Hey Progfusion and Rabid, tell me about Sonic Synth

[Magpel]

I know you guys are users, and I'm considering picking it up. Pursuing a complete Gigasampler collection is a bit too rich for my blood these days. Damn, you know? $600 for Dan Dean's solo woodwinds. But, oh, are they nice...

 

I have a couple of concerns--I'd like the strengths of SS to be: drums & perc., ethnic sounds, winds, upright bass, and pianos and EPs. How do you rate it in these areas\?. You can use your QS7 as a reference if it helps. Describe the character of the sounds as much as like. Do the drum samples have enough velocity layers for good, subtle real time playing? That's very important to me. Other things like that.

 

Next: What's your setup? Soundcard? PC Specs? Are you sequencing and recording audio on the same machine that SS is on? What kind of performance are you getting?

 

I'm concerned because my dedicated VST softsynth machine has an SB Audigy in it. Not the finest card by any means. And it also means that I can't render tracks to audio, because I'm sequecning and recording elsewhere.

 

Got any insight to offer? Thanks,

John

[progfusion74]

Magpel,

 

Sonic Synth is the single best purchase I have made. It is definitely a ROMpler running on the Sampletank Le engine, i.e. instead of the 4 stereo outs and 16 channels of the full engine it is 4 part multitimbral and has one stereo out. I bought Sampletank DJ at Musician's Friend for $99 to get the full engine + Akai converter. Anyway to Sonic Synth.

 

The quality of the samples is phenomenal, and based on your interest, I would say it is perfect for you.

 

The strengths of Sonic Synth are the Piano's (my favorite being the Yamaha C7), EPs, Chromatic Instruments, Misc Synths and Keys (oscar, and some Trons in here), Strings, basses, guitars (esp electric), synth pads, synth leads, synth bass, voices, and SFX. I my used patches are the Piano, EP, and all the synth patches which are just amazing. The one weakness is the brass and winds, but I believe the new 4th disc of Sonic Synth has improvements in that area. The Drum kits are pretty good, but since I tend to use a drum sampler for more control, I won't comment on them. You can of course add eROMs, such as symphony strings (the one I have) or the new bass and drum (all based on SR's I-map kits) eROMs.

 

You can get the full patch list, including some samples here

 

In all areas except brass, it beats the pants out of my QS7. I have used the QS to take advantage of its layering, but in general, I tend to use the QS almost exclusinvely as a controller or for building ideas off-line and then I go back to Sonic Synth. My main purpose for getting the QS was to get a 76-key board with good feel and MIDI capabilities, plus playable onboard sounds so that I could work offline when I wanted to (or jam with friends)

FYI, Sonic Reality has just announced Sonic Station. Read about it here

 

Hope this helps. If you want a poor example, the one song on the page in my signature is all sonic synth except the drums, which are a loop dissected in Phatmatik Pro. That's all pads though. I am sure Rabid will have a lot more to add.

 

Cheers

 

prog

[progfusion74]

As to CPU usage. One of the advantages of the Sampletank engine is very low CPU usage. I work mostly in cubase VST with multiple layers of Sonic Synth and only when I pull out my analog-emulation synths does my CPU meter go nuts (mostly z3ta+ and pentagon 1).

 

I am currently on a PII and if Sonic Synth was all I was using, I would be fine. YOu do need RAM though cause some of the Piano's are close to 60 megs in size. I often turn of the internal reverb on the patches since that does take up CPU. The other internal FX are breat. I especially like the ST filters and BPM effects.

 

If you can handle the limitations of Sampletank, Sonic Synth is a must have IMO. I do believe that Sampletank 2 will address some of the issues users have had (what issues remains to be seen).

