Just sayin'...

[BERFAB]

Since I've given my DAW a long overdue upgrade, everything is fast--creativity doesn't get bogged down with long load times or crashes. And, I'm happy to report that I'm rediscovering the marvel that is Sonik Synth 2.

This thing is the bomb. Great sounds right out of the box, easily tweaked.

This post was inspired by the following:

A couple of nights ago I was looking for a B3 sound to accent the final bridge before the fade on one of my tunes. Now, as you can see from my sig, I've got a lot of stuff to choose from. Usually, I would go for NI's B4II to find something suitable. However, the B4 sounds always need tweaking and/or processing to sit in a mix. By the time you get set up, you feel about as creative as a doorknob.

So, I turn to my long lost pal, SS2. Dial in the B3 patches, pick one, and I'm off and running. But here's the thing: The thing I really like about the B4 is the leslie emulation which, all said and done, is easily controlled with the mod wheel, similar to the real thing. My B3 riff really needed some good leslie control (and some delay) to really make the mix.

Sooo...I call up the rotory patch in the SS2 FX bank, hit the control button and route the speed button to the mod wheel. Then dial up the delay and reverb to round out the effect chain, and I'm off and grooving. The whole thing took about 2 minutes...and I'm sure I could probably knock 30 seconds off of that time once the mouse wheel control is implemented in the next upgrade...

Just sayin'

Cheers
-B

[MauroR]

Very cool piece of software. I'm waiting for the Total Bundle Studio, I can't wait. It's shipped just few minutes ago. I have just to wait.

[Squids]

Thanks. I am always glad to hear when Sonik Synth 2 is appreciated. It really does have a lot in there and you really start to see the value in the context of music making. I can't tell you how many times I myself go for Sonik Synth and it comes through for what I need musically. I DEPEND on it in fact. The Roatary Effect comes in handy. I DO like that effect. I think there could be better Leslie Simulation technically though which is something I look forward to in the future from IK but even if I had that I still wouldn't want to give up my Rotary Speaker effect in the ST engine that SS2 has. There's something gritty about it that is really great. In fact, I have been working on the next big update to Sonik Synth (as I have hinted at) and some of the real dense "Radiohead/Cold Play/Sigur Ros" ambient guitar and synth pads make use of that Rotary effect with GREAT unique sounding results... a character that would only come from the particular sound of the IK effects.

However, I too have B4 and another trick to try sometimes is to run Sonik Synth 2 through the B4's VST rotary effect which is pretty good as well and sounds fairly realistic (of course the BEST is to run this stuff through a REAL Leslie if you have one but... I am trying to get my old one back... a lot louder and you have to mic it though but I am a HUGE Leslie fan).

Let's talk about Sonik Synth 2's secrets some more. I've been thinking about it lately and this product really has some gems in it. Some great Rhodes and Wurlies for example. So much more... 5,000+ sounds!

[BERFAB]

Squids-
It's funny, but the reason I bought ST2 originally ('couple years ago) was because of the demo vids that you did. Someone sent me the link to them--I didn't know about you or Esoundz until much later--and a few things that stood out for me were the 1 page interface, a load of accessible features, and the ready to use patches. But I remember you talked about having this whole 'piano library' at your fingertips--which I thought was a great idea, since my only previous experience was with hardware samplers that had only a few bread and butter keys patches.

Shortly after that (still hadn't heard about you or Esoundz) IK offered a great crossgrade for SS2. I liked the 'synth museum' concept, especially since I'm old enough to have heard or played on most of the real synths featured in the sample set. 5000+ patches, and all importable to ST2--how could you miss? So I bought it.

But it turns out that the vintage synths were only the tip of a very large iceburg. This piano library was even better than ST2 (IMHO) with variations of the most popular grands, uprights, electrics and tines. Amazing guitar emulations as well, with all the best sounds cleverly named so you can easily find what you're looking for.

And as if that weren't enough, dozens of Combi patches covering everything from choirs to polyrhythms. Just blowing through the Combi's is an extremely entertaining and inspiring afternoon.

But perhaps my favorite feature of SS2 is the 'rhythmic elements' samples. This is a drum looper's dream. Rhythmic hits of isolated percussion instruments and full kits, all of which automatically sync up to your chosen BPM. Mix and match to your heart's content. Use the included Combi poly rhythms as a jump off point, and go from there. Or just keep layering stuff together.

I've created dozens of unique loops of grooves and fills from SS2. Plus, each element of a loop can have up to 5 of its own fully editable FX.

There. That covers a few of the SS2 secrets.

And I'm sure that the next upgrade will have even more.

BTW, your idea about routing the B4II FX leslie to other instruments is a good one that I hadn't thought of before. Although, again the set up process is another creativity killer. Better to get IK to add a leslie to the upgrade. Please?

Cheers
-B

[Kim Lajoie]

Another area that's often overlooked is the Acoustic Drums section in SS2 - particularly the I-Map kits! There's enough material in there to warrent its own sample library - there's well over 700MB of acoustic drums in SS2 (but don't tell anybody! )!

And the orchestral mixes. And the orchestral percussion (especially the cymbal swells!). And the organs. And the vocals and choirs. And... And... And...

-Kim.