IK/SR VI HOT BUY - GROUP BUY on eSoundz!!! SampleTank Instruments for $99 + more!

[dmorrill]

I have my code in esoundz member area. But accessing IK Multimedia user area I can't see anything. I used to have the option to download/authorize products.

Maybe I'm missing something

Yeah, this took me a while to figure out also. What you have to do is:

- Copy the serial number from your esoundz "My Downloads" page.
- Go to the IL Multimedia web site and log-in to your IK account.
- Once logged-in, click on the "Product Registration" link under the "Support" heading in the left-hand column of the page ("Support" is the second heading).
- You should end up on the "Welcome to IK Multimedia Product Registration Page". Now paste your esoundz serial number into the "Serial Number" field of the form, fill out any other fields as needed, then click the "Submit" button near the bottom of the page.
- Assuming all went well, you should then click on the "User Area" link near the top of the page, then click on the "Downloads" link to download the plugin for your product, or the "Sounds Download" link to download the sample files.

Hope that helps...

[Krabat]

- Copy the serial number from your esoundz "My Downloads" page.
- Go to the IL Multimedia web site and log-in to your IK account.
- Once logged-in, click on the "Product Registration" link under the "Support" heading in the left-hand column of the page ("Support" is the second heading).
- You should end up on the "Welcome to IK Multimedia Product Registration Page". Now paste your esoundz serial number into the "Serial Number" field of the form, fill out any other fields as needed, then click the "Submit" button near the bottom of the page.
- Assuming all went well, you should then click on the "User Area" link near the top of the page, then click on the "Downloads" link to download the plugin for your product, or the "Sounds Download" link to download the sample files.

Hey Squids,

can you put this in your first post? Although it's not been my first purchase at IKM, I did not find the way myself (why is it in 'support' and not in 'user area'?!?) and scrolling through these 25 pages (where its posted several times) takes a long time...

Thanks in the name of all new participant...

Gunnar
--
esoundz: Krabat

[torgo]

Yep, that sums it up... you receive your serial number from esoundz. You register your serial number in the Support area on the IK site.

After that registration is complete, the program and sound library will be available in the User Area. And to repeat (because this part trips up lots of people) - your downloads are in two different parts of the User Area. The main program is in the "Downloads" section, while the sounds that come with it are in the "Sounds Download" section.

The other important note is that you'll only have 30 days to download the sound library from the Sounds Download section. After that, IK charges a fee to put it back up for download again. I'm not crazy about that policy, but if you make sure you make backups to DVDs, you'll be fine.

Also, your group buy bonus libraries won't come from IK at all. They're strictly from the esoundz web site.

[bigtom]

Yep, that sums it up... you receive your serial number from esoundz. You register your serial number in the Support area on the IK site.

After that registration is complete, the program and sound library will be available in the User Area. And to repeat (because this part trips up lots of people) - your downloads are in two different parts of the User Area. The main program is in the "Downloads" section, while the sounds that come with it are in the "Sounds Download" section.

By main program do mean Sample Tank?

I'm getting MP and I already have Sample Tank free downloaded. So I'm assuming I only need to download the 9 MP Sounds Libraries. Is this correct?

Thanks
Big Tom

[torgo]

I have three systems (my main desktop, a laptop and a MIDI keyboard-attached system). I'm assuming I'll be able to legally install Miroslav/SS2 on all three systems, is that correct? The IK site indicates I can have up to 5 authorizations, but I just want to confirm that if possible. Right now I only have ST installed on my main desktop system.

What works best for me personally is not even installing the instrument programs at all. I use multiple computers too - call it an occupational hazard - and I frequently swap out components (or entire machines). So I prefer not to use my authorizations at all if I can avoid it.

An easy solution is that all five instruments run off of the SampleTank 2.5 engine, and any version of SampleTank with an engine in the 2.5 series will play every sound in this group buy.

So all you really need is SampleTank Free. It plays everything. Install it on as many machines as you like and use it to play all the Sonik Synth and Miroslav sounds instead of installing those other instruments.

(After you install it and set up your instruments folder, copy the other sound libraries into that folder. Click "RELIST" from within SampleTank, and you're all set.)

That way you save your authorizations, and you also have only one program/instrument to run - which can make life a little easier with laptops or netbooks.



For me, the biggest advantage is that it's easier to work with sounds from multiple libraries when they're under one roof. You can A/B compare similar sounds from different instruments or libraries that way.

