Art Of Sounds
Sound On Sound, 03-2010
www.soundonsound.com

Ueberschall‘s libraries tend to target specific markets, with titles like „80s Punk & New Wave“ telling you exactly what you need to know about the content. Art Of Sounds, on the other hand, could mean just about anything. The publicity material is wordy but vague, at one point describing the 1.06 GB library as being „made for progressive and experimental sound chemistry“. When hearing the content, however, it quickly becomes clear that this is actually an ultra-modern sounding library with a very specific style.

The material‘s creator is a Bucharest-based experimental artist called Yvat, who specialises in Eastern European-flavoured electronic sound design, sometimes categorised as IDM (intelligent Dance Music).

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Yvat‘s technique mixes granular textures with modulated synth-pad sounds and electronic percussion. Indeed, some of the sounds are simply short, scratchy noises that don‘t seem like much on their own but make sense as part of the construction kit.

A characteristic of the material is its hypnotic quality, having an effect not unlike some of the ambiences created by Brian Eno(...).?
The evolving nature of the material makes it well suited for game soundscapes and use in certain film and TV projects. Finding a home for it in songs could prove a little trickier, though, unless the musical style is similar to Yvat‘s. That said, editing the kits to turn off the harsher elements takes much of the material into territory not so far from that occupied by the likes of Portishead.

Art Of Sounds has been developed to work through Ueberschall‘s Elastik loop player, which is rather handy editing and auditioning the individual layers within kits and, through its various editing parameters, makes the library a virtual instrument.

On reflection, the library should probably be called something more specific, like Art Of Electronic Atmospheres, because Art Of Sounds is suggestive of content that is much more wide ranging. But what it does, it does very well, providing a style of sound montage that is currently very much in demand in certain types of media.

Art Of Sounds
Future Music, 03-2010
www.futuremusic.co.uk

Rather than focusing on a single genre, this new package from Ueberschall delivers a selection of weird and wonderful FX-based loops and hits. The content is highly original for a sample library and incredibly versatile, offering sounds which would happily fit into all kinds of production styles from IDM and Ambient to Dubstep and Drum ‘n‘ Bass.

As usual, Ueberschall have used their own Elastik Loop Player format, meaning you‘ll have to install the software before you can use the samples. In this case, though, it‘s probably worth it. There isn‘t a huge amount of content here (just 1GB) and it‘s not the cheapest, but this is a seriously high quality package.

Rating:
8/10

Chris Baker

Art Of Sounds
Keys, Juli 2010
www.keys.de

 

(...) This library combines experimental sounds and beats that could be attributed to the IDM genre, often with a relaxed atmosphere and pleasant harmonies. Furthermore, the concept of the library is a little more open: in addition to smaller construction kits, which can be seen more as a song starter than as a complete solution, there are a variety of ambiences, that range from small, quiet atmospheric sounds to complex, chaotic sound structures. The library also shows the advantage of the included Elastik Player, which - in addition to quickly adjust the tempo - is able to extract individual areas of the complex samples thanks to the slope value of the filter with up to 72 db.

Furthermore you will find beautiful pads and pretty low key rhythms, but also quite the contrary. Many samples were created by using extreme manipulation and modification of afterwards not recognizable sounds. In addition to distortions and artifacts there are also a lot of  surprisingly harmonious sounds that create their own atmosphere. This can not be compared with your usual libraries.

(...) The 1 GB of new tone colors Art Of Sounds has to offer are quite unique. For sound twiddlers this library is a wonderful box of gems.

 

translated by Andreas Reinsch/Ueberschall

Art Of Sounds
Sound & Recording, Februar 2011 
www.soundandrecording.de

 

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The DVD is divided into construction kits, ambiences and drum kits. In the first folder you will find the usual combination of mixes and individual tracks. Ambiences provide more mixes that are readily produced. The kits are more like drum loops on the bottom bar and the individual sounds on the following.

The construction kits are again divided into different moods. The titles of the presets are similarly obscure and strange as the samples themselves: Here, a very creative sound craftsman manufactured mysterious, dark and extremely synthetic small pieces of music that are likely to fit perfectly in every dream or asylum sequence. The samples appear strangely spacial, though they refuse to use ostensible effect orgies or giant hall rooms. Instead, everything contributes to the gloomy, yet groovy impression. (...)

Yes, so you can make great movie music with this product. But only if you can cope mentally with the sound ...

 

translated by Andreas Reinsch/Ueberschall