Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars
Zero‑G’s BioRhythms provides a loop‑based drum and rhythm sample library for the full version of Kontakt (v7.8.1 or later). The library contains approximately 2300 loops coming in at just over 3GB of 48kHz/16‑bit samples, and the Kontakt front‑end presents these loops within a 16‑channel playback engine. By default, the loops are organised into 13 Kontakt Snapshot presets but each of these contains 12 banks and 12 variations, each of which can be selected and/or triggered via the two sets of keyswitches. The library is NKS‑friendly so can be used with Komplete Kontrol or Maschine 2. Obviously, the loop‑based format will not appeal to those who like to roll their own grooves but, if you need some instant rhythmic inspiration, there is plenty here to explore. Stylistically, the loops themselves could be used in a range of musical contexts from pop, electronic styles or in music‑to‑picture work.
The UI is perhaps not the most beautiful Kontakt instrument you have ever seen but it does pack in quite a lot of functionality once you have found your way around. It’s dominated by the 16‑channel mixer panel and, by default, the loops are laid out in a sensibly consistent fashion with, for example, kick loops on channels 1 and 2, snare on channel 3, and so on. The other channels include hi‑hats, claps, bongos, congas, shaker, tambourine, other percussion and then a selection of effects and riser sounds.
As well as the usual fader, mute, solo, pan and send (to the reverb and delay) controls, you also get the Var, Tune and Speed controls. The latter two do what you might expect, while the Var control lets you switch the loop variation for a specific channel, allowing you to easily mix and match within the loop sets contained within a specific Snapshot. You can also trust to luck and randomise the Var setting for each channel.
At the top of the mixer you can select a specific channel, and its waveform is then displayed in the top‑most panel. All the various effects tabs can then be popped open and you can tweak the various effects — EQ/Filter, Compression, etc — on a per‑channel basis, or ‘link’ the settings to make changes across all channels. Loop playback can be switched between slice and time‑stretch modes (the latter is a little more CPU intensive). You can, of course, also save your own Snapshots if you create a set of loop variations and mixer settings that you might wish to reuse.
The loops themselves are very usable, and you can get a lot of mileage out of the supplied content.
OK, so BioRhythms is essentially a loop playback engine. It doesn’t break any particular new ground in terms of functionality or musical content. However, the loops themselves are very usable, and you can get a lot of mileage out of the supplied content once you have found your way around the toolset. It’s also sensibly priced. For those on a budget looking for some instant drum and percussion inspiration, the demos on the Zero‑G website would be well worth auditioning.