Loopmasters Dubstep Arena Review

As a Dubstep producer I'm always searching for new samples to create drumloops that can hold under the weight of my over compressed dirty basslines. I take pride in my productions, and always ensure my mixes sound tight and crisp. I don't purchase many Dubstep sample cds because they tend to sound poor, but Dubstep Arena is one of the sample cds that I had have in my collection.

First of all Dubstep Arena isn't the regular run of the mill Dubstep sample cd. Each sample has been engineered by professional producers and are ready to drop straight into your mix without the need to EQ or compress each sample. Kicks sit nicely around the 80khz-90khz frequencies leaving you plenty of room for you big baseline and snares crack/snap around the 200khz range. For me, having fine tuned drum samples at the click of a mouse is a huge benefit and time saver.

There are far to many features of Dubstep Arena that will benefit new or seasoned Dubstep producers but some of my favourite features are:

• Samples are recorded in 24 bit giving you the best overall sound quality.


• The CD is a whopping 1.18GB of samples. Lots of samples to keep you busy.


• A large selection of constructions kits that include bass, synths and sound effects.


• 250 one shot samples for creating killer drum loops.


• Available for Ableton Live 7, Apple Loops, MPC and regular .Wav format



I also DJ around various clubs in the UK and found the construction kits are great for creating quick tracks to drop into your sets. I also managed to hook up my midi sequencer and play tracks live using just the construction kits.




Another thing that impressed me about this particular sample cd was the versatility of each sample. I like to make my tracks sound unique, and will often layer snares and kicks to give them a different feel and sound. But, the samples from Dubstep Arena seemed to seamlessly sit together with very little need to mess about with the EQ or do any transient shaping.




I was slightly disappointed that Dubstep Arena wasn't available as an ESX24 pack. I produce all my Dubstep tracks in Logic on the Mac and use ESX24 as my primary drum machine. Never the less I was able to load each individual wave sample into ESX24 and map each sample to the keys on my keyboard.




Overall I am more than satisfied with Dubstep Arena, and would go as far as saying it's probably the only sample cd worth having in your library.