IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

[Squids]

It's funny, sometimes I forget about the impression a sound makes on someone out of the context of music. I am so used to hearing certain sounds in a musical surrounding and I understand its potential roles musically that I can take it for granted that not everyone sees the potential... that is until they try it for themselves. What might seem like a simple basic unimpressive sound on its own could be just the right element for a song when in context. A sine-wavey electric piano for instance or a simple synth pad or texture or a quirky Mellotron sound... all of those things can potentially "come alive" depending on what other music it is playing with or how you process it... each person is going to have different results depending on how they can be creative with it. One of the reasons I love SampleTank and other musicians (some GREAT musicians too btw but I will spare you the name dropping this one time ) have come to me at NAMM shows to tell me what they think, is that you have a good idea of what you can get out of it between IK and SR sounds and this particular engine. It's been such a valuable workhorse in my set up. I know it has for many others too. But, it does depend on what YOU can get out of it digging into it and definitely making MUSIC with it or using it in your music (like I am now within a live rock band in the studio... up here in Canada working on this record. SampleTank came through for me big time as just part of my keyboard set up here remotely using my laptop.)

[Squids]

Let me give a vote for Sonic Reality. I have few ST products by SR and they are great.

Thanks Bronx.

Hey, it looks like you and I got beat out on the making of this thread and the top of the page posting! But good to let some others go at it. Barbecutie (wondering if this person is male or female... guess we'll never know but "cutie"?) is going a splendid job at the top of the page thing... and Mountain King with his faithful gig! Always appreciated when you all do that. Hopefully you pick up some epointz too!

[Squids]

Hey, this is important. There's been some talk about some different exclusive esoundz bonuses so I think we're going to make it a multiple choice download with some different things like a pack of Moog sounds, packs of individual drum kit pieces (to assemble your own "Combi Kits") and some other cool things like construction kit menu maps and other stuff discussed. I will try to give you the details as early as next week on what exactly it is but the reason I was asked to mention it now is in case you needed a reason to join on www.esoundz.com twice or three times... this would be it. Each time you could choose something else from the mulitple choice exclusive bonus list. Quite a wild card indeed! That bar will be raised once again! More specifics coming.

[zedd]

What a twit I am. I've been following the Xpansion Pack Group Buy thread over in the eSoundz section, and I forgot all about this one. Now I come over here and discover you guys are at page 43!!

Man, I've been missing out on all the fun.

I joined the GB today and picked:

Acoustic Guitar Collection 2
Bass Collection 2
Cinematik Collection
Electric Guitar Collection 2

I had all the earlier guitar collections, but didn't have the Sonik Capsules stuff which is included in these new collections. Some of that Capsule stuff is fantastic! Lots of different articulations of the same instruments to give you a lot more versatility. I'm very happy to have these new additions to my ST library!

[Teksonik]

It's funny, sometimes I forget about the impression a sound makes on someone out of the context of music. I am so used to hearing certain sounds in a musical surrounding and I understand its potential roles musically that I can take it for granted that not everyone sees the potential... that is until they try it for themselves. What might seem like a simple basic unimpressive sound on its own could be just the right element for a song when in context. A sine-wavey electric piano for instance or a simple synth pad or texture or a quirky Mellotron sound... all of those things can potentially "come alive" depending on what other music it is playing with or how you process it... each person is going to have different results depending on how they can be creative with it. One of the reasons I love SampleTank and other musicians (some GREAT musicians too btw but I will spare you the name dropping this one time ) have come to me at NAMM shows to tell me what they think, is that you have a good idea of what you can get out of it between IK and SR sounds and this particular engine. It's been such a valuable workhorse in my set up. I know it has for many others too. But, it does depend on what YOU can get out of it digging into it and definitely making MUSIC with it or using it in your music (like I am now within a live rock band in the studio... up here in Canada working on this record. SampleTank came through for me big time as just part of my keyboard set up here remotely using my laptop.)

Man it's like 3:30 in the morning and I'm in a sleep deprived psychosis but your post reads to me like...........

"There's nothing wrong with our samples it's the way you are using them that's the problem"

[Squids]

Well, at 3:30 a lot of things can happen! Anyway, that's not what I'm saying - especially the part about "perfection" and that it must be YOU that's the problem (is that really something you'd think I'd say?? "If you don't know me by now... then you'll never ever never ever ever never ever know me"). But, for some food for thought perspective, Bronxsound brought up an interesting point about a sound that might seem unexciting until you put it into musical context then all of a sudden it has its place. I was expanding on that.

