Fxpansion Strobe 2 is available

[sacer]

Nothing against the price, it is up to fxpansion. But I bought synth squad for $100 and every xpansion for this synth half priced, I would not have bought synthsquad for $200. Now I have more synths I need, and every synth is good or excelent. I have more sounds in trilian/omnisphere2 or Diva that I can't listen to all of them, i have analoge synths like synx 2, oddity 2, monark, lush-101 or timewarp2600 so i don't need more va synths. I think a lot of us have more than 50 synths and use only 10 of them. Strobe2 sounds great but my other synths also, so I can wait for a special offer, because I don't see any must have feature or any step forward in my production. In my opinion time has changed, there are so many synths on the market, that new doesn't mean bether.

[Amberience]

It's time to move on from the entitlement attitude.

I don't see the entitlement attitude you seem to see here.
Wouldn't entitlement in this context mean that i feel fxpansion should sell me Strobe for the price that i am willing to pay ?

Usually when i don't buy something (because of its price or other reasons) i don't make the extra effort to inform the companies of my decision and my reasoning.
When i do i see it as somewhat of a special courtesy to those companies.

Er... what... SERIOUSLY!?! The mental gymnastics on display.... BRAVO!

I feel like I just bathed in aneurysm juice after reading that!

Hey everyone!! You should feel LUCKY that I'm smashing you in the face with this brick!!!

[wagtunes]

Nothing against the price, it is up to fxpansion. But I bought synth squad for $100 and every xpansion for this synth half priced, I would not have bought synthsquad for $200. Now I have more synths I need, and every synth is good or excelent. I have more sounds in trilian/omnisphere2 or Diva that I can't listen to all of them, i have analoge synths like synx 2, oddity 2, monark, lush-101 or timewarp2600 so i don't need more va synths. I think a lot of us have more than 50 synths and use only 10 of them. Strobe2 sounds great but my other synths also, so I can wait for a special offer, because I don't see any must have feature or any step forward in my production. In my opinion time has changed, there are so many synths on the market, that new doesn't mean bether.

Ultimately, what you're saying (and I agree) is that there is so much competition today and so many quality synths that a product would have to be amazingly special for it to be a must buy. I have 131 VSTs of which 53 are paid for with the others either coming with my DAW or available free. I have everything from the simplest VA (Latte Free) to the most complex synths and systems (Omni 2, Reaktor, MUX). For something to excite me enough to buy these days it has to be very special.

In fact, the only synth right now that I really can't wait to get my hands on is Flexion, which I am on the beta team for.

And it's only going to get worse. As technology advances and synths become more and more powerful (with PCs becoming more and more powerful) the sky will be the limit and spending your money is going to be reserved for those extremely special synths, whatever they may be.

Last year I spent over $3,000 on this stuff. This year, I've spent less than half of that and don't foresee myself buying more than maybe 1 or 2 more between now and December 31.

Yes, times have certainly changed.

[Angus_FX]

Hope you don't mind the question - how many hours do you spend on each of these 131?

We designed, and priced, Strobe2 in the expectation that people might spend upwards of 20 hours per year actively using it, over a few years.

If that's not what you expect to do, I can very much understand how you wouldn't see the asking price as particularly attractive - but equally, you're not really going to get the benefit of the feature set we've invested in building - which is primarily about making it nicer to use for people spending a fair amount of time working with it.

If we wanted to build a synth to be one of 130+, or even one of 50+, it wouldn't look, or be priced, like Strobe2. Say you've 8 hours a week to make music (about average for a serious hobbyist), and half of that is VSTi's. That's 200 hours per year. Divide that by 25 instruments (assuming the other half, or three quarters, of the collection see only occasional use), that's eight hours per year per instrument. Not a great deal of time to learn feature sets, and likely not a lot of budget either. Given that brief, I'd build you something with ten or twenty knobs and a $49 price tag. Strobe2 simply isn't that product.

[4damind]

Strobe is very unique and not a "me too" synth. There is no competitor with a similar synth with the same sound (a bit of a Juno 60), the same modulation system and the same easy to use GUI with not too many controls.
I don't need the other Synth Squad synth (maybe I would use Cypher more often if it has a different GUI) but Strobe is for me a "must have" bass and pluck synth.

