Whatever Happened To The Free Keyboard Magazine Synth?

[Squids]

Sorry but I find unnecesary and overcomplicated the registration process.

After all that my free copy dont work when I try to load a patch it dont see the sounds and I get an error.

Im really tired with all the complications that the legal users have with the software. I feel it is a big error.

Just to put myself in the same position as any user freshly downloading this free plug-in, about an hour ago I downloaded it from the site for the PC version (the Mac version needs the zip file opened with the latest version of Stuffit 8.x btw for anyone using OSX).

It comes with PDFs that you must read to know how to put the sounds in it. But, I can tell you the quick version. There are two zips. One has the app installer and the other has the main sounds. The app installer also puts in "combi" patches but they will NOT work unless you first drag ALL of the sounds that it references into the "SS2Instruments" folder. Once that is done then Sonik Synth 2 should find the sounds no problem (I just went through all of them from the download and it worked fine... in fact it was fun to hear them as you would).

The only thing you have to do is register it or it will be in limited polyphony mode until you do. That is the small "price" to pay. Not in dollars but a few moments of your time to register it and to be in the loop so to speak on future news on Sonik Synth 2 such as more free sounds coming for it, the possibility to WIN the full version randomly and other things. Of course, it is free and it is optional if you don't want to take 5 minutes to register.

I did the registration process. It took me 5 minutes. The serial and digital ID automatic showed up on the web reg page when I hit copy (nice improvement I must say!) and all I had to do was put in my info and a valid email address and I got the auth code sent to me immediately. I clicked "Next" and just entered my auth code from the email (if you enter it yourself remember there are no "O's or I's" as if you see ZEROS and ONES that is what they are (numbers). But, if you copy and paste it from your email you are even more accurate (because 9 times out of 10 people enter codes wrong... but that can be on ANY piece of software that has long auth or serial codes).

Anyway, it took me 5 minutes and now I am having fun myself with this thing. I already made a bunch of new cool combis I'll be giving you guys just from playing around with it.

Remember that there are patches to the right of the "Load Combi" under the arrow (these are module presets that take up multiple channels) and then there are individual "Parent" and "Child" (variation) patches as well. So, there are actually about 50 patches in this thing total I think or more. Plus, I will upload even more next week on www.esoundz.com for free of course. Then there are more samples coming too that will show a different more atmospheric side of the plug-in (I only did a little bit of that this go around, this set of sounds is just a taste of analog really... merely scratching the surface of what this full synth workstation will be able to do).

Mess around with the patch "Space Wurly". Add maybe a phaser and some delay to it. It's a fun sound. There's a good lite version of a 10CC vocal pad in there too... dig around! Enjoy. Oh, don't forget to click on the "I" button at the top left.

[Jeremy_NSL]

Impressions:

Registration - nearly broken. Copy and pasting wouldn't work correctly for the auth code. Only could get it to work by typing manually.

GUI- aesthetically much nicer than ST. functionally pretty much the same.

Sounds - some decent stuff, nothing spectacular. The lite choir is quite nice... But I'm not sure I'd use any of the VA stuff instead of a real VA vsti. But I'm not a real vintage analog freak/enthusiast.

Thanks for the demo!

[DrApostropheX]

Holy Crap... this is even better than expected. There are tons of voices (they're mostly VA because that was the scope of the Keyboard magazine article -- originally only folks who had the May '04 issue in their possession were supposed to get this freebie, but I've learned that you can never underestimate SR's generousity).

The voices sound VERY nice (very evocative of the original instruments, and yes, inspirational -- I like the little pictures of each of the vintage synths) and are VERY light on the CPU, which was a big surprise to me (I challenge anyone to get the sort of rich tones you get with the default SS2 patches out of a VA softsynth -- including effects -- and only hit 5% on their CPU meter...).

Very well done, Squids. Sign me up for the full version when it's available!

[7thsense]

so is there a manual to this? and will more sounds ever be available?thanks

[Sicklecell666]

From hitting the 'free download' button to hearing the first note of the first loaded sound took me an entire 7 1/2 minutes..installation & registration included.

There is about 8x the amount of material I expected to see here & ALL the patches sound excellent.

I was really pissed off for months waiting for this release, but I'm glad it took longer, cause apparently the provided stock library is now considerably larger than at first advertised.

Good work, Dave, & thanks for this 'kinda/sorta' freebie. And no I'm not arguing, if I thought it was that much of a PITA, I would not have hit the download button.

I'm glad I did.

Congrats on v2

[progfusion74]

Just installed it. Took less than 5 minutes to get up and running. I like what I hear. The current content is definitely geared towards people like me, who are into the vintage stuff. Can't wait to hear the full pallette.

Cheers

prog

[asseca]

squids,

I have just downloaded and installed it. For a freebie, this sounds excellent. This does show off the capabilities of SonicSynth 2 very well.

The 2 things that sets the ST2 and SS2 stuff apart from other engines are the capability to use multi-parts on one MIDI channel and the extensive effects usable per part...

[Zoing]

Sounds great!!!

