Sample Libraries

• Toontrack EZ Drummer Expanders: Vintage Rock, Drumkit From Hell, Latin Percussion • Pendle Poucher Dulcitone 1884 • Big Fish Audio Groove Planet

Combining multitimbral sample playback, loop tempo matching, synthesis, multi-effects and an 8GB sound library, is Plug Sound Pro the only software sound source you need alongside your DAW?

• VSL Appassionata Strings/Bösendorfer Imperial • Loopmasters Urban Soul • Canira Music International The Essence Of Panflute

Three more recently released libraries and virtual instruments get installed and tested to oblivion! • Muse • Chris Hein Guitars • Sample Lab Luscious Grooves: The Dark Side

The latest offerings in Ueberschall's Liquid Instruments series focus on vocals, aiming to provide you with a flexible band of personal backing vocalists via a front-end based on Celemony's Melodyne.

This complete orchestral library is the jewel in its maker's crown, but are we talking Tiffanys or Ratners?

• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion• Davide Carbone's Drum & Bass Masterclass • Zero-G Kocktail Kollection

• Loopmasters Disco House Sessions • Synthogy Ivory Italian Grand • Ueberschall Hip Hop Underground • Bela D Media Anthology Volume 1: Celtic Wind

• VSL Saxophones, Elements & Vienna Konzerthaus Organ • Scarbee Imperial Drums XL • BFD Platinum Samples: Andy Johns Classic Drums

Is it a loop librarian? Is it a sample library? Is it a drum-sample playback engine? No - it's all of these, and it brings along its own roster of hyper-famous drummers too...

This new software instrument majors on lively and evocative loops and phrases that can be flexibly combined to create convincing world-music atmospheres.

• Sample Magic Funky House Grooves

• Sample Logic Ambience Impacts Rhythms

• VSL Percussion & Harps

• Soundlabel Piano Attack

• VSL Woodwinds II, Brass I & Brass II • Ilio Skippy's Big Bad Beats, Skippy's Noizbox, Stark Raving Beats & Ethno Techno • Ueberschall Urban Jointz

Five new evocative sampled Chinese instruments in virtual instrument form at a seriously low price.

Our monthly round-up and evaluation of what tickled our fancy from the newest Sample Library releases.

We find out how well Steinberg's new take on the virtual orchestra conducts itself...

• Soniccouture Abstrakt: Konkrete • Tekniks Drumm EAR • AMG Kick-ass Brass • Bela D Media Lyrical Distortion: Volumes 1 & 2

Four hot Sample Collections get the SOS Sample Shop review treatment: • Big Fish Audio Chill • Best Service Chris Hein Horns Volume 1 • M-Audio Premium Electric Pianos • Loopmasters Soulful House Sessions

Working with musical loops is now a well-established part of the musical mainstream. Could you do with One more tool to get the job done?

Project SAM Organ Mystique • Best Service Peter Siedlaczek String Essentials • Big Fish Audio Roots Of South America Vol.2 • Big Fish Audio Soundscapes For Cinema

The Vienna Symphonic Library are well known for their amazingly detailed collections of orchestral sounds, and now they're providing them as virtual instruments. Will this take the VSL concept to a new audience, or is it a step too far?