VINCE CLARKE: LUCKY BASTARD •••

A demo tune with plenty of classic blips and tones, (produced by 'Enchanted') uses some of the CD's contents. Vince Clarke eat your heart out. The samples proper start with three sets of five two-bar loops of synthesized drums from which individual hits may be extracted. You might not know how they were created (white noise/resonance/modulation) but you'll recognise the classic sounds. All are at 105BPM and (more or less) mono. Considering this, I was surprised to find that the right channel carried quite a bit of extra noise. My advice? Sample from the left. An ARP 2600 provides a two-note bassline featuring some mono legato and a marginal tone variation over a fair number of bars. The same line is then repeated using a couple of other patches. Track 6 has a trio of analogue hits (one repeated four times), and a resonant sequence of no particular merit. Track 7 continues in a similar vein. The claves are nice, the pseudo-scratching ridiculous! Liked the cyber-whale on speed.

A Korg MS20 holds sway over track 8, with a couple of over-long passes of the same sequence, once with a highly abrasive resonant voice, once with a patch in which filter cutoff is modulated by a synchronised random LFO, or by the note length being varied, causing the filter decay envelope to be released at different points. Either that or it's a sample being played with velocity mapped to resonance, which would be a bit cheeky. A Synthi VCS3 provides four retro sci-fi hits, then an Oberheim 2-voice (panned left and right) plays that by now familiar sequence on another pseudo-velo reso patch, and again on something with a very low filter cutoff. Mini Moog it says. Minimoog, surely? Same sequence on a classic bass sound and a couple of un-Moog-like metallics.

Back to a Roland System 100M for some percussion, drums, thips and pulses, also a thick mono synthi brass riff. The loops and hits presented here are possibly the most relevant so far. The Moog hi-hats and loops that follow are also pretty good, though I fancied I heard some strangely vinyl-esque crackle in the background?!? Some evidence of tape crosstalk makes me suspect that old Erasure multitracks might have been used. Other synth drum FX complete what promises to be a useful and idiosyncratic electronic drum library.

Track 30 onwards features ARP 2600. More drums and percussion loops — good kicks that could actually dislodge the 909 in a club footer. Whines and Hi-Qs abound. Synth bursts are mostly real-time adjustments to the same sequence; sometimes the operator strikes it lucky. Moog Bass comes in on tracks 43 and 44. A pulsed rhythm on C is manually swept from classic to Hi-Q. Try using four (or more) elements in a velocity crossfade situation — or map a load of different Cs over the keyboard.

Next come some interesting but not amazingly useful strangled percussive loops. Then it's over to the trusty Sequential Circuits Pro One. Immediately familiar retro techno ensues, with a couple of note sequences (best yet). The Roland System 700 Q-thips are pin sharp. Not much bum, though, on the bass sequences. The same goes for the Syrinx, another of those little-known animals which, if Lucky Bastard is anything to go by, are not worth paying over the odds for. The Synthi VCS3 suitcase synth, as you can hear when it reappears on tracks 66 and 67, is really the thinking person's short wave radio.

The Emulator Modular surprised me with its sound — quite VCS3-ish in bits. The didgeridu simulation was forgettable, but the ring-modulated clunks distinguished themselves. The Oberheim Xpander gives a much better attempt at a didgeridu/yaws harp this time — nice springy sounds. Then the ARP 2600 gets another, this time more extensive, airing — mostly percussion and longish loops. I liked the wobble-board component.

There follows a selection of tour samples listed under the song titles of the pieces of music from whence they came. There is not much in here to attract the discerning samplist, but ardent Erasure fans will doubtless have hours of fun train-spotting.

The next (and last) section is more interesting. Comprehensive half-octave multisamples of a couple of non-cliched voices from Xpander, 2600, MS20, Oberheim 2-voice, Minimoog, and Juno 6. I was not knocked out by the patches, but then again, what do I know about making hit records?

Conclusion: A tendency to repeat riffs several times plus no serious attempt at editing the material into a conventional sample CD format means a low initial sample per shekel ratio. However, longer loops can easily be chopped into several useful shorter samples. Quite a narrow range of sounds are covered: electronic percussive hits and loops are the most prevalent. These are of a nature best suited to techno, electro, and Erasure fans. On the other hand, I found that much of the electronic drums and percussion stood out in a mix even at lowish levels, partly because of their HF content, but mostly because they sounded very different from most of my library sounds.

One worry is that any purchaser cannot freely use these samples without copyright problems, according to Matthew of AMG. However, he says that it is highly unlikely that permission will be withheld, unless somebody comes up with a blatant Erasure soundalike composition.

Lucky Bastard £49.95 inc VAT.

Advanced Media Group, (Contact Details).

PETER SIEDLACZEK'S CLASSICAL CHOIR •••••

And now for something completely different. Looking like a set piece from 'The Sound Of Music', the 70 men and women of Peter's Philharmonic Choir are photographed through a sepia lens before a mighty pipe organ on the stage of a vast concert hall, presumably somewhere in the former Eastern Bloc, wearing apparel so religiously conservative as to look positively weird. I love it already. The demo piece which introduces us to the boys and girls does little to dispel the Sound Of Music illusion — until the drums come in, that is.

All samples are recorded in stereo with correct choir panoramic placements and levels between the various vocal groups used. Multisamples are taken at 3-semitone intervals, and are DDD. Sound quality is excellent, with just the right amount of hall. However, if I'm not mistaken, a piano was present for tuning purposes, for I can just hear it ringing, particularly on E flat when an "oooh" is sounded. Not really a problem, though.

