Tone 2 Saurus Analog Synth Review Video

[milfhuntr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5mx1gXGUhI

[Rationalizer]

Sounds good. Thanks for posting!

[milfhuntr]

Sounds good. Thanks for posting!

You're welcome. Could be a rival for Diva, maybe. It does use less CPU anyway. Have to try Saurus a little more first but there are some great song ideas in there with all those arps and stuff.

[glitchrock-buddha]

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.

[regretfullySaid]

Kind of strange how Harmor seemed to float off into the ether after it was released.
Too overwhelming? Or is the popularity just not so visible?

[glitchrock-buddha]

Kind of strange how Harmor seemed to float off into the ether after it was released.
Too overwhelming? Or is the popularity just not so visible?

Harmor? Not a tone2 synth, but ok. Wasn't even a mac version. Too bad, seemed cool. Kind of off topic though.

[Machinesworking]

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.

[mholloway]

I love it. First soft-synth I bought in a while, and did so after playing with the demo for a bit. I know the marketing is all about 'analog' but I don't care if that's accurate or not -- I just know that I really, really like the way it sounds. It's much too early to call but I see this playing a similar role / filling a similar space as Sylenth1 does, which I use all the time and love dearly. There aren't that many straight-up subtractive VA's that have the kind of punch and vibrancy that this (and definitely Sylenth) have tons of.

as for competing with Diva....<shrug> I don't use Diva, it's too much CPU hog and I know this sounds backwards, perhaps, but I'm not into the "choose which synth module you want" approach, I prefer the (elegant) simplicity of mastering one interface.

-M

[Machinesworking]

It's much too early to call but I see this playing a similar role / filling a similar space as Sylenth1 does,

Agreed, that's about where I would put it as well. Closer to Zebra 2 or Sylenth than Diva.
Lol at your love of simple soft synths, to each his own of course, but I love Zebra!
Owning a few analog synths I have no real need for Diva though, because of that Virtual Instrument wise I tend to like wavetable and granular synths over VAs and analog emulations.

[glitchrock-buddha]

FYI, if you have a few hours to spare and a LOT of popcorn, there's a great show going on over at KVR where the devs are getting into it pretty good, among the usual mud slinging. Markus of tone2 and Urs have gone several rounds of bickering, it's pretty shameful but not surprising for tone2.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0

I like their synths but have such a hard time investing in them as a company.

[glitchrock-buddha]

It's much too early to call but I see this playing a similar role / filling a similar space as Sylenth1 does,

Agreed, that's about where I would put it as well. Closer to Zebra 2 or Sylenth than Diva.
Lol at your love of simple soft synths, to each his own of course, but I love Zebra!

I've found that I far prefer the simple synths as well. like them to have a lot of options in the oscillator section to easily get different tones (things like fm, ring mod, wavetable maybe or additive osc like imposcar etc.), but I much prefer the non-modular approach. I especially prefer the one page layout. Things like imposcar, Poly-Ana, oddity, or even tone2's gladiator. I used to think a good soft synth should have EVERYTHING - Multi-stage oscillators, every kind of synthesis and all that. Now I realize how much a can do with simple synthesis or sampling and any effects I can think of. It's like the old guitar approach - raw quality sound from the instrument and then mold with effects.

Owning a few analog synths I have no real need for Diva though, because of that Virtual Instrument wise I tend to like wavetable and granular synths over VAs and analog emulations.

DIVA just takes the cake though. I've never seen such amazing value for money. Regardless of whether you have hardware analogs, having a realistic Minimoog, MS-20, Jupiter-8, Alpha Juno and Juno-60 (I think I got those right), in one plug-in is just ridiculous. Best purchase I've made.

[Newecho]

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

Enjoy,

http://youtu.be/-scMPERoIlQ

[Machinesworking]

I've found that I far prefer the simple synths as well. like them to have a lot of options in the oscillator section to easily get different tones (things like fm, ring mod, wavetable maybe or additive osc like imposcar etc.), but I much prefer the non-modular approach. I especially prefer the one page layout. Things like imposcar, Poly-Ana, oddity, or even tone2's gladiator. I used to think a good soft synth should have EVERYTHING - Multi-stage oscillators, every kind of synthesis and all that. Now I realize how much a can do with simple synthesis or sampling and any effects I can think of. It's like the old guitar approach - raw quality sound from the instrument and then mold with effects.

