Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars
Bones, from British creative studio Song Athletics, is a ‘super sample pack’ containing over 400 loops, 800+ one‑shot samples and more than 100 drum stems, performed by professional musicians and recorded at studio‑grade quality. The royalty‑free collection (5.73GB uncompressed) is provided as WAV files and can be used easily in a variety of software.
There are variations on a large number of parameters: dynamics (soft, hard, medium); tempo (loops ranging from 45 to 155 bpm); chords (major and minor), textures (clean, distortion, pads, noise), styles (classic to quirky), instruments (acoustic, electric, synth, vocal), and performance (clean pluck, muted, arpeggios, stabs).
‘Loops’ consists of two offerings: Drums and Melodies. The melodic loops include ambient pads, melancholic piano lines, electric guitar phrases with lush reverb, and beautifully mixed ensemble pieces. Drum loops come in two forms: as mixdowns or stems, which is useful when you have to deliver alternate mixes with parts of the drum kit muted. It also offers the creative option of dropping a specific sound mid‑loop, like a kick, for example, and bringing it back later for dramatic effect. Both drums and melodies are broken down further into their individual elements, as single‑hit samples in the one‑shots category.
In terms of styles of music, there’s an interesting mix here: the drums stay solid and classic (with the exception of their edgy friend ‘Dark Trap’), while the melodies push the boundaries of experimentation, with sounds ranging from gorgeous acoustic guitar chords to granular effects gone wild. You could have a lot of fun seating the two next to each other, like at a spontaneous house party that yields unexpected and wonderful friendships.
All the samples are meticulously recorded; you would have to work hard to make them sound bad in your mix. A special shoutout for the close‑miked drums for clarity and incredible imaging, even when listening on basic headphones. The samples hold up well to manipulation — reverse the audio, time‑stretch, pitch‑shift, and it all works fine.
All the samples are meticulously recorded; you would have to work hard to make them sound bad in your mix.
Bones is a solid and generous collection of starting points: whether you’re a newbie whose ability to play currently lags behind your ability to compose; a veteran struggling with writer’s block; or there’s a deadline looming and you need a new drum part but can’t record one today.
Being a collection of WAV files, the library is easy to get started with. Good news: no learning yet another product‑specific GUI. Bad news: there’s still hard work to be done. Not to be a spoilsport, but to truly make the most of Bones, you have to study it and get familiar with the variety it offers so that the next time you’re deep in the middle of a composition, your brain already knows what is available within the library and recalls it right when you need it. This is good practice for any new sample library and the pros always advise that you get familiar with your tools. The hardest work you will do with Bones is keeping track of all that it offers because it offers a lot and it would be a shame to not make the most of it.