IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

[JavaJ]

Thefyn- I love your honesty. I would have said the same things about my first impressions as well. But for the price- and if you have the creative juices to tinker- you can make some usefull sounds with what is offered. I like the Cinematik pack the best- the Vocal Pack is a stinker for me- but I might be able to get some usefull atmospheric vocal pads created from what is offered. The Trip hop pack was fun to play with- I will see if I can get inspired to do any new songs with the constructions kits. The Nashville loop pack is OK thusfar- but I haven't spent any time with it- so I won't give my real opinion on it.
I am curious as to what the 1GB of free sounds that esoundz will offer- that could be a really nice addition to the deal.

But for $50, you are getting a ton a raw material that can be mashed together to make some great sounds IMO.
I do feel that if I were to pay $50 for each pack- I would be very dissapointed due to the lack of consitent quality between the patches. I do not understand how a pack can be released with radical volume fluctations between some patches or with obvious tunning issues in others (Vocal Pack is a culprit). The NI packs I have bought for Kore PLayer have not had these quality issues and the price is just a bit higher. But maybe we are beta testers and our comments will see fixes done to the packs for future users.

This is my first experience with IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality- so hopefully my final impression will be great.

[zedd]

Maybe I should take a closer look. I'll be honest, I probably only ended up with about 10% of the 4 titles on my HD after I played practically every sample and binned 9 out of 10 as unusable.

I think that you are probably overlooking some great stuff. Those loops are raw. You might want to add some compression/limiting or something to get them to sound fantastic to your ears. They are not produced loops (which I prefer). They are just good basic drum grooves which you can turn into something even better.

I was wondering how to use the slice maps? What/where are these "associated MIDI files"?

For each of the loops, it will load the full loop on one key (B2 or B3), and then all of the components of that full loop are available in slices all the way up the keyboard. So every note has a component of the original loop, allowing you to PLAY THE LOOP with as much variation as you like.

You find a loop that has an appealing sound, and then you can essentially play your own grooves that use the components of the loaded groove. There is a lot you can do with it!

I do not understand how a pack can be released with radical volume fluctations between some patches or with obvious tunning issues in others (Vocal Pack is a culprit). The NI packs I have bought for Kore PLayer have not had these quality issues and the price is just a bit higher. But maybe we are beta testers and our comments will see fixes done to the packs for future users.

This is my first experience with IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality- so hopefully my final impression will be great.

A lot of these paks are combined paks from older collections, so they were recorded and released at different times. It is inevitable that there would be some volume fluctuations unless they went and rebuilt the paks. Not only is that a time-consuming task (unreasonable for a GB like this where they are basically giving away the titles), but it might not be a good thing for users who bought those original paks, if the volumes were later adjusted and the presets were different when opening existing songs/projects.

And for something like the vocal collection, I'm not sure it matters so much. You are unlikely to use more than a couple presets in a given song. You will probably end up using a small handful on a regular basis. Yes it would be tidier if all the volumes were the same... but it is probably better for eSoundz to focus on creating new paks for future Group Buy bargains than to spend a whole lot of time trying to fine-tune these minor issues.

In the paks I have downloaded so far, I have not noticed or been bothered by any such issues.

Just sayin'.

[Reverend Rhythm]

forbarbecutie:

IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

Now 4X1! Currently at 2244 users! Need 2500 users for 5X1!

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/xtgroupbuy

and

http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=4293

BBC

esoundz user: BarBeCutie or see epointz referral thread below for other users:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... ht=epointz

[JavaJ]

zedd- I hear what you are saying- but I wouldn't complain about normal volume fluctuations- I am talking about ones where i have to crank up the volume on everything- and you still can't hear the sound. It is in the programming of the patch. When I tried to up the volume on the child patch- I couldn't get it to get louder than a few bars on the volume meter. So this is a huge issue on the parent sound.
What I think I will do is go through the packs I have and find the really nasty ones- and post and see if others have the same experience (which they should as I simply installed the packs and started playing each preset).
I am even find with no effects on the parents- but the level issue can be very bad making some sounds unuseable. Now the tunning issue is something else- I will post it (although any other Vocal owners wish to comment?).

