It must be the oldest trick in the book, but it is still one of the most underused ones. Yes - it's time for our monthly reminder of The Value of Contrast. Among all the shiny sports cars in bright colors, the black matte is the one that immediately grabs the attention. In the metro you'll immediately spot the one with a red jacket - or yellow - in the sea of dark, greyish, anonymous coats. To be able to go faster, you actually don't need to go faster. It's way more effective of adding something going slower, and you'll get the illusion of higher speed.

When I first heard about Prime Loops Ambient Illusions were not about mixing styles, or using contrasts, but my first thoughts went to the musical geniuses/madmen KLF.

I know - I am ancient, but in my book KLF made the most definite definition of the musical style ambient with their album Chill Out. Forget about White Room, that was only to please the masses. And yeah, sure. Brian Eno should be mentioned, Jarre, Aphex Twin and so on. But nothing comes close to the geniality of Chill Out. If I were sent off to a desert island and I could only choose one album: this would be the one, and I wouldn't hesitate about it either.

So naturally I was intrigued when I saw Prime Loops released an ambient sound library, and I must confess I was hoping for a collection of distant trains and sheep and maybe some hazy country guitar - equally naturally I didn't hear any of that nor Elvis Presley on the radio. Bummer.

Ambient Illusions is a synthetic library with inspiration drawn from Eno, Jarre, Tangerine Dream and also partly the Orb. When I say synthetic, I mean synthetic in an analog sense, but not purist analog - rather, analog sounds treated with modern production techniques. Behind this library is the Prime Loops producer Dimitry Vasilyev who have used mainly Rolands and Korgs as the source of sound: Alpha Juno, Juno-106, MKS-10, Mono/Poly and Poly-800. The synthetic foundation is clear, but it's executed in a clever way so you don't think too much about it. I assume that most of the work designing this library was during the processing.

Ambient Illusions by the numbers:

Formats: WAV, Apple Loops, Ableton Live Pack, Acid Loops, Akai MPC and FL Studio.

Synthloops: 96
Seqloops: 11
Arploops: 3
Ambientloops: 2
Musicloops: 2
Percloop: 1
Bassloop: 1
Chordloop: 1
Eploop: 1
Pianoloop: 1
Unmarked loop: 1

Total number of loops: 120

Tempo: 65 - 140 bpm

All loops are marked by type, base key and tempo, which makes them easy to use. Although every sound is set to a category, I would rather say that these categories should only be regarded as guidance as they move fluidly between styles. In general Seqloops have a more ploppy character as has the Percloop. The majority of loops are in the so called Synthloop category, which is a sort of a mixed bag category. There are lazy chords, odd melodies of sorts, bell-like loops - reverse is used quite a bit in the Synthloops - arpeggios, atmospheric drones. Uplifting, magical, moody and disturbing. But nothing really scary. Unfortunately I might add.

The loops are long - usually from 15 to 30 seconds - which is not just spent on repeating the theme over and over again, but the loops evolve quite a bit and usually comes back together again when the loop starts over again. In other words, the work behind this library is not sloppy.

Conclusion
Despite that me and Prime Loops (and the rest of the world for that matter) might not agree with the true sense of the musical style ambient, they indeed capture the soul of it. The sounds are well worked out but never crosses the border of becoming something that really grabs your attention - which is the point of the whole genre.
The only negative thing I can say is that 120 sounds feels more like a taster than a real library. There were many moments when I wished for a few variations, or some loops in the similar spirit.
Although I clearly can see how these loops can be used in ambient creations, I would say that these loops might be perfect for game developers, or - which brings me back in a full circle: use for contrasts. These loops works truly great if you are a producer who likes to experiment with styles. Slap a furious distorted break on top of a mellow pad is always effective as hell. Contrasts. Remember that. Class over.

Prime Loops Ambient Illusions
Web: www.primeloops.com
Price: 18 UK pounds.
Good: well-produced loops which captures the spirit of ambient music. Cheap.
Bad: wouldn't have hurt with a few more loops.

Review copy: thanks to Prime Loops for NFR review copy.