"..An impressive inventory of analogue and digital synths.. well organised, in stereo.. beautifully realised... effects are as good as you get.. I'm going to buy one, case open and shut.. Following on from the successful Ambient sampling CD, Vol. 2 would make a good complementary volume. If you can only afford one ambient library, well this CD certainly covers far more bases, from lush digital textures to BBC radiophonic workshop. Engineering is excellent. The quality of this library will not disappoint. Five stars"

"Ian Boddy, the synthesist featured recently in SOS, has come up with a second collection of ambient synth textures, tones, effects and rhythms, using an impressive inventory of analogue and digital synths. The samples are well organised under sensible headings/groupings, and stereo is indicated. Two decades-worth of sound generators are represented, including Roland System 100m, Roland SVC3 vocoder, Roland JD990, Korg Wavestation, EMS VCS3, Memorymoog, PPG Wave (my favourite digital synth), Oberheim Matrix 6 and 12, and an Akai S3000.

The CD opens with digital drones, pads and effects. These are all very lush stereo affairs, conjuring up deep space hyperdrives through sinister alien landscapes, etc. You've heard it all before, but probably not as beautifully realised. One or two of the more stable but aggressive voices have been earmarked for clipping, looping and riffing by this member of the All Boxed crew. Get yer hands off! Of course I'm not going to tell you where to look.

Glass effects are nothing new, but here are as good as you get. Then there are some rather smooth, long, ring modulator simulations (or maybe the real thing). Digital cascades and arpeggios have their uses, I suppose. Filter sweeps of just about every denomination are included. Computer tone bursts, gong sustains, all very nice. It was cold enough in Brookside Recording Studio (now sadly displaced from a comfortable bedroom to a draughty location at the foot of the stairs) before that synthetic winds of Track 22 started to blow. Brrr! I was convinced.

Track 32: the computer FX sounded like Kraftwerk circa 1975. Also featured: a similar effect to that once used by Steve Miller involving a fast to slow triggered filter decay sweep, and sample and holds redolent of Morton Subotnik. I didn't think dropping in those examples would help you. Never mind... On Track 34 a pulsed, anharmonic metallic decay, probably FM induced, is progressively edited. You could map each pulsed note onto a keyboard separately for an expressive percussion group. Around track 36 we are assailed with the electronic equivalent of a cross between a dentist's drill and shortwave radio. Some of the low drones and sweep downs that follow are particularly fine. Then mysterious machinery springs into life darkly: somewhere between Alien and Snoopy vs. the Red Baron. At half speed. The anharmonic arpeggios from the Planet Zog impressed. The electronic noise bursts are at least OK. Nice tubular bells on track 46.

48: It's vocoder time again. Tasty loops. Blow this, I'm going to buy one for Christmas - I've heard Sasha's remix of Womack & Womack's 'Secret Star'. Case open and shut. 49: a very up to the minute set of rhythmic backdrops. Not exactly upfront/dry: 99% FX, 1% resonant/vocoded synth. 51: The vocoded number samples are useless, but the vocoder itself is tops (Roland SVC350).

Track 68 has a multisample set (one of several) of one of my favourite PPG sounds, a digibell, but Ian has layered/modulated it with a buzzy interference. Rats! Maybe he'll let me borrow the Wave for an afternoon someday... Track 70 has a hug atmosphere suitable for a scene in the next Lucasfilm release.

Conclusion: Following on from the successful Ambient sampling CD, Vol. 2 is less consistent but more varied. Harder and colder than its predecessor, it would make a good complementary volume. If you can only afford one ambient library, this CD certainly covers far more bases, from lush digital textures to BBC radiophonic workshop. Engineering is excellent, as you would expect from Mr Boddy. The trouble is: most samples are l-o-n-g. This means that 1. you don't get as many to the pound as with some other releases (around 400), and 2. your RAM may be struggling to cope with a keyboard's worth of them. However, two or three well chosen backdrops would be enough to lay behind a trancey dance tune. Many sounds are asking to be chopped into small length tones, and the bigger buggers will acquire new life when treated to a spot of rhythmic gating.

For those working in post pro, the quality of this library will not disappoint, and the logical grouping of sounds and sleeve descriptions should make finding just the right tone for the descent of an automobile into an airbag/swimming pool/bit of rugged countryside that bit easier. Oh, bugger it, this is the season of goodwill, etc: five more stars. Next year I plan to increase my astral headroom anyway..."