For example... you're looking for a piano sound with specific characteristics for a certain song you're working on - perhaps something warm but not too punchy that sounds especially good in the A3 to E5 range. You have a Steinway in Miroslav, a couple of really nice pianos in Sonik Synth, the HQ Free Piano mk2 in SampleTank Free's own library, a pretty good piano in Cinematik Collection, another one in Hip Hop Instruments, and obviously a whole bunch of them in Piano Collection.

There are 16 instrument slots available at once in SampleTank, so you can load up all the pianos you want to try out and compare. Load them up, set them all to mute, and then play around with them one at a time until you find the one you like best.

It's especially handy for the Mellotron stuff. Squids Tron and SampleTron are basically one big combined library, but SampleTron won't play the Squids Tron sounds. SampleTank is the most convenient way to play them all.

[torgo]

Yep, that sums it up... you receive your serial number from esoundz. You register your serial number in the Support area on the IK site.

After that registration is complete, the program and sound library will be available in the User Area. And to repeat (because this part trips up lots of people) - your downloads are in two different parts of the User Area. The main program is in the "Downloads" section, while the sounds that come with it are in the "Sounds Download" section.

By main program do mean Sample Tank?

I'm getting MP and I already have Sample Tank free downloaded. So I'm assuming I only need to download the 9 MP Sounds Libraries. Is this correct?

Thanks
Big Tom

By "main program", I meant the program component (the interface) of whichever instrument you're buying. Each one has a program interface - the part you would click or otherwise open to run the instrument - and a big library of sound files.

You'll want both since you've paid for them. But without a doubt the sound libraries are the part that matters. You can play everything in SampleTank Free if you like, so the other interfaces are really just extra decorative touches.

(I'm not knocking the other interfaces. Miroslav's interface is very nice, while SampleTank's interface is rather ugly. But it isn't vital. You can use the sound library without the interface. The interface without the sound library is, to quote Elvis Costello, useless beauty.)

The main thing that I and others have stressed is that the User Area on IK's web site has a section for "Downloads" and another one for "Sound Downloads". You get the program interface in "Downloads". (Any future updates will also be there whenever they're released. That's part of why they split it up that way. The latest updates for every program you have ever registered with IK will be in the Downloads section of your user area.)

But all the sounds come from the Sounds Downloads section. That's the crucial part - and that's also the part that IK makes you download within 30 days.

It's easy to get mixed up with the whole process - if you don't know that the instrument you bought is split into the two parts on two different download pages, you might grab only the program interface and freak out when you run it and find there aren't any instrument sounds to play.

[dmorrill]

What works best for me personally is not even installing the instrument programs at all. I use multiple computers too - call it an occupational hazard - and I frequently swap out components (or entire machines). So I prefer not to use my authorizations at all if I can avoid it.

An easy solution is that all five instruments run off of the SampleTank 2.5 engine, and any version of SampleTank with an engine in the 2.5 series will play every sound in this group buy.

So all you really need is SampleTank Free. It plays everything. Install it on as many machines as you like and use it to play all the Sonik Synth and Miroslav sounds instead of installing those other instruments.

Another great tip, thanks!

Actually, I've only installed the SampleTank Free version so far, since I was just trying out the freebies up until now. So, I guess I'll DL the Miroslav and SS2 plugins, but not install them, and just install their sample files as you suggested.

I'm still waffling on getting Notion 3 SLE for Miroslav, but if I do, I think I will need to install the Miroslav plugin to work with Notion (I seem to recall reading that in an earlier post).

[Xenobt]

Well said about the authorizations on multiple machines, Torgo!

I wasn't sure if this was a legal "gray area" in terms of what IK intended, so I sent dmorrill a pm last night saying the same thing... Good to see it here on the forum where it'll do the most good, I think I learned it on a KVR forum too.

I've used all 5 VIs in Sampletank for a year now and haven't used an authorization yet!

Though I've wondered if I miss out on some front panel quick edits or controller mappings (adsr, filters, mod wheel, lfos) not using the GUI that came with the instruments, especially Samplemoog.

What do you think? To GUI or not to GUI, that is the question!

Also MUCH appreciated are the epointz from combomhumor. THANK YOU!!! I'll return the favor when I cash them in!

[torgo]

Oddly enough, I have never once installed SampleMoog's interface. I used to joke with Squids about that - I bought all the instruments just to put them on a shelf.

But from what I've seen and read, the SampleTank 2.5 engine supports all the special features used by the other instruments. The SampleMoog sounds definitely have ADSR and LFO controls galore within SampleTank's interface. You'd have to compare side by side to make sure they're all there, in the same places, work the same etc, but I'd guess that nothing is missing.

