[iZotope] Futuristic beat making plug-in “BREAKTWEAKER EXPANDED”!

Do you know a plug-in manufacturer, iZotope? It’s a brand that boasts the overwhelming technology, produced the RX series, which is recognized as the industry-standard tool for audio repair in modern movie production, and awarded the Scientific and Engineering Award by the Academy in 2021.

It may not be well known that iZotope has actually released a plug-in instrument for active creators. This time, from the iZotope instruments, I’d like to introduce BREAKTWEAKER EXPANDED, which will be especially useful for dance music track makers!

iZotope / BreakTweaker

BREAKTWEAKER EXPANDED is, in a nutshell, a sampler/sequencer specializing in beats with the excellent editing function. In addition to drum samples, stimulating synth bass one-shot samples are also available, which can be combined with the built-in sequencer to intuitively and smoothly create edgy beat sections.

Although the function is amazing, the interesting thing is the quality of the recorded drum tones. In addition to the core library, BREAKTWEAKER EXPANDED, as the name implies, contains 4 extended sound sources by industry-leading sound designers.

Extended sound sources

• Vintage Machines
• Cinematic Textures
• Kicks & Snares by Beatport Sounds
• Modern Grooves

Overall, most of the drum samples made with the club beat in mind has a strong attack and a lot of solid tones, and the nuances are well-created, and just randomly hitting it stimulates your inspiration. Some snare sounds are light and have a moderate reverb, and it seems to be good to add it a little in between the beats or play it at the same time as other samples for an accent. There are plenty of cool sequence presets, so of course you can just play it as it is.

Please watch this video for the sound tendency!

Manufacturer video

In addition to the basic drums, Cinematic Textures Expansion includes SE tones and sequences with rich atmosphere that would play an important part in the background of movie scenes. Many of them have strong rhythmic and electro elements, and putting them in the main beat improves the texture, and it’s useful to broaden the vision of the tune.

Such a high-level library alone is satisfactory in quality, but the top appeal of this product is the sequencer and editing functions that allow you to intuitively create cool beats!

Main screen

Load 6 tones such as kick/snare/hat/SE into the red frame on the left. Type the sequence in the grid on the horizontal track axis where you want to play it.

And long-awaited, here's about the excellent feature, MicroEdit, which is the value of BREAKTWEAKER!

Double-click the sequence part in the yellow frame, and "MicroEdit" where you can edit how to play each note will show up in the red frame! On this screen, it is set to simply sound in a single shot as the sample below.

Let's set the TYPE in the red frame to Pitch! It switches to pitch-shifting snare roll as the sample below!

And if you set the TYPE to Time, it quickly changes to a stuttering sound! Of course, you can also set in the parameter below, such as how to beat the rhythm!

In the GATE section, you can adjust how the sound is cut off, released, and spread!

Even if you just mess around with it, it comes out cool, but its ultimate feature is "RANDOMIZE"! Just press the button and the sample data is randomly selected and it creates a glitchy sound. With one click, it changes to the rhythmic pattern as below, and the synth SE-like sound that has no trace of the prototype of the original sample!

It also has other effects; distortion/filter/LFO. In addition to the high-quality samples and editing functions, lots of sequence patterns are initially included as presets, and BREAKTWEAKER allows you to build a cool beat section with just a little edit.

It’s a strong plug-in instrument not only as the core of track making, but also as the trick of the trade for developments. Please check it out!