Anyone played around with Colossus yet?

[IvoryTickler]

Does it live up to the demos? How do the individual sounds compare to Sampletank re playability? CPU load? etc

I just can't risk the money without some solid feedback here .... please ....

[synergy543]

Colossus has quite a large library of playable sounds but not so many articulations to choose from as with QLSO. The sound quality is extremely good but I'm not familar with Sampletank for comparison. The sounds are also very dry compared to QLSO so don't expect the famous Hall sound in any of the samples. There is also quite a good selection of ethnic sounds as well which doesn't seem to be emphasized too heavily. Overall, if you want a good general selection of high quality sounds and don't expect lots of aticulations then you probably won't be disappointed.

[TotcProductions]

nope, nobody has played with it yet, becuase it costs a friggin thousand dollars.

peace!

[synergy543]

nope, nobody has played with it yet, becuase it costs a friggin thousand dollars.

peace!

Yeah but when you compare the sounds to your $1500 keyboard you might wonder if you actually got a good deal or not.

Although you could sell your keyboard and buy Colossus, you can never sell Colossus (license is non-transferable).

Pick your poison.

[dreammaka]

I have it :D

I sold my xv5050 and bought this.
I had 30% discount too.
so..
not 1000 dollar deal.

anyway.

the accoustic section is good.
very good.

orchestra section is little disappointment.
not much articulation in there.

the synth part is... well..
personally I don't like it.
very few samples and nothing good old albino2 can't do.

I don't know...
I'm a little disappointed maybe.
to me it seems like the module is
made for film composer or
some accoustic band.

don't expect thousands of patches on
synth bass, lead, pads all those stuff.
you'll get really good selection of
accoustic instruments.

if you think interms of sample number included
and the quality of sounds
well.... I can say it's worth $1000.
but I personally feel it's a little over
priced.

[Pete C]

I think it is much better to amass your own collection of plug-ins than an all-in-one solution. I have several GM-type synths like Sampletank 2, Sonik Synth 2, Plugsound, Manystation...however if I could do it all again I don't think I would get any of those. I think they are GREAT for covering all the bases for the money, however since I ended up spending more anyway over time trying to get better instruments, I should have just done it right from the start. Selecting things like Ivory just for Piano, Trilogy for Bass, Personal Orchestra, FM7, B4, MrRay73, MrTramp, etc. When you first start you want to get the all-in-one so you can start writing songs, but in the end Colossus looks like it will leave you wanting more just like all the rest. My 0.02.

Pete

[IvoryTickler]

Thanks for your opinions. It's the acoustic section I particularly want, and perhaps the evolving pads / drones (are they any good).

Pete, I do agree. Sampletank / SS2 is OK, but my Vint Audio piano is the one that gets played - still to choose a synth.

The Colossus demos are pretty staggering though. Hmmm.

Dreamy, how did you get the 30% off?

[Kim Lajoie]

It's the acoustic section I particularly want, and perhaps the evolving pads / drones (are they any good).

Colossus looks great as a good collection of acoustic instruments. Have you got Sonik Synth 2? SS2 is definitely worth a look for evolving pads and synthetic (and hybrid!) drones.

Forever,




Kim.

[zircon]

I think people are misrepresenting Colossus' purpose (not that I would get it myself). It IS designated for people more into scoring work, similar to a lot of other products from East West/Quantum Leap. Also, it's not meant to go in depth into any one category, but rather, cover a wide range of sounds. Doesn't that make more sense, anyway? The last thing I want to do when I get inspiration is sort through a long list of articulations and submenus for a single instrument. That's why hardware workstations are so fun and inspiring (imo) - they tend to have quality sounds that aren't overly complex.

Not that I have or want Colossus, anyway, as I probably already have 50% of the samples in it..

[torhan]

FYI -- Colossus is reviewed in this month's Keyboard magazine. It received a KeyBuy award.

[Lord Choc Ice]

I'm really interested in the Colossus, but there are a few things I should clear up first:

Mostly I'm going to be using it in a live band setting, playing fusion/jazz/funk/slick genres. In addition to perhaps (haven't bought them yet) B4 and Minimonsta, I need some useful rhodes, wurlies, clavinets, DX-EPs and pianos to complete the instrument rack (I'm planning to use a Muse Receptor btw).

Does anyone here have any hands-on experience with this use of Colossus?

[Lord Choc Ice]

a bit of a bump

[Andreas]

I use Colossus (with a Receptor actually) and it works very good.
The pianos are good, very good strings, great acoustic sounds, truly wonderful percussion etc.
The Rhodes sample (only one sound) is good, but I still use MrRay 73, sounds just as good, and loads much faster than the mega Rhodes in Colossus.
The Clavinet is too crappy for words, and I still haven´t found a good software alternative, but I haven´t looked that much since I have a Nord Electro with a wonderful clavinet sound.
Strangely enough, there is no Wurly in Colossus, so I use MrTramp which sounds great.
The DX EP-s are good, but with Receptor you get the free 4front EP and that sounds pretty good (and is a very small plug).

For me Colossus is wonderful, beats any hardware workstation by very far, but maybe you just need Receptor and a great piano (Ivory is soon out for Receptor).

Hope it helps!

Andreas.

[Alan]

nope, nobody has played with it yet, becuase it costs a friggin thousand dollars.

Besides,all our hard drives are full already.