IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

[Reverend Rhythm]

Since I managed to crash the top of the page post: For Mr. barbecutie

IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

Now 7X1! Currently at 5323 users. Need 677 more users for 8X1!

Group buy ends June 6th!

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/xtgroupbuy

and

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

BBC

If you are purchasing from eSoundz - be sure to refer someone. You and your referral will earn ePointz which can be used to purchase downloadable items from esoundz.com and downloadablesoundz.com.

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

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

I recommend Durex pleasure-enhancing warming lubricant. It comes in the red bottle, and is better than all the other products in their lube line-up. A couple of drops can last for hours.

New Subject: List of user demos

DarkStar and Peter had a nice list of demos, but it seems there were a few missing. And we've added a couple of demos since the last listing. So I'm going to try to make a list. Will you guys help me? What I'm asking for is that you just copy and paste my list (well, actually it's mainly DarkStar's's list) and add what is missing.

[zedd]

Does 70's retro Grooves come with Slices like the R.A.W. packs?

Unfortunately no. It is the only Loop Pack which is not sliced.

It is also my FAVORITE loop pack, so I have been urging Squids to slice it up. Hopefully it will be available in RAW and ST Loop Slice format one day.

[torgo]

Good to know the 70s Retro Grooves is someone's favorite. I'm not into the grooves thing (nothing against it - just that I focus on live performance and live recording), but I'm considering that one...



As a follow up to AndroidLove's jpg on the Symphony Strings 2 collection, the differences between SS2 and the original SS are the solo strings patches and the "elements" patches.

The original Symphony Strings collection had all of the String Sections and Ensemble Strings patches. It was approximately 364 MB. And as you can see from AndroidLove's results, about 97 meg of that would be duplicate files.

On the other hand, the NEW version (Symphony Strings 2) is about 718 meg total. So the solo instruments and elements add about 350 meg of new stuff. And only about 10 meg of that is repeated.

So even if you already have SS v1 (as I do), 340 meg of new samples of solo string instruments is a pretty good package in itself.

I think I'll have to get that one - even though I have the original AND the Miroslav PhilharmonIK.

[VSTJuNkiE]

Does 70's retro Grooves come with Slices like the R.A.W. packs?

Unfortunately no. It is the only Loop Pack which is not sliced.

It is also my FAVORITE loop pack, so I have been urging Squids to slice it up. Hopefully it will be available in RAW and ST Loop Slice format one day.

Well that's poopy! Wonder if we could get Squids to do a slice update to the pack for free?

[androidlove]

this duplicate file thing is taking forever. i'm going to have to give up on deleting the children. this is not fun. i'm sure someone from ik or sr will come by and tell us what the excess is for. i am stymied

EDIT: i'm going to use the auto delete to save time and hope for the best

EDIT: i'll just delete ALL the children i never use them anyway

[torgo]

Another follow-up on Piano Collection...

Most of the samples from the original Piano Collection are available on esoundz/DownloadableSoundz as individual downloads. But the two new ones (Dyno My Road and Acoustic Grand / Granduation Day) are not.

So if you have v1, it appears that v2 is still the only way to get those two new parent samples.

I'm not too surprised, as the Acoustic Grand and the duplicate Granduation Day are huge files (over 150 meg). They'd probably be almost as expensive by themselves as re-entering the group buy.

But I think I'll pass. I'm sure it's an awesome acoustic grand sample, but I have plenty of others. I'm sure I'd be better off using one of my choices on something like the OmniSynth, the Hip Hop instruments, or one of the Grooves packages instead.

(I'm not complaining, mind you. For anyone who doesn't have it and wants a nice collection of piano sounds, it's a fine choice. But anyone like me who already has v1, it looks like v2 doesn't have enough to offer to make it a good choice.)

[Reverend Rhythm]

User Demos

Here is the list as best I know right now. If you would like to add a demo I left out, I would prefer that you copy and paste, and put it in a new post. But no matter what, I'm easy... and cheap too! Also, you may want to edit your info. I think these demos sell the products as well as anything we do.

