Thanks Brian,I'm an acoustic stringed instrument player who recently got interested in MIDI, and have no real knowledge of synthesizers. All I really want is to be able to program realistic backing tracks for my Blues, Bluegrass, and jazz banjo playing. The emphasis for me is to have a decent sounding guitar, fiddle, mandolin etc. I'm leaning toward the Hypersonic, but I'll let it sit a while in my head and wait.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryan Smart" <BSmart@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 11:45 AM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Dimension vs hypersonic
Phil, the TTS-1 is terrible in terms of sound quality. Imagine theinstruments in an early 90's Yamaha PSR keyboard or old Roland Sound Canvas,and you have a good idea of what to expect from the TTS-1. Cakewalk should be ashamed of bundling the TTS-1 with Sonar. The TTS-1 is everything badabout the early sample-based keyboards. For most of the instruments, you getjust a few samples that are pitched up and down as you play across the keyboard. The synth doesn't really respond to how hard you play the keyboard, other than to adjust the volume of the sound from soft to loud. The instrument voices do not have any type of real effects with them(autopanner with rhodes, distortion with guitars, phasers with clavs, choruswith FM pianos, etc). It does not even come remotely close to the type of sounds that you'd get out of a modern synthesizer like a Yamaha Motif orRoland Fantom. Either Dimension or HS2 will sound extremely superior to the TTS-1 with out a doubt. Choosing Dimension or HS2 is up to your preference,but either will be a superior choice over TTS-1. Dimension focuses on some large sample-based sounds, and HS2 focuses on behaving like a hardwaremodule. The TTS-1 also works like a hardware-based module, it just acts likeone from 15 years ago. I'm not kidding about the 15 years part. The Alesis QS6 that I had back in 1996 would eat TTS-1 for lunch, and there is no way that I'd use a dated sounding QS6 today. Bryan -----Original Message-----From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] OnBehalf Of Phil Halton Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 11:22 AM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Dimension vs hypersonic I'm very new to the game, and don't really know much, if anything, about editting patch parameters like attack etc. In general, it sounds likethere's nothing that really set these softsynths apart from the TTS-1, asidefrom a wider range of sounds, and perhaps sound quality in some instances. So, just how much worse is the TTS-1 than the Hypersonic? Its free after all, and if its not completely outclassed by hypersonic, or some othersynth, what's the point of spending a few hundred on another softsynth? Iguess I really need to hear these synths for myself, but I don't live near anyplace that has these things set up for demo. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryan Smart" <BSmart@xxxxxxxxx> To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 10:58 AM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Dimension vs hypersonicWhen you buy a softsynth like this, you're going after a general purpose tool to give you many types of sounds that you don't have specific softsynths to cover. Dimension Pro has some good sounds. On the whole, though, I don't like its library. The weak sounds are very weak. Guitars and basses are quite bad. Strings are good for orchestral styles, but I hate them for pop. Keyboard sounds (rhodes, FM rhodes, clavs) are extremely cheesy. Drums are poor, and they aren't even laid out in GM format across the keyboard. I have a few sounds that I like in Dimension, but it isn't worth the cost to me. You only get one instrument voice per instance, it isn't that easy to change presets, and you can't edit them at all to any real degree. Hypersonic II is very different. Some of Dimensions sounds outclass HS2, but, on the whole, HS2 has a huge library of useable sounds. It has a few spectacular sounds, but lots of average sounds. There aren't too many awful patches. HS2 is more like a hardware MIDI module: it accepts patch change commands and it responds to all of the general MIDI CC commands. You can also edit patches through sending MIDI CC messages. Each patch has six edit controls that are specific to the patch, plus there are all of the standard MIDI CCs that can be used for editing (filter cut-off, filter res, amp attack and release, portamento time, etc). If you have an external controller with knobs/sliders, you can map these to the CCs that HS2expects, so that editing a patch is as simple as moving controls until youget the sound that you'd like. It isn't full editing of every parameter, but most of the main characteristics of a sound can be tweaked, and, anyway, its way beyond what can be accomplished with Dimension. Plus, HS2 isn't strictly sample playback. The engine supports analog and FM synthesis, so there is a wider variety of sound tambers than with Dimension. Its 1.5GB library isn't quite to the 7GB that is used by Dimension, but taken as a whole, Dimension doesn't sound as good as a Motif, which only has 175MB of sample ROM. So, sample ROM size isn't everything. Bryan -----Original Message----- From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Phil Halton Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 10:08 AM To: ddots-l Subject: [ddots-l] Dimension vs hypersonic I've been considering upgrading from the cakewalk TTS-1 to a better soft synth, and I've been watching this thread on Dimension Pro with interest. I hear alot of Pro's, but a few con's that put me off a bit. For example, its not multi-timbral (as if I knew why that mattered--just doesn't sound good). Question, is the hypersonic by Steinberg, or any other soft synth, in the running with dimension pro? What other softsynths are in this class, and should be considered? 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