Eastern Scenes by Medway Studios

ModeAudio's Eastern Scenes proves the age old adage that quality matters over quantity.

With a collection of only 20 samples you might be thinking that not enough material would be on offer to justify the purchase price of £14.

After listening to the results, however, you'll realize there's a lot of bang for your buck here due to the high standard of these field recordings.

What Is It?

Although no information is present on where these recordings are taken they certainly invoke a feeling of a mysterious Far Eastern atmosphere.

Many of the recordings feature birds, rain and wind, There is a good balance of continuity in the samples with enough variation to keep the listener's interest.

Other samples incorporate gongs or the sounds of street life at night that create a sonic bed that is both eerie yet tranquil in nature.

Despite the limited number of samples, their length of 24-43 seconds means that there's plenty of opportunity to chop up and cut out smaller sections to use individually.

These can then be combined further with layering to create many new combinations beyond the initial 20 you're given to work with, greatly increasing the value of the package.

Who Can Use Them?

Potential users for these samples would span all the way from film and game composers to even dance and club artists that need that extra something behind their tracks to elevate them above the ordinary.

Ambient artist or anyone dabbling in Eno-esque sounds, especially Ambient 4/On Land territory, will also find them the perfect match, especially when considering pitching down or filtering the raw samples to extend their deeper moods.

Add a few of your own synths drenched in reverb and you're away.

I know I'll certainly be using these for both my client's productions and my own tracks when the need arises.