Well here's the deal, if you realize a simple truth when programming Zebra for instance you really will never want to mess with a simple VA IMO,
you only use what you need from all the the options. Sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I'm not, not at all. I will take options over simplicity every time. My three most used soft synths are Zebra, Massive and Absynth, but mostly I use what would be simple patches, thing is the options there are extreme.
Also, none of the synths you mention are wavetable synths, and that's a personal sound choice, not a simplicity thing.

and I seriously am not trying to start an argument but guitar is not simple compared to synths, especially when it comes to the actual 'controller'. In many ways guitar is vastly more complex than keyboards/Launchpads etc. are in terms of what you can do to change the tone on the fly.

I'll pick up Diva one of these days but I have an Oberheim Xpander and a Memorymoog sitting here, so VA's would simply sit there not being used. Both of these old poly analog synths are best of breed in terms of interface so it's impossible not to use them, but that was the idea really.

[glitchrock-buddha]

I've found that I far prefer the simple synths as well. like them to have a lot of options in the oscillator section to easily get different tones (things like fm, ring mod, wavetable maybe or additive osc like imposcar etc.), but I much prefer the non-modular approach. I especially prefer the one page layout. Things like imposcar, Poly-Ana, oddity, or even tone2's gladiator. I used to think a good soft synth should have EVERYTHING - Multi-stage oscillators, every kind of synthesis and all that. Now I realize how much a can do with simple synthesis or sampling and any effects I can think of. It's like the old guitar approach - raw quality sound from the instrument and then mold with effects.

Well here's the deal, if you realize a simple truth when programming Zebra for instance you really will never want to mess with a simple VA IMO,
you only use what you need from all the the options. Sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I'm not, not at all. I will take options over simplicity every time. My three most used soft synths are Zebra, Massive and Absynth, but mostly I use what would be simple patches, thing is the options there are extreme.

I totally hear what you're saying and I've said the same thing to people before. Zebra is a simple synth if you want it to be and it's very straight forward. However I still want to mess with simple synths for several reasons. For one, some of them make sounds that Zebra can't do very well. Or at least not quickly and easily. Secondly, I really like a synth that allows you to map out every single parameter to hardware and not have to use the mouse. And this isn't necessarily to do full sound design from the hardware (though I do sometimes). More often I'll find presets that I like and then tweak it into something totally different. With something modular like Zebra, it's very hard to map out everything useful that a preset might be using. With a simple synth, you can. I used to also think that more options is always better, and I can still respect that. But I've really come around to the simple ones that mimic the old hardware philosophy of having as many sound possibilities out of the fewest controls. That being said I still love absynth, alchemy, Massive etc. which are monsters.

Also, none of the synths you mention are wavetable synths, and that's a personal sound choice, not a simplicity thing.

No, but they were just examples of the layout I enjoy. Gladiator, though I don't own it, is a form of wavetable synth actually with a twist. And imposcar has different waveforms that you create based on additive combinations. ElectraX would be another example. Used to own that too but decided I was covered in that area well enough and downsized. I also enjoy Massive, absynth etc. But my point was that I like synths with a simple non-modular layout (but flexible routing), but I don't think that means they have to be restrictive in the oscillator capabilities.

and I seriously am not trying to start an argument but guitar is not simple compared to synths, especially when it comes to the actual 'controller'. In many ways guitar is vastly more complex than keyboards/Launchpads etc. are in terms of what you can do to change the tone on the fly.

Oh you're preaching to the choir on this one. I've played guitar for over 20 years and I am much more comfortable with it than keyboards!
But I think you missed my point. I was talking about it as just a sound source, not the expression (which is endless on a guitar). A guitar typically has a certain sound and you get some variations in tone via the pickup positions, tone knob, strings etc. What really gives you different sounds if you're going into sound design territory, are the effects. And the same principles can be applied to very simple synths which have less sonic range than something like Zebra. Take a good synth with a great base tone range and you can make anything with effects and it can be every bit as fun as using a complex synth. I'm not saying I do this more than using just the synth for the sound design but it's an idea that has grown on me.

I'll pick up Diva one of these days but I have an Oberheim Xpander and a Memorymoog sitting here, so VA's would simply sit there not being used. Both of these old poly analog synths are best of breed in terms of interface so it's impossible not to use them, but that was the idea really.

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!

[mholloway]

Part of my issue is with Zebra is that looking at it and tweaking it, it just doesn't *feel* like a musical instrument. The UI has always bugged me. I have nothing but respect for its sound quality, depth & flexibility. I occasionally use it. But it's not a synth I go to when I want to program VA-style subtractive synth bass, leads, whatever; I'll use Sylenth or Mono/Poly or now (getting back on topic here) the awesome Tone2 Saurus. Why? Because they feel like synthesizers! I enjoy the work and get good results.

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