Liquid Grooves is a drum loops type sample CD from the American sample CD producers Spectrasonics. Originally released in 1996 and then further "re-released" in a Groove Control format in 1999 it is described as "Grooves that have existed only in your imagination. Fluid rhythms forged by a synthesis of propelling live drum grooves and unusual, organic percussion loops. The live elements, performed by some of L.A.'s most creative session players, have been transformed into a unique sonic texture via groundbreaking signal processing techniques and state of the art instruments such as the Korg Wavedrum™ ."

Supplemented by the Groove Control release with "The unique and inspiring grooves from the timeless library "Liquid Grooves" are now available in a Groove Control™ version. This revolutionary new method allows you to mix and match grooves in any tempo, and will even follow tempo changes from your sequencer! Groove Control™ also allows you to easily change the pattern, feel and pitch of the rhythms to your music simply by using the MIDI editing capabilities of your sequencer. Imagine being able to tune the Wavedrum™ grooves to the key of your song in real-time, without the rhythm changing! "

We're reviewing the Audio/Kurzweil version of Liquid Grooves in it's Groove Control format, as is usual with Spectrasonic CD-ROM's they are available in a variety of formats. The original collection is still available in Audio & CD-ROM versions (The CD-ROM version comes with the audio version), though as we'll go on to explain if you can utilise the Groove Control version it's much, much better. The Groove Control version comes on 3 CD's, 2 formatted for your sampler and the other in a PC/Mac data format. (The Roland version incidentally spreads over to 4 discs).

The collection features the drumming of Bob Wilson (Boz Scaggs, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, George Benson...) and Eric Boseman (James Howard Newton, The Keyboard All-Stars, The Boston Jazz Septet...) and is backed up on the production side by Eric Persing, who has done the processing and subsequent programming of the loops for the collection.

The CD comes double shrink wrapped with a separate licence agreement inside the first shrink wrap. Much better than the ones you can't read until you open the CD which includes the line "By opening this CD you agree...". It's the standard Spectrasonics agreement, which is the usual things plus that the artist/product requires a specific written credit in any liner notes.

The documentation as usual with Spectrasonic products is very thorough, a 24 page booklet (an expanded version of which is on the CD-ROM) covers the background to the collection, information on how to use the product and a fairly brief listing of the contents of the sampler CD-ROM's. These are listed by BPM, descriptive name and the file sizes. The CD-ROM also contains a few more documents to check through as well with some extra information and notes.

Although the literature recommends a minimum of 32Mb of sampler memory if you've only got 16Mb you can certainly still get a great deal from the collection, most of the programs will fit into that size comfortably.

Apart from the reviewed items, the CD-ROM also contains a number of extra's, a Rebirth Liquid Grooves mod, the entire collection of sounds in mp3 format for auditioning purposes plus a whole range of demo mp3's for other Spectrasonics products. The mp3's in particular are a very good idea, enables you to load them up into a MP3 player to audition without having to load them into your sampler, ten times quicker !

Before we get into the sounds proper I'll explain what this Groove Control feature is all about. (the Spectrasonics website has more here). Basically what you do is find a loop that you want to use - you load the corresponding data file from the PC/Mac CD into your sequencer (your supplied with Cubase, Logic, Vision, Performer & MIDI versions) and the corresponding program into your sampler. You then have the loop and all it's elements ready to go.

Now you can just leave it at that of course as the producers thought you might like it, but, and the big but is that you now have total control over the loops and assorted elements in them. You can change the BPM, drop elements in and out, change parts of the loop, swap elements, adjust relative levels, tweak, tune, anything you like. What this means to the user is that you don't have one loop, or even a loop plus a few variations, but an infinite number of variations of the original loop which you can control.

It all works seamlessly too, change the BPM and the sounds adjust automatically so that there aren't gaps/overlaps, drop an element out and the rest of the loop plays along, all fits together very well. The downside is that you'll spend ages and ages playing around with the loops, change this, change that, try the other. I've spent two afternoons over these last three paragraphs alone!

