Ueberschall Liquid Instruments Score FX II

The 7GB of sample material is organised into five basic sections: construction kits, groove patterns, instrument licks, accents, and ambient beds. The first of these dominates, with 30 full kits provided. Titles such as ‘Sleeplessness’, ‘Midnight Sky’ and ‘Forgiveness’ give a good idea of the style of the material. The moods are more gentle than the original collection, with strong rhythmic elements (but avoiding a traditional drum kit). There is a definite ‘world’ or ‘ethnic’ feel to many of the kits, and I was reminded of some of Robbie Robertson’s Native American material in places, while other kits had a more obvious eastern influence. Within each kit plenty of loops are provided, with sub-sections for accents, bass, beds, drums, rhythmic elements and solo instruments. The last include atmospheric piano, acoustic guitar and some beautifully evocative duduk playing. The Melodyne-based phrase editing of the Liquid Instruments front end provides considerable extra flexibility with this melodic material.

Aside from the construction kits, the other sections are all well populated. I was particularly impressed with the ambient beds, many of which are both long and evolving. The groove patterns are also excellent, with lots of rather quirky rhythmic loops created with a very diverse range of instruments, featuring drums, percussion and more melodic sound sources. Aside from the piano and duduk, the solo instruments section also includes sopilka (a Ukrainian flute-like instrument) and vocal phrases. The vocals are split into soprano, tenor and child groups and are mostly vocalised vowel sounds.

Like the original release, Score FX II packs in a lot of content. The material is excellent and, providing you are happy to use the Liquid Instrument front-end, there is plenty here to interest media composers looking for some fresh inspiration. John Walden