Peter - IK Multimedia
SampleTank really is a very quick workstation. With a little bit of research/knowledge of the tools used on the original recording and some ingenuity I was able to do a Floydesque take on the "Shine on You" Part I sounds in just a few minutes only using instruments from these Xpansion Tanks with no external processing of any kind (limited myself on purpose).

I used sounds from Vintage Keys, Cinematik, and SampleOB Xpander (and only one from each for the pad, one from SampleOB Xpander for lead). Mind the few seconds of silence at the beginning - I also only took a few minutes to tweak the export Smile
http://storage.tinytoaster.com/STShine.mp3

Cognition
The reason the demos you've heard are focusing on unusual effects is because that is (in my opinion) the Cinematic Collection's strong point. You might want to check out Symphonic Strings, which seems to have a bigger emphasis on strings rather than effects. I don't have that one, so can't comment.
Here's something I improvised real quick using the Cinematic Collection strings;
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3049335/Cinematic_strings.mp3

For me this doesn't cut it for strings, and neither does Garritan (for me). I'd recommend East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, even if you can only afford the Silver Edition. You can always upgrade later. However, this might not be within your budget. (Note: I'm an EWQLSO Gold Plus user, which is in a completely different price class from SampleTank).

For new readers, here is my demo of the aspects of the Cinematic Collection that are more exciting to me personally:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3049335/Jon%20C ... ration.mp3

Edit: It is definitely possible to get better results with the Cinematic Collection strings than my improvisation. I was just improvising for a few min on my MIDI controller using presets (sometimes with a reverb or a delay added)

Peter - IK Multimedia

I'd very much appreciate it if somebody could post some samples with more traditional symphonic / orchestral sounds.

I tried and succeeded at only picking traditional orchestral sounds only from Cinematik and within a few minutes had a decent combi and multi-out setup to do this small piece. Forgive the crashes in the wrong place and other nits here and there. There's layered strings, brass, and winds with a lame percussion track - all from Cinematik only:
http://storage.tinytoaster.com/STCinematikOrch.mp3

Peter - IK Multimedia
Some of the Beach Boy vocals done up quickly, starts "in the manner of the church" (a capella - I have to try to brush up on the true Italian meanings seeing that our HQ is in Italy) then in a mix then back to a cappella. I've added bass from the Bass tank, organ from the Vintage Keys, and a drum loop from the Vintage Rock loops for the midsection "mix":
http://storage.tinytoaster.com/STVoxBoys.mp3

androidlove
Here's a little dry Cinematik demo. there's a player embedded in the page
www.4shared.com/audio/ISV9uMiH/cinematik.html

2ndStringer
Here is a quick jam with several libraries involved:
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/jre ... padjam.mp3
The pad is from Cinematik, layered with some stuff from World music. The hand drum is from World, as is the psaltery. The bowed bass is from Symphony Strings 2. The guitar is my Strat through a non-IK product (sorry). It is just a two-chord ambient sort of thing, and I am no pro, but a lot of people might do this sort of thing with SampleTank.

androidlove
Here's a dry run on the Hip Hop instrument pack. It's only the tip. You could ride out a career with just this set.
www.4shared.com/audio/mH09rixa/hip_it.html
Someone requested a pop demo using the Hip Hop set because that person wasn't a fan of hip hop. I made an old sounding piece because the Hip Hop sounds are old. Hip Hop likes to recycle. if you're looking for hip hop... btw, which GM set recreates old analogue like that?

androidlove
I filled up all 16 slots for this retro pop piece using the hip hop set. Uses just the effects that loaded with the parents. If you have a cheese allergy, you may want to avoid this.
www.4shared.com/audio/0XYJQ4Tg/hip_pop.html
Whereas the bass break in hip it was garbage, this one is the bomb (please, someone get that).

