whats the best rack mount synth

  • Thread starter Thread starter Homicide
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Triton Rack isn't exactly the same generation as Motif ES Rack and Fantom XR. those two belong to a whole new standard in regards to polyphony, ammount of RAM, fx etc. i could be wrong, but XR seems more expandable i the long run. and motifs advantage in piano/ep sounds is not as clear now that Roland closed the gap w releasing two very nice piano expansions.

personally i'd go for motif, but then again i'd rather have it in keyboard form. i just cannot play piano/ep sounds via midi (or w any kind of latency for that matter). coming from a piano background, its just too damn slow for me. i may not hear it but my fingers "feel" it, and it affects my playing.. sorry, i digressed a bit..

hope this helps.
 
How about an OB8 in a rack?

ObieRack.jpg


Or maybe a prophet 5?

P-5.jpg


Those aren't readily easy to find...although one of the P5's popped up on ebay a month or two ago ;)

If I were to buy a modern rack, it'd be an Omega 8 or a Poly Evolver....
 
fOZf8 said:
How about an OB8 in a rack?

ObieRack.jpg


Or maybe a prophet 5?

P-5.jpg


Those aren't readily easy to find...although one of the P5's popped up on ebay a month or two ago ;)

If I were to buy a modern rack, it'd be an Omega 8 or a Poly Evolver....
Click to expand...

Good call! They also had an 808 rack at one point...MMmmmmm....

Actually I've heard that the guys at SE can still rack vintage synths for those that have the $$$. Anyone else have any details?
 
u think wat this guy told me in GC is true?

I asked him if i should get the MOTIF ES RACK coz im tight in budget and he said YOU CAN'T EXPAND IT, blah. . .and the next thing he told me to get a SAMPLETANK 2 XL

is this adviceable? i mean if i get that ES RACK id be financing it. . .
 
anjow said:
u think wat this guy told me in GC is true?

I asked him if i should get the MOTIF ES RACK coz im tight in budget and he said YOU CAN'T EXPAND IT, blah. . .and the next thing he told me to get a SAMPLETANK 2 XL

is this adviceable? i mean if i get that ES RACK id be financing it. . .
Click to expand...

You would definately get more bang for your buck with SampleTank. Also check out Kontakt. Its only a few hundred dollars to get gigabytes worth of high quality samples versus $1000 to get 128 megabytes worth of ROM with a Motif ES rack.
 
The triton rack is the bottom of the 3..
I have a ES rack (and love it) and saving for A Fantom XR...
out of those two the es rack is a monster, but the XR is a full on sampler too. both racks ARE expandable the es uses plg cards and the XR uses srx cards.
 
i use an ES rack(still trying how to record it using FL), u'll love it, great selection of sounds, and easy to edit, im trying to save up for a couple plg boards, but the ES rack alone should set you straight.
 
thanx for ur advice Array. . .and i heard that SampleTank 2 is widely expandable . . .i guess ill be buyin it soon
 
I got a mpc so I dont really care that much for a rack with a good sampler
 
on ebay, i met this dude selling the whole triton and fantom sound bank for 100$. its basically an exact copy he multi-sampled from the keyboards and all mapped out.

the series is called NEXT LEVEL (jsut search next level fantom/triton)

he's also got a series called UNLEASHED (which is not as detailed multisampled) which is around 30$ a pop.

so check that i out, i plan on getting that instead of the racks to save me a bunch of money.
 
anjow said:
thanx for ur advice Array. . .and i heard that SampleTank 2 is widely expandable . . .i guess ill be buyin it soon
Click to expand...

Be sure to check out Kontakt by Native Instruments. Its so ridiculously versatile...and its konvolution reverb engine is mindblowing.
 
Roland Fantom has more synthetic functions that supercedes simple romplers.

But if you just want simple, acoustic sounds, Motif and Triton may be better.
 
