The Sonic Reality refill libraries look like an excellent value, but are they good? I am aware that a rep of Sonic Reality is here at these forums, so not to question you guys. However, I need to know if these refills are worth it. To all Sonic Reality sample users: What kind of quality do they have? Are the drum sounds good? What about the piano (very important)? And the strings, pads, leads, bass, that sort of thing. Feel free to recommend to me any other sample library company as well. I have not bought any commercial refills yet - I have only used freeware soundfonts and the Reason factory soundbanks.
Seperately, what would be the best drum sound, not loop, library I can buy?
Thank you!
Sonic Reality Refill Quality?
-
- KVRer
- 4 posts since 20 Jul, 2004 from under the couch cushions
-Will, from yourmusicforums.com, a music forum that I would recommend.
-
- KVRAF
- 1651 posts since 14 May, 2002 from Earth
I don't have any experience with their stuff for Reason, but I will say that I'm very happy with all their other stuff. I own Sonic Synth, all the eROMs, Sonic Station, and I have beta versions of all their Sonic Capsules, and I think all of them are great, and have great price tags.
-
- KVRAF
- 2874 posts since 22 Oct, 2002 from "somewhere between digital and analog"
For drums... Depends on whether you want real acoustic sounds or interesting sounds/fx and whether you want hits or redrum kits? For cool drum stuff: Lapjockey Flatpack, Kazhawanna drum, and Creative Essentials is massive, and has tons of drum kits. For realistic drums, Doru's Malia's Super drums, refill has a bazillion actual samples for making you own kits... and Zero G's stuff is cool (Ambient Textures)... I don't have any Sonic reality's stuff, so I can't comment on theirs but I've heard good things... Free stuff, there are a ton... Get Drumomania it's cool... There is too much stuff really, I spend a lot of time just making kits up in Redrum...
-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 4 posts since 20 Jul, 2004 from under the couch cushions
I can easily do with raw samples, but I certainly wouldn't mind a few well put together Redrum kits. Got drumomania, pretty good little pack.
I'm looking for acoustic kit sounds, but also acoustic samples that work well for drum&bass (think styles such as "Amen")
Thanks for the references, will look into it.
I use an electronic drum kit, so I pretty basically like to do my own loops/sessions. I do a lot of drum programming, too.
I'm looking for acoustic kit sounds, but also acoustic samples that work well for drum&bass (think styles such as "Amen")
Thanks for the references, will look into it.
I use an electronic drum kit, so I pretty basically like to do my own loops/sessions. I do a lot of drum programming, too.
-Will, from yourmusicforums.com, a music forum that I would recommend.
-
- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
All Sonic Reality products are at a consistent level of minimum quality no matter what the price is. But, within product lines like this there are products that are "fill the need" and then there are products that are "stand out overachievers". So, I can at least tell which are which.
Of the Sonic Refills, the ones that have the most value for the money, in that as "sample libraries" they could easily sell for many times the price in other sampler formats, are:
Sonic Refill (the box "set" that is vol 1-5 packed into one big 1.2 gig refill with some extras like matrix settings).
The synth sounds in this one are stand out. It is the closest thing to turning Reason into a keyboard synth workstation ala Tritons and JVs. The pianos in it are very good too. It has a good all around offering.
Reality Drums - this one is the one you want for real sounding acoustic kits. The quality of this library is way beyond what $49 is usually like. In fact, honestly it is even better than our Interactive Drum Kits (in terms of variety and expressive tricks such as random alternating hits) which had won a Key Buy award and sells for 4X the price. Your call. But, I bet you won't be disappointed. It is M-Audio's top selling refill.
Monster Drums - this is actually M-Audio's second top selling refill. This is good for a variety of produced kits with different style flavors. It is less for natural sounding kits but it has a nice combination of power kits and rex loops.
World Percussion - If you are into Djembe, Udu, Tablas, Latin Perc and percussion in general this is an absolute must. It has plenty of playable multisamples and some loops too. I used to tour on Peter Gabriel's Womad festival so I sampled some seriously cool percussion instruments around this time.
Ethnic Instruments - same feeling about this one. The variety of instruments from all over the world on this one justifies a much, much higher price tag. Yet, for convenience the Sonic Refill volumes are all $49. or less when discounted.
Inst of the 60's & 70's - this is the one to get if you are into vintage keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. It is like a mini "Vintage Timetraveler" which was a popular $199 Akai library SR made. I recommend this one over "Retro Keys" which is more in the "fills the need" category but not nearly as special as this one.
Acoustic Folk - it is hard to find a good collection of acoustic instruments. This is like a mini "American Heartland" which is another $199. library SR has sold many of.
