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I had the chance to review Elements of Dystopia, Elements of House, Elements of UK Dance and Elements of Garage MPC Expansion Pack. The kits are designed to work with the MPC Renaissance, MPC Studio and MPC Element. The MPC Expansion Packs are a collection of kicks, snares, hi-hats, loops, chords, bass and an assortment of one shot samples and FX all in wav file format. There are also programs and sequences you can load up to get you started. Each kit is dedicated to a particular genre but can be used in any genre.
Elements of Dystopia
Elements of Dystopia is an interesting kit. You will find 500 custom-built sounds that you would expect in a sample kit like kicks, snares , etc. Not sure why Akai used the name Dystopia which is defined as a place that is bad and filled with misery. There is nothing miserable about this kit. The sounds in the kit give off a dark vibe. All the sounds have a polish to them and I was able to pull up some kicks and snares and I started stacking the sounds together. The sequences and programs were ok. I think those were provided to give the user an example of what you can do with kit. You will find 808s, analog bass and other popular sounds plus synth sounds.
Elements of House
Elements of House is what the name says. You get over 500 drums sounds that give you what you need to make house music. I notice all the traditional house sounds in the kit so if you need a kit to put you in the right direction for House music, this kit is for you. Elements of House contains 50 kicks, 60 snares, 60 high-hats (closed and open), 40 claps, 30 cymbals, 20 hand drums, etc. I really enjoyed the crashes in the kit. I played around with some of the chords and bass sounds also. You will get plenty of FX with this kit. The sounds are polished as well so they should sound good in a mix. Like Dystopia, the programs and sequences were not so great. Some of 808 rim shots sound like Dystopia.
Elements of UK Dance
Elements of UK Dance gives you all the sounds you need to make UK Dance music. This kit seemed to provide a lot more sounds compared to previous kits mentioned above. What I like is that this kit gives you the foundation to build your beat from the ground up. You will have all the elements you need to make your next UK inspired dance track. Like the kits mentioned above, the sounds have a polish to them. There are lots of synth sounds and bass sounds.
Elements of Garage
Elements of Garage is similar to the previous kits but gives you what you need to make a garage sounding track. In my opinion House, UK Dance and Garage genres are similar to each other but there are particular sounds that are used to differentiate them. If you going for a Garage inspired sound, Elements of Garage is it. Upon doing this review I notice Elements of Garage is not available as of yet.
Conclusion
Today the market is filled with sample kits and some are recycled sounds you hear on many kits just mixed up. With the MPC Expansion Packs, you don’t have to worry about the sounds being recycled plus you get plenty sounds to choose from unlike kits available on the market today. Well maybe a few but from Akai’s own kits. You get original sounds on each kit plus they are professionally polished to sound good in a mix. The sounds themselves can be loaded in any sampler since they are wav files but why would you since you got a Ren or Studio? The only thing Akai could have kept the programs and sequences out of the kits. They seemed useless to me but I guess they were included to give someone audio examples. Aside from that, the kits are worthy to check out.
Price $49.00 each
Buy Elements of Dystopia here.
Buy Elements of House here.
Buy Elements of UK Dance here.
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