Dub, the even more spaced-out mutant strain of reggae, isn’t just about world music but is also finding its way into chill and dance clubs. This DVD-ROM contains 846 loops (690MB), 412 hits (34MB), and 117 rolls (78MB); the WAV loops aren’t Acidized, so for doing the time-stretch thing, you’ll need to use the REX2 versions.

Although most people think of dub as drenched in echo and processing, that’s wisely not the case here. Loop files are divided fairly evenly among lo-fi, hi-fi, ambient, and standard recordings (these aren’t duplicated, but organized as different sessions), and are all conservatively recorded. The downside is that they’re not necessarily “production-ready,” but as dub is often about adding your own unique processing, it’s an advantage that you can customize the sounds as you see fit, and aren’t “locked in” to an existing vibe.

The organization is straightforward, with tempos included in the file names. The one-shots are helpful for fleshing out arrangements or creating your own loops, but they’re again recorded conservatively. If you want to put these in your MPC, you’ll probably want to produce them a bit.

There aren’t a ton of dub libraries, but this is a good one—and a useful library to add to your bag of tricks. As a bonus, many of the faster drum loops are great for adding flavor to dance music.

Contact: Future Loops, www.futureloops.com
Format: DVD-ROM with 800MB of unique content; 1,384 WAV files and 963 REX2 files; 24-bit, 44.1kHz.
List price: $79.96 (free worldwide shipping), $71.96 download