[VitaminD]

Hope you don't mind the question - how many hours do you spend on each of these 131?

We designed, and priced, Strobe2 in the expectation that people might spend upwards of 20 hours per year actively using it, over a few years.

If that's not what you expect to do, I can very much understand how you wouldn't see the asking price as particularly attractive - but equally, you're not really going to get the benefit of the feature set we've invested in building - which is primarily about making it nicer to use for people spending a fair amount of time working with it.

I am probably not in your market focus group, Angus. Because I already have Sylenth1, Spire, Hive, Zebra, Diva, Synthmaster, NI Komplete, and a ton of other fantastic sound generators. I tend to use the first two the most due to sound quality and familiarity. They sound really good and I know my way around them... they are pretty easy to use. Btw I got both, on sale, for a just over the price you are offering Strobe2 for... combined.

The market is so saturated right now that the synth really has to produce something unique at the right price for me to even look at it. Strobe2 does sound very nice and looks easy enough to use but it is at a premium price in my eyes.

Of course I can't speak for others.. and I hope it doesn't offend you, but there is my view of it. I know at least that these projects are extensive 'blood, sweat, and tears' projects and the developers of such works want to get paid for their efforts. But, again, the market is so saturated right now with quality synthesizers. It doesn't have nearly as many drum machines though.. I also own and use Geist alongside Battery4.. But, now that I think about it, I got Geist for 50 dollars on sale..

There are lots of quality products and lots of sales these days. It must truly be difficult for Pro Audio synth and effect makers to really stand out these days as there are so many stand out products and developers competing!

[wagtunes]

Hope you don't mind the question - how many hours do you spend on each of these 131?

We designed, and priced, Strobe2 in the expectation that people might spend upwards of 20 hours per year actively using it, over a few years.

If that's not what you expect to do, I can very much understand how you wouldn't see the asking price as particularly attractive - but equally, you're not really going to get the benefit of the feature set we've invested in building - which is primarily about making it nicer to use for people spending a fair amount of time working with it.

I don't mind the question at all. I just wish I could give you an answer. I don't really track VST usage. The problem is, I have two business models.

1) Creating royalty free music tracks

2) Creating sound set libraries.

Business model 1 allows me to use many of the VSTs I own depending on what each track is trying to do. Even then, I will usually pick my "favorite" for a particular sound.

Business model 2 is strictly mercenary. I pick a popular VST, buy it and make a library for it. I may never use the synth again (though most times I do because i really end up loving it after programming for it) but it serves its purpose.

So far I have made sound libraries for:

Serum
Zebra 2
Dune 2
Z3ta+2
Bazille
Omnisphere 1 and 2
The Mangle
Blue II
Synthmaster

Finished but not on sale yet:

Syn'X 2
Diva

Work In Progress

MPowersynth

My personal favorite synths (In alphabetical order)

Bazille
Dune 2
MUX Modular
Omnisphere
Serum
Sonigen Modular
Syn'X 2
Synthmaster 2.7
The Mangle
XILS 4
Zebra 2

I couldn't even begin to tell you, however, how many hours I have on each of those. Programming wise alone it has to be in the hundreds as it takes me a good 30 days at 8 hours a day programming to come out with a set. And that's not even counting actual use of the synth for making music.

I am not knocking Strobe 2 or saying I wouldn't even like the synth. I listened to the demo and it sounds fine. But I have a hundred VSTs that sound fine. Do I really need another one? As a result, I find myself buying fewer and fewer of these than when I first started out. In fact, the list of synths that I don't have, all of which sound perfectly fine, probably exceeds the list of synths that I do have. I own none of the Waldorf stuff. I only own one Wolfgang Palm synth. I own none of yours. I own none of Izotopes.

I can go on and on about all the manufacturers of quality synths that I don't own even with all the synths that I do own.

I mean there is only so much money one can spend.

As a result, for me to open up my wallet today, a synth has to be so darn special that it practically makes my breakfast for me.

Right now, I am looking forward to testing Flexion and that's it. Everything else, as good as many of them sound, including Strobe 2, just don't excite this jaded synthesist (since 1979) enough to buy it.

[4damind]

I don't think that Strobe is the sound designers dream, it's more a synth for musicians.

[rob_lee]

I don't think that Strobe is the sound designers dream, it's more a synth for musicians.