Array said:


You would definately get more bang for your buck with SampleTank. Also check out Kontakt. Its only a few hundred dollars to get gigabytes worth of high quality samples versus $1000 to get 128 megabytes worth of ROM with a Motif ES rack.
Click to expand...

the amount of ROM doesnt really matter. the vst hypersonic for example only takes less than 300 MB and sounds just as good and in my opinion better than Sampletank which is over 4 GB. the stuff ive heard that can fit on a floppy disk on an asr-10 or kurzweil k2600 sounds better than both.

that and with kontakt, you wont get nearly a varied palette of high quality sounds as what comes out of a motif es for the price. the motif also has several synth engines available, so it is expandable in a way and is great for tweaking. that kontakt-based piece collosus comes close though.

Sampletank is nice and is definitely great for the money, but i still dont think its on the Fantom or Motif ES's level yet seeing as ive played all 3.
 
dmensah1 said:


the amount of ROM doesnt really matter. the vst hypersonic for example only takes less than 300 MB and sounds just as good and in my opinion better than Sampletank which is over 4 GB. the stuff ive heard that can fit on a floppy disk on an asr-10 or kurzweil k2600 sounds better than both.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure in what way Hypersonic can sound better than Sampletake. They are both running at 32 bit floating point resolution in most modern host DAWs. Perhaps what you're saying is you like the included sample set and presets better in hypersonic.

The comment about the k2600? I'm not sure it's possible that a sampler operating at 16 bits can sound better than a 32 bit floating point sampler. Again I would say that perhaps you liked the presets better in this instance, but even that really doesn't make sense. And i'm pretty sure there isn't a comparison between the ASR-10 and sampletank at all . . .

dmensah1 said:
that and with kontakt, you wont get nearly a varied palette of high quality sounds as what comes out of a motif es for the price. the motif also has several synth engines available, so it is expandable in a way and is great for tweaking. that kontakt-based piece collosus comes close though.
Click to expand...

This i'm pretty confused on also. You don't get as varied a palette of samples? Yes you do. You get more. And more multisamples, not just the "mega-sampling" technology that the ES uses to make up for the lack of availible sample ROM.

Like array said, the effects processors on Kontakt alone are well worth the money. Convolution reverb actually samples a sound at various points in an open space, and that creates one of THE MOST natural reverbs possible. Kontakt also stole some reverb algorithms from the Lexicon PCM series in case you're into the more synthetic types of reverb.

From my experiences with the synth expansion card for the Motif/CS series, i'd say you're much better off buying a triton/MOSS card combination if you want to go the synth/rompler route. The ALN boards have a rather difficult interface and sound very thin, especially when used in conjunction with the MOTIF's reverbs.

dmensah1 said:
Sampletank is nice and is definitely great for the money, but i still dont think its on the Fantom or Motif ES's level yet seeing as ive played all 3.
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Sample Tank is interesting in that it is a dedicated Sampler/ROMpler. The Fantom/Motif units are many things . . . sampler, rompler, tactile interface, an actual physical object, and extremely specialized code that makes up the UI. They're great if you're looking for presets, but if you want to do any serious editing you're going to be turning towards the PC editor most definitely. You'll find it will take far to long on the racks themselves. In that case, unless your CPU is ridiculously slow, I don't see the point in buying a PC edited rack unit, when you can save a ridiculous amount of money, get better and more plentiful samples and effects units, and still maintain the SAME UI that you're going to have with the rack unit. It makes sense to me . . .

And I too have played all 3 btw.
 
Double post, many apologies.
 
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if u want a motif or fantom or triton (just for the sounds), read what i said up top.

sampletank is a good buy, i've seen the dude at www.todaysbeats.com (i got vip membership) do some crazy stuff with cubase and sample tank.

i haven't tried kontakt yet but if u looking for a good VST, save up some money and get the East West Quantum Leap Colosuss. its a 32gb soundbank for kontakt (it even comes with its own version of kontakt) so u can use that with any VST host, and this thing has like everysound you will ever need (do some research on it)
 
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