Sound Spectral is a two-CD set from German sample giants Best Service. The sound data is stored as both conventional audio tracks on disc 1 and a series of well categorised, and easily accessible, WAV files on disc 2. Unfortunately, it's difficult to work out which disc is which as both are identically labelled as 'Audio/WAV'. The only real way to differentiate between them is that the one with the audio has pink (as opposed to blue) writing on it. Surely endearing your product to a crowded sample market is tricky enough without deliberately setting out to confuse people from the start?

The 'pink' disc times out at a touch over 73 minutes and offers a huge number of soundscapes, drones and atmospheres lasting anywhere between a second and a minute in length. The first section --Ambient -- is a good introduction to the type of material you can expect to find thoughout. Anyone familiar with Spectrasonics' Distorted Reality will instantly recognise the thinking behind much of Sound Spectral, which sees sonic visionary Rene Ebenham experiment with his own form of hypnotic and creative sound design.

Using a fusion of sound effects and synth sounds as a starting point, Ebenham twists, distorts and generally screws up the sounds using a host of impressive EQ, filter and effects techniques. The mood shifts almost erratically from the mellow and subliminal to the harsh and, at times, abrasive. Rather than simply remaining static, nearly all the tracks are allowed to evolve and develop nicely.

Other sections include Electronic Effects, which is fairly self-explanatory, Electrospheres, Mechanic FX, Mechanaspheres and Strange. The Mechanaspheres section is particularly interesting as it fuses all manner of 'clangs' and 'clunks' together with some surprisingly ambient and laid back sonic washes which will slide into your sampler like a dream.

As an exercise in pure sound design, Sound Spectral rates very highly indeed. The creativity of the man behind this collection shines though and provides an insight into how sample CDs can be both cutting-edge and inspirational. Regarding the type of users who are likely to gain the most from this collection, it's fair to say that film, television, and multimedia producers will find much of what they are looking for here, and anyone on the creative and esoteric fringes of the dance/ambient scene will also benefit from checking this collection out.

There are a few obvious omissions, mainly in the rhythmic department. A set of 'happening' drum loops would have rounded this set off beautifully and the choice of source material, while generally excellent, occasionally descends into the realms of the over-familiar (we all know what a beeping modem sounds like, so why give us one with a bit of flange on it?). All in all, though, this is a professional, well-laid-out and, at times, inspired set of ambient soundscapes.

Paul Farrer

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