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Things That Go Bump in the Night 2 | Keyboard Magazine

Rating: Sound Quality: 9 Freshness: 9 Bang For the Buck: 9 Back to Things That Go Bump in the Night 2 product details

  

Sometimes what makes the difference between a ho-hum mix and a killer one are those little bits of audio that you blend in with the beat to grunge it up and give it an edge. You could plug in a guitar and a fuzzbox, scrape the strings with a pick for a while into a DAT machine, and then slice and dice the results or you could grab a copy of Things That Go Bump in the Night, Vol. 2

Frankly, I'd recommend the latter course. These terrific sampling CDs will give you about a thousand times more variety, to say nothing of the convenience. "The sounds are truly fresh and inspiring," commented Ken Huges. With two CDs for $99.95, you get a total of 176 tracks averaging five or six samples each. Let's see, that's around a thousand samples- a veritable audio feast.

Based on the title, I was expecting nonstop nightmare noises, but only a few of the samples are strictly horror movie fodder. To be sure, the yowling sweeps of "2 Cat 15.1" on track 28 of CD 2 raised the hair on the back of my neck, as did the distorted machine whine of " Masticaustica" in track 39. Most of the samples, while strange and imaginative, are more in the exotic electronic category. A few are even humorous.

The collection includes some fairly long ambiences, an assortment of disturbing rhythm loops, and plenty of short bits suitable for one-beat or one-bar noise loops. Tempos are given for the rhythm, but don't expect conventional kick/snare/hat sounds or patterns. Thuds, grinding ratchets, and the like are used, and some of the staggering synocpations are pretty deep.

I thought at first that the short noises were kind of dinky, but when I actually sample half a dozen to use in my latest song, I was surprised how well they worked. They're simple enough to be adaptable, yet weird enough to create a distinctive vibe. Best of all, perhaps, the sci-fi cliches are few and fare between - except in the last 25 tracks of CD 1, where you get more classic video game bleeps and bloops from Atari and Commodore computers than anybody in their right mind would ever need.


The Akai CD-ROM package includes the audio CDs as well, which makes it easier to hunt for the right sound. I auditioned the audio CDs for this review, so I can't testify to the quality of the Akai programming.

Great stuff, and stupidly useful for any type of electronic music- exactly the kind of CD that merits a Key Buy. Don't miss it.

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