These are the real standout refills. We do have some more exceptional titles coming out very soon. One is like a complete bass module, another is dedicated to guitars, another to synth pads, one that is all vocal and another that is only for Mellotron. That is being announced next week at Namm. In addition to that we have a higher end line that is twice the price that includes one that is dedicated to one killer grand piano at 200 meg size.
The other Sonic Refill volumes are filled with all kinds of sounds for the various modules in Reason, focusing as usual mostly on the NNXT for playable instrument sounds. If you look on www.esoundz.com you can see more information on them. But, they all either fill an important musical need with quality sounds or ones like those mentioned above do much more than just fill the need and really break barriers of VFM.
If you want to hear from more users I hope you get that chance. I always like to see what the users say myself. Good luck! One good thing is they are all made by one source so if you like one there's a good chance you'll like them all. Try one and see for yourself.
Of the Sonic Refills, the ones that have the most value for the money, in that as "sample libraries" they could easily sell for many times the price in other sampler formats, are:
Sonic Refill (the box "set" that is vol 1-5 packed into one big 1.2 gig refill with some extras like matrix settings).
The synth sounds in this one are stand out. It is the closest thing to turning Reason into a keyboard synth workstation ala Tritons and JVs. The pianos in it are very good too. It has a good all around offering.
Reality Drums - this one is the one you want for real sounding acoustic kits. The quality of this library is way beyond what $49 is usually like. In fact, honestly it is even better than our Interactive Drum Kits (in terms of variety and expressive tricks such as random alternating hits) which had won a Key Buy award and sells for 4X the price. Your call. But, I bet you won't be disappointed. It is M-Audio's top selling refill.
Monster Drums - this is actually M-Audio's second top selling refill. This is good for a variety of produced kits with different style flavors. It is less for natural sounding kits but it has a nice combination of power kits and rex loops.
World Percussion - If you are into Djembe, Udu, Tablas, Latin Perc and percussion in general this is an absolute must. It has plenty of playable multisamples and some loops too. I used to tour on Peter Gabriel's Womad festival so I sampled some seriously cool percussion instruments around this time.
Ethnic Instruments - same feeling about this one. The variety of instruments from all over the world on this one justifies a much, much higher price tag. Yet, for convenience the Sonic Refill volumes are all $49. or less when discounted.
Inst of the 60's & 70's - this is the one to get if you are into vintage keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. It is like a mini "Vintage Timetraveler" which was a popular $199 Akai library SR made. I recommend this one over "Retro Keys" which is more in the "fills the need" category but not nearly as special as this one.
Acoustic Folk - it is hard to find a good collection of acoustic instruments. This is like a mini "American Heartland" which is another $199. library SR has sold many of.
These are the real standout refills. We do have some more exceptional titles coming out very soon. One is like a complete bass module, another is dedicated to guitars, another to synth pads, one that is all vocal and another that is only for Mellotron. That is being announced next week at Namm. In addition to that we have a higher end line that is twice the price that includes one that is dedicated to one killer grand piano at 200 meg size.
The other Sonic Refill volumes are filled with all kinds of sounds for the various modules in Reason, focusing as usual mostly on the NNXT for playable instrument sounds. If you look on www.esoundz.com you can see more information on them. But, they all either fill an important musical need with quality sounds or ones like those mentioned above do much more than just fill the need and really break barriers of VFM.
If you want to hear from more users I hope you get that chance. I always like to see what the users say myself. Good luck! One good thing is they are all made by one source so if you like one there's a good chance you'll like them all. Try one and see for yourself.
-
- KVRist
- 216 posts since 23 Sep, 2002 from Durham, NC
dude, i don't own any sr products yet, but you know what impressed the crud out of me ??? the video demos for sampletank 2- http://www.sampletank.com/STDemoVideoST ... fects1.mov
obviously, this cat takes his drums seriously
obviously, this cat takes his drums seriously
-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 4 posts since 20 Jul, 2004 from under the couch cushions
Thanks for the info, Squids! I listened to the Reality Drums demo, and it seems pretty nice.
-Will, from yourmusicforums.com, a music forum that I would recommend.
-
Reverend Rhythm Reverend Rhythm https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=6041
- KVRAF
- 2859 posts since 21 Feb, 2003 from Woodstock, GA USA
I own several SR refills and am happy with them all. The Sonic Refill is a great value. You get a lot for your money. It is a general library with a lot of variety. It's a great place to start. The other refills are more specialised, but you get a lot for $50(us).
