IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

[barbecutie]

IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

Now 7X1! Currently at 5790 users. Need 210 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

[torgo]

(You may get a shot at SampleTron in a future group buy or future sale....)

I like that idea! A SampleTron group buy or even sale -- especially if we could use ePointz (at least partially).

Torgo, do you happen to know if you get the SampleTron Exclusive Extras, would you lose any of the functionality available in Sampletron?

I suppose another way of asking that is, does Sampletron have any features that are not available by running the SampleTron Exclusive Extras sound set in SampleTank?

Thanks,
eDrummist

Funny thing is that even though I own SampleTron, I've never used the actual program for it.

I happily plunked down $180 for Squids Tron Collection when it first came out. (I'm still very happy to have done it - I really do think it might be the finest product Sonic Reality has ever created. And I'm eagerly awaiting the day the long-rumored Squids Tron Collection Vol 2 sees the light of day.)

So it helps me to load SampleTron sounds into SampleTank instead. That way I have all the Tron sounds I need in one place and can use them all with just one instrument loaded into my workstation.

The product description of SampleTron does say there are four specific Tron controls somewhere in its interface, but I haven't even found what they are, so I'm guessing they aren't all that big a deal.



There actually have been a couple of sales on SampleTron within the last year. IK had an end of year sale offering it and SampleMoog for $99 each. They also had a sale on the Total Workstation bundle.

They'll probably have it for sale again before too long. It might not be a screaming bargain like this Group Buy, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it available at some kind of discount before too long.

[Squids]

The four controls are the macro knobs. They do some cool things. One of them actually goes between it stopping like a tape would vs. looping forever. That's a nice knob! Other knobs simulate tape warble... I forget what else but some nice features added. Shoudn't be THAT hard to find I hope! Glad you like Squids Tron. We'll do Volume 2 this year. I just recently found a bunch of Chamberlin master tapes I bought from someone who worked for Chamberlin and some more Mellotron tapes and recently got my Optigan working again so... we'll put something out in both ST format and also our Infinite Player as well. Also, we're going to release the original Squids Tron for Reason this Summer. If you like Trons you've come to the right place!

[Squids]

Two, "always double down" (first person to name the movie gets $3. in epointz)

Swingers

Congrats! What is your esoundz nick if you have one? (If you don't then make one so you can get $3. in download credts . ie epointz) www.esoundz.com

[torgo]

I probably should also note that everyone (particularly anyone under the age of 30) should read about Chamberlins / Mellotrons etc before buying SampleTron, the Squids Tron Collection, or even choosing the Tron related bonus pack.

If you know what 'trons are and KNOW you want them, then even paying full price for Squids Tron Collection (as I did) or SampleTron is an absolute SCREAMING bargain and a total no-brainer.

But for everyone else, you'd probably be far better off getting Sonik Synth 2 instead of SampleTron. They're the same price, and Sonik Synth 2 includes 21 of the most important 'Tron patches, with roughly 148 meg of samples.

(That's actually a lot of disk space for Tron sounds. They're lo-fi, so any sample over, say, 24 meg MAX would just be wasted space.)


I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the 'Trons. Not at all. They're classics, and I love the sound. (And they were used heavily by everyone from The Beatles to Yes and Genesis to Led Zeppelin to The Black Crowes.)

But they're a very, VERY strange creature - and pretty much a one trick pony kind of thing - so make sure you understand what they're all about before spending any real money on something 'Tron related.

[2busdriver]

duly noted on the Trons torgo - timely advice! as that is an instrument of great interest to me. Kinda been waiting for Squids to port his to Infinite Player. Maybe the SS2 is where I need to be for breadth and depth, for the time being.

[torgo]

The four controls are the macro knobs. They do some cool things. One of them actually goes between it stopping like a tape would vs. looping forever. That's a nice knob! Other knobs simulate tape warble... I forget what else but some nice features added. Shoudn't be THAT hard to find I hope!

