Russian Masters You never know when you might be called upon to score the next Doctor Zhivago, write a dance piece for a Russian folk ensemble, or create background music for a documentary on the Ukraine. In fact, it's easy to see how ethnic Russian music might come in handy for a wide range of projects. Finding the instruments to create convincing music, however, is another story.

Fortunately, Northstar Productions can get you out of this quandary with Russian Masters ($249), the company's impressive sample collection of acoustic instruments from the former Soviet Union and parts of China. The collection is formatted for most E-mu samplers, including EIII, EIV, E64, and ESI. General categories include stringed instruments, ethnic winds, percussion instruments, and ensembles. Jam-packed with individual notes, the disc also boasts numerous phrases, loops, and performance effects.

Birth of a Notion British-Polish composer Martin Kiszko recorded the original samples in England to score the BBC series Realms of the Russian Bear. Kiszko composed and arranged the balalaika ensemble loops and other phrases, which were performed by the Feenist Balalaika Ensemble. Most of the remaining instrumental and vocal samples were performed by soloists from Moscow's Folklore Department of the Union of Composers.

Working from the original tapes, Northstar carefully processed and mastered the samples. Presets were then programmed in a number of different ways, including sample layering and Velocity switching between voices, filter settings, and attacks. The result is a versatile sample collection that makes good use of the EIII's and EIV's performance capabilities.

Sounds of Mother Russia Russian Masters includes 80 banks that range in size from about 4 to 32 MB. Banks may contain as few as 11 presets or as many as 72, but most offer between 24 and 48 presets, some in stereo and some in mono. The first half of the Stringed Instruments section consists of a wide range of balalaika presets. Prima, alto, and contra balalaikas are well represented with individual plucked notes; looped and unlooped tremolos played by one, two, or three instruments; octaves; notes with glides; major and minor chords; and presets with various effects such as echo and chorus. Several of the presets with echo would lend themselves quite well to new-age compositions, and a filter-swell-with-delay preset offers a great atmospheric effect. I also like the presets that let you crossfade between octaves with the mod wheel.

My favorite presets in this group, however, are the scales, trills, phrases, and other unlooped musical fragments. The phrases with chord progressions are especially nice and a breeze to combine. Each phrase blends easily with the others, and if you throw in a few licks here and there, you can quickly create a full-length backing track with an unmistakably Russian flavor. Several banks of alto domra presets are also included, and the zitherlike gusli provides lots of metallic and harplike plucked sounds, chords, arpeggios, strums, and phrases.

Among my favorite banks are those devoted to the dutar, a long-necked, two-stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body. The dutar banks offer dozens of presets consisting of wonderful rhythmic dance phrases, chord progressions, fragments from improvisations, and short motifs. Playing with them and combining them in different ways is great fun. Other instruments in the Stringed Instruments section are the Chinese pipa and the plucked Armenian tar with its quarter-tone steps.

The Winds & Reeds section offers several standouts, including the sopilka, a Ukrainian end-blown flute with a breathy sound reminiscent of a bamboo flute. The large double-reed duduk is especially noteworthy; its plaintive, evocative phrases conjure up images of the Middle East. The CD also has a generous assortment of bayan (folk accordion) phrases.

The Percussion category includes numerous rhythm-section phrases (without bpm indications) played on a variety of exotic drums and tambourines. Also in the section are an excellent gong sound and two types of jaw harps that produce a variety of cartoonlike twangs and boings.

The final section is arguably the collection's crown jewel. It includes five banks of musical phrases extracted from performances by the Feenist Balalaika Ensemble. Many of the phrases are hauntingly beautiful and truly captivating with folklike modal chord progressions; others are more upbeat and dancelike in character.

Those interested in world music will find in the Russian Masters collection a wealth of fascinating and unusual instrumental sounds. The samples are well recorded and thoughtfully prepared, and the presets lend themselves to many applications. After spending a few minutes with this disc, you'll easily imagine yourself floating down the Volga with Russian folk music running through your head.