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


Format: Audio CD & CD-ROM (Roland, SampleCell, Akai, Emu, Ensoniq ASR, & Kurzweil formats)

Overview: Imaginative special effects and rude noises. Nothing normal.

Contents: Ambient (66.5meg), Odd Bells (2meg), Beats (47.6meg), Chords (.2meg), DJ Noises (.08meg), Drums (31.7meg), Drones (18.3meg), Fuzz (38.3meg), FX (37.7meg), Hits (29.3meg), Human (7.7meg), Mallets (3.5meg), Metals (4.4meg), Noise(19.3meg), Orchestral FX (25.4meg), Pads (32.7meg), Pulsating (24.3meg), Reverse (1.5meg), Synth Bass (37.2meg), Sci-Fi (57.6meg), Sequences (4.3meg), Sweepers (61.4meg), Synths (64.8meg), Tekno (1.3meg), Voices (28.9meg)

Suggested Retail Price: Audio CD $99 (selected library), CD-ROM $199 (complete library)

If you're making any kind of edge music and you own a sampler, Distorted Reality is a library that you must hear. From shredded beats to unidentifiable hysteria, this disc has it nailed. We auditioned the Roland CD-ROM version--not surprisingly the first to be pressed, since sound developer Eric Persing has long been a Roland sample guru. The audio CD version has less material than the CD-ROM, but you can upgrade from the CD to the CD-ROM for a straight price differential, making it a doubly good deal.

The disc kicks off with Ambient samples. These will provide plenty of variety if you're in need of gorgeous curtains of sound --everything from ominous rumbles suitable for the soundtrack of Alien IV to meandering flute solos that blossom with odd echoes. Loops ten or fifteen seconds long are the norm, and most of the samples include shorter, more detailed events that fade in and out. As expected, all of the ambient material is awash in high quality reverb. Some of the sustained tonal ambiences add to the exotic impact by using unusual pitch relationships. Among our favorite patches: the hollow tunnel noise of "Black Den" with its almost subsonic rumble, and evolving backwards effects of "Dimensions." Basically, you could add a gated woodblock rhythm or something equally simple to any of these sounds and have the intro or the B section of a tune: They're that complete.

The beat loop volumes are dedicated to aggressive modern sounds, most of them heavily processed. My favorites included the massively distorted loops like "Pigheaded," "Funk on Fire," and "Hard Core." Lighter loops like "Ring-Hopper" and "Yo Bad Self" would work well layered with other loops or your own kick drum samples. Mark Vail liked the hiccupy "Trip-Hoppin'" and the cheerful "Chug Sweeper."

The disc contains no construction kit breakouts of individual instrument patterns, only 59 multi-instrument loops. A few of them have musical relationships with one another --for instance, the same beat, but mangled by a lot more distortion ---but most are distinct. Tempos range from 62 to a hysterical 170 bpm.

Processed, metallic-sounding Talk Box voices are heard in several beat loops, such as "Wowing Talk" and "Grumpy Talk." The latter are given a continuously changing phase-shift/comb-filter effect by layering a sample with itself slightly detuned. A few loops apply LFO to the Band Pass Filter for a non-syncronized wah-wah effect. A few others have tonal elements in addition to the percussion tracks. For performance of the loops, we'd prefer to see aftertouch assigned to filter cutoff or something similar; maybe the wobbly vibrato effect is another distortion of reality.

The Synth Bass volumes go straight for bigness, with noise bursts or sync'ed oscillator attacks followed by rich rolling sustains. "TB Fat Fuzz" is especially nasty. The patches use the S-760 voice parameters effectively; for example, the velocity-responsive resonant filter sweeps of "TB Ultracid." And don't neglect to push up the mod wheel with "Cyberbass." It's an ominous drone with very little overtone content, but modulation opens up the filter to reveal a whole universe of metallic buzzes and tweedles. We were disappointed to find that some of the TB-303 basses don't respond to velocity at all, while others don't use the mod wheel for anything. On the other hand, Mark singled out "Polyfusion," in the Odd Bells volume, as one of the most playable bell sounds he's heard in a while. It responds superbly to different velocities, transforming from soft and muted to a thick, raging bell tone with an extra tinkle at the high end. At any velocity, it remains full and ominous.

If you crave drum hits that sound like cannons in the Grand Canyon, look no further. The "Cavern Tube" and "Big Boomer" samples are more than 50% wet, so with a little judicious tweaking you could layer them under your own dry drums to add a variable amount of punch. The Phuzz Drums volume goes to the other extreme, with rude, in-your-face percussion noises from hell. If your next mix has a destiny in industrial rock, this 61-key kit will definitely get your listeners' blood pumping.

We originally thought that the source of the Fuzz volumes were guitars, only to be surprised that the heavy textures were actually Jupiter-8 and Minimoogs through a variety of fuzz boxes. Don't miss "Harmonic Mayhem," it starts with what sounds like a long sample of an overblown flute playing hectic rhythms. The effect was created with three-dimensional effects feeding back on each other. Set your teeth on edge? That don't say the half of it.

This disc has far more to offer than we have space to discuss in this review --sliced-off hits suitable for raves, panicky echoing crowd noises, a very tasty bowed metal sample, throbbing electronic mandolins, sandworms in hyperspace, pennywhistles from the ninth dimension, and things that fly by so fast you can't tell what they are. Possibly not a good source, in other words, for the country producer in search of the perfectly miked Martin acoustic guitar. For the progressively minded, it's a feast.

-Jim Aikin