Making Music
  Computer Music Software and Hardware

Sounds exciting

The sounds are evolving, morphing, multi-waveform sounds, full of interest and excitement. They are soundscapes ranging from the subtle, calm and inspirational to down and dirty, hard industrial tones and drones. There are pads and arpeggiations, bells, clusters, pitched and noise-based effects. The Harmonic Loops are particularly musical and inspirational. The Voices collection ranges from the angelic to the demonic. Ian Boddy has certainly brought all his skills and expertise to bear in the creation of these sounds.

One slight oddity is the Virtual Synth section which is a collection of analogue synth waveforms such as sawtooth, square, triangle and noise. The idea is that you process these through the VSM engine and while that's certainly possible, the VSM doesn't have all the processing functions you'd expect to find in a traditional analogue synth and, in truth, you're unlikely to buy Morphology to do stuff like that.

For a sample collection, Morphology could be considered expensive even though it's among the cheapest in the VSM range. Sure, it has its own front end for tweaking but you can't use it for playing any other samples and if you're already a Kompakt owner you could be forgiven for thinking that you're paying for a front end you don't need (although you get a few more edit options with the full Kompakt software). And, it could be argued, only the most dedicated are going to tweak these excellent sounds anyway, although you'll know if you fall into that category or not. For sample owners a better option would to be able to buy the samples á là sample CDs to really get full control over the material.

On the other hand, it could be argued that this is an 'instrument' - a VSM - and not a 'sample collection' as such, and while it's a moot point, as an instrument, you may find it limiting. The presets are superb but there's no underlying architecture from which to build new sounds, rather the presets are the underlying sonic architecture. You pays your money and takes your choice.

But semantics apart, this is a truly stunning collection of sounds. There are no drum loops or 'real' instruments here, just a wonderful collection of sounds suitable for use in a wide range of music, particularly styles with a synth or electronic foundation and much Dance music. Some textures would even fit perfectly into rock and pop. Ian Boddy says that the collection was designed to 'inspire you to make your own music'. If you've a soul, that's exactly what it will do, and if the muse has deserted you, play these to encourage its return.