HBF’s resident music tech aficionado James Trigo puts Sample Magic’s latest production offering KLIP through its paces.

Klip is the latest in an ever growing array of plugins from sample creators Sample Magic. A production instrument with over 4000 samples and extensive parameter editing capabilities, I loaded it up to take the plunge.

It doesn’t take long to realise that Klip is far more of a beast than Sample Magic’s previous plugins, conceding after about 10 minutes that I’d have to actually download the manual and watch some tutorial videos. Klip requires Kontakt Player to work, which is free and can be hosted in your own sequencer or stand alone.

The main screen greets you with 16 pads, transport controls and a 32-step sequencer, each with a presets lane for it’s 16 parameters. There’s a wave form display to view the active sample/loop and a row of controls at the bottom for filters, of which there are 20 types. There’s distortion, velocity, pan settings and effect sends that make their way to a convolution reverb or delay.

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At first you may feel short changed as most of us are going to want get importing straight away but once you give in to the fact your not going to be loading in any of your own samples you can sit back and enjoy the copious amounts of high quality presets courtesy of Sample Magic’s extensive library. Ranging from 106s and 303s to House vocals and FX there’s plenty to choose from and no doubt Sample Magic will provide add-on packs in the future. Each pattern has up to 8 sequences that you can copy and paste to build up a track. There’s plenty of dynamic processing too, with compression, limiting, 3-band EQ and a transient shaper all on tap.

Randomising is a large part of the fun with Klip, with just a control + click on a sequencer pattern or sample it will randomise this for you to keep things fresh, you can also switch the key of the sample or loop from minor to major depending on the feel your after and there’s 8 mixer channels that can be usefully assigned to it’s own output.

Tinkering to your hearts content with the preset sequencer patterns is great fun but once you start adding effects and setting sequencer patterns you can start to create some really original loops. Adding Klip to your DAW and syncing tempo and key makes it a very useful tool to get some ideas moving, even if it’s just a simple sample or drum loop you’ve mangled within an each of it’s life Klip is a very powerful and versatile instrument that will probably find its way into your work flow.

Currently on offer at £64.99 from
https://www.samplemagic.com