Siedler
Thought, I want to share my work with you guys. Maybe it would help people to decide, if they want to join the GB. And also it's a "thank you" for IKMM and SR for it. So they know what people do with their sets Wink
http://swift-assistance.de/joomla/image ... _Dream.mp3
It's done with a few freebies for the electronic-sounds and mastering, the rest is done with these packs of the GB:

• Cinematik Collection
• Piano Collection 2
• Symphony Strings 2
• World Grooves

Have fun with it, and pm me if you like it. If not, don't say it - I'm a cry-baby! Crying or Very sad HiHi

Jesse J
Here's a little loop I made after I downloaded the Acoustic Drums today:
http://rapidshare.com/files/384715164/J ... emo_01.mp3
I'm using a Kit from Acoustic Drums 2 that I edited to be a bit tighter, keys are from the Piano Collection 2 and a little spice from the Cinematic Collection. Just 3 channels used, bass comes from my Roland Fantom G as I haven't got the Bass xpansion (yet).
Here's a little screen-shot of ST while playing this:
http://img.skitch.com/20100507-1m137a62 ... t3j13r.jpg

Jesse J
Here's another little demo:
http://rapidshare.com/files/384720448/J ... emo_02.mp3
Just 3 channels, a mandolin patch I created using the World Instruments Collection + Tremble Strings from the Cinematic Collection.
http://img.skitch.com/20100507-nns7313y ... p1tkbe.jpg
I used Toraverb for the big reverb. The built-in ST reverb would probably have done the trick just as well, but I happened to have Toraverb in my Aux so I just used it...

androidlove
Here's an arp only demo. It's the default sounds. Run it through a chorus and a delay or a flanger and a reverb if it sounds too plain
www.4shared.com/audio/DgwomIXE/arp_pack.html

abi

Hi, do somebody have the Vintage Keys Collection.
I have the Piano Collection and like to know if in the Vintage Keys are new Rhodes patches in. Can anybody make a demo? Just play around on different patches....

Here's a quick demo (sorry for the playing):
www.zshare.net/audio/762517413df6c525/

JavaJ
Definitely need more demos. I did the Vocal Collection one on Youtube.


Baard

To celebrate 7x1 I share what I have been doing with ST the last days. All sounds are from the GB, the title celebrates us reaching 7 at this very moment!

That would be the ARP Prosoloist flute with some pitch modulation. I posted my patch list here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/965632/sampletank.JPG (I never got around to use the congas tho)

Its from the Sampletank XT pack. So is the organ and the flute. The "salsa" piano in the first part of the song is "Upright" from piano collection tho. Really like that one, but it didnt cut through towards the end, so I kept HQ Free Piano there, I wrote with that one. Thats what amazes me with what I got from this deal. You are writing from the second you load a sound and press a key.
Baard - Seven for the Price of One

pheeleepI made a short Dark Hip Hop Instrumental demo last night using DeepSouth, World Instruments, World grooves, Cinematik, DownTempo and Vocal Collection. This can give you an idea of the sounds included. I wish I had the time to add more sounds to it, but alas..
http://www.burakg.com/pheeleep/IK_Group ... eeleep.mp3

[zedd]

I guess my "expertise" in pleasure stretches even beyond these Group Buys...

this duplicate file thing is taking forever. i'm going to have to give up on deleting the children. this is not fun. i'm sure someone from ik or sr will come by and tell us what the excess is for. i am stymied

EDIT: i'm going to use the auto delete to save time and hope for the best

EDIT: i'll just delete ALL the children i never use them anyway

Be careful and don't be too ambitious with your delete key!

Your time is probably better spent quickly loading the children and deciding if you would really never use them. Some of the children are pretty good, and might really sound quite different from the parents in a way you may find pleasing. Hearing the main samples in a different context can be inspiring. Sometimes it is something subtle like slight detuning of certain notes to get a out-of-tune-piano sort of effect.

Is there are reason why you are determined to delete the duplicates? They don't take up much space.

What I mentioned earlier about the ID conflicts only relates to the exact same parents existing in different Xpansion Packs, and not duplicate versions of an instrument saved in the same pack. Presumably resaving a parent automatically assigns a different ID number.

