Sound Quality 5 STARS
Selection 5 STARS
Bang for the Buck 5 STARS


Format: Audio CDs & CD-ROMs (Roland, Samplecell, Akai, Kurzweil, ASR-10, & Emu formats) Overview: Authentic instruments and loops from China, Indonesia, India, Java, Thailand, Malaysia, Tibet, etc.

Contents: Two-disc set. First disc contains Tibetan Brass, Chinese cymbals, angklungs, Chinese flutes and mandolin, sitar, Thai and Indonesia zither, and multiple ensemble phrases from gamelan orchestra, Indian percussion, Malaysian drums & orchestra, Wayang Kulit theatre ensemble and more. Disc two contains multisampled bonang, kenang, gambang, kenong, kulingtang, bass kulingtang, ranat thun, saron, khlui flute, gongs, percussion, etc., plus sung & spoken vocal phrases from India, Chinese opera, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tibet, etc.

Suggested Retail Price: Audio 2-disc set $129 (phrase samples only), CD-ROM 2-disc set $499 (complete library)

This two-disc set is a real find, both for hip-hop and techno stylists in search of something completely different and for soundtrack composers who need an authentic Asian vibe. If you want to loop the loop but you're not satisfied to sound like every other new kid in the hood, Heart of Asia will definitely give you some cruel tools. It's a treasure chest of lovingly sampled performances by authentic Asian ensembles, plus individual multisampled instruments that let you jam along with the tablas and the gamelan.

We auditioned the Roland CD-ROMs, which are a bit pricey but well set-up. At $129, the audio CD is a bargain, even though it contains only the phrase samples, not the individual instrument multisamples. If you like the audio version, you can upgrade to the CD-ROM version; consult Spectrasonics for details. There's too much intriguing material in these two discs for us to describe it all, so let's just hit the high spots.

In the Indian Menu performances, one-and two-bar loops are laid out across several octaves of white keys, so you can switch back and forth between subtle variations played by the same tabla ensemble. The finger rolls and changing accent patterns are especially enchanting. All the patterns are identified by BPM and organized from slowest (90 BPM) to fastest (212 BPM) tempo in menus and individual patches.

The Malay drum loops are a lot less frenetic; they're also longer- in one case eight bars (of 4/4, naturally) with bars 5 through 8 looped, so that the first four bars are heard only once. As with the Indian Menus, the second Malay Drum menu has more variety than the first. Such items as a high-pitched one-bar loop with rattles and a loop that's 23 beats long will give musicians both opportunities and challenges.

The Veena, a South Indian equivalent of the sitar, is used in more than 20 loops, all in the same key but with slight tempo variations. The sliding grace-notes are very expressive, especially a couple of licks that trail off into nowhere because the player did long melismatic glissandi without re-picking the string. The strumming on the drone strings adds a lovely zither-like pulse to all of these selections.

The Jakay, a Thai zither, is a lot rougher, and the tuning bears little resemblance to 12-tone equal temperament. More than 30 non-looped phrases are laid out, again on the white keys, and many of the phrases are variations on the same few ideas, which would make it easier to give the impression that a real player had dropped by the studio to jam along with your track.

The Indian piccolo phrases soar like birds through long lilting phrases, while the Chinese flute phrases are as terse as duck calls. A lot more interesting than duck calls, though, with lots of trills and flutter-tonguing. The Indian bass flute phrases are solemn, dark, and breathy; a single phrase may combine long sustained tones with rococo ornaments. A few of the phrases are cut of too abruptly, as if the sample editor was grabbing part of a longer phrase.

With these Menu volumes we started playing a game of prefabricated melodies, playing one white key and then another and another, finding series of keys that worked together so that longer phrases emerged out of the shorter ones. It's not quite the same as actually playing the flute, but it's a heck of a lot more interesting than playing "Love in Bloom" on a standard multi-sampled flute that has one stupid sustained note per key.

Some of the vocal phrases lend themselves to this sort of arrangement as well. There can't be many musical experiences more powerful than hearing a human voice singing heartfelt words in a language that you don't understand. (Possibly Italian opera is an exception to this.) The intricate rhythms of some of the vocal articulations are riveting.

Two dozen different ethnic instruments are laid out as standard multisamples on the keyboard. One of our favorites was the saron, a gorgeous chime that sounds like a music box. The bonang and kenong are laid out on the keyboard to facilitate some non-Western tunings, but only one octave (Middle C and above) provides significant multisampling, and even here there are groups of three keys that trigger a single sample and thus produce equal-tempered half-steps, so it's a bit difficult to see exactly how to play the instruments in an authentic manner. The booklet that comes with the discs suggests playing C pentatonic - but does that mean all the black keys, or does it mean C minor or major pentatonic? Your guess is as good as ours.

This material is so evocative and so strongly tied to cultural associations that it's difficult to imagine exactly how you'd adapt it to a multi-layer sampled mix, but we can't wait to try.

-Jim Aikin