Spectrasonics aren't the first to supply drum loops in this kind of format, but certainly to date no one has done it better, and I can't stress the most important benefit of this approach too much. That is that it makes the transition from a loop on a sample CD to a finished track much easier and a much more imaginative and individual creation. The Groove Control feature really highlights the power of modern samplers and sequencers, all together giving the user a very powerful and flexible tool.

OK Groove Control is a good thing, what about the sounds? Liquid Grooves concentrates on the lower BPM range, with BPM's from 53-117 (with one oddball at 162), with over half being below 90. As you can imagine this gives a rather laid-back feel to the overall collection. With the Groove Control feature of course you can change the BPM's to whatever you want!

Apart from the usual acoustic drumming sounds that you would expect there has been extensive use of other percussive elements to give an extra dimension to the sounds. The Korg Wavedrum is present in quite a few places giving a synthetic element here and there plus more traditional percussive elements are giving an airing, shakers, brushes, congas, cowbells to name but a few. On top, especially in the "remix" areas there are a few spot synth like fill effects here and there that fill out a loop and add a bit of sonic interest.

Subsequent processing has been applied by Eric Persing, this isn't extreme by any means, more so in the "remix" version of the loops, but gives a very polished and professional feel to the whole collection. There are a few loops that have a somewhat more heavily effected than others but overall the collection sounds fairly natural, perhaps "not-over processed" is a better description.

The overall impression of the loops is of them being very open, with lots of space, ideal for layering as a backdrop to a track, but allowing for other elements in a mix to sit in their own space. With the slow BPM's you also have, as you would expect, have lots of material for a laid back, almost spartan feel, type tracks.

What I especially liked about many of the loops is how, is many cases, they are ideal for creating a "build up" type effect, start off with one element, then add another and another to create some momentum in a track. That's not even mentioning all other further possibilities offered by the Groove Control system.

Liquid Grooves Groove Control certainly leads to an interesting and more creative approach to creating a track, I'll give you an example. "Mysterious", start off a track with just the drum element, fade out to a "Whale Drum" effect, add in Wavedrums, mix these together, then add in Bongo's and a Shaker for a "chorus" finally fading out to a "Trippy Remix" at the end. Seven loop variations, in five minutes I have a track mapped out and playing. The real beauty of the system though comes when you actually start to tweak things, I can easily create 20 different loops, create a bridge before the chorus, redo that "Trippy Remix" I'm not too happy with and change the Bongo's for something else..etc..etc..etc.. try this with a two bar loop sample!

Summary - Audio quality is excellent, one or two loops have a deliberate "lo-fi" quality to them, otherwise production is flawless, clean and open sounding. Overall a very smooth and professional sounding.

Liquid Grooves is another excellent collection in a long line of exceptionally good sample CD's from Spectrasonics. Forgetting the Groove Control feature of the collection for a moment, we have an outstanding variety of slower tempo loops that offer the user a wide range of styles and sonic interest. There is an interesting blend of regular percussive elements with occasional synthetic parts and "world" instrumentation. Mixed with subtle processing, this produces an end result that offers both naturally sounding laid-back loops and also allows for lots of originality and creative options.

The collection overall sits somewhere between being a straight drum loops CD, a synthetic loops CD and an "ethnic" type collection, having elements of all three types and mixing them together seamlessly.

If that's not enough we then have the whole extra dimension of user control over the loops with the Groove Control feature, this enables you to take the supplied material and then manipulate it to your hearts content. It really is very well done and is incredibly addictive to use, your not limited to what the producer of the CD supplies, but a whole creative vista awaits you. Very flexible and very powerful.

Downsides, mmm. Struggling here. I suppose that some people may feel that for a loops collection the original number of base loops is fairly small, there are a lot of variations of the loops and elements and with the Groove Control system you really do have an infinite number of variations, but if the loops doesn't hook you in the first place then the number of variations doesn't matter.

Anyone who is looking at obtaining lower BPM loops would be well advised to check out this collection, it would appeal most to people looking to create new age, ambient, world, jazz, trip hop, acid jazz or most anyone really working in these kinds of areas. With the Groove Control system though I suspect almost anyone would be able to use the contents of this collection creatively.

Overall - Value for money 10/10 - Usability 10/10 - Documentation 9/10 - Sonic Quality 10/10. Excellent collection of grooves, under your control - 9.5/10