-
- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
Hey just for fun... here is an audio demo of our upcoming Sonic Refill volume called "Vocal Textures". Check it out: www.sonicreality.com/squidscorner/VocalTexDemo.mp3
This is the first time anyone would have heard about this. It is another $49 refill from Sonic Reality but this one is like vocal sample libraries that cost big bucks. It even features some famous singers like Roger Manning from Jellyfish and Beck, Jason Scheff lead singer for Chicago and others doing multilayered oohs, ahhs etc. Plus there are consonant attacks and all kinds of cool stuff.
This is the first time anyone would have heard about this. It is another $49 refill from Sonic Reality but this one is like vocal sample libraries that cost big bucks. It even features some famous singers like Roger Manning from Jellyfish and Beck, Jason Scheff lead singer for Chicago and others doing multilayered oohs, ahhs etc. Plus there are consonant attacks and all kinds of cool stuff.
-
- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
These are pieces of some audio demos in the works...defjamm wrote:how about some demos of the bass and guitar modules?
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/Refill19Synths3.mp3
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/REFILL13WorldPerc.mp3
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/REFILL14EthnicInst.mp3
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/REFILL12AcoustFolk.mp3
http://www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/ ... enties.mp3
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/Refill17TripBass.mp3
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/Refill18TripGtrs.mp3
This one is from Reality Drums:
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/REFILLvol7.mp3
Other drum titles...
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/REFILLvol8.mp3
www.sonicreality.com/sonicstuff/REFILLvol9.mp3
... all of the ones that sound suspiciously like Pink Floyd or Genesis were demos made by me. A lot of the riffs, beats and bits of music were made by Mr. Tunes, Antonio Hernandez and esoundz web designer Rob Mirabelle. I am trying to think if we had our monster demo dude Larry O do any of these. Maybe not. I think I may need his help on the Bass and the Guitar one. They need "something" in the demo. Something that makes this happen
because those two libraries are killer in their offering for the money. They all are really. Demos give an "idea" but since these are mostly playable instruments they sound completely different in different hands.
-
- KVRist
- 61 posts since 29 Jul, 2004 from Toronto, Canada
I've been looking at these two drum libraries. From the few sample snippets I've been able to hear online, I'm thinking I'd prefer the sound of the Monster Drums over the Reality Drums.Squids wrote: Reality Drums - this one is the one you want for real sounding acoustic kits. The quality of this library is way beyond what $49 is usually like. In fact, honestly it is even better than our Interactive Drum Kits (in terms of variety and expressive tricks such as random alternating hits) which had won a Key Buy award and sells for 4X the price. Your call. But, I bet you won't be disappointed. It is M-Audio's top selling refill.
Monster Drums - this is actually M-Audio's second top selling refill. This is good for a variety of produced kits with different style flavors. It is less for natural sounding kits but it has a nice combination of power kits and rex loops.
But Reality Drums has I-Map (tm) which, as I understand, helps with things like creating realistic rolls and fast fills without getting the "machine gun" effect.
Does the Monster Drums package have this feature, or something similar to get (or *not* get) that effect?
Thanks.
P.S. What's the latest nees on I-Drums? New name? ETA?
-
- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
Monster Drums is in GM map. But it does have some rolls in there (an enhanced GM map that is). If you really want killer realistic kits though Reality Drums is the one. It is one serious deal for drum kits considering it is as good as Interactive Drum Kits that sells for $199.RayC wrote:I've been looking at these two drum libraries. From the few sample snippets I've been able to hear online, I'm thinking I'd prefer the sound of the Monster Drums over the Reality Drums.Squids wrote: Reality Drums - this one is the one you want for real sounding acoustic kits. The quality of this library is way beyond what $49 is usually like. In fact, honestly it is even better than our Interactive Drum Kits (in terms of variety and expressive tricks such as random alternating hits) which had won a Key Buy award and sells for 4X the price. Your call. But, I bet you won't be disappointed. It is M-Audio's top selling refill.
Monster Drums - this is actually M-Audio's second top selling refill. This is good for a variety of produced kits with different style flavors. It is less for natural sounding kits but it has a nice combination of power kits and rex loops.
But Reality Drums has I-Map (tm) which, as I understand, helps with things like creating realistic rolls and fast fills without getting the "machine gun" effect.
Does the Monster Drums package have this feature, or something similar to get (or *not* get) that effect?
Thanks.
P.S. What's the latest nees on I-Drums? New name? ETA?
I-Drums (new title to be announced... similar though) is nearing completion. It will be done before the end of this month. Shipping... not sure yet. It depends on the packaging and other materials. I want to include a video demo tutorial on I-map drum kits.