Do you like a slice of glitch with your hop? Prime Loops certainly do, having launched this download pack consisting of 317 24-bit WAV samples. Glitch Hop Revolution breaks these samples down into nine types: atmospheric glitches, multilayer bass glitches, glitch drum loops, glitch effects, glitch polysynths, lead glitches, percussion glitches and synth percussion (you guessed it) glitches.
The majority of this collection comprises loops, with the folders of effects and atmospheric glitches being the exception. Everything is well labelled with key and tempo info, which is good to see. Tempos range from 65 to 110 bpm, although some of the one-shot effects are labelled with higher tempos. The length of each loop tends to vary, and there's also quite a difference in levels, although nothing is too quiet to become a problem.
Starting with the low end and working upwards, the bass loops are full of character and mix the distorted growl of current dubstep with more analogue-style drones. Some are a bit busy for their own good, but on the whole they are very effective. The drum loops also sound great, being heavily compressed and boasting some nice panning effects and the pre-requisite twitchy feel. The real shame is that there are only 17 of them, which is far too stingy. The percussion and synth percussion loops are also effective (and you get a few more of each). There's a fair amount of bit crushing going on, but that's in keeping with the genre and it never gets too wearing.
The lead and polysynth loops sound nice and full, but perhaps rely a bit too heavily on bit reduction and crazy gating/pitch-shifting to create the required 'glitchiness'. In fact, if you're looking for extreme circuit-bent stuff, raw 8-bit bleeps or wild, random sequences, these loops may sound a little too polite. I think my favourite set in the collection is the multi-layer loops, which range from spiky and percussive, through slightly smoother atmospheric weirdness, to randomly synthy.
Overall, Glitch Hop Revolution contains lots of interesting and, perhaps more importantly, usable sounds, so don't be put off by the collection's habit of putting the word 'glitch' after everything. A good case in point is the folder of 'atmospheric glitches' which contains some nice, heavily effected, quite industrial-style soundscapes with barely a traditional 'glitch' in sight.
While not exactly revolutionary, the content on offer here is well put together with plenty of character, and would fit nicely into most EDM, dubstep, electronica and even hip-hop/drum & bass productions. Yes, including ones with glitch in the title. Oli Bell
£19.95
$30.50