Sonik Synth 2...!!

[blades]

No problem here. Just wentr in and modified an arp2500 with a longer attack and saved the preset. First time is "long", but it worked just fine.

I just did an edit to that sound and then saved it over itself and it was fast and still caused no crash.

[blades]

And now that I'm here...a little SS2 review.

Let me start by saying Hi...I am new around here as a poster/owner of the product. I am primarily a drummer, but dabble with keyboards, guitar, bass, vox, etc...You can here some of my music at the sig below, though none has SS2 in it yet! It was produced with a DSPFactory/sw1000xg combo, along with a bunch of other fairly inexpensive stuff and both "real" examples are quite old (2002).

Now onto the review:

I love this thing. I was specifically looking for a way to expand my pallette of sounds in general, with an emphasis towards the keyboard side of things and this is just the ticket. Since I do mostly mainstream sorts of music, and TRY to play other instruments, this is a great package for filling in the holes. The sw1000xg has been a great performer, and I'll probably still use it (midi only), but this thing may completely stomp it in a mix in terms of quality, so I may find that I DON'T use it anymore!

I already owned ST2XL, but I think this is a MUCH better package overall for my needs and the two will complement each other fantastically. They should cover most of the bases, though a capsule or two may round it out some more.

There are so many sounds in here, but that's not all there is to it for me, just like the SIZE of samples isn't everything. There is a variety that spans the whole spectrum of the sorts of things I may need, and the quality is consistent across the board, unlike so many other sound sets which have a few great ones and a lot of duds/filler. I'm sure there's some stuff in here I'll never want/need to use, but that's a taste thing - I don't feel like it's "missing" anything though. Just about any TYPE of sound is here.

I have not yet become a real fan of the A.pianos...don't know why, they didn't sound as good to me as a lot of the other stuff, but that's fine - they are certainly at least at workstation quality pianos - and some of the "effect" pianos may come in very handy. The Mellow Grand sounds quite real, however, to me.

The Elements: Wow. Can you say "overboard". It seems that just about every waveform choice from most every type of synth, in multiples (like several different versions of a sawtooth from the same synth or synthline). Individually, probably not that useful, but with effects or stacked into combis - unbelievable.

It's quite amazing how quickly you can build a rather flat and uninspiring snippet of sound and combine and twist it to be spectacular, huge, smooth, etc.

I took a few minutes and took an element wav (with efx like chorus/delay/rev) and simply combined it with a built in patch (Dont Cry) - lovely big spacetaker! In moments of my time. Combis will have a place in my future. This is familiar territory for those who have used the sw1000xg card before, but these sounds are so much more noble.

There are so many combinations of things that can be done in here, there should be no worries that you'll be using the same keyboard sounds as anyone else. While SS2 seems very capable of emulating so many synth sounds that have been coined over the years, there's a wealth of potential for very original and useful sounds that NO ONE ELSE will have put together.

I'm quite satisfied with SS2, especially as a gift from my wife...loads of inspiration and great kick-off starting points, I don't even know where to begin with it!

Feel free to quote me...I'll be posting this over at the Cakewalk forums, as well.

[Mighty_Hero]

Hey Dave, I bought my ST2XL from turnk..com
How do you want proof from me that I have it?
Want me to take a photo of all my stuff and post it here?

Well, first of all, you are an SS1 owner right? So, you qualify for the upgrade (upgrade/crossgrade- same deal... one can't qualify for both at the same time though so you choose one or the other... basically if you have EITHER SS1 or ST2L/XL then you qualify for the low intro price).

As far as crossgraders of ST2XL, it doesn't matter if you bought it from Turnkey for their temporary insane blow out thing they did or if you bought it from anywhere else. As long as you are the licensed registered owner then it will automatically let you authorize it without you having to take pictures of your stuff or anything like that.

Yes I have SS1, the piano collection, the guitar collection, uhm ST2XL, the strings....

Does your interface have transpose on it? That would rock and I really wish ST2 did

[Caleb]

Let me start by saying Hi...I am new around here as a poster/owner of the product. I am primarily a drummer, but dabble with keyboards, guitar, bass, vox, etc...You can here some of my music at the sig below, though none has SS2 in it yet! It was produced with a DSPFactory/sw1000xg combo, along with a bunch of other fairly inexpensive stuff and both "real" examples are quite old (2002).

Let me start by saying welcome.

I was interested in your post as you have been using the Yamaha SW1000XG. This product was very well received as a sound module on a card for semi-professional and professional musicians.

This is exactly the kind of product that SonikSynth2 is competing against on alot of levels.

I'm interested to see if SS2 does end up blowing SW1000XG out of the water as you are suspecting it will.

I'm also interested to hear how ST2XL has competed against it in your setup up till now.

The card itself by all accounts was a masterful sound module so such a comparison would probably be useful feedback for Squids, one that he might like to quote in future.

