I just got Sonic Synth for Sampletank. I'm also waiting up for the Sampletank 2XL upgrade, which I also ordered. But for now, I'm fiddling with sampletank 1.1. I was looking for a "all in one" package that could kinda replace my Triton.
The problem with working with Triton is that I have to record each track, one by one. When I need to compose and mix 5 tunes in a night, that's not a very good way to work. Instead, I thought, "why not have VSTis make all the sounds for me so I can mix it directly in SFP. All in one go". So, I set my eyes on sampletank.
Now that I have Sampletank's Sonic Synth library, I've got one word to say. DON'T. It's not worth it. The kind of samples they have in Sonic Synth is prehistoric. It makes me want to remember back to the days of GM. Sampletank's effects are okay, but the samples in Sonic Synth just suck. Alot of the sounds lack punch and juice. It's the same old stale sampleplayback synth sounds that we've all listened to too much. I think Triton's sounds are programed at a much higher level and therefore makes it more usable.
The only exception was Sonic Synth's acoustic drum kits, which sounds fairly nice. Beware tho, the hats don't cancel each other out.
All in all, the Sonic Synth library Sampletank 1.1 (and any library built for it) is totally out of style. It lacks personality, and that "cutting edge" attitude. So, it'll work for muzac and back ground music. Stuff that's not supposed to stand out. But, the Sonic Synth is quite pricy. Costing around $400, it's definitely not worth the price. Either the guys who made Sampletank, or the guys who made Sonic Synth seriously do not know what's going on.
Perhaps the 2XL upgrade will make me feel better about my purchase.
Sonic Synth for Sampletank
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Nestor
- Posts: 6683
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- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
I'm surprised you got it before trying it completely, 400$ is not a joke…
My only suggestion would be to sell it as soon as you can… if this made you unhappy the first day, it means that in 6 months you are no longer to use it, sure. Even when you love something good and new, after about 6 months the impact is obviously less strong, but if you start don’t liking an instrument, it is very improbable you are going to like it later.
Sell it, there are always people interested that may like “this” particular sound you are talking about, very well known as you say, for instance, in some old Yamaha cards.
If I were you, I would then get some more DSP, this is the best investment you can do, and use more your own SFP samplers. I don’t know Ken, if this make sense for you, but this is what I would do myself.
My only suggestion would be to sell it as soon as you can… if this made you unhappy the first day, it means that in 6 months you are no longer to use it, sure. Even when you love something good and new, after about 6 months the impact is obviously less strong, but if you start don’t liking an instrument, it is very improbable you are going to like it later.
Sell it, there are always people interested that may like “this” particular sound you are talking about, very well known as you say, for instance, in some old Yamaha cards.
If I were you, I would then get some more DSP, this is the best investment you can do, and use more your own SFP samplers. I don’t know Ken, if this make sense for you, but this is what I would do myself.
It's a pitty only the Triton Rack has a 24bit (doubling of 6 analog outs) ADAT expansion option. If I remember well you have the Classic (keyboard) version...
My old house mate has a Rack version. Since it works at 48kHz fix, we only used the analog outputs. The rest of the equipment ran at 44.1kHz.
When I got to know him, this guy (an excellent DJ!) had some problems getting his head around Pulsar. He had just bought a second Pulsar1. He basically used it as a MIDI card although he knew it was possible to do make and process sound on it. Being new to anything digital, he gave me one of the cards, so I could learn what they were about. And on how to keep them running. At the time, Pulsar OS 1.3a had just been released and it was even worse than before
But what an options! This card was a dream come true. A while later, searching for more info on that studio-in-a-pc, I found planetz. A most welcome place just next to that studio, with all the documentation and discussions I needed to make the most of Pulsar.
I'm sorry for that personal intermezzo, Ken, but that Triton triggered some memories!
My old house mate has a Rack version. Since it works at 48kHz fix, we only used the analog outputs. The rest of the equipment ran at 44.1kHz.
