Here’s a deal for you breakbeat junkies:

Dusted William Super Funky Ass Drums - an impressive collection of 24bit REX2/wav loops for download for the introductory price of $10. Act fast, as I have no idea when this price ends; I think soon.

I’ve only just begun exploring the collection but I will attest to its quality. Just great sounding beats that have a lot of character but are dry and free of the over-processing that plague these kinds of collections.

This is not a “construction kit” per se, whereby you can mix and match different loops into a sequence which, at least remotely, plays like a continuous drum track. No, these are Breakbeats. But once you really start chopping up beats - snare pattern from this, kick pattern from that - or want to bung it through the DSP of your choice, you appreciate the usefulness of cleanly recorded but vintage sounding breaks. None of that, “Hey, let’s run the loop through a completely over-cranked filter and call it unique content!” Or “Well, let’s make it sound like it was ripped from vinyl by squashing the hell out of it and adding in noise.” No, when I’m buying breaks I want the groove, a great player playing a great sounding kit, recorded well. Making it sound completely over-processed I can handle myself.

That the collection contains both the REX2 & wave files makes this doubly useful. Lately, I’ve come to appreciate the versatility of REX files, though I still can’t bring myself to shell out for ReCycle. So I’m always happy not to be locked into one or the other format.

So, get in while the getting is good. This is a bargain at twice the price.

“What can ya doooo?”

Anyway, I’m pretty over beat libraries. It’s pretty hard to work up any real enthusiasm about yet another collection of drum/beat loops. While it’s more than useful to have a heap of ‘em around to grab and mangle a “breakbeat” quickly — dropping in beats=my favorite trick — it not like I have any shortage of drum/beat loops. And even if you use a collection extensively, it you may touch but a fraction of its content.

That said, I’m actually pretty chuffed about this.

A drummer whose name I instantly recognize, who has played on some of my favorite recordings and has worked with some of my favorite artists/engineers from some of my most-formative musical years, period.

I don’t know about anybody else, but to me this seems like quite a coup.

Well done.

Sorry to be such a shill for Cake¹, but I’m genuinely looking forward to listening to this. Even if I only use it sporadically or not at all, it will be instructive and entertaining to listen to. (But my mind works like that.)

^{1Not to over-explain the joke, but when I say “shill” I’m don’t mean to imply that I got any special deal on this. I’ll probably shell out for this like everyone else, though, you know, I’m bought off pretty easily.}