I'm sure they aren't hard to find. I meant that I didn't see the details about them in the product description on the IK site.

For anyone interested in Trons, the IK description of SampleTron has some history and some great pictures of the actual instruments:

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/sampletron/instruments/

Glad you like Squids Tron.

Love love LOVE it. You should get a Nobel Prize for releasing it. I hope that spells out how I feel clearly enough if anyone had any remaining doubt.

I also loved the little PDF file that listed the history and past ownership of some of the instruments (such as the "Smellotron").

A request: at some point in the future, could you also do a writeup to list which sounds came from which specific instruments?

We'll do Volume 2 this year. I just recently found a bunch of Chamberlin master tapes I bought from someone who worked for Chamberlin and some more Mellotron tapes and recently got my Optigan working again so... we'll put something out in both ST format and also our Infinite Player as well. Also, we're going to release the original Squids Tron for Reason this Summer. If you like Trons you've come to the right place!

SQUIDS TRON 2!! AT LAST!! YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY !!!!!!!


And for anyone not familiar with 'trons, those tapes that Squids just mentioned are *crucial* bits of music history that might otherwise have been lost forever.

Mellotrons were basically early samplers. The way they worked is that they had tape players inside, and a tape for every single note on the keyboard. You hit a note, and it played the tape on the fly.

The best known model could hold three sets of tapes and had a dial on the front to change the sound bank. (Yep, your mega-expensive Mellotron could only play THREE different sounds. And you needed a degree in mechanical engineering to keep the thing working.)


A few later, related instruments used little plastic discs instead of tape sets. Remember the "Talking View-Master" and how its reels of pictures had those clear plastic discs attached to the back?

Now imagine a keyboard instrument with one of those Talking View-Master reels connected to every note. It's mad science at its finest.


Since the Mellotrons were really tape players, those tapes ARE the Mellotron sound banks. For many of those machines, very few were ever made or sold. So there aren't many copies of those tape sets in existence, and the few that are out there are getting old and deteriorating. When they're gone, so are those sounds.

So this is a chance to preserve some of the original sound sets that otherwise would be lost forever.

[torgo]

duly noted on the Trons torgo - timely advice! as that is an instrument of great interest to me. Kinda been waiting for Squids to port his to Infinite Player. Maybe the SS2 is where I need to be for breadth and depth, for the time being.

For anyone who is a keyboard player, Sonik Synth 2 is a very well rounded and very large collection. It's a tough call, but I think I'd say that for keyboardists, it's a better package than the full SampleTank XL.

It includes 148 meg of 'trons PLUS all kinds of other keyboard instruments as well as a diversified library of other sounds. 700 meg of pianos... 360 meg of organs... 600 meg of synth basses... 500 meg of synth leads... and the list goes on. (It doesn't devote as much space to drums, guitars, brass, woodwinds, etc as it does to various keyboards. But it does have all that stuff too.)

That's why Zedd and I have been eager for comparisons of the parent sample files. Anyone already owning Sonik Synth 2 (as we both do) would want to know whether the Expansion Tank sets have new and different samples before choosing them through this group buy.

(The results: a few of us have been doing byte-by-byte comparisons using a program called AntiTwin to compare the files. The sets we've checked do have a few repeats, but not many. There has been more than enough new material in each set we've checked so far to make these Expansion Tank sets worth getting.)

[oiramo]

It's a tough call, but I think I'd say that for keyboardists, it's a better package than the full SampleTank XL.

I definitely agree. SS2 imo is by far better than STXL. Until recently I had never even considered SS because of reviews by people claiming that it was mostly synth based and that STXL was better for acoustic sounds.

[Fludlyt]

Two, "always double down" (first person to name the movie gets $3. in epointz)

Swingers

Congrats! What is your esoundz nick if you have one? (If you don't then make one so you can get $3. in download credts . ie epointz) www.esoundz.com

My eSoundz name is fludlyt, thanks!

