In their latest issue, Future Music magazine has awarded BPM an overall 10 out of 10 "results" rating and their coveted Platinum Award, concluding that "BPM is deep and powerful. It's learning curve isn't steep and it delivers sonically across the board."
On browsing sounds in BPM
"Further right you'll find an intuitive browser for loading sounds and samples into pads or banks. It's set up so most elements can be easily dragged and dropped to pads, banks (a bank contains 16 pads like an MPC) or racks (racks are for BPM's virtual instruments). This really aids workflow."
"You can load individual sounds into pads, several sounds or samples onto one pad, kits linked with specific patterns, sampled loops and pretty much whatever you can imagine!"
On beat slicing
"Audio can be dragged and dropped into BPM's clip window where it can then be chopped into segments and exported to the pads in slices, much like an MPC or Propellerhead's Recycle. There's also a transient window just like Recycle's that facilitates chopping of files into easy to manage slices."
On recording
"Recording itself is a breeze. BPM's interface works very similarly to an MPC but there is much more scope for detailed editing and I love how it works. Drag and drop sounds from the browser onto pads or load a kit, hit record and off you go."
"...there is much more scope for detailed editing and I love how it works."
On BPM's sound library
"Sound-wise the breadth and quality of sounds, instruments and provided patterns are superb. The drums are some of the best I've heard for this style, plus there are some very useable guitar samples, nasty analogue style basses, rich pads and high quality strings too. they all sound punchy and gritty when needed but always remain professional sounding with a pleasant sheen that's obviously been helped by Sterling Sound's mastering."
"You could of course use BPM's sounds for pretty much any style, as the breadth of sounds provided is astounding."
"There's plenty here for every type of Urban production from grungy hits and 808s to crisp hats and popping snares. You could of course use BPM's sounds for pretty much any style, as the breadth of sounds provided is astounding."
On BPM's mixing and effects
"BPM includes a comprehensive mixer that enables fully-finished mixes to be completed entirely within BPM itself."
"The filters sound very decent and juicy..."
"It sounds, looks and feels great and is one of the best urban music production tools currently available."
"It's incredible how much has been packed on board with BPM and their quality is consistently every high throughout the software...It's all very impressive."
The verdict?
"BPM is a hugely useful and appealing bit of software that's very well-thought-out. Though super-deep and complex within, the interface manages to keep things intuitive, without a huge learning curve. It sounds, looks and feels great and is one of the best urban music production tools currently available."