IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

[Xenobt]

We are rockin' along at 6316 registrations! How hi will it go?

As far as pads go, it's a tough question for me. I think both sym string and would make good pad sounds. Cinematik would probably be somewhat more complex sounding. Remember that you can make a pad with most sounds by adjusting the attack and release. Personally, I like Sym Strings for pad sounds, but each to his own.

Hey everyone, here's a quote that fits... "Hi, Lloyd! Been away, but now I'm back..."

As to the pad question, I was just stepping thru Cinematik last night, and the big difference between it and SS2 is that many of the string/orch patches have synth or sfx sound design on top. I score stuff professionally and found them VERY cool, but complex close voicings will get muddy, so spread em out! But for big, animated, movie-style stuff, NICE.
There are some straight ahead synth-type pads that sound great too... And like a deep album, sometimes the ones you don't like at first turn into your favs!

Big thanks for the epointz to edteneyck!

[barbecutie]

IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

Now 8X1! Currently at 6327 users.

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

[Xenobt]

One last note about Cinematik, There are several patches that don't make a sound when you play them, or their child patches either.
Just turn your mod wheel up to almost max and they appear, because it's used to open the filter. Aha!
The patches just start in the sub-audible range, but when you bring the mod wheel up, they're actually very expressive analog-style sweeps... I think I've run across a few of these in other sets too, but didn't know what was the issue was.
Here's the list for Cinematik:

Handle Pad
Motion Syn 03
Silverbreath
Synapse MW
War Dogs MW
Woody Woodpad

Careful how fast and far you push up the mod wheel, the filter resonance on a few of these is QUITE sharp! If anyone else finds them elsewhere, post 'em and I'll do the same.

Additionally, some patches in many the sets are mapped ONLY to the usable playing ranges of the real instruments. Hit the Zone button on the lower right to see what you've got to play with.

Anyone looking for ensemble brass in the GB sets, there's a handful of fine patches in Cinematik...

Loving going thru all the sets, very inspiring, to say the least!

[VitaminD]

Dear IK,

I'm starting to think your implementation of Challenge/Response (Serial/Authorization) and the website login are both bad ideas.

I unplugged a hard drive.. powered on.. then later the next day powered off and replugged the hard drive.. then powered on again.. thats all. NOW SampleTank2 is telling me I must register the plugin before I can use it. It wont even allow me to run it in demo mode since it tells me trial time has ended. It takes me to the registration page where I should fill out all the info I already filled out when I initially registered the product in order to get an authorization code so I can finally use the software.

So I got to thinking.. perhaps I can simply login to your ikmultimedia.com website and see about getting an auth code without re-registering the software (which, I'm sure you'd agree would be a silly thing to do).. However, it tells me on your website my username and/or password are incorrect. No matter I click on your reset password option.. punch in my email address.. a moment later I get an email with my username and a new password. Great. except entering these new values does not allow me to login to your system in order to avoid re-registering the product in order to get an authorization code so I can simply open and run the software I bought. I even tried copy and pasting each into notepad, ensuring no blanks are included, then pasted them into the appropriate user/pass boxes... no go.

Please reconsider all your silly password and authorization schemes in lieu of a simple serial/username system I see in many sucessful audio products. Your current implementation is sensitive to trigger, frustrating, and only harms honest users such as myself.

Thanks.
-Vitty

[ShawnG]

A couple things:

I have joined this group-buy twice, and with my Jampoints, I was able to get many, many gigs of samples for about $60. Thanks IK!

I received out of the blue two emails from esoundz letting me know that a user known as DSPro referred me twice for epointz. I wasn't able to track him down here to thank him properly with a PM, but I do appreciate the referral points! thanks a lot!

Lastly, I foolishly did select the same bank twice when selecting my free packs. I did email IK, and am waiting for response. hopefully this is something that can be corrected.

[Xenobt]

A couple things:

I have joined this group-buy twice, and with my Jampoints, I was able to get many, many gigs of samples for about $60. Thanks IK!

I received out of the blue two emails from esoundz letting me know that a user known as DSPro referred me twice for epointz. I wasn't able to track him down here to thank him properly with a PM, but I do appreciate the referral points! thanks a lot!

