Tone 2 - Saurus 2 is available

[KingTuck]

The gui is designed in a very straight forward "idiot proof" manner which might be insulting to some, but i feel it is like that to appeal to a mainstream audience. This and their over the top marketing might throw some off too. I personally think their programmer is very good at DSP design though.

One thing i remember with my experience was how stable saurus was! It also ran with very low CPU so i could use it too fill gaps along side my more DSP hungry analog emulated synthesizers.

That said all of the Tone2 stuff is great, but you will either love it, hate it, or like it and find other products to fill the gaps you feel they lack.

I've pushed my copy of Saurus hard, like hard hard hard before in my DAW. It held up pretty well. Much better than most plugins would/do.

Markus (Tone2 head honcho/programmer) is an excellent DSP programmer and a very good synth designer. Tone2 make good products. It's marketing giboligook that all their products offer "never before heard sounds!", but who cares. They've never put out a product that's not thoughtfully designed. I wholeheartedly say that Ultraspace deserves better than a 3.5/5 review from Computer Music. It's a terrific reverb plugin that is truly interesting and useful even for someone (like me) who's used, and owns, a lot of reverb plugins.

Their products shouldn't be love it or hate it affairs. Even though they often are for many people. I dunno. I suppose if all their marketing hodgepodge giboligook hocus pocus nonsense wasn't working they'd have stopped a while ago.

Their stuff sounds good (albeit weirdly specific to their company), it's well designed, and it's well programmed/stable. That's most of what matters, isn't it?

[fluffy_little_something]

Can you people access their Site? I get SSL errors and can't load anything except the home page.

[dwozzle]

Can you people access their Site? I get SSL errors and can't load anything except the home page.

No problems from here on the pages I just tried. What page(s) are you trying to hit?

[fluffy_little_something]

It is working again now Nothing worked except the home page when I tried earlier today. But I found their email address on their FB page, so no problem...

[db3]

I note on FB they quote "Available in two weeks: Tone2 Saurus2"
Posted April 21st. So looking like next week

[Apostate]

I note on FB they quote "Available in two weeks: Tone2 Saurus2"
Posted April 21st. So looking like next week

I bought mine from Best Service and am freaking crazy about it. I just had the delve more into the manual to see how tweakable it really is. Great synth, looking forward to 2.

[KingTuck]

I note on FB they quote "Available in two weeks: Tone2 Saurus2"
Posted April 21st. So looking like next week

I bought mine from Best Service and am freaking crazy about it. I just had the delve more into the manual to see how tweakable it really is. Great synth, looking forward to 2.

Most everything that is tweakable is visible on the front panel of the synth. There isn't anything crazy about it to find in the manual. It has a great matrix but there are only a few things accessible from it that aren't immediately accessible elsewhere. Saurus is a super easy to use "pick up and go" synth. It aims for less over more.

It's not a super "tweak" friendly synth. It's much more kind of, concise and focused, or something, than that. Tweaker synths are more so u-he and XILS Lab kind of territory.

[Apostate]

I note on FB they quote "Available in two weeks: Tone2 Saurus2"
Posted April 21st. So looking like next week

I bought mine from Best Service and am freaking crazy about it. I just had the delve more into the manual to see how tweakable it really is. Great synth, looking forward to 2.

Most everything that is tweakable is visible on the front panel of the synth. There isn't anything crazy about it to find in the manual. It has a great matrix but there are only a few things accessible from it that aren't immediately accessible elsewhere. Saurus is a super easy to use "pick up and go" synth. It aims for less over more.

It's not a super "tweak" friendly synth. It's much more kind of, concise and focused, or something, than that. Tweaker synths are more so u-he and XILS Lab kind of territory.

Sure, but I can be extremely dense when it comes to "going deep". Certainly the synths you mentioned are deeper, Serum, Bazille, Helix, Z3ta...shoot, Elektra's deeper fer cryin' out loud

[fluffy_little_something]

I always find it odd when people say Sylenth, Saurus, etc. are simple. basic etc.
Jesus, Saurus is a purely subtractive synth. For that it is quite tweakable. If what Saurus offers you is not enough, you should probably look for a different kind of synth altogether, such as modular, wavetable or whatever.

Saurus has basically 4 oscillators (the sub's are pretty complete) with sync, ring mod and what not, so it can even produce massive Minimoog-like sounds.

Saurus has features that owners of old Oberheim's, Moog's etc. would have loved to have on their hardware.

[Robmobius]

I always find it odd when people say Sylenth, Saurus, etc. are simple. basic etc.
Jesus, Saurus is a purely subtractive synth. For that it is quite tweakable. If what Saurus offers you is not enough, you should probably look for a different kind of synth altogether, such as modular, wavetable or whatever.

Saurus has basically 4 oscillators (the sub's are pretty complete) with sync, ring mod and what not, so it can even produce massive Minimoog-like sounds.