Also thanks to torgo for reposting the esoundz bonus list and descriptions! I'll be going with the Latin Afro-Cuban Grooves for my second extra. (It's near the bottom of page 178 if anyone wants to see the the extras on offer from esoundz).

[torgo]

Also thanks to torgo for reposting the esoundz bonus list and descriptions! I'll be going with the Latin Afro-Cuban Grooves for my second extra.

I'm starting to get tempted by all three of the Latin packs. There are some demo recordings on the esoundz web site.

The short blurb on the Afro-Cuban one sounds the most tempting, but the Caribbean one is by far the largest, and the Brazilian one has some great sounds too.

Here are the links to those three products, so you can see more detail and hear the demos before making any final decisions:

Caribbean:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2475

Brazilian:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2474

Afro-Cuban:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2473


These three are available as esoundz bonus choices, but they're NOT on the IK side of the group buy.

And thanks to Squids putting them back on the esoundz web site and offering a coupon code (LOOPBUY), we can also get them plus the other ReTank or RAW packs for $25 each until June 11.

(Putting them back on esoundz was my request earlier, since I accidentally lost my bonus choice and was worried they might not be available otherwise. Thanks Squids! Now I can get them all!)

[gmorgan]

The four controls are the macro knobs. They do some cool things. One of them actually goes between it stopping like a tape would vs. looping forever. That's a nice knob! Other knobs simulate tape warble... I forget what else but some nice features added. Shoudn't be THAT hard to find I hope! Glad you like Squids Tron. We'll do Volume 2 this year. I just recently found a bunch of Chamberlin master tapes I bought from someone who worked for Chamberlin and some more Mellotron tapes and recently got my Optigan working again so... we'll put something out in both ST format and also our Infinite Player as well. Also, we're going to release the original Squids Tron for Reason this Summer. If you like Trons you've come to the right place!

YES!!! Thank you!! I was in a band in the 80's that had 3 Chamberlins (we used to go to Harry Chamberlin's home in Upland, CA for repairs to same) and I have never recovered from it. I love Sampletron, and grabbed the Tron extras pack and am very happy with that indeed as a compliment to Sampletron. I am also an Optigan veteran and am thrilled to hear that SR is going to do more with the Opti-please, please try to find disks in good shape though; my only complaint about Sampletron is that it sounds like the Optigan disks used often were in bad shape. I can tell the difference between the funky sound of the Opti and a degraded disk. I wonder if it might be possible to offer loops of the Optigan rhythms in varying tempos-I have gotten used to pitch shifting them, using the Sampletron tools for that, but it really sounds poor beyond one whole step up or down. What I used to do when I had am Optigan was just use the tempo wheel to slow it down to get the right chord I needed at the right tempo and record that. That's what would have to be done to make tempo-based loops, I think.

I use Reason also, so it's all good news-can't wait to get Volume 2 of Squids Tron!

[zedd]

I wonder if it might be possible to offer loops of the Optigan rhythms in varying tempos-I have gotten used to pitch shifting them, using the Sampletron tools for that, but it really sounds poor beyond one whole step up or down. What I used to do when I had am Optigan was just use the tempo wheel to slow it down to get the right chord I needed at the right tempo and record that. That's what would have to be done to make tempo-based loops, I think.

That's a good idea. There are lots of ways for Squids to create some new Tron content just using what exists already. It would be great to have Loop Slice versions of all the Tron Grooves and SFX, as well. And of course, some duplicate loops from other tapes (cleaner or dirtier) would be welcome to.

[Fludlyt]

Brazilian:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2474

Afro-Cuban:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2473

Thanks again for the links, it's out of the Latin Brazilian and the Latin-Afro Cuban grooves now, you've made my job harder The voucher code will definitely come in handy, they're both really good sounding packs.

200 left!

[Reverend Rhythm]

200 left!

We've quietly crossed another barrier!

5802 users
198 left to 8x1

Do you think we will cross 6000 within 24 hours? 48 hours? It's gonna be fun to watch!