Love the lucky man sound! I've never had any real vintage gear (well actually I have a polysix but don't use it), and this has a real nice feeling that makes you want to be able to play like [insert name of favourite prog rock keyboardist here]

It's free so how can anyone complain???. Hopefully you'll hook in a few sales from it, maybe even me one day when I get my music budget back

Thanks!

[Sielsynth]

Man, this thing sounds great! Well worth the wait. As I have Sonic Synth1, I'll be looking for an incredible deal on Sonik Synth2. no more purchases for now! You hear me squids? Bring on the deal!

[Reverend Rhythm]

Thanks, Squids. It was worth the wait!

[Beardedone]

Excellent! It's a gift really and much appreciated. Very sweet sounds in this set. Thanks guys!

Must save change....Talk to wife....Get a gig or two....

[Squids]

Thanks guys. I am glad you like it. IK has really improved the registration process. I am glad to see people getting up and running quickly.

We're going to have some fun with this freebie. As mentioned, this is just the Keyboard magazine edition originally designed to do analog synths for the article about classic synth riffs. But, I threw the vocal pad in there just to show a tiny taste of what a lot of the other sounds are like. Of course those of you that have Sonic Synth 1 more or less know what I am talking about. Virtual analog stuff is cool, but you're right that a lot of it can be found in other synths (maybe not with all of the same variety of character though... samples of the real thing can do that). But, there is so much that no one has ever heard before coming out of anything. That's because of the combination of sounds and engine like this. There have been great DSP processing engines in hardware but then rarely did they have gigs and gigs of samples as the source and then there have been gigs and gigs of samples but not designed in an engine with all of these modeling fx and combi layers... so, that plus our large archive of acoustic, orchestral, ethnic, electric, synth etc. material makes it possible to be a very unique thing.

What I like is that this Sonik Synth 2 FREE and SampleTank 2 FREE can have their own life as useful products out there for people on any budget (because they don't cost anything). Then, there's always the full version waiting for you.

Since Sonic Reality is going to be the only source for the upgrades from Sonic Synth 1 users we may start pre-orders for just those that are upgrading a little early. We don't want to do pre-orders for the regular full version until all stores that carry it start to do it (even though I think some stores may already do it). The reason we may do the pre-orders on the upgrades is that there could be a large percentage of Sonic Synth 1 users wanting to upgrade because you get a lot of bang for the buck and a lot of great new sounds and features. But, it is not as easy to administer the upgrades because we have to verify that the person is the licensed owner of Sonic Synth 1 before we can do the upgrade. Luckily, anyone who bought it from SR or eSoundz can easily be verified in 10 seconds. But, anyone who bought SS1 from another store who wants the upgrade discount will have to fax or email us a copy of the receipt or have some way to prove they own it, because at the time the only registration part of it was ST LE (which by the way, NOW all sounds and software can be registered so this doesn't happen again).

So, we may open the upgrade pre-orders a little earlier (maybe in the next 2 weeks) just so we aren't slammed all at once. Plus, I don't think it is a bad idea to let Sonic Synth 1 owners be some of the first people to be able to get Sonik Synth 2. I think they deserve that opportunity as reward for their support. Probably the same day it will go out to all the stores around the world it will also go out to upgrade customers.

Anyway, we'll keep you informed. If you are a www.esoundz.com member then you should be getting an email about that and other things soon. If you bought it from another store, you can still just be an esoundz member for other benefits and it is free so you might as well. You'll at least be on the mailing list which has some interesting news.

[philipc68]

D/Led and registered SS2 FREE and it sounds very nice. I'm confused about what the difference is between SS2 and ST2 though - is SS2 anything other than a frontend for an ST2 engine that only reads SS2 sample formats?

Philip

[Squids]

D/Led and registered SS2 FREE and it sounds very nice. I'm confused about what the difference is between SS2 and ST2 though - is SS2 anything other than a frontend for an ST2 engine that only reads SS2 sample formats?

Philip

It uses the same engine more or less as SampleTank 2, except that the GUI is designed around being a synth workstation. But, the main difference of course is the sound content and how it is programmed. This actually a very small taste of what the full plug-in will do.

Incidentally, ST2 users can access the Sonik Synth 2 sounds directly from their ST2 interface as well and mix them with other ST2 sounds. But, not the other way around. But, both plug-ins can run independently of course.

I suppose when you look at plug-ins like Atmosphere and Trilogy, the engine is the same but it is the sounds that makes them different apart from some of the GUI differences. So, in a similar way SS2 and ST2 are related to each other... but there's more going on that just that. ST2 has other capabilities such as sample import etc.

I forgot to mention that there is a cross-grade discount for ST2 owners as well in case you were mainly interested in adding these sounds to your set up (and instead of it being a "sounds only" version you get the nice SS2 GUI as well).

[progfusion74]

So for someone like me who already has ST2, would I add the SS2 sounds into the ST2 sounds directory as a separate folder, much like any other ST format sound? That way I can use the SS2 sounds with either interface. Can I try this with the SS2 Free sounds?