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G&E Music Producer's Toolbox As described in the documentation, G&E Music's Producer's Toolbox was created for producers, editors and web designers searching for a new pallet of sound design and music elements. Created by G&E Music in New York City, this Audio and CD ROM combo platter offers quite a wide range of sounds organized into five main categories: Hits & Stings, Swooshes & Whooshes, Twinkles & Sprinkles, Beds & Drones, and Beats and Treats. The packaging alone deserves special mention, as the product comes protected in an eight-by six- inch titanium case, which shows nicely among the standard boring sea of plastic jewel cases. In the area of sound FX design, the sounds on this disc seem to be more suited for surreal musical applications than for a traditional sound FX library. This is largely due to the fact that most of the sounds come processed through a very warm sounding reverb, which emphasizes any tonal characteristics of the original effects. Although this technique seems to limit the CD's use to more dramatic sound design applications, it does make for some very cool effects that could undoubtedly complement some of the more traditional sound FX CD libraries. From a musical perspective, a majority of the elements in the sound FX folders seemed to be well suited for music composition as well. Within the Hits & Stings category alone, the Rhythmic, Drum, Hard, and Hits with Trails folders were simply screaming to be key-mapped into samplers for compositional experimentation. In this environment, they can be pitched around for dramatic octave-clusters or delicately crafted into single-note motifs as well as hauntingly beautiful poly-chords. The synthetic nature of these sounds create a pallet that would seem to mix well with more traditional musical instruments to create a modern-sounding film soundtrack as well as add color to electronic dance and techno music. Nested within the Beds & Drones folder is an entire soundscape of ambient, pulsing and edgy tones that serve as a great bed for creating eerie moods and drones. The Beats & Treats folder contains 14 different styles of music categorized by tempo (BPM), and each are delivered in three separate layers: drums/percussion bed (BEAT). Melodic, chordal or bass line element (TREAT), and combined full mix (BEAT & TREAT). Although these little four - and - eight - bar phrases would seem to provide a rather nice bed for advertising commercial and corporate presentations, a handful of them deserve much closer attention. One in particular, The Barnyard 90 (BEAT ONLY), begs to be chopped up using a program like Steinberg's Recycle and crafted into custom beats. The excellent sound quality of the samples in this beat would be a welcome addition to any composer/producer's library. According to G&E, all of the music is completely license free, with no hidden fees, cue sheets or additional paper work to fill out. Surely this will be an added incentive to budget-conscious producers operating on a tight schedule. Without a doubt, Producer's Toolbox proves to be a welcome addition to the sound and music library family. With a price tag of $249, the product offers a license-free tool set for creating sound and music in a variety of applications. In the words of G&E, "You've got the beats, the treats, the hits, and the rights...create." - Mike Reagan
Producer's Toolbox $249 |
