Summary - Audio quality through out is good, the loops in the main are sharp and punchy, and the bongo, sax and trumpet parts are bright and contain all of the ambient noises that add to the live effect. The downside is that there are parts of the CD that do have some noise, both tape like hiss and vinyl like scratches and pops, especially the bass, guitar and Rhodes sounds and some of the loops. In a few cases the sounds are probably beyond redemption, unless you actually want a noisy effect. In places this is unavoidable, I've yet to hear a dead clean Rhodes sound yet. You might want to use some noise reduction software though if this is a problem on a sample your using.

The advantage of a construction set type CD is that anyone can produce something that sounds halfway decent very easily. All of the components that you need to produce a good Jazz-Dance type track are here, indeed I'd challenge anyone not to be able to produce something that people will say "did you really do that". There is a lot of good material here, just a little away from your normal dance type sample CD.

The downside of the construction set CD is that they are never going to be able to compete with specialist CD's, there just isn't the space to provide the variety and originality. However to a degree the makers of this CD have gone someway to addressing this problem, in additionally providing a lot of single hits and short riffs.

This isn't really a jazz sample CD nor a strictly dance CD, On a Jazz Tip is a good description as the producers are aiming for a crossover kind of market. If your looking to add jazz elements to dance tracks or dance elements to jazz music then you'll be well catered for here. Other genres too will find material that they can use, many of the loops could work in other genres and if your looking for a double bass like bass line, sweet sounding guitar riffs, bongo's, sax or trumpet riffs then there is a lot of usable material here.

Ultimately you'll want to look outside of the collection to add some originality but if your looking to make dance/jazz crossover tracks or use those elements to what your producing then you'll find everything that you need here. Just watch out for the noise levels during the quiet parts. It would probably appeal most to someone just starting out on their sampling career, who wants to be able to create a complete track, simply and quickly from a single source.

Overall - If your looking to make Jazz/Dance crossover tracks 8/10, for other genres who want Jazz/Dance type elements - 7/10.