In this edition of Beat Makers Toolkit we will discuss Break Beats. The break collections mentioned here are all great collections but be forewarned, a few of the collections may contain the same breaks. So check them out and choose the collections that will work best for you.

As a beat maker there are some things that you should never do without. Break beat samples and loops are one such thing. No matter how fat your one hit drum sample library gets, you will always need breaks on tap. Furthermore, if you prefer one hit drum samples over breaks simply because you haven’t mastered the art of chopping samples into usable bits of goodness, that’s where you’re lost.

So I say this to you… learn to chop breaks to your liking and build up the break beats section of your sample library. Boom Bap depends on it.

ALL THE BREAKS
Turntablelab.com

All The Breaks is probably the most popular collection of breaks. Introduced a few years back, ALL THE BREAKS was met with a bit of good ole purest opposition. The diggers were very adamant about the fact that having such a collection was considered cheating. I’d like to refer to it as a sign of the times. We are in the microwave generation. Instant gratification is the name of the game now a days. So why not have an e-crate full of breaks so you can hit the ground running when its time to bang out beats?

According to Turntablelab.com

“300 of the most essential and rarest drum breaks of all time remastered from the original records and ready for sampling and chopping. An impressive selection of timeless breaks including multiple versions  of “Get Out My Life Woman,” and “Sing A Simple Song,” staples like “It’s A New Day” and “Ashley’s Roachclip” and over 290 more rare and classic breaks. All The Breaks has done the hard part for you and trimmed these songs down to just the essential parts where you can chop and sample the kicks, snares, high hats, cymbals, and fills with ease. Whether you are making hip-hop or r&b or grime, All The Breaks is an excellent resource for finding the right drums for your tracks. Like Egon said: “Damn, they’ve just made it TOO EASY.” “

150 HIP HOP DRUM BREAKS
TheProducersChoice.com

The Producer’s Choice is known for their high quality drum sounds and attention to detail in sound design. What they’ve done with 150 Hip Hop Drum Breaks is sampled and looped, to precision, some of the most classic breaks ever. The vinyl warmth is apparent and the BPM info is included so there will be no guessing about the tempo when in the heat of production.

According to TheProducersChoice.com

“We took the time to sample the best and most timeless 150 breaks in the history of music. We sampled from vinyl to offer that unmistakable vinyl analogue tone. We made sure every sample was perfectly chopped, so they are loopable with no editing required. Finally we added the BPM info to each sample so you can easily add breaks into your tracks at the correct tempo. Download the entire drum break ‘vault’ today – and we guarantee that these breaks will become the backbone of your productions for years to come!”

MINTY BREAKS
HipHopDrumSamples.com

We featured Minty Breaks in a previous post because of its rare breaks and raw, straight off the vinyl record feel. It’s a personal favorite for me. I love the airy vinyl static appeal of these rare breaks. All 88 breaks are dope. I’d say this is a must have collection

According to HipHopDrumSamples.com

“Break Beats so fresh we had to call em Minty! Minty Breaks is a collection of 88 rare break beats collected and assembled for your chopping and looping pleasure. Our digging team got their fingers dusty so you don’t have to! Don’t sleep on these breaks, this is one of our finest collections yet!”

50 FREE HIP HOP BREAK LOOPS (VOL. 1 – 4)
TheSample.net

TheSample.net is King for free samples. This site is a wonderful resource for free loops and samples. They’ve even put together a dope collection of free breaks. There are 4 volumes of free breaks and each volume contains 50 free breaks. Each break also contains the bpm and artist info. See below for links to each volume of the kit.
Vol. 1

Vol. 2
Vol. 3
Vol. 4

According to TheSample.net

“A sick collection of classic break loops. Includes BPM information, and original artist info with each file.”

INTERNATIONAL BREAKS 101
HipHopDrumSamples.com

 For those of you who would like to travel to distant lands to dig for breaks HipHopDrums.com has already done the work for you. With International Breaks 101, HipHopDrums.com has compiled a host of 101 international breaks for your chopping pleasure. This is a must have in your tool kit.
 
 According to HipHopDrumSamples.com
“You won’t find these breaks anywhere else! Our dedicated digging team scoured the planet for these super dusty and rare break beats.Ready to chop, loop, and layer, International Breaks 101 features 101 breaks from from the late 60’s to early 80’s. Our team assembled a comprehensive break beat kit with ultra rare gems from Russia, China, Thailand, India, Korea, Japan, Bulgaria, Turkey, France, Holland, Italy, Poland, UK, and Brazil.”
 
Article Photo Credit: Carton of Records By Steve Snodgrass (protected by Creative Commons License - Attribution)
No more articles