Scoring John Carpenter's latest horror flick or an episode of Star Trek? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you don't need some brilliant and moving sonic effects. Perhaps you're in search of a unique transitional element to go from one part of your electronica piece to the next, or dazzling bits of icing to stack on top of a relentless four-on-the-floor beat. Maybe you're just interested in putting your monitor system to the ultimate test.

If you fit into any of these scenarios, TranceFusion was made for you. This Akai CD-ROM/audio CD package, which can also be purchased on audio disc alone, totally shines. I'm stoked about what it provides: heavily processed and inspiring synth events that few of us could produce on our own - at least not without a huge investment of time, money, and effort.

Most of the material comes within the "sweep" category. A sweep is described in the excellent TranceFusion liner notes as "a transitional sound that in most cases begins softly, then expands, building in intensity before reaching it's apex." Sweeps cover the emotional gamut from bright and resonant to dark and ominous, so they can be used for lots of different styles.

They're further divided into "swell-stops" and "carryovers." While the former come to dramatic endings, the latter most often have ambiguous endpoints and multiple climaxes, leaving it up to you to decide when they should end. Swell-stops and carry-overs come in long and short varieties, the long guys lasting up to nearly 30 seconds at their sampled pitches, the shorties getting over it in under five seconds. Directions are provided to help you time the triggering of a sweep so that it's most effective in a particular musical context.

Closely related to sweeps in function are "percussive sweeps," "snare fills," and "reversed-cymbals." A percussive sweep is an individual event that's echoed to the max with dramatic variations in tempo and pitch. Within the same fills are two sets of five patterns (at 108 and 120 bpm) containing a snare-like hit that's echoed first as sixteenth-notes, and then breaks into double-time as 32nd-notes. You get a total of four reversed-cymbal sounds. Associate editor Greg Rule, who's credited in the liner notes with planting the idea for TranceFusion in the Ilio folks' heads, commented, "This is a product whose time has come, especially for those of us who've used the ol' reverse cymbal too many times. I used two TranceFusion sweeps on a recent remix, and the results were awesome: they seriously kicked the choruses into high gear."

There's a great collection of 0.8- to 8.5- second events in the "lasers and stabs" category, ranging from metallic clanks to otherworldly gongs to brief synthetic wobbles and bursts. These are perfectly suited for adding accents to downbeats and whatnot.

I'm especially drawn to arpeggiated tracks, and TranceFusion covers this realm in spades. Pattern tempos range from 77 to 183 bpm. Key information is also provided for the audio disc tracks whenever possible, although some arpeggios are so frequency-whacked or microtonal that nobody would care. In some cases you get several variations of the same sound, perhaps with some realtime filter sweeps or altered parts. All arpeggios are perfectly looped on the CD-ROM - yay! - as are a few other events that have nondescript beginnings and endings.

Running from 2.5 to 16.4 seconds in length, the "textures" serve as synthetic sonic environments. For example, "Heavenly" features softly swirling and twittering sustained synth tones that slowly rise as a soothing angelic choir fades in and out. On the other side of purgatory, the metallic shimmers and otherworldly wails of "Haunting" remind me of the dreadful shadows that carry off the evil souls in the movie Ghost. Textures come in pitched and non-pitched classes. The pitches aren't documented, but to assign samples that are pitched to appropriate keys on the CD-ROM.

What, you may ask, are the "deliriums"? They come in two flavors - "lunacy" and "madness" - and are described by Ilio's documentation as "metaphysical meanderings which are best left for mystics and psychoanalysts." There aren't that many differences between deliriums and textures, but they're all terrific for creating an abnormal or unnatural atmosphere.

It's hard to imagine an audio CD/CD-ROM combo that works better than those in the TranceFusion package. Their contents are separately listed in the documentation, but all the sounds are arranged identically so that it's easy to hear one on the CD and quickly find it on the CD-ROM. Any volume loaded from the CD-ROM into your sampler contains all individual sounds in the initial program so that they play on consecutive keys starting from C3 (an octave below Middle C) upward. Programs from there on feature one sound mapped across the keyboard, so that you can play the samples at different pitches and tempos.

The magnificent stuff on TranceFusion was created using a bevy of old and new synths. Among them were the Minimoog, Sequential Prophet-VS, Rhodes Chroma, Oberheim Xpander and OB-8, Korg Wavestation and Prophecy, Roland JX-8P and D-50, Waldorf MicroWave, and Yamaha DX7. Outboard processors included the T.C. Electronic Fireworx, Digitech Talker, Eventide Harmonizer, DeltaLab Echotron, and a vocoder. Among the audio software used for sound design were BIAS Peak and SFX Machine, Antares Infinity, Digidesign Turbo Synth, and Passport Alchemy. A very impressive list, but that don't mean beans if the gear wasn't used effectively. TranceFusion's creators - Mark Hiskey, Chris O'Brien, and Mark Koenig - certainly knew what they were doing, and I can't wait to hear what they come up with next! -Mark Vail

Format:
Akai CD-ROM and audio CD in one package, Roland.

Overview:
Electronic sweeps, laser swipes, stabs, textures, processed vocals, arpeggios, and metaphysical meanderings for dance music.

Contents:
86 longs swell-stop sweeps, 59 short swell-stop sweeps, 71 long carry-over sweeps, 20 lasers and stabs, 18 percussive sweeps, 10 snare fills, 4 reversed cymbals, 62 arpeggios, 38 deliriums, 23 textures.

Licensing:
Sounds licensed for free use only in a musical context for records, remixes, film or TV soundtracks, commercials, and the like. Licensing for computer games not covered by purchase agreement.

Suggested Retail Price:
$199. Audio CD alone, $99.

Contact:
Ilio Entertainments, P.O. Box 6211, Malibu, CA 90265. 818-707-7222 or 800-747-4546; Fax 818-707-8552. Email: ilioinfo@ilio.com. Web: www.ilio.com.

From the day they opened their doors in 1994, ILIO has been committed to producing useful, timeless and inspiring sample libraries for musicians. Tapping years of experience in sound design and electronic composition, their knowledge of the quality demands of today's music scene is the driving force behind every title they release.