Scatter by Andrulian

ModeAudio has introduced Scatter, a 590MB collection of royalty free ambient textures and glimmering Downtempo rhythms that will sit joyously within productions ranging from House and Techno to film soundtracks and more. It is available in Wav, Rex2, Reason and Ableton Live pack formats from ModeAudio (£18 regular price).

What's Included

This review is for the Ableton Live sample pack which features a total of more than 350 samples arranged in different folders. The ‘projects’ folder contains 15 live project files (.als); The ‘samples’ folder contains 3 sub folders comprising ‘Drum Hits’, ‘Scatter loops’ and ‘Scatter Tail samples’ folders; The ‘MIDI Loops’ folder contains the sub-folders ‘arps’, ‘basses’, ‘chords and pads’, ‘drums’ and ‘perc’.

The Scatter Loops folder contains 30 arp synth loops, 15 bass loops, 30 chord and pad loops, 31 drum loops, 14 noise loops and 32 percussion loops which are labelled by name, key and tempo.

The arps folder contains 2 arps for each named sound, ranging from 66bpm to 122bpm. I really like the difference in sound between the two arps, they give a really good variety of sound. The loops have been processed with a subtle saturation and a great warmth resulting in an ambient sound with a nice hint of glitch at times.

The bass loops folder contains a range of deep, rolling, subby, gnarly and dubstep type sounds which have a glitchy edge to them and a warm, solid presence.

The chords and pads folder contains an excellent range of chords and pads which have a warm, saturated sound with a glitchy edge. Some of these have soundscape / cinematic qualities whilst others have more of an upfront sound and complement or contrast with the arps very well. There’s often a subtle movement in these sounds which makes them more interesting.

The drum loops folder contains a range of downtempo loops which have a warm and punchy sound with a edge of saturation and glitch. There a great variety of different sounding loops and I really like how they are split into drum loops and hat loops which allows you to create a more stripped back feel as well as a fuller loop and apply separate processing if required.

The noise loops folder contains a range of vinyl, crackle and hum type sounds, some of which have rhythmic properties. These can be used to add a different element to your sound and are ideal for further processing in themselves.

The percussion loops folder contains a range of glitchy, percussive and impact sound loops which can add a third dimension to the drum loops or can be used with further processing along with the noise loops to create some excellent ambient, glitchy sounds.

The Scatter Tail samples folder contains ‘tail samples’ which are an addition we’ve seen in other Mode Audio packs. On the face of it they allow you to apply a natural reverb tail to sample loops which is really useful in itself. However, they are also excellent sound sources in their own right that can be manipulated and mangled to add interesting elements to your tracks or could even be used as a starting point for new tracks.

The Midi loops folder is a very welcome addition to the sample pack and contains contains 127 fully featured midi loops. Typically 4 bar loops, these can be used with your own sounds or edited to create subtle or stark contrast and variations.

The drum hits sub-folder contains 16 kick samples, 16 snare samples, 20 high-hat samples (open and closed) and 12 percussion samples. These have a great warmth, an edge of saturation and a very natural sounding reverb.

Verdict

This is an excellent value sample pack which contains a variety of sample loops and drum hits with a warm, saturated sound often with an edge of glitch. They provide inspiration for a wide range of styles especially ambient and glitchy type tracks and many others too. 

As with other Mode Audio packs there is potential to mix and match samples to create tracks but you can use also use these loops as a starting point to create something new and original. The sounds layer really well together and give options for a stripped back sound or a fuller sound and everything in between. The tail samples are an excellent addition and the inclusion of midi loops are also very welcomed to give even greater flexibility and potential.