Rhythmology - The Future of Rhythm

Sample Logic is a top-notch company that released over time some of the most complete and innovative libraries for Kontakt. I own many of their libraries and I love them. Their latest release, Rhythmology, continues that trend with a concept that allow the user to have access to an enormous quantity of loop sources and do major modifications to them, while playing simultaneously with up to four loop sources that are each inside a loop core (which is a loop source together with all it's effects available). Each loop source is divided into 16 steps, which can be rearranged, repeated or muted.

As usual from Sample Logic, the sound quality is excellent, ranging from a wide range of content that can be use in various musical styles. The sounds are tagged and can be selected as favorites for easy recalling later.

The interface is well laid-out and clear. As different levels of customization are possible, navigating through the menus and sub-menus can seem daunting at first, but it becomes easier after a while to make either minor adjustments or totally revamping the sounds to make them completely different. The user manual does a good job of explaining all the functions for the different menus, so it's a must-read to get a good grasp of all the features available inside this library.

The amount of customization that can be made if you want to dig deeper is mind-boggling. A lot of elements can be randomized, while keeping some other untouched, allowing you to tailor-made the sounds to your liking. There's a lot of effects available. Some effects are the same for all the loop sources (volume, pan, transpose, stutter, reverse), while some other can be chosen between a wide range of over 20 effects. The effects can be applied to each step of a loop source, to a complete loop core or at a more global level. Also, for those that likes to have presets, you're well covered. There's many presets at loop core levels, multi-core levels, and a lot of presets for effects or chain of effects at different levels.

I have a lot of fun choosing a multi-core preset that I like, then start playing with the loop sources and the effects. Just with one loop source, I can easily modify the steps, repeat some of them, rearrange and apply effects to have a totally different rhythm or simply customize some aspects to my liking.

Like I mentioned before, if I want to generate other ideas, I can randomize a lot of aspects. I simply have to choose which parts I'd like to randomize before pressing the random button. This way, I can get different results every time I try the randomize function.

Also, Rhythmology is NKS Compatible, which means that it can work with Native Instruments NKS keyboards, as well as with Maschine 2. I tried it from inside of Maschine and I can add the workflow and all the effects available from Maschine 2 to those from Rhythmology, which is a very nice bonus.

You definitively get a lot of bang for your buck. There's more than a thousand loop sources to play with, many hundreds of presets and so many ways to customize the sounds to your needs.

That's another stellar product from an innovative developper that keeps pushing the boundaries of what can be done with music. I will certainly use this product for a long time with the insane amount of stuff and all the interesting ways to customize, randomize and modify the content. On top of that, the developper hinted that expansions are in the work. I can't wait to try them, but in the meantime, I already have enough material to have fun for a while. Hats off, Sample Logic.