 

Cheers

 

prog

[RABid]

I guess my use is just a bit different than others. They all talk about how good the drums and piano are. I already have GigaStudio, Battery, DR-008, and a few sample sets for those instruments so I never pull up the piano or drums in SonicSynth. Even so it is still well worth the price for me. I think I was the first person to peg SonicSynth as a workstation for the computer way back with my reviews on KVR and SoS. Since then the term has been corrected to ROMpler and I am surprised other companies have not released something to compete. It is basically a ROMpler that makes a good foundation for a computer based sequencing system. Like a Triton or XV there is a sound for everything. Only in this case the sound set is huge compared to the 64 meg you get with a Roland XV. In most cases the quality is between a good workstation and a dedicated sample CD that focuses on a single instrument. I thought I would have dedicated GigaSampler disks for acoustic guitar, bass and electric guitar by now but so far SonicSynth and the guitar expansion disk have filled my needs. To be honest, if I had bought SonicSynth first I may not have bought GigaStudio. The $60 piano ROM would have been much cheaper. I would still buy Battery and B4. I have no problems running it under Sonar II with DirectiXer as my VST wrapper. Someday I will probably upgrade to SampleTank XL and get 16 channels and multiple outs.

 

If I were spending $3000 I would pick up GigaStudio, Kontakt and $2000 worth of sample disks. But, it is a big jump from $300 to $3K.

 

Oh, for computer specs. Im using a P4 1.6 with a Gig of DDR memory and a M Audiophile 24/96. Sustained piano parts can cause the CPU to rise but otherwise SonicSynth is pretty efficient. I dont record audio on that computer and GigaStudio is on a separate computer. I would love to see a world ROM and vocal ROM for SonicSynth. At this time my world sounds come from my E-mu XL-7 and the World expansion ROM for it.

 

Robert

[Magpel]

Thanks, guys. I know you both frequent KvR, but I thought I might port the discussion over here, where the aboslute consensus on the greatness of SS wouldn't drown out a tempered, realistic discussion of its virtues and limitations.

 

Up to now, my philosophy has been to slowly acquire very focused Giga libraries, A drum set here, an accordion there, and in so doing get top quality while avoiding the waste of hundreds of patches I will never use and the 125th version of the GM Helicopter and Gunshot.

 

However...those libraries can be damned expensive and it would be nice to have a ROMpler-like base of sounds that I prefer to those on my QS and Korg Ns5r--and to do it affordably now that I've made the investment in my softsynth machine. Buying SS now may require that I upgrade the soundcard soon. The Audigy, actually, does an excellent job with latency with its ASIO drivers. I seldom have to slide it past 7ms and can often get good performance with 5ms or less. The problem with the Audigy is noise. There's some of that, esp. compared to my mouse-quiet Delta 1010, which handles Gigasampler and audio recording for me. The Audiphile looks like the right card for my sofsynth machine.

 

Well, I might just take the plunge. Musician's Friend sells it for $199.00 so that the stakes aren't all that high.

 

BTW, Robert, you're also pretty high on the Z3ta, are you not? The demo looks killer to me, like Pentagon with all its doors blown off. (actually, the hardwired limitation is one of the things I like about programming the Pentagon I, that and its robust sound).

 

Love this stuff, but MUST STOP BUYING!!!

[progfusion74]

Take the plunge and you won't regret it. Glad to help

 

As for z3ta+, yummy. I absolutely love it. Best thing is that the P1 and z3ta+ complement each other so well. I look at P1 as a performance synth cause it is so easy to get things done quickly. z3ta+ on the other hand is deep with immense modulation capabilities.

 

prog

[RABid]

Originally posted by Magpel:

.....BTW, Robert, you're also pretty high on the Z3ta, are you not? The demo looks killer to me, like Pentagon with all its doors blown off. (actually, the hardwired limitation is one of the things I like about programming the Pentagon I, that and its robust sound).

 

Love this stuff, but MUST STOP BUYING!!!

z3ta+ is the best sounding VSTi I have ever tried and I have a bunch. Think ABSynth with a full, analog sound. It is also the biggest CPU hog I have ever installed on my computer. With some patches a 3 note chord takes 50% of the CPU on my P4 1.6. I cannot even play some of the beautiful ep type patches without topping 90% within a single measure. I think it is worth it for leads alone. Anything other than leads and I think I will have to solo the track and record to HD.

 

Robert

[Magpel]

Oh jeez, now my appetite for z3ta is raging. Love the demo. That Rene is unbelievable. There's just something so robust, big, and hot about his synths.

Seriously, you softsynth doubters should lend an ear to the rgc synths. To my ears, they blow away Reaktor synths by virtue of what Bobro would call their solid "kernel."

 

And the rgc synths have got to be the most rock-solid stable softies I've ever loaded on my machine. I'm a real fan.