The main one I use and can demonstrate is the extra looping control in SampleTron. That's a big one for Mellotron. There's a special control available in SampleTron that lets you turn looping on and off for the sounds that support it.

That feature looks a little different in SampleTank, but it's there - if you click on the MACRO button, look for a knob on the left side that says "SUS". If the knob is set to 1, there's no looping. If it's set to 127, the looping is turned on.

Not all sounds in the set will have that knob available, and the sounds from the older libraries (Squids Tron Collection and the old Masterbits collection that IK used to sell) don't have it - those libraries came out in the days of the 2.0 engine, before that feature existed.





And speaking of SampleMoog, I recently discovered something that left me feeling pretty stupid, so here's a heads-up for other users...

SampleTron's library has a section called "Showcase". The sounds in that section are just repeats of the sounds in the other sections of the SampleTron library. I'm not even sure why they included it on the disc.

SampleMoog also has a "Showcase" section, so I ignored it for the longest time. But it turns out that the sounds in the Showcase section are NOT repeats. They're different Minimoog, Taurus, etc sounds from the ones in the other folders of the library. And they're good ones - which is why they were selected to be "showcased".

So if you have been ignoring it as I was, you might want to browse through it and discover a nice set of extra Moog sounds that you never knew you had!

[subtlearts]

yet another hugely helpful tip - I think I have been under the same impression as you - that they were just a selection of repeats from the other sections. In my case it's not because that's the case in SampleTron, which I don't have, but just one of those assumptions we make from time to time based on not much of anything. Good tip to check them out!

[20_20_Hearing]

I just noticed that yesterday as well. Went poking around through some of the libraries I've had for a while and noticed the showcase folders were sometimes duplicates and sometimes unique. I don't really see the point in that and I'll probably manually move them into the rest of the library so when I go looking for a Minimoog sound I don't have to look in so many extra places.

[subtlearts]

... and there's another good idea!...

edit: just noticed we're at 237 over on the front page there! We might just sneak by 300 at this rate - I hope so since I just used up my second download code on the Cinematik set. Downloading now and looking forward to digging in!

[torgo]

I think you'll have some fun with the Cinematik Collection.

The story behind that one is that it's a teaser/showcase for the Cinema Sessions products available in Infinite Player format. But I think Cinematik is as good as - and possibly even better than - its larger Kontakt/Infinite Player sibling.

Cinema Sessions (the one for Kontakt/IP) is meant for film scoring and special effects type of work, not for general musical purposes. The bulk of it is dedicated to miscellaneous types of effects, and those frequently get in the way of the instruments.

For example, you'll play what starts out as a lush strings pad, but before you even have time to think how great it sounds, you're suddenly hit with spaceship noises. It's fun, but good luck trying to work it into a song. That package was simply meant to be used in video work, not for "regular" music.

There are a few effects type of sounds in Cinematik Collection, such as "A Scream In Space". But most (nearly all, in fact) of the sounds are actually useful in a musical sense.

Cinematik was one of the most popular libraries in last year's big XpansionTank group buy, and it drew rave reviews from nearly everyone that posted about it. There are brass, strings, synth pads, and the like, and the general impression most people had last year was that they're "movie-style" brass, strings, etc.


My own take is that it isn't really essential in light of the other packages available - with Miroslav, you really don't have to have the extra strings and brass pads, there are plenty of synth pads and pianos available elsewhere, etc. But it's still a fun set.

Please do post a review with your own impressions of it when you've had a chance to play around with it. It would be great to let everyone here read more opinions than just mine.

-torgo (esoundz = bhall1968)

[subtlearts]

I will do. It was mostly your previous thoughts in this thread that pushed me in that direction (but don't worry, if I don't take a shine to it I won't hold it against you!)... Maybe we'll get a third freebie to play around with later.

I wobbled over the guitar sets but discovered that SS2 has enough for me in that regard. As mentioned I'm pretty set up for world and vintage stuff. I also considered the Oberheim and ARP ones but, well, in reality I have more synth than I could ever possibly use already too. I don't ever seem to use loops for much, though the Latin ones are tempting - I wish there were one 'best of' that covered all three 'worlds' (Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Caribbean) but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. So it came down to Cinematik! Well, it's downloaded, time to fire it up I guess...

[Examigan]

It would be great if the sale went into June when I actually have some extra $$

I'd like to get Samplemoog