When I got to know him, this guy (an excellent DJ!) had some problems getting his head around Pulsar. He had just bought a second Pulsar1. He basically used it as a MIDI card although he knew it was possible to do make and process sound on it. Being new to anything digital, he gave me one of the cards, so I could learn what they were about. And on how to keep them running. At the time, Pulsar OS 1.3a had just been released and it was even worse than before
But what an options! This card was a dream come true. A while later, searching for more info on that studio-in-a-pc, I found planetz. A most welcome place just next to that studio, with all the documentation and discussions I needed to make the most of Pulsar.I'm sorry for that personal intermezzo, Ken, but that Triton triggered some memories!
sorry to hear that Ken.
i would have to go along with nestor and say more sharcs is the answer, or you may be wasting time & resources.
of course it's easy for me to say having bought a xmas pack powerpulsar to flesh out the old pulsar1, but my workflow and learning opportunity has increased tenfold since the upgrade, with no loss of sound quality!
good luck
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: wayne on 2004-02-05 10:52 ]</font>
i would have to go along with nestor and say more sharcs is the answer, or you may be wasting time & resources.
of course it's easy for me to say having bought a xmas pack powerpulsar to flesh out the old pulsar1, but my workflow and learning opportunity has increased tenfold since the upgrade, with no loss of sound quality!
good luck
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: wayne on 2004-02-05 10:52 ]</font>
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Joxer the Mighty
- Posts: 175
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paulrmartin
- Posts: 2445
- Joined: Sun May 20, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Montreal, Canada
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hubird
Hypersonic is one of the worst romplers on the market in my opinion. If you're after very bland sounding trance it might be ok, but the level of editing isn't very great for each patch, and the stock sounds, while a bit better than sonic synths, definately don't stack up to a triton.
The nice thing about a Sampletank2 upgrade is that you would get integrated Amplitude as an effect (if that's your thing) and the ability to load sample cd's (at least akai format) as well as sampletank formats. I believe you can also create your own sample programs as well, though I am not actually a user.
If you do decide to sell I would recommend that you get a software sampler like Exs24 (for logic) / Halion / Kontakt etc. You'll have the ability to load (or at least convert & load) regular sample cd's of most formats (use CDXtract for the ones that your sampler doesn't support) and there are a LOT of high quality samplesets on the market to do what the triton does.
Spectrasonics atmosphere only does ambient pads and synths exclusively, and while I own it and think its an excellent way to get certain sounds that would otherwise require a lot of cpu or dsp to generate, its a rather limited palette again compared to triton.
The move in the market away from sample cd's to packaging the samples with a 'rompler' I find to be more limiting than using a sampler, as you're limited to what the rompler's interface can do and the sounds usually are packed into a single large (6-10Gb) datafile where you can't access the raw zones should you decide that you want to do something with that later on (I almost never use multisampled cd's as they were intended when I write, rather I pick the parts I want and build very ram/cpu light programs in Exs24 to fit the current track's needs).
The nice thing about a Sampletank2 upgrade is that you would get integrated Amplitude as an effect (if that's your thing) and the ability to load sample cd's (at least akai format) as well as sampletank formats. I believe you can also create your own sample programs as well, though I am not actually a user.
If you do decide to sell I would recommend that you get a software sampler like Exs24 (for logic) / Halion / Kontakt etc. You'll have the ability to load (or at least convert & load) regular sample cd's of most formats (use CDXtract for the ones that your sampler doesn't support) and there are a LOT of high quality samplesets on the market to do what the triton does.
Spectrasonics atmosphere only does ambient pads and synths exclusively, and while I own it and think its an excellent way to get certain sounds that would otherwise require a lot of cpu or dsp to generate, its a rather limited palette again compared to triton.
The move in the market away from sample cd's to packaging the samples with a 'rompler' I find to be more limiting than using a sampler, as you're limited to what the rompler's interface can do and the sounds usually are packed into a single large (6-10Gb) datafile where you can't access the raw zones should you decide that you want to do something with that later on (I almost never use multisampled cd's as they were intended when I write, rather I pick the parts I want and build very ram/cpu light programs in Exs24 to fit the current track's needs).
My sympathy. It's always tough when you come to the realisation that something you bought is actually not so good. There's that grim middle time when you *suspect* it's not what you hoped, but you keep wishing...
Then finally comes the time you accept the bad news.
Thanks for letting us know. I toyed with getting Sonic Station for months (for Kontakt), but ended up getting some sample CDs instead...
Then finally comes the time you accept the bad news.
Thanks for letting us know. I toyed with getting Sonic Station for months (for Kontakt), but ended up getting some sample CDs instead...