Tone 2 Saurus Analog Synth Review Video

[starving student]

[Linear Phase]

I think its rare for a music software company, to have many products, where each product seems to be quite unique, with a totally different sound and vibe than all the other products...

IK Multimedia, is pretty good at this.. erm, NI, and Ableton even.. I mean, Ableton has Live, "its main product," but everything that you can get for Live, or that comes with Live, is pretty different... I think. Lol --Cakewalk.. They are pretty good at this too.

That said.. I see a lot of, "music software companies," with the 5 eqs, they are all the same.. 10 compressors... All the same. Dudes, some of the stuff, is like totally overpriced.. Like I haven't kept up with the world o'KVR, but gimme a break. Another virtual analog modelled.. What? Compressor, synth, eq, distortion, saturator, phaser.. yeah... big yawn.

Now.. I'm not mentioning any names. I'm certainly not picking on Tone2.. I'm just seeing this theme all the time. A lot of these things.. All sound the same, or no different from what's already available.

[Newecho]

I think its rare for a music software company, to have many products, where each product seems to be quite unique, with a totally different sound and vibe than all the other products...

With small synth houses, I agree the synths take on the character of the developer which seems reasonable to me.

I will say as a long-time ElextraX user, and with over 10 hours in on programming Saurus, base waveforms are different and use different analog models. The filters code is different as well. There is a "boost" circuit at the end of the signal path. If you turn it on, it enables Psycho-Acoustic effect "which dynamically boosts frequencies giving an enhanced boosted sound without drastically changing overall output volume." ElectraX has this same feature and I find if you turn it on it pulls Saurus closer to ElectraX for certain patches. Turn it off to hear Saurus's character.

What's different about Saurus from ElextraX besides the new models is 1) there is a new morphable noise param per oscillator which is modulatable. You can sweep between FM and AM noise to really add some almost granular character. 2) Feedback on the filters overdrive with a more aggressive result (which you can really hear in the vid I put together). 3) The arp is now a combined arp/gate so lots features in less space 4) There are some new modulation sources and target that are not even in ElectraX. Sources: Voice Output (think CV for volume), key up/down (think harpsichord), white nose, pink noise and more. There is a cool new source target system for moduation scaling. So you can send a modulator to "x", and then use "x" as a source and do math on it. For example, you could use the gate to drive pitch then use "Filter(x)" to scale the target to modulate the edges of the gate and round them out with automation or a controller.

Lots of examples of this in the factory patches.

I guess what I'm saying is lots of synths look the same if you read the marketing bullets - but they are actually quite different once you start programming from INIT.

[Machinesworking]

Zebra obviously has rewards that those synths won't offer, if you know how to dig in. And that's great. My other problem with it, though, is that its character is, in my experience, very very smooth: which is great for numerous genres, but not so great for mine: industrial (though obviously industrial can have some smooth/clean sounds going on, it's just not the bread+butter). Zebra seems to excel at smooth, clear, crisp sounds, but when I try to "dirty it up," I fail. I know, probably my fault, not Zebra's, but all the same, I just can't get there with it and so I've long since chosen to go elsewhere.

-M

You're not the only person that plays industrial here. Zebra is great at metallic grinding noises for one. plus monster bass madness etc.
I will agree with you on one point though, the distortion built in to it is mediocre at best, definitely the weakest thing in Zebra, but it's useful in a preamp way.
The main thing in Zebra is the monster modulation capabilities. Plus if you're looking for dirt, it's going to come from the oscillators and filters more than the FX. Plenty of dirt there.

[Machinesworking]

Yes at least demo it for a while if you haven't. You never know, once Urs adds the Oberheim modules, maybe you'll have some gear for sale!

Guitar analogy again this time my ballpark. That's like saying a Jackson with humbuckers completely eliminates the need for a 65 Gibson Les Paul.
Some people are going to prefer the Les Paul, though a solid Jackson is a great guitar as well, and 99% of the people out there wouldn't be able to tell which guitar was used on a song.

Or to put it more succinctly, Automap and a VSTi is a great thing, but if you haven't owned and really gotten into the sound of a true analog poly synth that has a fully well thought out interface that makes programming it not just easy but a load of fun, then maybe you should find someone locally that has one and tell me how much better soft synths are.

FYI I fucking love Urs, he's a great person and everything he does is solid work, so I'm not knocking Diva, I just don't have a lot of use for it personally.
I want his FX suite first, already own Zebra, MFM2, and Filterscape. Tone2 on the other hand, not at all surprised those guys are making asses of themselves online again.

[glitchrock-buddha]

Yes at least demo it for a while if you haven't. You never know, once Urs adds the Oberheim modules, maybe you'll have some gear for sale!

Guitar analogy again this time my ballpark. That's like saying a Jackson with humbuckers completely eliminates the need for a 65 Gibson Les Paul.
Some people are going to prefer the Les Paul, though a solid Jackson is a great guitar as well, and 99% of the people out there wouldn't be able to tell which guitar was used on a song.

