there are probably not enough related loops to build a completely arrangement without resorting to some beat-slicing – the only real down side of an otherwise excellent library. Rating: 5/5"

Sound on Sound, October 2008