[dead] XLS Food The Bass Appetiser [AKAI]

Those in search of a wide selection of original bass sounds would do well to check out this selection of samples from Swiss bass demons XLS. This CD is extremely well presented and recorded, and the accompanying booklet lists each sample, with suggested applications. These are only suggestions of course, but it is nice to have a style reference when searching for that elusive bottoill end sound to sit in amongst the other magical timbres in your mix. There are phat funk and hip hop basses, new jack and garage sounds, as well as a wide selection of trance and techno sounds, providing a selection of original bass sounds for almost every taste in modern music.

Each one-shot sounds (no loops here), is recorded at various pitches, and these too are listed alongside the name and description, followed by the instrument used, and whether the sound is stereo or mono. A variety of synths have been utilised here, from the JD800 to the Oscar, and a wide range inbetween. Encompassing everything from a DX7 to and Akai S3200.

Ultimately, in true techno.
(The Mix - UK - March 1995)

This CD comes directly from the somewhat oddlynamed plot, Spocksone at Swiss company XLS Food, whose CDs are currently distributed by Time & Space here in the UK, There's no mucking about as far as the contents are concerned; Track 1 dumps you straight in at the deep multisample end. Seldom has a sample CD been more straightforward: 98 tracks are given over to one big bass synth set each, with samples taken at approximately quarter-octave intervals. Sounds are extremely well annotated.

The liner notes detail the music style (trance, techno, and so on), the number of samples (around 10), the source synth, and whether the sample is mono or stereo. Synths used include the Ensoniq ASR10, Yamaha CS70 and DX7, Roland JD800, JD990, Juno 106 and Jupiter 8, Kurzweil K2000, Oberheim Matrix 12, Waldorf Microwave, the Minimoog, Roland MKS50, the OSCar and the SCI Prophet 5.

A fine collection of firm favourites, What you are buying is the sound of these instruments and the synth programming expertise (and tastes) of a quartet of Euronationals from France and Switzerland. Oh, and some extremely sympathetic engineering undertaken on some of the jewels in audio's crown. A quick check of the outboard employed reads like a Who's Who of desirable audio sweetening - Rupert Neve's Medici and a couple of Focusrite units get a mention, as do contributions from Summit Audio, Tube-Tech, GML and Eventide, among others. Editing was by Digidesign (isn't it always..,?).

The great thing is, none of the patches sound particularly affected by this arsenal of electronics, whose combined value would buy many decent 24-track studio outright. Certainly, nothing has been added or taken away that forecloses any obvious options (no gratuitous reverb, and no whine either). The sleeve notes are pretty good, with hints and tips on (for example) how to use the velocity-to-function on your Akai sampler to simulate velocity resonance. But you knew that already, didn't you...?

And the sounds themselves? They cover a wide-range of modern dance styles, from techno, acid and hip-hop, to ragga, reggae and jungle. There are no wasted bullets - pretty much every voice has its place on the dancefloor. And while the wildest regions of synth programming are studiously avoided, the sounds on The Bass Appenser form a pretty robust collection of sensible-but-with-attitude patches whose production quality would be hard to beat.

Conclusion: well, I've said it already. This is a definitive collection of 99 essentially dry and delicious multisample bass synth sets. Full patches will not be particularly cheap on memory: don't expect to get more than a few loaded in at once when auditioning for your half-finished tune - The best thing to do is to make up a one-sample economy version of each patch, so that you can load in a decent number of bass sounds at once. Then, once you've more or less decided which ones are likely to fit the groove, go back and pick up the full versions.

This is quality product for discerning dance samplists, and not really too much work either, unless you want to get into looping. And why bother?
(Wilf Smarties, Sound On Sound - UK - July 1995)

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