Tone2 Saurus2...The Great Underrated?

[Lejurai]

Really underrated synth IMO. Looks nice, sounds nice and is easy to use. Real workhorse for the type of sounds it spits out. Sounds like tone2 in good and bad

[Apostate]

I would say there are soft synths which sound way more analog than Saurus does. Especially the filters are rather the typical, quite artificial sounding Tone2 filters. Crank up the resonance, and compare it to analog filters, the classic ones, Moog, Oberheim, Roland, and you will hear the difference. Tone2's filters always have that sheen, artificial resonance behavior, which seem to attenuate the cutoff frequncy, but, at some point, seem disconnected from the signal, and do their own thing, if that makes sense. They also pretty much fall apart with fast modulation. That said, i don't think they're bad at all, and i kind of like the character. Yet, it is not exactly "analog".

In general, i would say the sound engine sounds Tone2-ish, which is fair enough, as no company develops a synth from scratch, not using any algorithms, or knowledge from their former synths. Yet, i was definitely able to tell that it is a Tone2 synth, even when i played the raw oscillators in Electra2. Maybe a blind test would have fooled me, but, when you know what you have to look for, you will find it. As i wrote, don't take this as bashing the synth. But i do think that Tone2 do a better job with "digital" synths, than with a pure analog emulation. Companies like u-he, NI, or Synapse kind of raised the bar for this type of thing, and it's difficult to reach that, if it's not for some tedious, and long work, to do similar.

Some really good points here, and I agree especially with the fact that Tone 2 (like Waldorf synths...at least in general) is more of a digital and "character" synth developer; overall the effects and general sound are indeed digital to my ears...just nowhere near as "vanilla digital" as something like Serum. They have a sound all their own. Thus, not as malleable as the aforementioned Xfer product, but the Tone2 synths have a definite place in my own music.

I guess...it really depends on what you define "analogue" as being. To me that word means a certain sound-presence, weight that I get when hearing, oh...a hardware Moog, Roland, VCS. I don't get that as much with Saurus as I do Diva or XILS IV (or, to get a bit oblique, Zebra/HZ), but I do hear it in the former significantly more than, say, Largo (a good example of a basically "digital" synth), and the abovementioned Serum.

But, I guess we could dally over this subject for pages on, and I probably went on a bit of a rant meself. Au found, I hear an analogue side to Saurus, while the effects can really ring in the digital. If that makes any sense lol!

[fluffy_little_something]

For the same price something like Retrologue 2 seems to be the better option. Both are not free of artifacts, though, which is what annoys me most with most soft synths. I just can't take those noises when I play a 2-osc chord on a certain octave.

[Ingonator]

For the same price something like Retrologue 2 seems to be the better option. Both are not free of artifacts, though, which is what annoys me most with most soft synths. I just can't take those noises when I play a 2-osc chord on a certain octave.

I got Retrologue 2 included with Cubase and it soudns not evn close as good as Saurus 2 IMO. FWIW I do not think that Retrologue has zero-delay dfeedback filters liek Saurus has since the very fisrt version.

[Ingonator]

Like i had mentioned countless times in the past if you miss some low end in Saurus (or other plugins like e.g. soem of those from Arturia) then add an EQ or a Bass enhancement plugin like e.g. Waves OneKnob Phatter (which is my favorite for that task).

[Apostate]

For the same price something like Retrologue 2 seems to be the better option. Both are not free of artifacts, though, which is what annoys me most with most soft synths. I just can't take those noises when I play a 2-osc chord on a certain octave.

I got Retrologue 2 included with Cubase and it soudns not evn close as good as Saurus 2 IMO. FWIW I do not think that Retrologue has zero-delay dfeedback filters liek Saurus has since the very fisrt version.

Not a big fan either, it amazes me how well Retrologue ranks these days. I'd sell it in a heartbeat if I could. I find it astonishing when ranked above Diva, Saurus, XILS IV...even some of the Arturia stuff. Perhaps this baffling preference is because it's basically free with Cubase. In this case, you get what you pay for.

I dunno, I've tried to use it many times, and each time simply reached for the others.

[fluffy_little_something]

For the same price something like Retrologue 2 seems to be the better option. Both are not free of artifacts, though, which is what annoys me most with most soft synths. I just can't take those noises when I play a 2-osc chord on a certain octave.

I got Retrologue 2 included with Cubase and it soudns not evn close as good as Saurus 2 IMO. FWIW I do not think that Retrologue has zero-delay dfeedback filters liek Saurus has since the very fisrt version.

Yes, I was not thrilled by Retrologue's sound, either, but the same goes for Saurus, which sounded a bit harsh to me. But Retrologue at least offers many more features for the same price.

[Apostate]

For the same price something like Retrologue 2 seems to be the better option. Both are not free of artifacts, though, which is what annoys me most with most soft synths. I just can't take those noises when I play a 2-osc chord on a certain octave.

I got Retrologue 2 included with Cubase and it soudns not evn close as good as Saurus 2 IMO. FWIW I do not think that Retrologue has zero-delay dfeedback filters liek Saurus has since the very fisrt version.

Yes, I was not thrilled by Retrologue's sound, either, but the same goes for Saurus, which sounded a bit harsh to me. But Retrologue at least offers many more features for the same price.

It does have cool features. But then, I can go to Diva...(teasing)

Ingo, this is off topic, but I wanted to congratulate you on your work outside the onboard Sylenth presets. You've done some really terrific work. I've never heard anyone capture the Jupiter sound as well as you, and that goes for not just your presets on Diva, but elsewhere. Easily one of my favorite sound designers, I both use your work and build from it on the aforementioned Diva, Sylenth, Largo, and am obsessedly in love with the PPG stuff, which is truly extraordinarily.

I guess I'm borderline an "Ingo fanboy", really like your stuff, don't stop lol! I would buy a new Zebra (ESPECIALLY HZ) soundset from you in a heartbeat.

[fluffy_little_something]

Since someone mentioned the Jump brass pad, I don't know why that has become a reference because it sounds pretty average on the song, I just listened to it again on YT and actually prefer the Saurus patch, which is more brassy and less of a normal pad.

[Apostate]

Since someone mentioned the Jump brass pad, I don't know why that has become a reference because it sounds pretty average on the song, I just listened to it again on YT and actually prefer the Saurus patch, which is more brassy and less of a normal pad.

Iirc, the "Jump" from Diva is by far my favorite. It's one of the things that had me scrambling to buy that synth (besides Ingo's Jupiter stuff).

[Examigan]

A song I made for a KVR OSC from a couple years ago, uses 12 instances of Saurus

https://soundcloud.com/examigan/examigan-finale-saurus

[Apostate]

A song I made for a KVR OSC from a couple years ago, uses 12 instances of Saurus

https://soundcloud.com/examigan/examigan-finale-saurus

Cool as hell! Tone2 should use that as a selling point, loads of fun. Congrats and cheers!

[fluffy_little_something]

Since it has never been freeware, how was it used for an OSC? Doesn't the demo time out after 10 minutes or so?

[Examigan]

Since it has never been freeware, how was it used for an OSC? Doesn't the demo time out after 10 minutes or so?

I had it myself already, and it was a Any One Synth version of the OSC so I picked Saurus to use as the synth.

[Examigan]

A song I made for a KVR OSC from a couple years ago, uses 12 instances of Saurus

https://soundcloud.com/examigan/examigan-finale-saurus

Cool as hell! Tone2 should use that as a selling point, loads of fun. Congrats and cheers!

Thanks!