Soul is an elusive quality but few places have more of it attached than Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Original home of the legendary Swampers rhythm section, this was the site of immortal recordings by Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and many more. Toontrack hope to bottle up some of this magical swamp juice in Southern Soul EZX, their latest expansion pack for EZDrummer 2 and Superior Drummer 2.0.
Southern Soul EZX (£45.95)($89.99) was recorded in Fame live room using period gear and with input form original Swampers guitarist Jimmy Johnson.
Now, hot on the heels of that release is Soul Grooves MIDI, a collection of drum grooves performed by Martin Jonsson, a seasoned drummer with a long history of soul drumming.
Here's more from Toontrack.
Press Release:
If drums are the heartbeat of a song — groove is the soul. Something you can’t touch, just feel. It’s that inexplicable notion that just makes a beat sound right. It’s about the timing, the stroke, the velocity, the context – a complex machinery that runs solely on human parts. That’s why you can’t cheat your way there. And this collection of drum grooves has soul. More precisely — hundreds.
Soul Grooves was performed by Martin Jonsson, a seasoned drummer with a long history of soul drumming. He dove headless into the bottomless well of soul and brought back songs to turn backwards, in and out and upside down to come up with new, interesting flavors to elevate your track or spark your next idea. From the timeless ballads to the classic Motown backbeats, the uptempos, the shuffles and all the way to the contemporary soul of today – this collection has it all.
FEATURE SPOTLIGHT
- Drum grooves and fills inspired by soul music
- Close to 400 individually played files
- 4/4 and 6/8 variations in straight and/or swing feel
- Intro, verse, pre chorus, chorus, bridge and fills sections
