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Our regular look at the hottest
new sample CDs and CD-ROMs.

Vintage • • •
(AKAI-FORMAT CD-ROM)

Vintage is one a series of retro/analogue sample CDs from Discovery covering electronic instruments dating as far back as the 1950s. This disc is divided into two partitions. 'HARD:A' begins with a few banks of assorted pipe organs and hurdy-gurdys, and even an Ondes Martenot (an early synth from the 1950s). Odd choices maybe, but they could sound OK in the right context -- though not exactly vintage, more like ancient. Things improve with the DX EP, OB DECAY and SEQUENCER DECAY banks. These have some perky DX7, OBX, Moog and Prophet V patches, which work well in the lower registers for bass sequencing. These are followed by a few banks of an unnamed Oberheim, and Prophet V brass stabs and organ samples; all pretty standard stuff.

Bank 10 includes some nice ice-pick-sharp VCO-sync patches (synth uncredited). The Akai programs include too much delayed pitch modulation, but as the raw samples are unaffected you can reduce this effect. Banks 11-13 are a selection of bland but pleasant enough analogue basses, pads and brass patches, again from an anonymous synth. From bank 14 onwards things definitely improve, with a great selection of synth basses including numerous Roland SH2, MC202, MKS80, Mini- and Memorymoogs, Sequential Prophet V and Pro One, and even a couple of DX7 samples.

Bank 14, Neo303, sounds almost too good to be an authentic Roland TB303, with some very smooth-sounding filtered samples which in all probability have been emulated using a keyboard synth. The last few banks include a respectable selection of patches from Roland Juno 60, JX3P, SH2, Jupiter 8, Korg 800DV, MS20 and Yamaha CS30 synths, covering fat basses, bright lead synths, sweeping filters, sync patches and filtered noise samples.

The other partition, 'HARD:B' is a mixed bag of real (non-electronic) percussion, analogue rhythm machine samples and very weird special effects. The percussion sounds are taken from Roland TR808, TR909, TR606 and TR626, Linn Drum, Korg KR77 and KR55 drum machines and a Simmons kit; and there are a couple of basic but authentic-sounding TB303 multisampled programs in amongst them. You are offered a couple of basic multisampled kits from each drum machine, which sound fine, but don't expect anything that will blow your socks off -- though it's nice to see the Simmons and Korg KR series represented (if slightly noisily), after the recent 808 and 909 overkill. Banks 11-14 include some very usable percussive synth sounds from Roland, Korg and Yamaha machines, and there are four SAMPLE DJ banks with some pretty run-of-the-mill drum loops, stabs, hits and pads. Quite how these fit in with the vintage theme I'm not sure, but all is forgiven with the last half-a-dozen SPECIAL EFFECTS banks. These cover everything from cartoons, industrial, jungle, space and sea sounds through to Christmas and dinosaurs. These aren't any old BBC-type SFX -- these are some of the wackiest, unusual and downright odd sounds I've heard for ages, and are eminently usable, but definitely not 'vintage'.

Don't be misled by the cover, which shows a montage of a massive, fictional analogue modular system -- this CD-ROM doesn't have any modular synth samples, contemporary or vintage, and a few of the banks give a distinct impression of being afterthoughts or fillers. However, at this price I don't think many buyers will be too disappointed. Just don't expect 100-percent vintage, analogue or otherwise. Chris Carter

	£49.95 including VAT.
	Turnkey Loopstation +44 (0)171 419 9999.
	+44 (0)171 379 0093.
	Click here to email
	www.turnkey.uk.com

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TR808 and TR909 • • • •
(KURZWEIL-FORMAT CD-ROMs/AUDIO CDs)

Entire CDs full of TR808 and TR909 samples and nothing else may not be exactly original, but Discovery have put a lot of effort into these releases. The layout, track listing and even sleeve notes for each CD are almost identical, so it makes sense to combine the reviews.

Each CD is divided into three main categories -- raw unprocessed sounds, treated and effected sounds and complete phrases, rhythm tracks and breakbeats. To ensure the best possible reproduction, any percussion voices with variable controls have been sampled with the control knobs at various positions. For example, there are 11 tracks for the bass drum, with each track set to a different Decay/Tone (808) or Attack/Decay/Tune (909) setting and with each track containing 10 samples, with the controls set from between zero and maximum for each sample (a total of 110 bass drum samples on each CD!). This method is used throughout, resulting in approximately 450 samples for each of the individual TR808 and TR909 percussion sounds -- quite impressive, and a great source for making up custom TR kits. In addition to these samples are a dozen or so banks of effected percussion sounds, processed by various reverbs and gated reverbs.

There are also 10 tracks on each CD devoted to mainly hip-hop and rap-style breakbeats, grooves and loops. Some of these are quite long, complete with intros and outros, and most sound fine and perfectly usable. However, there's nothing truly outstanding, and some are just faster versions -- which is a bit cheap, especially considering that no tempo figures are given, a pretty essential requirement in my book.

