The International Breaks 101 Vinyl is the first vinyl breaks collection from the Drum Broker. You may recall this breaks collection from HipHopDrumSamples.com as a digital download. Well, its now a fully grown and mature vinyl project.
The collection contains 101 breaks (imagine that…) with 51 breaks on side A and 50 breaks on side B. Still in all it doesn’t seem crammed onto the platter. Spacing is sufficient enough to allow a bit of a rest between tracks as one would expect. I’m sure DJs will appreciate that.
I’m not sure of the vinyl weight but I can tell that no expense was spared with this piece of wax. The vinyl is not of the flimsy sort. It’s rather weighty and thick like an old school jazz record. Unlike most modern vinyl pieces that flop about when taken from the jacket, the International Breaks 101 Vinyl is like a platter.
If I had to guess I’d say the International Breaks 101 Vinyl is probably 180 to 200 grams in weight. For the sake of discussion and according to vinyl experts becausesoundmatters.com, “A standard record typically weighs 120 to 140 grams. A heavy record is in the 180 to 200 gram range.”
A heavier weight record is thicker and therefore allows for deeper grooves and more dynamic mastering. Since the vinyl is heavier- it is typically better for tracking. The 180gram record is usually flatter and quieter than a regular weight record. ~ becausesoundmatters.com
Part of the mystique of physical product is the ability to hold it in your hands and read the bylines and credits. In this case, its nice to see the nostalgic cover design come to life in this nice matte finish. Each break is named on the back of the jacket. Good luck, though, keeping up with the break names in correspondence with the number of the track where the needle sits in the moment. The tracks are not numbered on the cover art. Still this is a great guide to give you a clue as to where you are on the vinyl.
The cool factor here is that it puts the fun back into sampling drum breaks directly from vinyl. Yet it takes the pain out of it by virtue of not having to look for breaks in the midst of random stacks of random compositions on various wax. So in essence you get these dope and rare international breaks with that added vinyl warmth and crackle (not much crackle on new vinyl but you still get the effect). Thats well worth the price of admission which is $14.99.
The long and short of it is that International Breaks 101 on Vinyl is pretty dope for a number of reasons. It has been digitally remastered for vinyl and plated on nice weighty wax. In our current digital domain, it’s this sort of enterprising drum brokering that raises the bar for sound designers. I, for one, hope it starts a trend. Cop this collection. If you are a DJ cop two. Your crates will thank you.
For more info and to cop it head over to HipHopDrumSamples.com