Spectrasonics sound design guru, Eric Persing, told me he was working on some kind of weird guitar-based sample collection around a year ago - but he emphasised that is was not a guitar sample CD as we know it. Guitarist Peter Maunu provides the raw material, but often this is processed to such an extent that you'd have no idea a guitar was involved. Bizarre Guitar is more like a guitar-based Distorted Reality, full of drones, backgrounds, loops and pads, all created and recorded with meticulous attention to detail. The equipment list for this album is exhaustive and includes everything from an Eventide DSP-4000 to Bias Peak and Metasynth, but right at the bottom of page under Miscellaneous are E-Bow and screwdriver. I'm not sure where the screwdriver comes into the picture, but the E-Bow is quite clearly responsible for some of the sustaining pads and drones.

The package comprises two discs, the CD-ROM itself plus an audio CD containing an inspiring demo plus the samples in audio form for quick auditioning.

It isn't easy describing the sounds in this collection because most are so abstract, but the category headings might give you a rough idea. These are: Eastern, Ambient, Loops, Bends, Drones, Stabs, Multisamples, Pads. Fizz, Mallets, Strings, Swells, Sci-Fi, Sweeps, Leads - and Groove Control loops which I'll come to later. There is a selection of guitar riffs heavily treated with ring modulators and other processors to make them sound extremely electronic while others are processed to make them sound almost like synth strings, ethereal pianos or electronic Marimbas. Then there are edgy techno sounds, some almost like guitar flavoured white noise, while the smoother pads are perfectly suited to ambient and film music. This is a hard disc to pigeonhole, but I think it's fair to say that because the guitar is the sound source, the samples have more of an organic feel than most electronically generated sounds.

There is also a bonus section of some of the samples presented in Spectrasonics' Groove Control format, which is conceptually similar to Steinberg's REX File format, enabling grooves to be changed in tempo or pitch to suit the song - and Groove Control works in stereo. Essentially, the elements of the loop are stored as separate samples and triggered by means of a matching MIDI sequence. Though there are only a few examples here, this is an exciting area that Spectrasonics will be exploring pretty deeply in the future.

If there's a criticism, it is that some of best sounds are not multisampled (I guess there isn't space even on a CD-R to give everybody absolutely everything they want), which means that those patches containing arpeggiator effects or rhythmic modulation change tempo with pitch.

However, there is a section of useful multisamples, including a very nice Bowed Guitar. Bizarre Guitar will appeal to those who like Distorted Reality, providing a wealth of strange and beautiful sounds that should help stimulate your songwriting buds. It is definitely one of the better new releases and has to be worth a good four and a half stars. I'd give it five if I didn't feel some of the other Spectrasonics titles are just marginally better.

-Paul White