Generally, though, the samples on both CDs are very well recorded and faithful to the original machines (though I'm not sure about the inclusion of the processed samples -- personally I prefer to add my own effects). These dedicated CDs have almost every imaginable combination of TR808 and TR909 sounds you could think of, and for a tenth of the price of the real things these could be essential buys for anyone wanting that authentic '80s retro Roland sound. Chris Carter

	Audio CDs £49.99 each; CD-ROMs £129.99 each. Prices include VAT.
	Turnkey Loopstation +44 (0)171 419 9999.
	+44 (0)171 379 0093.
	Click here to email
	www.turnkey.uk.com

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Vintage Rhythm • •
(AUDIO CD)

This 67-track audio CD times out at just over half an hour, and comes to us direct from Turnkey's Loopstation sample store in London. Vintage Rhythm seems to have been put together by a small but dedicated group of Japanese programmers all deeply in love with any kind of drum machine made before 1990. We all know how influential beatboxes like the 909, 808 and 626 have been to today's dance music, but this CD seems less concerned with giving us a meaty '90s take on the beatboxes of the past, and instead concentrates more on giving us a flavour of how these famous machines (and some lesser known breeds such as the KR55B, Linn LM1 and XR10) sounded in their raw and unprocessed state. It's good to hear many of these instruments again after years in techno-exile; of particular note are the Simmons SDS5 samples, which still sound like an asthmatic dwarf sneezing, but are essential sample fodder for any retro-disco freak.

Not suprisingly, the individual sounds of the featured drum machines are followed by a series of programmed loops which make up the bulk of the disc. Trying to make a TR505 sound 'cutting edge' was never going to be the easiest of tasks, but the type of loops presented here are unfortunately more in line with the kind of pre-programmed patterns that came built into some of the instruments themselves, rather than saying anything really new or exciting about dance music in general. The woefully inadequate sleeve notes have somehow managed to convey the least possible amount of useful information whilst being at best unclear and at worst totally useless -- look out for the listing of the 'Contempolaly Drum Kit'! Admittedly all the loops are listed with their tempos, but if I had to design the sleeve notes to what is essentially half an hour of sample material I'd have to try really, really hard to make them this confusing and unreadable.

Vintage Rhythm is a good (if somewhat unoriginal) idea, badly executed. The lack of any truly inspirational programming, the absence of any form of external processing, and the shoddy packaging of the concept as a whole is highly unlikely to set the world on fire. I've come across quite a few 'budget' sample CDs, and as this one offers a saving of only £20 against most other releases, I'd have to say that it doesn't exactly represent wonderful value for money either. Of course if you're after a selection of good, clean recordings of some famous (and some obscure) old drum machines, this may have what you're looking for, but if you're in need of some blindingly hot dancefloor inspiration, perhaps you need to look somewhere else. It's your 40 quid; you decide. Paul Farrer

	£39.99 including VAT.
	Turnkey Loopstation +44 (0)171 419 9999.
	+44 (0)171 379 0093.
	Click here to email
	www.turnkey.uk.com

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History Of Roland • • • •
(AUDIO CD/AKAI-FORMAT CD-ROM)

This sounds promising, if a little adventurous: a history of Roland synths on a single CD-ROM!

First up are 20 banks of Juno 106, including plenty of wonderful hard-edged synth percussion, speaker-busting bass thumps and tones, all nicely mapped across the keyboard. Other Juno 106 gems are some resonant buzzy basses, typical Juno cheesy pads and organs, trilling LFO patches and a dozen or so looped sequences, phrases and bass lines.

Next up is the underrated SH1, with seven tracks of thick multi-sampled basses, filtered square waves, raspy sawtooths and the like -- all very agreeable. A couple of synth percussion kits are included, with some dangerously subsonic bass drums and razor-sharp white noise hi-hats. The dual-oscillator SH2 follows with an interesting, if limited, selection of rich and unusual patches, including some great percussion kits and looped sequences.

Believe it or not, there is only one bank dedicated to the wonderful SH101, surely one of Roland's best monophonic analogue synths. All you get are 10 slightly dated one-bar looped sequences and that's it! Similarly, the pseudo-modular System 100 only gets three banks of naff-sounding percussion effects, and the dinky but versatile MC202 MicroComposer is represented by a few throwaway novelty sounds.

The MKS80, on the other hand, is given 11 banks of fat basses, hard-sync patches, chord stabs and a dozen or so sprightly sequences, all of top quality.

The Jupiter 6 and 8 are also well represented in banks 60-73, with growling and sweeping filters, percussive decays, multisampled brass, metallic percussion and some unusual random special effects patches.

The CD also serves up a handful of banks of the VP330 keyboard vocoder, although I think the programmer was wearing earmuffs, as the patches all sound strangely muted. Still, the inclusion of several animated and inventive rhythmic vocoder loops redresses the balance somewhat.

This History Of Roland CD ends with a dozen or so ready-made stereo rhythm tracks, all with intro, outro, bass line, synth sequences and effects, just add your own vocals, rapping or scratching. These rhythms probably sounded great five years ago but they sound a mite rusty in 1999. I felt mildly disappointed with this CD. Where are the classic Jupiter 4, SH5 and SH7 keyboards? And no Roland history lesson could be complete without the wondrous System 700 and 100M modular synths -- pretty big omissions in my book. Come on guys, how about History Of Roland Vol 2?

Putting these points aside, there are some marvellous patches here, all very analogue-sounding and many well suited to dance, hip hop, techno, ambient and electronica styles in general. There are probably too many surplus loops and phrases (some suffering from distinctly uninspired programming) and all the loops lack any indication of their tempo, a recurrent failing with Discovery CDs. However, there is still enough raw material here for more than just a handful of projects, and at this price, the CD is a particularly tempting buy. Chris Carter

	Audio CD £44.99; CD-ROM £49.99. Prices include VAT.
	Turnkey Loopstation +44 (0)171 419 9999.
	+44 (0)171 379 0093.
	Click here to email
	www.turnkey.uk.com

 

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