Rated: 7 out of 10



"There is no shortage of usable material on this CD...On the whole this collection grew on me the more I listened and used the samples.... I recommend delving in deep as there are some real gems to be found."



The main premise behind this sample CD is that all the sounds originate from 'primitive' raw sound generation machines.... In other words, old analogue sources. Evolution is designed to add that raw edge to your electro and techno tracks offering loops, percussive loops, sequences and single sound effects.



Essentially this is a collection of synth nuggets that have been put into loose categories, but the ones that seem to be most usable are the single sound effects. These individual sounds can easily be created into some very interesting electronic drum and percussion kits that would be very at home on either a Squarepusher track or a white-knuckle techno track. There is the standard variety of straight kick drums with slight EQ and resonance variations. The snare sounds are the usual slightly uninspiring white noise generated sounds but there is no shortage of usable material on this CD.



The Metaphysic collection comprises over 200 loops that are pretty extreme but on the whole quite usable. Esoteric scenery is a little light on the ground offering only 33 files but on the plus side most of them offer two variations on each sample. While this initially looks like a bit of a con it does actually make sense as they are different albeit only marginally.



The drum loops construction is by far the biggest of the collections with 400 loops starting at 90bpm and rising up to 150bpm. This has all the standard as well as some far out percussive loops to match. Some loops are broken down offering the different elements separately within the loop.



On the whole this collection grew on me the more I listened and used the samples. Sometimes these sample CDs can seem a little unusable at first but I recommend delving in deep as there are some real gems to be found.