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Black Magic Loop Generator / Black Magic Lite
Reviewed By musikmachine [all]
June 9th, 2009
Version reviewed: 1.01 on Windows
I bought BM a couple of month back in a special promotion and i don't think a day has passed since then that i haven't used it.
I love it! Sorry but it has to said. For percussion tracks it's fantastic. The full version ships with a lot of sample content which i'm slowly working my way through but that's what the randomizers are for! But generally it's very good. It's actually a very mouse friendly plugin and as much a i try to avoid using the mouse this is one plugin where i enjoy it, BM feels like a natural extension. I think part of the reason is that small changes can achieve quite radical results.
One of the other things that makes Bm unique imo is the master fx; you can set or disable the fx for each track independently and the master fx will affect each track relative to it's value so if drive is disabled on track one when you adjust the master drive control it will be unaffected but the tracks that have drive will be affected in varying amounts depending on the amount applied to each track so you will often get unexpected results and that's part of BMs appeal; it's unpredictable. It's also extremely light on the cpu considering all the fx and functionality it has built into it. The compressor is excellent for adding some punch to the drums and the soundscaper is great for adding some space and ambience. This is one plugin where the fx work really well on drums and percussive material. Then you also have a flanger,delay, mod sequencer, lfo, gapper and noise gate. Each of the fx have several functions and a randomizer. In fact just about everything has a randomizer! So again very easy to use with a mouse.
The built in recorder is really useful and perfect if you just want to build up some samples for your library or jam out some beats. Whatever you record is categorized by tempo and date stamped so if your like me and do a lot of recording this is invaluable as you can record multiple takes and have all the samples waiting to be used afterwards. One of the great things is taking those samples afterwards and combining then together to create more complex loops, or chopping them up and using them as hits or short percussive loops. You could create complete drum tracks this way and of course using the samples will save on cpu. I don't use third party samples as much any more as i can pretty much create all the percussive stuff i want with BM. it's my one stop shop. :)
Black Magic can be used in several different ways. The most interesting (so far!) is pitched mode where the samples can be pitched across two octaves. I tried this out with a bass drum and was able to create a really nice bass line. I then layered it with an sampled instrument on another track and it sounded great. It would be great if you could disable the pitch mode on certain tracks so that hihats etc weren't affected by the changes in pitch.
You can also improvise live with it triggering the tracks via keys and record the output via midi or audio or you can play it as a kit like a standard drum sampler. It's very 'playable' and very much an instrument in it's own right.
So it's an extremely versatile and powerful drum machine/sampler with more than a few tricks up it's sleeve. I'm still finding new ways of using it and i haven't even loaded my own samples into it yet. It is a great source of inspiration and creativity. The fx are great and big part of what gives BM it's sound. The filters are very nice and the drive is perfect for dirtying up your drums. Not to mention the lofi mode. Oh, and did i mention the humanize and swing functions? ;)Read Review
I love it! Sorry but it has to said. For percussion tracks it's fantastic. The full version ships with a lot of sample content which i'm slowly working my way through but that's what the randomizers are for! But generally it's very good. It's actually a very mouse friendly plugin and as much a i try to avoid using the mouse this is one plugin where i enjoy it, BM feels like a natural extension. I think part of the reason is that small changes can achieve quite radical results.
One of the other things that makes Bm unique imo is the master fx; you can set or disable the fx for each track independently and the master fx will affect each track relative to it's value so if drive is disabled on track one when you adjust the master drive control it will be unaffected but the tracks that have drive will be affected in varying amounts depending on the amount applied to each track so you will often get unexpected results and that's part of BMs appeal; it's unpredictable. It's also extremely light on the cpu considering all the fx and functionality it has built into it. The compressor is excellent for adding some punch to the drums and the soundscaper is great for adding some space and ambience. This is one plugin where the fx work really well on drums and percussive material. Then you also have a flanger,delay, mod sequencer, lfo, gapper and noise gate. Each of the fx have several functions and a randomizer. In fact just about everything has a randomizer! So again very easy to use with a mouse.
The built in recorder is really useful and perfect if you just want to build up some samples for your library or jam out some beats. Whatever you record is categorized by tempo and date stamped so if your like me and do a lot of recording this is invaluable as you can record multiple takes and have all the samples waiting to be used afterwards. One of the great things is taking those samples afterwards and combining then together to create more complex loops, or chopping them up and using them as hits or short percussive loops. You could create complete drum tracks this way and of course using the samples will save on cpu. I don't use third party samples as much any more as i can pretty much create all the percussive stuff i want with BM. it's my one stop shop. :)
Black Magic can be used in several different ways. The most interesting (so far!) is pitched mode where the samples can be pitched across two octaves. I tried this out with a bass drum and was able to create a really nice bass line. I then layered it with an sampled instrument on another track and it sounded great. It would be great if you could disable the pitch mode on certain tracks so that hihats etc weren't affected by the changes in pitch.
You can also improvise live with it triggering the tracks via keys and record the output via midi or audio or you can play it as a kit like a standard drum sampler. It's very 'playable' and very much an instrument in it's own right.
So it's an extremely versatile and powerful drum machine/sampler with more than a few tricks up it's sleeve. I'm still finding new ways of using it and i haven't even loaded my own samples into it yet. It is a great source of inspiration and creativity. The fx are great and big part of what gives BM it's sound. The filters are very nice and the drive is perfect for dirtying up your drums. Not to mention the lofi mode. Oh, and did i mention the humanize and swing functions? ;)Read Review
