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Trancefusion
Keyboard Review
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Selection: 10
Sound Quality: 9
Documentation: 9
Bang For The Buck: 8
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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.
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