Lastly, I foolishly did select the same bank twice when selecting my free packs. I did email IK, and am waiting for response. hopefully this is something that can be corrected.

Yeah, Jampoints and epointz too, EVEN if you go thru esoundz? I'm hooked. It just shows that a great product at a great price CAN make money, and help keep "cracked" software to a minimum.
At these prices, you can grin all day and still sleep like a baby knowing that everyone responsible got compensated.

And ShawnG, I did almost the same thing with my esoundz bonus choice, (see below) and Allen in support was very gracious and took excellent care of things. Thanks again!
I've also had great experiences with the team at IK, really nice guys all... And Peter, EPIC Cinematik demo!

(BIG NOTE: Symphony Strings in bonus set is Symphony Strings 2 WITHOUT solo instruments, so get SS2 in your IK GB downloads unless you want LESS for your free bonus set!)

[Dave Schreier]

[quote="ShawnG"]

...out of the blue ...a user known as DSPro referred me twice for epointz. I wasn't able to ...thank him ...but I do appreciate the referral points! thanks a lot!

quote]

That would be me. Being an "anonymous donor" was cool - receiving thanks is cool too.

I'd like to confirm one bug I found. The top zone on the Omnisynth 2 trumpet (057Trumpet) doesn't play, but just makes a click sound at higher velocities. Playing G#4 or above from the SampleTank onscreen keyboard with the mouse just clicks.
Not just me, right?
One other (very minor to me) bug is an odd sample - the third one down in the "Country Folk Rhythms" (100_E_Acoustic_Chrd). Something is wrong about that one.
And one last observation/wish is the way most of the drums lack choke groups for hi-hats (or other instruments like triangle). In the Acoustic Drums 2 set, most of the "GM" kits do not have choke groups. I'm not sure offhand, but I would have thought that that was part of the GM spec. I would also prefer the drums to play in some kind of "one shot" mode by default, rather than following the sustain and release envelopes.
All in all, this was "An offer I couldn't refuse"! (3 times)

…Dave

[torgo]

Good point, Xenobt! It has been about 24 pages since the full run-down of the Raise The Bar options. About time to repeat it...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Squids Tron Exclusive Extras - this is the set of sounds that were in Squids Tron Collection vol 1 that were left out of SampleTron. If you have SampleTron, this set is a GREAT choice. If not, it's still a good set of all new material. Just be forewarned that it isn't a "complete" or well rounded set of Tron-related items. All the biggies were already in SampleTron (such as the Strawberry Fields Forever opening flutes, the Nights In White Satin strings, etc) were in SampleTron. So they won't be here.

But... unless you own Squids Tron Collection already, it's a new set. And it's extremely well recorded and prepared. Squids Tron Collection may be the finest thing Sonic Reality ever released, so here's your chance to get about half of it as a freebie. (You may get a shot at SampleTron in a future group buy or future sale.)



Studiophonik Prelude Sounds Part 3: Bass - Studiophonik is the Next Big Thing coming from IK Multimedia. My guess is that its future release is part of why we're having this group buy. IK likes to have a blowout sale on things related to one product before releasing its successor. (Example - last fall's big group buy on Amplitube 2 products came shortly before the announcement of Amplitube 3.)

So this is a collection of bass sounds that will be included in the upcoming Studiophonik instrument. I don't know if they are repeats of the samples in the Expansion Tank bass collection, Sonik Synth, etc. You might want to ask someone at esoundz about that before selecting. But all of these sounds WILL be released as part of the Studiophonik package. So even though they might not be repeats yet, they soon will be.

Still, if bass guitars are your main thing, and you doubt you'll be interested in Studiophonik, this is a chance to scoop up its bass sounds as a freebie. Just check to make sure they're new samples.



Sonic Reality SampleTank 2.5 Bonus Disc - this is a small set to throw some extra sounds to people getting the bigger SampleTank packages. I think it was created for a previous SampleTank group buy. It's not a big set, and I suspect (but don't know for sure) that all the sounds were taken from the sets that are included in the group buy. I doubt there's really anything new here.