I used to work on patches for keyboard manufactures like Yamaha, Alesis and others. With the limited rom (at least in the past) it was a little harder to get a nice real instrument sound sometimes but you could layer something and spice it up so it was impressive... and people in the music store would walk up and hear this big evolving/sequencing/layered sound that made you look at your friend and say "Wow, I'm gonna get this!" but then later on when you're writing or jamming with a band you find yourself weeding through those kinds of sounds to get to the good Wurly or Organ or Synth lead or whatever (hypothetical example). So later when rom size wasn't an issue when things like software romplers existed (like SampleTank) the meat and potatoes keyboard, synth and other sounds could be better represented and still have the ability to be layered and effected... but, I tend to go more for the "tools" of writing and sound design than just pure "wow" sounds... mostly because I have in there what I'd want to use and have on hand if I was doing all sorts of different styles. But whether YOU appreciate a raw PPG sound as much as me or the next person... who knows? Or an RMI. Someone getting that sound might not know what the heck an RMI Electra Piano is... but then another guy is in Rick Wakeman Fragile heaven with that sound (or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or some techno retro track or whatever else). I could EASILY see how someone might think that sound is total crap! But to some people (like me) that little dinky sound is gold.

[bronxsound]

Man it's like 3:30 in the morning and I'm in a sleep deprived psychosis but your post reads to me like...........

"There's nothing wrong with our samples it's the way you are using them that's the problem"

Well I don't think that Squids actually meant this. What he is saying is that it is easy to be impressed by sounds coming out of Nexus or alike. And that's true they are well crafted, punchy and juicy. I call them inspirational. However, the problem is that when you start mixing them into a track in many cases you will have strip off all that "glitter".

ST soundsets are more like hardware romplers. Ready to use material assuming that you know what you are doing.

It's sort of like with GM sounds. They sound dull and lifless. But I've heard well programmed MIDI files using GM and they were AMAZING.

P.S. Comparison of ST to GM standard not intended

[Squids]

Well, I wouldn't equate these to the typical "dull and lifeless GM sounds" either (good thing you wrote this:

P.S. Comparison of ST to GM standard not intended

Although I think some people might get the impression from what people are saying sometimes... I wonder. There's a LOT of inspiration in these sounds and some glitter too. But there's some great unprocessed raw sounds to USE the processing of Sampletank on and that is how I like to work. Give me a Rhodes with nothing on it please with a side of chorus, phaser and delay. I'll have a Moog saw lead for desert. Thank you!

I think you get a healthy mix of wow sounds and strong shaping material to create with. It works for me when I'm making music and I do a lot of diverse styles. It works for thousands of people in fact... this isn't new! But it IS new to a lot of people because this deal is just so darn good it is hard for anyone to pass up.

Well, okay one can just watch and listen to demos and decide for themself if it sounds inspiring to them or not. It is for me. Big time... I wouldn't do it if it wasn't. Inspiration and tools for creativity is what interests me the most. That is what we aim to provide.... and in many cases (not all) for a price that is within reach of any musician. This group buy being a good example of that.

[Reverend Rhythm]

until the return of barbecutie

IK Multimedia Xpansion Tank 2 Group Buy

Now 4X1! Currently at 1676 users! Need 2500 users for 5X1!

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/xtgroupbuy

and

http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=4293

BBC

esoundz user: BarBeCutie or see epointz referral thread below for other users:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... ht=epointz

[gckilla]

Well I sprung for world instruments, cinematik, and hip hop instruments...now what to do with that last one.....Omnisynth?

[Teksonik]

Anyway, that's not what I'm saying - especially the part about "perfection" and that it must be YOU that's the problem (is that really something you'd think I'd say?? "If you don't know me by now... then you'll never ever never ever ever never ever know me").

Apparently I'm not alone in my psychosis.

[Analyst69]

We don't want anyone to be jealous. We want you to enjoy getting sounds from us with an extra bonus of occasionally getting to hear some inside scoop on bands you might like (or certain bands that certain people like I should say)... perhaps get a little vicarious enjoyment out of it! We try to give a look from a real world perspective such as what you see on www.sonicreality.tv and things like this: Nothing too fancy, more of what it would really be like to be there... or at least wherever we're allowed to be in connection with any of these great musicians.

