The first consideration should be the drum kit, and for old-school sounds, Toontrack EZdrummer 2 and Superior Drummer 3, FXpansion BFD3, UJAM DEEP and XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2 offer various retro-themed kits, while Kontakt users should check out the Abbey Road 60s and 70s Drummer libraries that come with Native Instruments Komplete, amongst others.īass and guitar are also well represented in the Kontakt space ( Session Guitarist Electric Vintage, Scarbee MM Bass et al), while organs and electric pianos such as Arturia B-3 V and AAS Lounge Lizard 4 have you more than covered for keyboards.

If, as is likely in the average home studio, recording live musicians isn’t an option, you’ll have to create your vintage breaks using virtual instrument plugins – for which, happily, you’re truly spoilt for choice. It needs to stand up as its own self-contained loop in every sense, for moulding to your tracks as you would a genuine vinyl-lifted break. Ultimately, the goal is to end up with a stereo loop of each break that sounds like it was produced in the era being evoked, so mix your multitrack recording down with that in mind, outside of the context of any track in which you might be planning to use it. So, get some musician friends over for the day or hire some session players if you’ve got the budget (make sure your studio is set up and ready to go before they arrive!), and blast out as many grooves and breaks as you can in the time allowed. Obviously, the capable multi-instrumentalist has a head start here, being able to track everything themself, part by part, but for maximum authenticity, you’ll want to get your ’band’ playing together at the same time, even if it’s just a bass player and a drummer. If time, space and possibly money are no object, the best way to create your own original breakbeats and loops is to record them yourself.

Classic breakbeats