The sensible samples commence with six notes each of the basses singing "Vohmmm", "Hommm", "Zoommm" and "Houuu". These may be looped fairly easily, but the real reason for taking such samples is so that you can use them as phonemes in the creation of a simple lyric. Similarly the 4-note hit sets "Hah", "Hoo", "Fah" and "Tong" (I can think of a use for the latter already). Now come a broad keyspan of 15 "ahh" samples, starting off with the basses and going up to soprano. Each note is held for a good few seconds.

Then comes a glissando up and another down, followed by a couple of vowel evolutions ("Hoo-ahh-eeh" and its reverse), and a set of "voiceless" sibilant and percussive tones ("fff", "sss", "shshsh", "hhh"). Next are the percussive consonants, "k", "t", "ts" and "p", each performed twice, followed by a series of special voice effects including tone clusters, extreme vibratos, glissandos, whistles, note crossfades, and falls and rises — seven of the latter.

There are background chatters, laughter, a scream, coughs and some more hoo-hah hits before the pre-penultimate track offers four different "disgust" noises! The track listing ends with "the last scream" and an atmosphere piece taken live from the recording session.

Conclusion: These days I'm massively in favour of sampling CDs that offer a specialist library so long as they do it exceedingly well. It is much easier to explain to potential purchasers what they are getting, and easier for a sample CD librarian like me to know where to look for that particular sound.

If it's a choir you're after, and you can't afford to book them for your sesh (of maybe you're just roughing out an idea), look no further than here — unless you want to go for a mixed mode CD-ROM (check with Time & Space for available formats and prices). Some of the more unusual tones ("rrr" and "zzz" for example) would happily add an original texture to many music forms. Given time, you could make up intelligible words and phrases, but don't expect tremendous realism at first! All in all, a unique and excellently recorded set for the discerning samplists among you.

Best Service Classical Choir £49.95 inc VAT.

Time & Space, (Contact Details).

BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN DRUMS II ••••

This one has been around for some time but 1) I didn't get it right away and 2) I left it in my In tray for a couple of months due to pressure from current products. Having asked the question "what time is it?" and offered the answer "time to stop making drum machines!" two years ago, I wonder if there is any point in a CD of nothing but single drum hits. There must be so many in circulation already.

Of course, Mr. C. Mountain did get much respect for his Vol. I outing, partly because his reputation preceded it, and partly because he was first off the blocks with a quality set of 16-bit drum samples. Having 'Q' sound on some of them did nothing to suppress the hype either. Let's take a look inside the jewel case.

Don't expect to be blown away with wickedly contrasting sounds. We're talking strictly incremental. Tracks 1-4 are given over to providing a total of 48 hits on 6 1/2-inch Ludwig Black Beauty snare. Three levels of dynamic are offered (two hits each) dry and with various levels of natural ambience/artificial reverb. Even those of you using the limiting but convenient General MIDI map can make the most of these: three-way velocity crossfades on D2 and E2 should give a reasonable approximation to reality in a non-exposed musical environment. Relative dynamics are maintained, so better not normalise post-sampling. The snares are not too tight, the skin high-medium tuned. Samples are clean, well recorded, and Bob tells you what mics were employed. I would take the dry samples, and add in reverb later, but apparently there was much user demand for 'production' sounds. Of the wet ones, the natural reverb appealed most.

Next, a similar set with a 'fat' Black Beauty tuned down. The dry samples are peaches - the dry press roll was the one for me. Then a set with the same snare tuned up with effects, and also played with brushes, hits and drags. Reverb tails breathed noise. Only the dry samples appealed to me.

Two dynamic levels are offered for the kick drum — stingy, I thought. Various mic combinations are offered, and once again, dry was augmented by ambient samples. A Gretsch 24 x 16-inch Maple pinstripe with Teflon beater was employed. Next comes a similar set, with a Danmar pad being used. It didn't make a deal of difference for me. Following that, a felt beater was bolted onto the pedal, and off we go again for yet another set. I'm getting homesick for a 909. I thought some reverb tails were surprisingly noisy for a studio buff product.

The Remo 22-inch x 20-inch sounded more like a floor tom to me than a kick. It was given the same treatment as the Gretsch.

At last! A kick with decent bottom end. I liked the DW 24 x 16-inch pinstripe head. Best of all was the basket ball bouncing off the control room window. Avoid the silly panned ones.

Tom toms are a subject likely to excite this reviewer into a state of heightened indifference. However, if it's your bag, these are good and natural. Yamaha 10, 12, 13, 14, and 16-inch (floor) toms are presented in three dynamics, dry and ambient, and hard only with both hall and gated reverb. Each is panned into its rightful place on the kit. Probably this is the best section so far, and if you're looking to build integrated total kits from this CD you could do worse than start here.

Zildjian 14-inch and Sabian 13-inch hi-hats are offered in three levels of dynamic, three degrees of openness (including closed) and tip and edge hit. In addition, there are rolls, brushes, feet, and a vast array of closing hats. Just about everything a drummer does, in fact, other than falling off his stool and farting. Quality metalwork, but recorded a little too ambient for my taste. A huge selection of Zildjian, Paiste and Sabian cymbals have been hit for your edification. Crashes, rides and chinas of all types and sizes are struck, brushed, rolled and tickled into life. No FX, just a little natural room leaking through. A very, very good selection, again presented in three levels of dynamic.

Conclusion: If you've got plenty of megs, and use toms and/or cymbals a lot, you'll be pleased with this. The basketball makes for a great, original dance kick, but since most remixers will be loth to part with £50 to get their hands on one sample, I reckon I'll have a bit of a monopoly on that one.

Bob Clearmountoin Drums II £49.95 inc VAT.

Time & Space, (Contact Details).