There's a bunch of things I'm doing with Rush right now that are exciting. One of them IS announced already and that's Neil Peart Drums Vol 1: The Kit. A virtual recreation of his drum kit which you can see in that video I posted above. But there's some more stuff... some of it relates to the upcoming tour.

The funny thing is that both Alex and Geddy use IK and SR products and Neil is the only one who doesn't... yet he HAS a product with Sonic Reality!

By the way, at some point it is very likely that we'll do a lighter SampleTank version of the Neil Peart Drum kit. I say lighter only because ummm...well it is a 15 gigabyte kit (actually over 30 gigabytes for the full thing with all the kit pieces loaded snares on and off)

It's a good kind of jealous. Actually I do enjoy the vicarious aspect of hearing about your experiences with other musicians and look forward to the tidbits you throw us through the forums.

Neil Peart drums is at the top of my list when it comes out...keeping my epointz for this in particular. I am incredibly impressed with the quality of drums in USD 1 and 2, and sure these will be awesome too.

I know this isn't want this thread is about, so back on topic...

With regards to various comments about the quality of sounds, in my experience, I am very impressed. They do sound quite polished and I expect (when I get time to work with them more) they will be fairly easy to integrate into a mix.

Some sneaky people have posted on the net the multitrack files extracted from the Guitar Hero and Rock band games. As a result, it is possible to hear the isolated guitar, bass, drum and vocal tracks from a number of well known artists songs. I don't have these files (thought I should be clear about this), but, having heard some of them, it is an eye (or maybe ear?) opener in terms of how a sound, that in isolation might not stand out, combines in the mix to create an absolutely classic song.

Hearing this stuff improved my appreciation of the importance of EQ, but also of how almost any sound has potential. A classic example would be Red Hot Chili Peppers recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik. They used a number of unconventional items for their music, including a kids toy piano on FunkyMonks and a large vehicle brake drums and 44 gallon drums on Breaking The Girl. All sounds have potential, its just getting the inspiration from them.

Squids and Bronxsound are right, it's about finding a musical context.

Sorry for the epic post.

Cheers to all and if you haven't brought into it, at $50 its gotta be worth it.

[bronxsound]

In my view Sampletank software is the closest to hardware sample based sound module/keyboard in terms of the principle. Thankfully it does not aspire to be a full blown sampler like Kontakt. Nevertheless it has great capabilities under the hood.

What I really like about ST is that I load one instance of the instrument and I can control all 16 parts within one panel. The simplicity is striking. So in other words it works like a standard MIDI sound module. However, I quite often use it for creating multi-layered sounds. It mimics hardware unit performance mode.

Right, it's an old piece of software but tried and tested. Never let me down.

One thing I have forgotten to add about Sonic Reality stuff. Their sound sets do NOT provide nonsense content. Of course what fits jazz won't fit techno. But so far whatever I got from SR was truely usable. I'm pretty sure that Squids and his team followed the same logic providing these new sets offered in the promo.

[muddyjoe]

SR samples are not the only samples I own and love but their sounds are there in everything I do. As it has been said before it is all based on your individual taste, you may love it or hate it but at $50 you don't risk losing a fortune to find out you don't like it. Going by the ratio of the fans to the "not so satisfied" I think a big probability is you would love it. So if you're sitting on the fence go for it.

[Harry_HH]

What a twit I am. I've been following the Xpansion Pack Group Buy thread over in the eSoundz section, and I forgot all about this one. Now I come over here and discover you guys are at page 43!!

Man, I've been missing out on all the fun.

I joined the GB today and picked:

Acoustic Guitar Collection 2
Bass Collection 2
Cinematik Collection
Electric Guitar Collection 2

I had all the earlier guitar collections, but didn't have the Sonik Capsules stuff which is included in these new collections. Some of that Capsule stuff is fantastic! Lots of different articulations of the same instruments to give you a lot more versatility. I'm very happy to have these new additions to my ST library!

Which one do you think has higher quality samples/articulations: acoustic or electric guitar?
My references to the guitar samples are Acoustic Legends and Lyrical Direct.
Harry