LAST UPDATED:
8 June 2008

Vince Clarke - Lucky Bastard
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The CD is broken down into 3 main sections, the first and by far the largest (tracks 2-83) is a collection of sequences & sounds spilt by synthesiser in both construction kit format (main loop and then its components are played in isolation) and just single loops/sequences/sounds. The second is a collection of single hit samples from an Erasure tour and the last few tracks are multisampled single sounds from Vince's synth collection. The loops are all in the range 85-132 BPM.

Roland System 100m - Tracks 2-4, 12-20 - The first few tracks are of the construction kit type format and introduce us to exactly the sort of material we would expect from Vince Clarke. Trademark analogue percussion and blips/bass/ fill effects. The second part of tracks is full of classic short analogue sequences, loops and sounds - blips, thips, bass, burbles together with percussive effects. Many are very simple in structure and ideal for combining with other elements. Excellent throughout.

Arp 2600 - Tracks 5-7, 30-38, 75-83 - The most common synth in the collection starting off with some excellent sequences before some shorter "Noise" samples, some of which are excellent others a bit more dubious. More sequences and percussive effects in the middle tracks, quite a mixed bag from very spartan blip type patterns, to busy synth riffs, rounded out with a collection of short synth bursts. The latter tracks focus more on percussive based loops and vary from the excellent to the somewhat suspect noise type blurp loops. Only downside is that a number of these samples are quite badly effected by background noise, no doubt a defect of the original machine but quite intrusive in a few places. Overall though some excellent material here.

Korg MS20 - Track 8 - Just a couple nice little bass & blip loops from this classic little monosynth.

Synthi VCS3 - Tracks 9, 67-68 - By Vince's on admission one he doesn't know how to get the best out of, does tell, if you like abrasive squeal type sounds you'll love it, otherwise a section to skip.

Obie 2 Voice - Track 10 - A couple of sequences, one very good the other a bit more suspect.

Mini Moog - Track 11 - Surprisingly few samples from this classic synth, which I'd imagened would have been one of his mainstays, what sequences there are though are excellent.

Moog Hat Patterns - Tracks 21-24 - Whole variety of light analogue "hi hat" patterns, ideal for layering with other loops, quite a range of sounds from authenticish hi hat emulations though blips, noise and squelch effects. Once again ideal for combining with other loop elements.

Misc Synth Drums - Tracks 25-29 - A variety of single drum sounds, even a pad sound that sounds strangely out of place in this collection !, together with three construction kit type loops, which are very good.

Moog Bass - Tracks 43-44 - We get a handful of classic moog basslines together with a track of individual bass notes for sampling and sequencing into your own loops.

Serge Modular - Tracks 45-46 - Half a dozen quite light blippy 120 BPM sequences that are so-so, a little nondescript compared to a lot of the others on offer here.

SCI PRO One - Tracks 47-49 - Rather the same comments as the section above really, nice light blippy loops that would be ideal for adding some interest to loops, though nothing too distinctive here.

Polyfusion Modular - Tracks 50-60 - Eleven tracks of sequences and samples that feature some slightly different sounding loops, featuring some hard sync and modulation effects, together with some junk percussive and noise type effects, all with the classic analogue sound and blippy style that is Vince Clarke's trademark sound.

Roland System 700 - Tracks 61-63 - This section features some distinctive analogue little riffs together with some nice little sequences.

Syrinx - Tracks 64-66 - Not a synth I'm familiar with, rather a slow collection of sequences here, together with a few weird sounds. Not the best of the collection for sure.

Emulator Modular - Tracks 69-71 - Back to form here with some slightly more complex, blips and bass sounds. Very good.

Oberheim Xpander - Tracks 72-74 - Excellent collection of more complex sounding sequences and sounds, slightly more movement and interest in a lot of the sounds. Perhaps not quite as good as the Roland 100m collection but not far behind for my money.

The second section of the CD is Tour Samples that is 4 tracks that contains all of the individual samples from the tracks performed on an Erasure Tour, there are no sequences here, just the individual sounds. Unfortunately they're all in a bit of a muddle, each track contains the samples for 5-7 songs and there is no demarcation for what samples belong to which songs. Would certainly been a lot easier for people to use had they been more clearly defined, had people for example, wished to reconstruct a track.

The final section of the CD is Multisamples, 15 or so pad, noise and bass samples that are multisampled up to 9 times across the keyboard range to produce a very accurate rendition of the sound. Certainly a nice collection of longer sounds that contrast nicely with the much shorter sounds and sequences that feature throughout the collection.

Summary & Overall...


 
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