Expansion Tanks - six different choices (Symphony Strings, Piano Collection, Omnisynth, Bass Guitar Collection, Guitar Collection, Acoustic Drums Collection) - WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! These are the old versions of these titles, which have all been replaced by the new ones (look for the "2" in the title) in the group buy.

Do not get these thinking you're getting a different set or as a substitute for a Group Buy choice!!!

With the Piano Collection, the difference isn't all that great - there are only two truly new samples in Piano Collection 2 plus a bunch of new presets. One of the two new ones ("Dyno My Road") has gotten at least one bad review here, so you'd only be missing out on a 150 meg Acoustic Grand patch. But there are other acoustic grands included, so if you aren't all that into pianos but need a decent set, this isn't too bad a choice.

On the other hand, Omnisynth 2 is four times the size of Omnisynth. You'd be much, much better off getting Omnisynth 2 as one of your IK choices instead of taking Omnisynth as your esoundz bonus. Symphony Strings 2 adds about 350 meg of solo instruments, while the original only had string section / string ensemble sounds. Guitar Collection has some of the sounds from Acoustic Guitar Collection 2 and some from Electric Guitar Collection 2 - they added so much to the new versions that they had to split it into two sets.




SampleTank Rare Vintage Collection Vol 1 - WARNING WARNING WARNING!! The product description makes this sound like an all new set of samples. It isn't. Almost 100% of it is repeated from the other Acoustic Drums 2, Electric Guitar 2, and Vintage Keys sets. Some of the sounds are even repeats from Sonik Synth and SampleTank 2.5 XL. There are at most three new samples in the entire set, and they're similar (though not identical) to samples in the other packages.





Sonik Capsules Studio Drums - WARNING! - the sounds here are included in the Acoustic Drums 2 Collection in the Group Buy. (The new Acoustic Drums 2 set has the sounds from the original Acoustic Drums collection PLUS this set.)



RAW or ReTank Titles - many to choose from. For those who don't get the Tron thing, these are probably your best bet. They're all loops/grooves packages.

The XpansionTank versions from the Group Buy are only in SampleTank format. So if there's one you really like, this is a chance to get the RAW version (RAW = Rex format, Apple format, WAV format) of the same title.

There are also a few other titles that aren't included in the XpansionTank series and thus not available from IK in the Group Buy. Those include three different packages of Latin grooves. (Not sure if any are repeated in the World Grooves set.)

ReTank = SampleTank format, like the ones in the Group Buy. Many of the titles are the same, so they'd be repeats. But the Latin ones and maybe one or two others are new. Browse the esoundz web site (search for "ReTank") for better descriptions.

The available choices from those series are:

• Blues Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Country Folk Rhythms R.A.W. | ReTank
• Drum and Bass R.A.W. | ReTank
• Hip Hop: Dirty South R.A.W. | ReTank
• Jazz Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Latin Afro-Cuban Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Latin Brazilian Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Latin Caribbean Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Nashville Pop Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Sixties Motown Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Trip Hop Beats R.A.W. | ReTank
• Urban Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Vintage Rock Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• Vintage Soul Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank
• World Grooves R.A.W. | ReTank



If you are forewarned and research your potential choices, the esoundz bonus choice can be a GREAT addition to your Group Buy. Kudos to esoundz for offering a "Raise The Bar" bonus.

But several of us wasted our choices because we didn't understand what the packages really were ahead of time. Review your options carefully and select wisely...

[JoeDeF]

Hey, I live over in Point Breeze (still Pittsburgh, just a section of it, for those unfamiliar who might even care). Since this Group Buy was such a deal, plus I think I read somewhere that the terms on yours had fine print reading something like "You must take your local IK rep around the local jazz and Brazilian scene" I think you have an obligation to fulfill

Hey Peter,

Great to know that you're in town! I was in Point Breeze today, and I live nearby. As for the jazz scene, I am going to do my best to use 100% SampleTank Group Buy sounds on a gig tomorrow night (Friday). I'll send you a pm with the details, just in case you happen to be free....

[Xenobt]

Well researched, torgo! Thanks for the repost...

And will hopefully save others the grief of (like me) realizing you already own your bonus set in another form!

And I know all the forum followers are spreading the word about duplicate content to anyone they recommended the esoundz GB to, right? And sending them to KVR for the latest updates and teasers?

