Burning Grooves is the first drum loops type sample CD that we've looked at from the much respected American sample CD company Spectrasonics. The product is described by Spectrasonics as "Killer Kits and blazing live drum grooves laid down by L.A. slammer Abe Laboriel Jr. with extreme re-mixes by producer Eric Persing.

The diverse selection of unrelenting alternative, power funk, progressive soul, rock & roll and grungehead loops in a wide variety of tempos (56-215 BPM) puts this collection in a class by itself. Each groove has a unique mix (edge, hi-fi, ambient, distorted, lo-fi, etc), and some have both HI-FI and LO-FI re-mixes. It is one of the only libraries to include different time signatures (3/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 12/8), and those hard to find Tom-Tom and Sidestick grooves."

We're reviewing the Audio/Kurzweil version of Burning Grooves, as usual with Spectrasoncs collections they are available in a number of formats, and invariably the CD-ROM version contains more content than the audio version. In this case the CD-ROM version contains a whole separate CD-ROM disc of individual hits, plus it comes bundled with the audio version as well. We would certainly recommend the CD-ROM version if you've the hardware to utilise it.

The collection, as mentioned above, features the playing of Abe Laboriel Jr, who has in recent times been working with his project "The Raging Honkies", more well known acts that he's worked with include Seal, Scritti Politti, Steve Vai, Duran Duran, k.d. lang, and Joe Sample. Laboriel is backed up on the production side by Eric Persing, who has done the processing of the loops for the collection.

The CD comes double shrink wrapped with a separate licence agreement inside the first shrink wrap. Much better than the ones you can't read until you open the CD which includes the line "By opening this CD you agree...". It's the standard Spectrasonics agreement, which is the usual things plus that the artist/product requires a specific written credit in any liner notes.

The documentation is very good and comes in three parts, a 24 page booklet with information on the artist, background notes, format specific issues and so forth, an 8 page listing of the contents of the audio CD plus a 4 page listing of the contents of the CD-ROM. The audio CD listing contains a little more descriptive information than the CD-ROM version. For each track you get a BPM, a descriptive name and a breakdown of the contents. The CD-ROM version is a little simpler just listing the BPM and descriptive name, the layout of the two discs is very similar so it's easy to follow from one to another if your auditioning from the audio version. The only very minor omission is the file sizes for the first CD-ROM disc on the Kurzweil version.

Although the literature recommends a minimum of 32Mb of sampler memory if you've only got 16Mb you can certainly still get a lot from the collection, most of the programs will fit into that size comfortably. You can never have too much memory of course !

The audio version has two short demo tracks, the second being for the "Liquid Grooves" CD from Spectrasonics.

Burning Grooves is logically organised, the loops on the audio and CD-ROM disc one are arranged in strict BPM order, with a small section tagged on the end for odd time signature loops (about 10% of the collection). CD-ROM disc two consists of numerous individual hits collections.

The main part of the collection is built around 151 live drum loops, which have been further processed to one degree or another to add a whole extra dimension of interest from just being a strictly straight live loops CD.

Each of the loops comes in a number of variations, 3-5 being the average, these are usually of the "dropout" variety. No snare, no kick are the most common, but there are also variations in length, soft/hard playing styles and variations of the main loop. Unusually there are also quite a range of fills provided in a number of places, something that I often feel is lacking in loops collections.

Another thing which is missing, deliberately mind, is that there are no cymbal crashes. This isn't a bad idea by any means, they are certainly easy enough to add in at a later time and as the literature points out does otherwise limit a loops usefulness. It's something that hasn't caught on though, can't recall any other loops collection taking this approach.

The advantage of the multiple variations is that it does give the user a number of options as to how to use the loops, you can add in your own kick or snare, layer with other loops, use differing fills and so forth. What this approach does is to give people a distinct advantage in a real world track production environment, actually turning one of these loops into a workable track is a whole lot easier and more realistic a proposition that a library that just gives you a 2 bar loop and that is it.

BPM's range from 56 to 218, and are fairly evenly spread from 56 to around the 135 mark. Styles vary from rock to jazzy, funk to more dance orientated styles, most anyone who is looking to use live drum loops will be able to find a wealth of very usable material on offer.

The processing, in 95% of cases, would best be described as polish rather than anything really radical, and certainly no where near the level of distortion and alteration that we have seen on some other collections. Subtle reverb, lo-fi, compression, echo and so forth. In a few cases Eric Persing has gone for more extreme processing but in the main you never get too far from the live drumming feel.

The playing itself is spot on, tie this in with the refined processing and method of presentation leads to a very high quality, usable and varied collection of loops. What I particularly like is the clean, open nature of the recordings. There is power in the playing, which adds a bit of punch to the loops but there is also a lot of space as well, which leaves room for other elements in a track. The loops are rarely overly busy or dominant, and there is very little in the way of "fill" effects, just the odd processing effect and one or two vocal elements left on the end of a couple of loops.

For most people the main attraction will be the loops, though on the CD-ROM disc two there is a whole library of individual drum kits. Worthy really of a whole review on it's own right. In summary though you get 8 different styles of kits, Dry Natural, Effected, Fun, Natural Room, Punchy Funk, R&R, Verby and Warm & Fat. Each of these is further subdivided into as many as ten sub kits. In all this is 58 kits, a very comprehensive range and variety indeed, certainly puts the two or three tracks of hits at the end of many loops sample CD's to shame !

The collection is very well recorded and typical of the thorough approach taken by Spectrasonics the samples aren't just presented "as is" but programmed so that the reverb parameter is adjustable on each kit, on this Kurzweil version by the Controller Slider. A very comprehensive hits collection indeed, which would forfill 95% of users requirements I am sure.

Summary - Audio quality is excellent, several loops have a deliberate "lo-fi" quality to them, otherwise production is flawless, clean and open while the processing is generally very refined and gives a very polished impression to the samples on offer.

Burning Grooves is a very solid, usable and well produced collection of live drum loops. The playing is powerful, solid and full of variations, both in the form of playing and presentation. The method of providing loops minus the kick and or snare elements does add considerably to the flexibility of the collection, making the transition from loops on a sample CD to actually forming the basis of a track much easier...especially important if your trying to blend in with other elements.

Aside from the loops, with the CD-ROM version you get a whole library worth of high quality drum kits, which in isolation would be worth a decent price... certainly on a par and then some when compared to standalone sample CD's that are on offer. As with all of the Spectrasonics products would certainly recommend investing in the CD-ROM version over the audio version.

There really is nothing of note that one can say against the Burning Grooves collection, possibly a little straightforward in nature overall. This is an observation rather than any kind of criticism, there is nothing that is going to knock your socks off here, but if your looking for solid, usable collection of loops then your definitely in the right area here.

The collection will appeal to just about anyone who is looking to add a live drum loops to a track, the extra processing that the collection has undergone adds an extra element of interest, but without drifting too far from the core theme. A very polished drum loops and hits sample CD. Thoroughly recommended.

Overall - Value for money 9/10 - Usability 9/10 - Documentation 10/10 - Sonic Quality 10/10. Rock solid collection of live drum loops and hits - 9/10