SPECTRASONICS - STYLUS VINYL GROOVE MODULE

Is it a drum machine? A groove box? A percussion module?

Nope. Spectrasonics' Stylus Vinyl Groove Module for RTAS is a sample-playback plug-in loaded with a whopping three gigabytes of drum and percussion loops, hits, scratches, and effects. That's 700 stereo breakbeats at tempos ranging from 50 to 170 BPM.

I confess I was skeptical the first time I heard about Stylus. Why, I wondered, would you want to purchase an RTAS plug-in that only plays its own library, when you can assemble your own custom beat libraries with full-featured Pro Tools-compatible samplers such as Soft Sample Cell, Kontakt, and Unity?

Now that I've worked with it, I can answer that question: Stylus sounds great. It's easy to use. It's packed with innovative features. And I concoct something cool every time I fire it up.

The Stylus Vinyl Groove Module boasts a big, easy-to-tweak interface.

Any non-recording sampler is only as good as its sounds. Fortunately, the Stylus library was crafted by sound designer Eric Persing, widely admired for such sampling CDs as Distorted Reality, Liquid Grooves, and Metamorphosis. His breakbeats generally consist of relatively "normal" drum kit and percussion loops - dramatically compressed and EQed, but seldom warped beyond recognition. The rhythms are similarly straight-ahead - 4/4, heavy-on-the-one stuff well-suited for much contemporary pop, rock, dance, and hip-hop. They're fat, punchy, and aggressive, and they positively drip authentic vinyl flavor. (Persing reportedly printed his beats to vinyl before sampling them.) The individual hits and scratches have an equally convincing straight-from-the-turntable vibe. You get 1,000 kicks, 1,000 snares, and 500 hi-hat sounds.

Stylus' implementation is no less impressive. You browse through loops directly from the plug-in, triggering them via MIDI keyboard or the built-in Preview button. Particularly handy are Stylus's multi-loop banks, organized by tempo. It's a fast, efficient way to audition loops quickly and in context. Load times are fast, processor demands minimal.

Once you've picked the perfect loop, you can either trigger it as is or use the "Groove Control" version. (Groove Control refers to Spectrasonics' proprietary method of slicing audio files into small loops, each triggered by a MIDI note.) With Groove Control engaged, you can customize the timing, velocity, and order of each slice without any waveform surgery. Pretty slick.