That being said, I recommended the original Guitar Collection bonus today to someone who had more interest in the newer IK sets for their 8x1 choices. Never say never!

It's really SO win/win at this point, just about any combination that fills gaps in your library is the best one, old or new.

Just no doubles!

[JoeDeF]

Another thing I've been having trouble finding is good bossa/samba percussion samples.

And back on topic, isn't the Brazilian RAW available as one of the esoundz bonus choices? And we have World instruments and World grooves as choices.

Do you mean one of the bonus choices with this group buy? I remember the World Instruments and World Grooves but don't remember mention of anything Brazilian...that would be too cool.

Hey Jazzrascal,

When you first asked about the group but, I basically said: just jump in - plenty of great sounds and great value even though there's not that much great brass.

When you replied that you were picky and that brass was your main need, I changed my advice and said: skip it in that case - the brass won't make you happy.

Now that you have said that you want/need bossa/samba percussion, I am going to change my advice yet again - if you are ok with loops (not samples), then get it! The Squids/eSoundz Brazilian Percussion loops bonus set turned out to be outstanding, IMHO. I got the RAW pack (by accident; didn't scroll down far enough to find the ST set - oh well!), which has sliced up loops, and the quality is excellent! There are many variations in each style/tempo set, and there are full grooves with auxilliary percussion loops that can be layered/interspersed with the main loops.

For instance, one of the larger style/tempo sets is 96bpm baion, which has around 40(!) full ensemble loops (about 2 bars each), and there are separate loops for agogo (3), woodblock(2), caxixi, shaker, snare, surdo, and triangle. With some thoughtful manipulation, you can make some great sounding percussion tracks with this set. I am not sure if the ST2 version (which I intended to get) has true samples or loop slices, but I think that you could make good variations on the many included styles/tempos either way.

Hope this helps.

Joe

[torgo]

I posted a similar suggestion for JazzRascal earlier, but I'll repeat it in case anyone else with jazz interests (and particularly Latin flavors) is sitting on the fence...

The SampleTank line isn't the greatest for the horns. But for $50, you can get a decent smattering of brass/woodwinds and cover just about everything else extremely well.

One possible combination = buy through esoundz and get:

1 ) Acoustic Drum Collection 2
2 ) Acoustic Guitar Collection 2
3 ) World Instruments Collection
4 ) Piano Collection 2
5 ) Omnisynth 2
6 ) Bass Collection 2
7 ) Jazz Grooves
8 ) World Grooves
+1 from esoundz) one of the Latin grooves packs
(Brazilian, Caribbean, or Afro-Cuban, in either ReTank or RAW format)

plus the XT player and its library and the upcoming Squids Mystery library.

That's a heck of a jazz library for $50.

[DarkStar]

...

3 more days to buy into this GB (then a few more to register your ST XT and claim all the goodies).

[DarkStar]

One last note about Cinematik, There are several patches that don't make a sound when you play them, or their child patches either.
Just turn your mod wheel up to almost max and they appear, because it's used to open the filter. Aha!
The patches just start in the sub-audible range, but when you bring the mod wheel up, they're actually very expressive analog-style sweeps... I think I've run across a few of these in other sets too, but didn't know what was the issue was.
Here's the list for Cinematik:

Handle Pad
Motion Syn 03
Silverbreath
Synapse MW
War Dogs MW
Woody Woodpad

Careful how fast and far you push up the mod wheel, the filter resonance on a few of these is QUITE sharp! If anyone else finds them elsewhere, post 'em and I'll do the same.

Additionally, some patches in many the sets are mapped ONLY to the usable playing ranges of the real instruments. Hit the Zone button on the lower right to see what you've got to play with.

Anyone looking for ensemble brass in the GB sets, there's a handful of fine patches in Cinematik...

Loving going thru all the sets, very inspiring, to say the least!

Good catch - it would be handy to rename them all with the " MW" suffix as a memory jogger (do a Relist afterwards, too)

[youngwoerth]

Thanks Reverend - but the Xpansion Loop Collection has 202 loops / 10 construction kits, whereas the R.A.W. Style Pak consists of 500 loops and 22 construction kits. So the basis is equal but the additional content adds more value?