Summary - Audio quality is excellent. As you would expect from acoustically recorded instruments there is a hint of background noise in places, but its only occasionally noticeable at the very tail of a few samples. There is no effecting of the sounds at all, so some do sound a little on the dry side, the sounds certainly come to life a little more with the addition of some reverb or other effects.

As we've come to expect from Back in Time Mediterranean Atmosphere is another excellently produced sample CD. It's packed to the brim with very well produced sounds. This collection though isn't for the "construction kit type" school of sample use, a lot of work would be required to produce a track from the material on offer, and even then you would be looking to add material from other sources.

The main benefit of the collection is the very accurate representation of the instruments covered, there isn't a huge variety on offer, but what is there you would be very hard pressed to find better elsewhere. In particular when compared to regular synth/soundcard presets the sounds offer a range of subtlety and depth that make what you once thought sounded quite reasonable to shame. Probably the person who would get the most out of the CD would be someone who wanted to add/replace an authentic instrument sound to a track, the only thing I could imagine that would give you a better result would be an actual musician.

What the CD isn't though is a source of inspiration or instant fixes, I wished that there were more examples like the short Saz riffs and loops, within all of the sections. The large bulk of the material needs to be crafted into something more musical, sequence, phrase, loop or whatever. The raw material is excellent but if anything I would describe this as a musicians sample CD rather than a remixer/producer type CD.

One of the big appeals of sampling to me is the ability to add sounds to a track that I can't otherwise create, I can't play a guitar so some acoustic guitar riffs would appeal to me more than an a very accurate rendition of a guitar that I have to make into a riff. So from that standpoint perhaps an opportunity has been missed. But to others who want to be more original then this would be an ideal collection. You can't please everyone !

I'm sure that the producers have created what they set out to do, namely create accurate samples of instruments found around the Mediterranean, as for the Atmosphere part that will require a dose of injection from the user to create. If this is the sort of CD that appeals then it won' t let you down, if your looking though for a few drop in samples to add something to a track then maybe this isn't one for you.

Overall - Value for money 8/10 - Usability 6/10 - Documentation 10/10 - Sonic Quality 9.5/10 .If you want accurate sampling of Mediterranean instruments - this is the CD you'll want. - 7.5/10