Saurus has features that owners of old Oberheim's, Moog's etc. would have loved to have on their hardware.

I'm always perplexed by that very same thing. Especially when people say it's 'out of date'. How the F is Sylenth or Saurus out of date? They are analog subtractive synthesizers and contain the features you'd expect. Granted with sylenth I'd like it to be 64 bit version. But the truth of the matter Sylenth still sounds class and better then most. And Saurus has lots of waveforms and features that would not be on a hardware equivalent. I think the update will be great (imo).

Whether you like their sound or not is a subjective matter. So there's no real point in debating taste. As people like what they like, etc.

I've pretty much just echoed Fluffy's comments. Both synths fill their roles very well as analog (emulations) synths perfectly well. If you want wave table animation then get Serum. If you want FM then get Nemesis.

[Apostate]

If you want FM then get Nemesis.

YES! Besides Sytrus, my favorite FM synth.

I wonder if "more shallow" synths might just seem that way because their presets are so inspiring in and of themselves. Certainly both Sylenth and Saurus have sounds that are both tweakable and simply great on their own. In my case, I usually use Sylenth just to mess with the presets instead of choosing to start from scratch, same with Gladiator and to a lesser degree Cyclop (for some reason I have a ball programming Cyclop).

But then, I wonder if that's how they were meant. As you mentioned above, you want something deeper for init, go Serum, Helix, Elektra...

[2ZrgE]

I'm always perplexed by that very same thing. Especially when people say it's 'out of date'. How the F is Sylenth or Saurus out of date? They are analog subtractive synthesizers and contain the features you'd expect.

Sylenth's preset browser is totally out of date for starters.

Filter technology has developed as well over the years.

A ten year old car isn't out of date because it contains the features you'd expect: it drives?

[wagtunes]

The issue isn't one of being "out of date". The CS 80 is decades old but I guarantee that if somebody could make an emulation that REALLY sounded like it, it would sell like hotcakes.

The problem with many synths (and I won't mention any by name) is that with as far as technology has come and with all the options out there today, those synths just don't offer anything that you can't get somewhere else and possibly better.

Sylenth1 is a fine sounding synth. But there are lots of fine sounding synths out there and cheaper than Sylenth1. Same with Saurus. These synths just don't offer anything that's so amazing that they are the only options. This is not to say that they aren't good synths or that they don't offer sounds and features that some people might find desirable. I don't. They don't give me anything that I already don't have.

It's all competition and what that synth can give me that another synth can't.

Again, give me a CS 80 that really sounds like a CS 80 (arguably the most unique sounding synth ever made) and I'll buy it because there is just nothing else out there that can give me that sound. And no, Arturia and ME do not sound like a CS 80. If you've owned one, you know it.

Ultimately, what does synth X give you that synths A-Z don't?

It has nothing to do with age. It's comparative features and price...period.

But yeah, 64 bit vs 32 bit CAN be an issue if you have a machine like mine that spits up 32 bit plugs like rotten food. I simply can't use them even with bridging. So Sylenth1 will never be an option for me until they make a 64 bit version.

But other than that, it's features and price. I don't care how old you are if you give me features and price over another similar synth.

[Crackbaby]

If someone says a synth is out of date it refers to their own beliefs and situation. Maybe that person is narcissistic or just bad at expressing him or herself. I fall for that trap all the time though. Someone shouts "This synth sucks!" about my favourite synth and i may become defensive, especially if i think the developer is nice. But "This synth sucks!" just means that the person doesn't know how to use it. Is it because of being impatient or for being stupid? Depends on what mood im in!

[Robmobius]

I'm always perplexed by that very same thing. Especially when people say it's 'out of date'. How the F is Sylenth or Saurus out of date? They are analog subtractive synthesizers and contain the features you'd expect.

Sylenth's preset browser is totally out of date for starters.

Filter technology has developed as well over the years.

A ten year old car isn't out of date because it contains the features you'd expect: it drives?

Well... I could name quite a few synths that are newer and suffer from a similar problem. Menu - That's kinda' nit picking.

Synleth's limited number of filters still sound good, and are perfectly functional. In Sylenth's case it still drives pretty damn well given it's age (to use your car analogy).

I'm trying to think of another VA analog synths that sounds better (not necessarily with more features). Besides Sylenth's voices/unison are still class.

I suppose the 3 synths that come to mind are Diva and Spire (and HIVE when it's released). But Diva is more traditional analog and is the king for that. What I would say is Sylenth is over priced compared to the competition and NEEDS to be 64bit. But the workaround is very solid to be fair.

The point is that Sylenth still sounds very good and is great VA - And still is one of the best around imo. However, who has only one soft synth? Most people have shitloads. Because no one stynth can do everything.

I'm still waiting for the 'Sylenth killer' to emerge. However I think HIVE will be the one to beat. Serum probably one of my favorites right now is a behemoth. But I still use Sylenth for certain stuff.