Summary - Audio quality is excellent, a couple of samples have some obvious vinyl type noise on them which one presumes is an intended effect. There has been a lot of processing involved in most of the samples, big reverbs, fuzz boxes and distortion are much in evidence. It isn't as extreme as some other similar CD's in the main though a few samples do have their moments. I would certainly consider this less of an industrial collection than some others in this category.

Distorted Reality was one of the first "Weird Stuff" type CD's to be produced that are now proving to be quite popular a genre in their own right. Perhaps the best testament that I can give to the CD is that it took about twice as long to review as a sample CD usually takes. Why ?, Because I spent way too much time playing around with the sounds. Although the collection is firmly in the heavily processed weird sounds category many of the sounds just invite playing with, which I accepted way too many times. Despite the abstract nature of many of the sounds there is still an underlying musical usability current throughout the collection.

There is hardly a weak link in the CD and the sections such as Ambient, Drone, Fuzz, Hits, Pads and Synths are just excellent with some real stunning sounds. Many of the other sections are just a step behind. You can tell the effort that has gone into the collection, lots of subtle complexity, varying modulation and velocity effects, patch variations and so forth that just demonstrate the work behind the project apart from what your ears are obviously telling you.

Down sides...phew. Nope been sitting here for three minutes and can't think of anything worth mentioning. I suppose that five years after it's initial release a few of the "rave/techno/jungle" sounds are a little dated, though as these make up probably less than 1% of the collection I wouldn't let that worry you, otherwise you would certainly call this a timeless collection.

If your making ambient, space, new age, soundtrack type tracks I'd put this right at the top of your sample CD wishlist, for anyone else who's looking add something extra to their tracks, an experimental or unusual edge then I'd recommend the collection without hesitation as there is just a whole mountain of really quite excellent genreless sounds here ready to be used.

Overall - Value for money 10/10 - Usability 10/10 - Documentation 7/10 - Sonic Quality 10/10. Should be on every samplist's wish list - 9.5/10

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