I'm not too surprised, as the Acoustic Grand and the duplicate Granduation Day are huge files (over 150 meg).

That's kind of funny. I don't think of 150 Mb as huge by any means. It is bigger than the usual ST pianos, but they SHOULD be at least that big with some added velocity layers and/or more notes sampled.

We have to start talking several GBs before I would call anything huge. My 60GB EastWest Piano is what I would call huge. It is ridiculously big. That's about 360 times bigger than those "huge" ST pianos, and about 800 times larger than the average ST piano!

But anyone like me who already has v1, it looks like v2 doesn't have enough to offer to make it a good choice.)

You are right on the money there. Definitely not the best pack to choose if you have v1.

But for anyone who doesn't have the original Piano Collection, there are definitely some useful pianos and EPs included, so don't hesitate to grab this one.

[androidlove]

Is there are reason why you are determined to delete the duplicates? They don't take up much space

xp only recognizes 128gb of my 148gb drive as a usable partition. i don't want the duplicates. i'm going to back up the instruments to dvd, and i'd like to use as few as possible. i'd like to be able to back up my drive on the little passport drive i scored on the big o. inspiration? it's in my brain. i know how to carve out a sound. i know how to experiment

Be careful and don't be too ambitious with your delete key!

too late

[torgo]

It is kinda funny that I called a 150 meg file "huge", especially since my working hours are spent analyzing 25 gig files of medical data.

But the individual sounds available through esoundz are all much smaller. Plus the original Piano Collection was sold on a CD-ROM, so a pair of duplicate 150+ meg samples would have wiped out nearly half the CD by themselves.

How do you like the EastWest piano? Is it worth the file space?

Strange thing is that no matter how many piano patches/programs/samples I rack up, I keep finding myself going back to the "DarkClassicl" preset on the Alesis QS8. (Erik Norlander is THE MAN for giving us that one back in the day.)

[Xenobt]

Speaking of library/instrument sizes, I just sold a 8mb Roland JV series Expansion Card on ebay today for the same price as the GB and LOVED those sounds, so I guess it's all relative.
And my 64k Commodore did MIDI pretty well too, even with a 5 1/4" floppy disc that took forty five seconds to load a song!

[torgo]

Another follow-up... On the XT licensing thing:

Peter confirmed indeed IK fully intended to give us just one XT license no matter how many times we enter the group buy. But he notes that we get five authorizations (not three) and assures me that "they're cool with it" if we need more.

As long as they're cool with it, so am I.

I fully intend to use it on three machines at once (since I've paid for it three times...so far...) and I build and rebuild computers on a regular basis. So I'll be bugging them for a whole bunch of extra auths later on down the road.

The extra XT licenses were one of the main reasons I initially entered the group buy, but I guess I'll just have to find another reason if I decide to jump into the pool a fourth time. Gosh, that will be tough. Maybe something like... freaking EIGHT for the price of one!

We're already a third of the way there at 5333. This thing gets better all the time.

[torgo]

And my 64k Commodore did MIDI pretty well too, even with a 5 1/4" floppy disc that took forty five seconds to load a song!

Hey, those old C-64s actually had some decent musical potential. There are people now making soft synths just to emulate the SID chip in the Commodore machines.

Odosynths made one, but their web site is currently unavailable.

Here's another: http://www.delamancha.co.uk/basic.htm

[Squids]

Acoustic Drums 2 = Studio Drum Capsule (+?)

Acoustic Drums 2 is actually the GM (but not I-map) kits from the Studio Drums Capsule, plus the I-map kits (ie, all of them, I think) from the original Acoustic Drums Expansion Tank. So it's not a straight equivalence; there's some stuff in each that isn't in the other.

Correct

[zedd]

How do you like the EastWest piano? Is it worth the file space?

It is a great sounding piano, and I wouldn't even mind the file space, except that it is so gigantic that it gobbles up computer resources which result in performance issues (and sometimes DAW crashes). It also takes a long time to load.

So in the end, I hardly ever use it, and prefer the ease and efficiency of my ST pianos.