I just wanted to take a moment to review SonikSynth 2, which was my "musical" Christmas gift for 2004.

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 SampleTank2XL, 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. Not to mention the great upgrade price I got.

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!

More information can be found at www.esoundz.com

How would you compare Sampletank 2xl to Sonik synth2? Is there any overlap? I just got Sampletank 2xl and was thinking of adding a soft synth type package to go with it.
Also did you look at Reaktor or Reaktor session?

Is Sonik Synth 2 considerably better than version 1? I bought the original and was underwhelmed. I thought many the sounds were kind of average.

JohnoL

I think it is better than St2. I thknk ST2 xl is good, but there are some areas that are just not right to me - some quality issues here and there. Don't get me wrong, I like St2, especially the engine and the imporatability and bla bla bla....and there are a lot of usable sounds in there.

SS2 seems to have more workstation sounds, where st2xl seems to focus more on "acoustic" sounds. the things in St2xl are a bit more raw sounding to me, where the ss2 stuff is "prettier". There is some overlap, but none that I've found where they are the same samples, and since the game here is to have a variety of different options for each category, this overlap is welcome - and since the st engine allows you to move samples around in explorer, you can categorize these in whatever fashion you want, so you have all your string patches together or favorites, or whatever.

I didn't look at the Kontact options, primarily because of the hype that "squids" (Dave Kerzner (sp?)) was talking up over at the kvr forum - the backing of sometihng by a REAL person involved in its production is important to me for some reason...but also because of the price and the fact that the Kontact stuff didn't sound better to me, just different. Sticking with one platform was also important to me - if for nothing else not to have yet another thing to keep up with, learn the idiosyncracies of, etc.

CapnSpaky

I didn't have SS1, so I have nothing to compare to. I know that the content that made it over to SS2 from SS1 has been reworked with the sampletank2 engine and makes up less than 1/7 or 1/8 of the total content of SS2.

there is a free demo with a small sampling of the sounds that are in the full version, just like there was for st2, but I don't think it really shows off what this thing is made up of AT ALL. It's so huge, it's kinda hard to look at a "few" of the sounds. But it's certainly better than nothing. I haven't done a demo yet to hear, there are two up on the sonicstate page, but again, they are just a quick going through of a number of patches. I haven't seen anyone else post one yet either, as this thing just came out about 2 weeks ago.

Helpful?

I would say Sonik Synth 2 is a MAJOR improvement over Sonik Synth 1. The Buzz over at KVR estimates there is about a 1/8 to 1/7 overlap between the two. There are many improved sounds, and many many additional sounds. They have enhanced the synth collection tremendously. There are many sounds taken from vintage synths, many atmospheric sounds, and a huge section of elements which you can use to add a personal touch to your sounds.

There are enough sounds in each other catagory to give you a great basic set of bread and butter sounds, too.

I've only had Sonik Synth 2 for a week, and I've been totally into it. There are over 5000 sounds in the set, and it takes a long time to just go through it and see what is all there. I don't like every sound in the set, but there are tons of gems. I have found a lot of sounds I just enjoy playing. If you're a keyboardist, it's a true playground.

To me, the real power of this package is having a great set of sounds, under the control of a nice GUI. The GUI allows you to easily assign voices to a midi channel, and blend sounds into combinations. There are great FX, and editing features, that allow you to make some fabulous sounds, which can have your own flavor. It's been compaired to a sound kitchen, and I think that analogy applies well. You can add a little of this, and a little of that, and a dash of this spice and that spice to make something quite special. It's all pretty straight forward, but very very deep. I haven't had any problems learning it.

I just ordered Sampletank 2 XL, so I can't make a compairison between them yet. I can say though, that I got Sonik Synth 2 as a Christmas present too, and it's the nicest present I have ever gotten! If you have Sonik Synth 1, you can upgrade to Sonik Synth 2 for $200. IMHO, it's one of the best deals around.

I passed on the SS2 upgrade because I feel the SS1 sounds are very very flat and average, IMO.

And while I like the general layout of the SAMPLETANK engine, auditioning patches is *still* tedious. [Digression: why is it so hard for softsynth/sampler designers to get their head's around the idea of using, oh, say THE FREAKING ARROW KEYS to navigate and select a new patch/bank?!?!? Perish the thought of assigning the patch selector to a simple MIDI CC - (freaking KOMPAKT-powered instruments make me want to gnaw my arm off in frustration after a while)].

Hey BC and Cap'n Spanky:

Here is a post that answers the SS1 to SS2 comparison question you guys have:
KVR Link

Thanks for the link. I've D/Led SS2 free and all the extra free sounds. I'll play with them and see what I think.

ORIGINAL: Blades
Hey BC and Cap'n Spanky:
Here is a post that answers the SS1 to SS2 comparison question you guys have:
KVR Link

Interesting. Thanks, Blades!

Hey BC, I just read that you can use a midi note to scroll up though patches, another to scroll down, and another to select patches in ST2. I didn't know it was there...just for grins.