What is a song construction kit? (Vengeance Sample Packs)

[DazeL]

I've been hearing mixed thoughts on vengeance sample packs and since I'm new to producing I decided to check them out, I was pretty interested in the Total Dance Pack but it says it has 30 song construction kits, what does that mean?? Also I hear more about the Electro essentials pack, any thoughts on the two?

[sketchyderek]

I'm pretty sure it's a pack of all the parts to make a song; drum loops, bass, other synths.
I don't touch em.

[Codox]

So thats like their building a song for you, you just put in loops? wtf

[blinx]

Yes they give you a bunch of stems in different keys and you could build a song from them solely infact a bunch of tracks form "pros" have been and will be created this way lol. I like the vengeance samples in regards to the drum hits and such, but some people dont like them and some people hate them for other reasons all together.

[DazeL]

Thanks for the answers guys I've been stuck between the Total Dance and Electro Essentials Packs and I decided to buy Electro Essentials

[wub]

In my experience, song construction kits that come with certain samples packs are basically a bunch of loops which act as mini stems, together with the individual hits that make up the loops. They often come from pre arranged tracks by the producer who put together the pack, and can be used as a training exercise in terms of arrangement - the sounds themselves are already designed and EQ'd etc to fit together, so it's kind of like a paint by numbers exercise.

[Ldizzy]

and they are often aiff so they have tempo info included in the file...

+ they are royality free so if you bought the pack you could use them commercially and it would be legal.

every now and then u might hear a loop from vengeance in a pop song... last one ive heard was the breakdown in Gaga's judas.

[RandoRando]

i like to use all the prerecorded melodies, i reverse them time stretch them, throw them through 436 flangers and a couple delays and i get nice results.

[DazeL]

So I ended up getting the song construction kit and may I just say I am very displeased with it. I thought it would come with easier to manipulate parts, so that I could actually enjoy the learning process of creating the song but it was not at all what I was expecting, to any newbies who are looking for sample packs I would not recommend song construction kits for trying to learn..

[justanotherdj]

Out of interest what did you not like about them?

[DazeL]

To clear my last post up after I looked back at it I'm not bashing the soundpack as a whole, but from my perspective (a relatively inexperienced producer) I find I do not have much opportunity to learn from these song construction kits. I was expecting full songs which I could pick apart to see how others might go about making their songs, but it only has unfinished songs. They do some of the picking apart for you which is just taking apart the vocals, basic drums, and a synth or 2 from each pack. I also was hoping to use the drums in their to practice up on layering but they already came pretty processed and anything I did to them made them sound worse...I feel like for more experienced people just looking to fool around with sounds it would be great but not for beginners who still need to learn basics, if I am wrong I would love to know what I can do with them, besides playing with the vocals which I am fiddling around with.

[wormcode]

To clear my last post up after I looked back at it I'm not bashing the soundpack as a whole, but from my perspective (a relatively inexperienced producer) I find I do not have much opportunity to learn from these song construction kits. I was expecting full songs which I could pick apart to see how others might go about making their songs, but it only has unfinished songs. They do some of the picking apart for you which is just taking apart the vocals, basic drums, and a synth or 2 from each pack. I also was hoping to use the drums in their to practice up on layering but they already came pretty processed and anything I did to them made them sound worse...I feel like for more experienced people just looking to fool around with sounds it would be great but not for beginners who still need to learn basics, if I am wrong I would love to know what I can do with them, besides playing with the vocals which I am fiddling around with.

You should check out some remix competitions, even if you don't attempt to enter them, messing with the stems of another track should help you understand some more stuff. Some of them are not very different to "construction kits" in the sense that they are already processed stems, but some of them are dry and unprocessed, it varies. Either way they are free 99% of the time. check out www.remixcomps.com for starters.

In regards to actual construction kits, yeah I would not recommend them at all, especially the genre specific ones. The best thing I have to say about them is that they do allow some ideas to get rolling quickly.