Strobe 2 can do lots Frank, get some great modulated pads out of it and it's a killer for bass and lead sounds. This happens to be one of my fav's now and I only own 5 soft synths not including Reaktor. It's easy to program and I like everything about it. Looking forward to the next lot of synths Fx will comet with now. Your right though it is a synth for musicians I have it sitting on a House track now doing bass.

[tehlord]

I must confess I've not even tried Strobe 2 yet but I bought D-Cam when it first came out and it killed my CPU so I had to sell it. My one issue with Strobe was the GUI was a bit messy (to me at least) so I'm glad to see that's been cleaned up.

I do recall that it was the sound that impressed me most, believable analogue modelling at last!

I do like the look of the new step seq as well (I don't think Strobe had that, I don't remember )

[4damind]

I don't think that Strobe is the sound designers dream, it's more a synth for musicians.

Strobe 2 can do lots Frank, get some great modulated pads out of it and it's a killer for bass and lead sounds. This happens to be one of my fav's now and I only own 5 soft synths not including Reaktor. It's easy to program and I like everything about it. Looking forward to the next lot of synths Fx will comet with now. Your right though it is a synth for musicians I have it sitting on a House track now doing bass.

Yeah But if people thinking about Synthmaster or similar synth, Strobe is of course very limited But this limitations are often very helpful for creativity. If you need a degree in sound design to find out how to control the filter with an envelope, the fun to make a new track is quickly gone (if you are a musician and not a sound designer).

[rob_lee]

I must confess I've not even tried Strobe 2 yet but I bought D-Cam when it first came out and it killed my CPU so I had to sell it. My one issue with Strobe was the GUI was a bit messy (to me at least) so I'm glad to see that's been cleaned up.

I do recall that it was the sound that impressed me most, believable analogue modelling at last!

I do like the look of the new step seq as well (I don't think Strobe had that, I don't remember )

Just been trying out the factory presets quickly to check cpu geoff. Most go between 6-14% Iv'e only found a few that hit 30% (arps - pads) not many though on an i7 mac. The step sequencer is indeed very cool when you start to modulate filters and pitch etc. The GUI is very impressive I like it a lot. The FX on this are pretty nifty too. Great synth for bass and leads as I said but does lush pads just nicely. I'm looking forward to more from FX but I'd love to know if there's gonna be a Geist 2 cause Geist is my fav all time software drum sampler.

[4damind]

but I'd love to know if there's gonna be a Geist 2 cause Geist is my fav all time software drum sampler.

I saw a mockup of Geist 2 (or an early GUI design) on their forum and it looks interesting. Remembers me a bit to NI Battery with this larger pads

[rob_lee]

I don't think that Strobe is the sound designers dream, it's more a synth for musicians.

Strobe 2 can do lots Frank, get some great modulated pads out of it and it's a killer for bass and lead sounds. This happens to be one of my fav's now and I only own 5 soft synths not including Reaktor. It's easy to program and I like everything about it. Looking forward to the next lot of synths Fx will comet with now. Your right though it is a synth for musicians I have it sitting on a House track now doing bass.

Yeah But if people thinking about Synthmaster or similar synth, Strobe is of course very limited But this limitations are often very helpful for creativity. If you need a degree in sound design to find out how to control the filter with an envelope, the fun to make a new track is quickly gone (if you are a musician and not a sound designer).

Ok I agree with this Frank, for me Strobe 2 is great because of the limitations, I can dial up/program a great bass preset and put in a track in minutes. There's no massive learning curve here. I'm liking the filters too in this synth. I don't need a synth with tons of features to produce a track so although Strobe 2 has the exact features I need for my type of music. If I want to do these big Ambient pads and drone stuff then I use the Synthmaster. BTW both these synths sit very well together. Ok I can say that Strobe 2 is my go to for bass sounds without a doubt. It also has a big feature set in the fx department, well impressive. Cool stuff from FX. Great factory sounds showing off the synth, love the chords in particular.

[rob_lee]

but I'd love to know if there's gonna be a Geist 2 cause Geist is my fav all time software drum sampler.

I saw a mockup of Geist 2 (or an early GUI design) on their forum and it looks interesting. Remembers me a bit to NI Battery with this larger pads

Oh that sounds promising indeed. Geist 2 would be great