Caleb

[Kim Lajoie]

I'm interested to see if SS2 does end up blowing SW1000XG out of the water as you are suspecting it will.

It's already happened. I used to use an SW1k, until I got Sonic Synth 1. Seriously, the SW1k is like a WHOLE GENERATION more primitive than the Soni{c,k} Synths.

With today's modern computers, there's nothing that the SW1k does better than SS2. At all.

Forever,




Kim.

[Squids]

Sounds are subjective so sound to sound you may like ANY synth for that particular sound that is different than the other. But, overall, Sonik Synth 2 just has more sounds than most hardware PCM synths or cards and the average sound's size is drastically improved which will give it more realism for sustains and across the keyboard.

[rmirabelle]

Blades,

Many thanks for taking the time to create such a thoughtful review.

[alibish2]

Happy New Year to all!

FAO Squids:

Hi Dave. I PM'ed you a few days ago - did it arrive OK?

Cheers

Alastair

[Squids]

I am swamped in NAMM prep mode guys. But, great stuff. I am glad to hear people enjoying their Sonik Synth 2s. Blades, if you want a good piano I recommend trying the patch "The One" in the acoustic piano section and add a little reverb to taste. It is beyond typical workstation pianos, but it is a 3 dynamic 150 meg beast so it should be I hope. Thanks for posting around spreading the word. That's what it is all about. Word of mouth is how a little company like SR gets into the hands of musicians around the world who appreciate this sort of stuff. So, you are help us and you're helping them. But, you're also helping yourself by doing it because simply put the more successful it this product is the more we can afford to put back into it for added value updates, upgrades etc. So, thanks!

[JaseisMusic]

Squids,Do you plan on updating SS2 down the road? It would be nice to have a breakdown of sound categories. They are very general, just having synth bass , synth lead, etc. It would be nice to have sub categories, like Acid bass, sub bass, dance bass, etc.

[Kim Lajoie]

Squids,Do you plan on updating SS2 down the road? It would be nice to have a breakdown of sound categories. They are very general, just having synth bass , synth lead, etc. It would be nice to have sub categories, like Acid bass, sub bass, dance bass, etc.

It's quite easy to do yourself - just move the files themselves. It's important to understand that each instrument is made up of three or four files. You just have to make sure that you remember to move them together.

Of course, there are a few advantages of doing it yourself:
1) You choose the categories
2) You choose how to classify the sounds (eg. what makes a dance bass?)
3) By doing it, you become more familiar with the sounds in SS2, which means more music making, and less preset-surfing.

Oh, and doing this will NOT break any existing projects or combi presets.

Forever,




Kim.

[Squids]

Exactly, there's a lot of room to customize this to be YOUR ideal workstation, using your OWN categories and making your own variation (child) presets and combis. That is how it is intended too. A lot of effort was made to give you plenty of raw material to mix together or process to your liking. Each person's musical tastes are different. But, a flute is a flute, a piano is a piano, a guitar etc. they are all starting points for whatever style of music you do! If you do funk then you slap on some compressors, wah filter type stuff and produce the sounds in that direction. If you do hip hop then you start messing with the Lofi and Phonograph effects, EQ, limiter etc. and grit it up perhaps. Go even further if you are into hardcore electronica or get all ethereal if you are into ambient dub or whatever (like I know what I am talking about with these styles!!!!). It's the materials that are there for you to shape how you want endlessly. That makes it a synth that both has its own SOUND and also is a tool kit for using it to make YOUR OWN sound that no one else has because maybe they haven't used the same combinations out of millions of possibilities between sound source and processing that there is.

Now THAT is what I always wanted Sonic SYNTH to be. It's finally here!

www.esoundz.com

[Mighty_Hero]

Dave check your PM please

[synthboffin]

I just ordered my upgrade to SS2 a few days ago - can't wait...

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I didn't find an obvious answer to this in the FAQ on www.soniksynth.com. I'm wondering if it is possible to load the old SS1 sounds into the SS2 plug-in? i.e. So you get access to the new synth engine and effects. What about the extra content for SS1 such as the Bonus CD or Symphony Strings? I am correct in assuming SS2 currently only permits loading sounds from the included library? Although if that is the case, I think there's probably enough sounds to keep me busy for a day or two

One more thing, I will be using SS2 with SONAR4 PE - does SS2 work reliably with SONAR? Which is better, the DXi version or using the VST via the wrapper?

Cheers
Haz

[harmony gardens]

The Sonik Synth 2 engine will only play voices from it's own soundset. In order to run them all together, you need to use Sampletank.

I just crossgraded to Sampletank 2 XL and organized my library. I then loaded Sampletank LE and quite by accident realized that all my SS2 voices were on my list. I was under the impression that you needed to have ST XL to run the libraries together. Not so!! It runs fine in LE here. I'm not sorry I upgraded, but people should know you don't HAVE to have XL to run SS2 and other sounds together. My SS2 Combinations even loaded into Sampletank LE just fine.