[JavaJ]

One thing I have found to help out big time for the Vocal pack- turn on Stretch/Phrase and the vocals magically sound better- alot better.
There are still parent sounds with little to no volume but I will go through in detail. The beat box stuff is fun to play with as well (and may be worth having just for that if you are into that)

[zedd]

There are still parent sounds with little to no volume but I will go through in detail.

Definitely save child presets as you go. If you turn on the Stretch feature in a preset, it saves with the Stretch already calculated and the preset will load just as quickly as the non-stretch presets.

And also, I don't know how familiar you are with SampleTank, but you have a couple ways that you can increase the volume of a presets. One is by pressing the ENV 1 button around the middle of the bottom section, and then adjusting the Level Knob. You can add up to 20dB, and that level will be saved with the preset if you save it.

And if you need more built-in volume that can be saved with the preset then use the Gain knob in the EQ section, with or without any EQ being applied. Using those methods you should be able to significantly raise the level of a low-volume preset. And you can do it on a note by note basis by clicking on the ZONE button.

[samsam]

Thanks for the reply zedd.

So, concerning loops, I think I have a problem here. I bought Modern Tech Rap. All the construction kits are fine but for the slices, only one of the loops from the construction kit actually appears (Grizzle), one new loop appears (Scrape) and the rest of the folders have a few beatboxes and misc beats from Dirty South (which i don't own).

What's gone wrong here? I guess I need to contact support at IK?

[zedd]

What's gone wrong here? I guess I need to contact support at IK?

These are Sonic Reality products, so I would think they are doing the support. Squids will probably read your message here, but you might want to fire a message off to Allen at eSoundz dot com.

But it could be that those Dirty South Loops are a part of that particular package. Bonus loops maybe? Strange if the other ones don't show up though. I don't have that package, I'm afraid.

[samsam]

Nice one zedd.

I just fired off a support request to IK but following your advice I'll send one to Allen.

It's like buying a fridge and finidng out that it microwaves my food instead (don't worry, zedd will understand)

[zedd]

It's like buying a fridge and finidng out that it microwaves my food instead
(don't worry, zedd will understand)

Well then, you won't have to worry about defrosting after all!

[androidlove]

now is not the time to point out the flaws. i'm only 226 purchases away from the acoustic drum pack

[JavaJ]

There are still parent sounds with little to no volume but I will go through in detail.

Definitely save child presets as you go. If you turn on the Stretch feature in a preset, it saves with the Stretch already calculated and the preset will load just as quickly as the non-stretch presets.

And also, I don't know how familiar you are with SampleTank, but you have a couple ways that you can increase the volume of a presets. One is by pressing the ENV 1 button around the middle of the bottom section, and then adjusting the Level Knob. You can add up to 20dB, and that level will be saved with the preset if you save it.

And if you need more built-in volume that can be saved with the preset then use the Gain knob in the EQ section, with or without any EQ being applied. Using those methods you should be able to significantly raise the level of a low-volume preset. And you can do it on a note by note basis by clicking on the ZONE button.

Thanks Zedd,
I did find one stinker- the Very Nice patch. B3-D3 is flat. But it looks like I can hit zone and tune up that sample- so I will try this.
Where should my saved child presets go (and if I share them, where do users put them back?)

[zedd]

...the Very Nice patch. B3-D3 is flat. But it looks like I can hit zone and tune up that sample- so I will try this.

Yep, that will work. Lots of interesting bits of fine-tuning you can do using the ZONE option.

Where should my saved child presets go (and if I share them, where do users put them back?)

They will automatically be saved into the same folder on your computer as the parent presets, but will appear (within SampleTank) in a subfolder of the parent (as you have seen with the provided child presets).

I recommend saving presets which include the name of the parent at the beginning, so that they will appear together in your ST library. That way you can easily move them to another location later without leaving any orphans behind.

If you share them, the users have to put it in whichever folder that they have the parent residing. Having a similar name will make it easier for them as well.

[barbecutie]

Hi All:

Group buy has 2281 users. 219 needed to make this 5x1!

Baby needs new samples! Go. Go. Go!

BBC

[barbecutie]

Too close to top of new page! Must bump!

BBC