IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

[rnms]

Even if some of the sounds are a bit lack-lustre you can use them as a starting point for some great multis, I'm over all very pleased with my selections especially for the price.

[youngwoerth]

Thanks, Atom. Yes - I should've voted Vintage Keys Class A, I'll refresh my list.

[bongo_x]

SampleArp is probably the top clunker for me too as far as the official IK list goes.

Those instruments are vintage bits that have been on many classic records - but there's usually a whole lot of processing/effects involved. The raw sounds from those instruments were frequently pretty thin, and this set captured their anorexia to the letter.

Kudos to SR for accuracy, but good heavens these sounds need help. Maybe we can create some better child patches with the effects and post them here on KVR to help improve the overall set....

Interesting, I hate samples that have been processed, I won't buy them and have thrown some away that I had. If I get samples of an old instrument I want it to be authentic. Recording it with some nice pres and/or putting it to tape can be good, if it's clearly stated that's what it is. But samples with tons of compression and reverb piss me off. That leaves no room for me to get a sound out of them. Why even have them?

bb

[JoeDeF]

I've still got one choice left and am stuck between the Nashville Pop Grooves, Vintage Soul Grooves and Sixties Motown Grooves.

Any comments on the last two? I think I'm leaning towards the latter one because it has the most content. But as we all know, quantity doesn't always equal quality.

I have both Vintage Soul and Vintage Motown Grooves. They are both of good quality. However, they differ in approach.

Motown is basically a re-recording of the drum parts to famous Motown songs, labeled obaby, tears, etc - you can guess which tunes they are taken from by those titles if you know the biggest Motown hits. Though there are more loops in this collection, many of the loops are dedicated to different sections, fills, and breaks for each song. This is both good and bad; the good part is that you thereby have a wide variety of loops that all fit together extremely well within each group dedicated to a song, while the bad part is that you don't have that many styles to choose from, since the may loops dedicated to each song are variations on a certain style. As far as the organization of the set is concerned, the loops for each song are not in the same folder, but are instead spread out among the various folders, such as claps, crash loops, and the like. This can make assembling them a bit tedious, but it is of course quite feasible to rearrange the folder content yourself so that all loops stemming from each particular song are in the same folder.

The Vintage Soul set, in my opinion, is a bit more hard-hitting in general, with a deeper sense of funk and groove, and a bit more attitude. Though there are less total loops, there is a good bit of tempo and style variation, since you don't have groups of loops dedicated to one individual song.

So, imho, if you want that lighter Motown pop feel with groups of loops that make a "drums construction kit" for each song/style, go for Motown. If you want that deeper groove with a more muscular approach, go for Vintage Soul.

Edit: added word "drums" to last paragraph

[zedd]

^^ Several minutes for search results would indeed suck and make it unusable, but honestly, that's really not the case on my system, search finishes in under a second.

I'm shocked to hear any of you reporting that ST searches are done in a second. Oh how I wish.

I have used SampleTank for 7 years now, on at least 4 different computers and operating systems. From the very beginning (even when my ST library was very small) these searches seemed to take forever. I just ran a test on my current 8-core Mac with 14GB of RAM and the latest Operating system, and I got the following results:

first search = 2 minutes and 29 seconds
subsequent searches = 45 seconds

And if you "save" as search, so that it is stored in the pull down menu, it still takes 45 seconds to load it, and probably the full 2.5 minutes if you do it in a freshly opened project.

And the most annoying part is that in order to get back to full listing of ST instruments you have to do a blank search, which takes another 45 seconds.

So samsam, and others, what DAW are you using which gives you these outrageously quick 1 second search results? This is definitely an area which is not working well for some users, and I have 7 years experience with it not working well. I don't use the search function because of that... and my ST library is now 76.68 GB, so it would definitely be handy to be able to narrow down the instruments using a search feature.

[garchev]

It seems I missed the deadline for the 8 XT expansions! I registered my XT with IK Multimedia website, but I do not see the expansions. In my Esoundz area it says I need to register by June 14th, but IK says June 6th. I am confused.

Did I miss the deadline?

Please help!!!!

[torgo]

First let's eliminate the obvious... did you click on the "Promotions" link on the IK web page?

[garchev]

I did not!!! I am stupid!!! Thanks for the help.

[samsam]

^^ Several minutes for search results would indeed suck and make it unusable, but honestly, that's really not the case on my system, search finishes in under a second.

I'm shocked to hear any of you reporting that ST searches are done in a second. Oh how I wish.