Or to put it more succinctly, Automap and a VSTi is a great thing, but if you haven't owned and really gotten into the sound of a true analog poly synth that has a fully well thought out interface that makes programming it not just easy but a load of fun, then maybe you should find someone locally that has one and tell me how much better soft synths are.

I guess the joke didn't translate well over the Internet, despite ol' winky smiley. Didn't really expect you to sell your hardware.

[milfhuntr]

I posted an improv video I made with Saurus on Youtube.

Enjoy,

http://youtu.be/-scMPERoIlQ

I checked it out. Good stuff.

[deva]

Downloaded the demo. Nice synth and fun to play but sounds an awful lot like the other tone2 synths. And that can be pretty good thing, but it seems like a pretty digital sound to me. A nice digital sound with very smooth filters however.

All that stuff on the page about accurately modelling analog gear, I dunno about that. Lots of digital artifacts and noise at times, but otherwise has the tone2 gloss.

I had ElectraX at one point but the early bugs bothered me. Since selling it have been considering getting it again but have found I don't really need it. I've been considering Saurus instead, but will probably pass.

Yeah funny but I got that impression from the review video. Wouldn't say it's a good competitor to Diva, but IMO U-He are a company that's hard to beat.

It is nothing like Diva. The dev made a mistake comparing it and marketing it as another high end analog emulation. It just isn't. Still has some cool sounds and functionality though.

[deva]

Zebra obviously has rewards that those synths won't offer, if you know how to dig in. And that's great. My other problem with it, though, is that its character is, in my experience, very very smooth: which is great for numerous genres, but not so great for mine: industrial (though obviously industrial can have some smooth/clean sounds going on, it's just not the bread+butter). Zebra seems to excel at smooth, clear, crisp sounds, but when I try to "dirty it up," I fail. I know, probably my fault, not Zebra's, but all the same, I just can't get there with it and so I've long since chosen to go elsewhere.

-M

You're not the only person that plays industrial here. Zebra is great at metallic grinding noises for one. plus monster bass madness etc.
I will agree with you on one point though, the distortion built in to it is mediocre at best, definitely the weakest thing in Zebra, but it's useful in a preamp way.
The main thing in Zebra is the monster modulation capabilities. Plus if you're looking for dirt, it's going to come from the oscillators and filters more than the FX. Plenty of dirt there.

I'm glad I have Zebra cause it is easy to work with and has vast sound sculpting capabilities. I agree that distortion is the weakest area of Zebra, but it can have lovely tones with edge and bite to them. I like simple synths too when they have something unique to offer. Diversity is where its at!

btw, how flexible is the modulation on your Oberheim? Can you for example, make a unison sound with 3 voices stacked and then have variable modulation for each of the voices? For example, in Diva I can have a 3 voice stack, and set the modwheel to cutoff and have different amounts of modulation for each of the unison voices. Or I can have a unison stack with LFO on cutoff and each voice has a different LFO speed. Makes for some really beautiful complex and expressive sounds. IIRC the Expander would be one of the few analog polysynths that has that sort of modulations capability. Is that correct?

[Newecho]

It is nothing like Diva. The dev made a mistake comparing it and marketing it as another high end analog emulation. It just isn't. Still has some cool sounds and functionality though.

I agree. I own Diva, Saurus, ACE (which is also modeled at the circuit level). Love them all and they all have different character.

[Machinesworking]

btw, how flexible is the modulation on your Oberheim? Can you for example, make a unison sound with 3 voices stacked and then have variable modulation for each of the voices? For example, in Diva I can have a 3 voice stack, and set the modwheel to cutoff and have different amounts of modulation for each of the unison voices. Or I can have a unison stack with LFO on cutoff and each voice has a different LFO speed. Makes for some really beautiful complex and expressive sounds. IIRC the Expander would be one of the few analog polysynths that has that sort of modulations capability. Is that correct?

Yeah it's more flexible than I use it for at the moment. I've gotten into using it for pads, chords etc. but I do need to explore it a bit more for sure.
You can assign each of the six voices to an entirely different sound if you want, so a stack of cutoff filters with separate LFOs is fully possible.
The craziest thing about the LFOs is you can modulate other LFOs with them, and the actual amp/note etc. so you hit a note and you get instant generative ambient music.
I'll have to throw some of that on Soundcloud, it's pretty amazingly musical sounding. In fact the only limitation that's a bit of a mental deal with the Xpander is that you have to use an audio pulse to sync an LFO to your host DAW. Another cheater method is to use the expression pedal cc and draw in a Clip LFO etc. The MIDI isn't as expansive as later digital synths. The filters are creamy though, and it's a nice compliment to the Moog, it's really easy to use those two as starts and fill the rest in with soft synths, as they can cut through all that analog fuzz.

[simpli.cissimus]

Sounds same as Gladiator and all other synth from Tone2...

Boooooooorrrring....!

...and isn't Tone2 famous for their adware/home calling malware shidd inside every software ?
I wouldn't pay for that...

[Grappadura]

sounds so fat!

[Grappadura]

I´m listening to the vid again cause its so awesome!

[Grappadura]

bought it