ILIO Vocal Planet Akai

I've been into making music with samplers for 15 years now.
Electronic, Film-score and commercial are my favorite types, with recently some classical comps.

I now use Kontak. The presets I'm able to make with this sampler are much deeper than the best combis of the korg triton or even karma. It's the continuous formant control that makes the difference with this vocal library.

CD 1 - groove control data - midi files that can be used to control the tempo of the phrases. Also mp3 sound finder files. Great idea this grooove control!!

Cd 2 has an interesting set of Gospel Choirs. The only problem I've found was the kids choir. Has a high-pitched artifact in it that sounds like a LFO. I tried sending the signal through a different speakers and headphones/a hardware sampler, and two other computers. Doesn't go way. However I can shift it out by using the formant control of Kontak. BTW, this formant control works great with all the samples on this library. It makes them sound as if they were recorded by different singers. Incidently this formant control blows away the dry, "synthetic" sounding formant control on my V-Synth. Which by the way I'm going to sell, because it's really not that musical. That is I get tired playing it after a while. No inspiration value whatsoever. But anyway vocal Planet samples work in a very musical, inspirational way with Kontak's formant control. I've played on preset I created for 2 hours one night, which is rediculous! Who has the time anymore for that kind of indulgence!

This disc is great for the typical chants you hear in a urban kind-of-church. Even has some jungle chants as well. The reverb on these samples is just about right. The male solo samples are utterly dry.

The 3rd disc is all mississippi blues stuff. They have many samples that sound like the King himself. Ther's also some Lip FX, purrs, etc. on this too. I never heard these FX on any other sample library I own.

Disc 4 is one of my favorites. Super musical, awesome clear fidelity on the "take 6" sounds - that is jazz scat. I used to own a Roland JV1010 that had this great "Doo" sound on it. Well the same one is on this one, but even sharper, more brillant sounding. There's dooeeot's, thums, dows, bangs, binks, doos, dahs, bayeeat's, thao's
real warm modern sounding ooh chords, da-dat mixed choirs, bahs, scat solos, human trumpets with palm muting, ppp-bbb-rrr's - old school lip music, and so much more that I think is totally unique to this one disc. This disc could command the price of the library initself.

Disc 5 - the working DJ disc - For partition A, think a more 50's or motown style. Shoo-bee-doo stuff. Quality is excellent. Do-whop, na-na-na's.

The other partitions get into boasts, many popular RnB, rap, old school, contemporary rap and hip-hop, with female sounds and phrases for dance. These sounds every DJ should have just to throw out a few iconic hooks during a mix for a easy-to-make interactive performance of what otherwise is just baby-sitting a couple spinning vinyl's. No talent necessary here. That covers about 90% of the dj's out there right now from one's doing wedding's to one's spinning club tunes. This disc is for them. The vocal shouts and phrases were all familair with, and hard to get wrong over a mix.

cd 6 - Finally some vocals from the other parts of the planet. Tuvan monks, Lakota indians(American Indians), caribean, mexican shouts - Southern Californians are only too familair with these. Ever live next to mexican commune? I have em on both sides and across the street from me, and I live in what is otherwise known as a well-to-do- christian white community. Let me tell you that these mexican vocals are totally authentic. I can vouch for that. Now the tuvan monks sound like what you hear on TV, but I've never heard the real thing so cannot speak any further about the authenticity of these. But this mexican stuff - it's dead on. That must have been an expensive trip for spectrasonics(LA based production) - stuck a microphone outside their studio window and hit record ;) This would make a great working/under-the-table Mexican DJ disc. I would know too. I do have some mexican friends in that biz.

Some columbian, reggae, celtic female singing - which in my opinoin is to dark in tone colour. The female welsh singing is brighter but totally dry. T