I have used SampleTank for 7 years now, on at least 4 different computers and operating systems. From the very beginning (even when my ST library was very small) these searches seemed to take forever. I just ran a test on my current 8-core Mac with 14GB of RAM and the latest Operating system, and I got the following results:

first search = 2 minutes and 29 seconds
subsequent searches = 45 seconds

And if you "save" as search, so that it is stored in the pull down menu, it still takes 45 seconds to load it, and probably the full 2.5 minutes if you do it in a freshly opened project.

And the most annoying part is that in order to get back to full listing of ST instruments you have to do a blank search, which takes another 45 seconds.

So samsam, and others, what DAW are you using which gives you these outrageously quick 1 second search results? This is definitely an area which is not working well for some users, and I have 7 years experience with it not working well. I don't use the search function because of that... and my ST library is now 76.68 GB, so it would definitely be handy to be able to narrow down the instruments using a search feature.

zedd, my ST library is only 8 packs actually, from this promotion, so it's much smaller than yours. Even so, it produces 1 second search results standalone and in Live 7, OS X, 10.5.8 on a 2.4 MacBook with 4 gig RAM.

[torgo]

Glad you got it worked out, garchev, and welcome aboard!

Also, in case you didn't spot it, one of your eight downloads is in another strange link called "Multibox". Essentially, you bought one of your eight downloads while the other seven are promotional freebies. You select the one you bought by clicking on the Multibox link and the other seven by clicking on the Promotions link.

After you select them, click the "Sounds" link (as opposed to the "Downloads" link) to go to the page where you download them.

[Whoomph]

[quote="garchev"][/quote]

used you as a referral,

[androidlove]

i can't find an ik forum, so i'm asking here. i understand how to assign cc# to knobs, but i don't know how to automate past channel 1 with a virtual controller. setting a different channel on the controller reroutes channel 1 midi notes to that channel. i don't know how to use the 4 user automations. is there a more detailed instruction manual for st? also, is there a pdf that isn't laid out like a book? that really makes it hard to navigate. and where does one go to have interaction with ik? those tickets are like communicating though snail mail

[Xenobt]

That worked out quite well. Now all that's left is the much anticipated wild card set from Squids. Maybe we should name it the "Godot" set...

Just catching up after a few hours away... well played, torgo!

And Nashville Pop is a very cool addition if you need well recorded, nearly raw stereo loops and fills in a modern rock/alternative/ country vein. There are only a few that could only be used as country.

And Samplearp has taken some hits on the forum today, but as an owner of the original Solus and Quadra, it's really quite accurate to the sound of these vintage beasts. You had to work a bit or add processing, but the results were yours alone, unlike the factory presets of the month/year that define more modern machines of the current era.

[JavaJ]

^^ Several minutes for search results would indeed suck and make it unusable, but honestly, that's really not the case on my system, search finishes in under a second.

I'm shocked to hear any of you reporting that ST searches are done in a second. Oh how I wish.

I have used SampleTank for 7 years now, on at least 4 different computers and operating systems. From the very beginning (even when my ST library was very small) these searches seemed to take forever. I just ran a test on my current 8-core Mac with 14GB of RAM and the latest Operating system, and I got the following results:

first search = 2 minutes and 29 seconds
subsequent searches = 45 seconds

And if you "save" as search, so that it is stored in the pull down menu, it still takes 45 seconds to load it, and probably the full 2.5 minutes if you do it in a freshly opened project.

And the most annoying part is that in order to get back to full listing of ST instruments you have to do a blank search, which takes another 45 seconds.

So samsam, and others, what DAW are you using which gives you these outrageously quick 1 second search results? This is definitely an area which is not working well for some users, and I have 7 years experience with it not working well. I don't use the search function because of that... and my ST library is now 76.68 GB, so it would definitely be handy to be able to narrow down the instruments using a search feature.

Zedd, maybe try running Plogue's Bidule with ST loaded and nothing else. Then try your searches. Although at that size- I think you are just out of luck unless you go SSD (me thinks)

[Ceej]

As I reported, I have 28 gigs (now actually about 32 - installed a few more packs). Searches for me take about 5 seconds, which is frankly a little slow but perfectly acceptable.... except for the first search after I boot, which takes a full minute to come back. That is most certainly not acceptable, and in fact is so slow that it almost stops me from ever using the search feature.

This happens stand-alone or in Sonar, so I do not think it's a host issue.