Hi folks,
Here are some examples of Hypersonic2 sounds, that I recorded during the weekend. Since some members here expressed interest in how it sounds, and the official site has only 4 demos, I tried to make some clips that MAY show what to expect and help you draw your own conclusions (other than the most obvious one, namely that I am a lousy keyboard player )

All clips are played completely live, and it shows, there are more mistakes than correct phrases, but what the heck....

All sounds are unedited and all backing tracks are as my arranger produced them, I changed nothing.

Click on the link and than select "download form the middle right of the screen.


Here they are:

Sad attempt to play the first measures of Angie, steel string guitar, tweaked the amount of frets and turned their volume higher than I should: http://storeandserve.com/download/160029/Angie.zip.html


Selected RAVE1 style on my keyboard, Hypersonic (not in GM mode) responded with selecting various instruments in random, I selected a random lead synth and played whatever came to my head. I find the result interesting, you may find it irritating: http://storeandserve.com/download/160033/random_rave2.zip.html


A comparison of 3 GM modules, played live in succession.
1st Hypercanvas GM module with Hypercanvas Alto Sax,
2nd Key Rig GM module with Hypercanvas Alto Sax,
3rd Hypersonic with Hypersonic GM Alto Sax. http://storeandserve.com/download/160041/gm_test.zip.html


Solo guitar part of a song (now let's see if anyone here knows it), using lead guitar, just selected another amp simulation than the default. http://storeandserve.com/download/160046/lead_guitar2.zip.html


Various Hypersonic2 ready made phrases, (press a key Bubba, and it will play by itself): http://storeandserve.com/download/160055/Phrases.zip.html


Various piano sounds, I played a little piano clip repeatedly, changing patches and then playing the same thing again: http://storeandserve.com/download/160059/various_pianos.zip.html


Selected a rhythm on the arranger, let it play continuously, and selected a different drum kit every time I pressed the fill in button: http://storeandserve.com/download/160064/various_drums.zip.html

That is all, hope they help you a little.
My opinion, it sounds good....

Trident,
Appreciate all your work and thanks for sharing. This is what I think of the voices:
Drum kits are very good, accordion was good (not that I would ever use it), I was not impressed with the alto sax, not sure about the piano, the accompaniment was excellent, the guitars are good and excellent synth sounds. Not enough sample to comment on the organ sounds.
The acoustic string bass (what little I heard of it) was amazing. It sounds like a super articulation voice, I could hear the string hitting the bass and the other strings vibrating as well. Wow.
Starkeeper

The song you were playing was Jimmy Hendrix "star Spangled Banner". Not sure what you played afterwards.
Starkeeper

Hi Theo,
I must be having one of those days, my eyes are open , but the brains still asleep.
How do I download your files??

best wishes
rikki
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/makingstyles/

[QUOTE]Originally posted by trident:
[B]Hi folks,

Hi Rikki,
click on the file you want, on the window that appears click on "download" on the middle right of the screen.
in the next screen that appears, wait for it to lad and then scroll down, and click the name of the file.

Rikki,
Let us know what your think after listening.
Starkeeper

In listening to the GM modules with Z5500 speakers, the accompaniment was far better with Key Rig and Hypersonic. Maybe Key Rig was second of the two. I liked Hypercanvas Sax the best, but of course that is very subjective.

Bernie

Hi Trident,
finally worked out what was wrong. My computer screen wasn't showing up the download button. I hadn't noticed I needed to scroll across further.
I've downloaded & I'll get back to you tomorrow.

best wishes
rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by trident:
[B]Hi Rikki,

Sounding good Trident!
Much better than I expected.

btw I think it was 'First cut is the deepest'

best wishes
Tony

Hi to all,
thank you for taking the time to hear and comment.

After hearing those sound clips myself again after some days, I realised how REALLY bad I was playing, to the point that it distracted me from the scope of this effort, which was to present some of Hypersonic2 sounds to you.

I even played some older clips of the solo guitar song I had made some months earlier, and it was like a different person playing. Perhaps you can use those clips as encouragement for your kids to rehearse, and rehearse, and rehearse again before they play.

Anyway, I personally think that I don't like very much the Hypersonic2 pianos, similarly to what doc-z said in another thread, but I think they are good. Guitars are very good sounding in my opinion, and the electric (especially distortion) guitars are the best I have ever heard in my (limited) experience. Synth sounds on the other side, are a revelation (and there are LOTS of them). I was awed, couldn't believe my humble 1.4 GHz PC could sound like that, and through cheap sounding (compared to Logitech) speakers, or run-of-the-mill Philips headphones connected to a noisy Soundblaster out.

I can also comment that the whole package is very light on the PC, the machine does not strain at all. My PC is something to avoid, is used for everything, and is full of anything that I found interesting on the net since day one, which means it is very very "dirty", compared to the "strictly music only" machine that Frank Rosenthal has described in his posts or the "light OS" laptop our fellow doc-z writes about.

Patch editing has myriads of options (I am lost), FX in my little understanding are good and not putting strain on the CPU.

Acoustic instruments, woodwinds etc are not Hypersonic's forte (again IMHO but since I know nothing about the real organs, take with a grain of salt). Although HQ Orchestra is noticeably inferior in samples, its sounds are better sounding in the end. They have that kind of constant "movement" in their texture, which makes you forget that it is a sample underneath.

Curiously, the reverse applies to the GM sounds in Hypersonic. They are super clean, very well sampled but most of the time they sound stale, like SB AWE 32 used to sound if I am permitted to make such an indecent comparison. There is an attack, and then a sample repeated till release. Even in Hypercanvas the saxes sound better IMHO, and in most of the sounds in Hypercanvas the LFO or the filters or something I don't know about makes the sound change over time till you release the key. And the interface in Hypercanvas is the best of all three. Key Rig is better sounding than Hypercanvas, but to simply set the level, chorus and reverb in 5 channels requires to select each channel, make adjustments, select another one, do the same etc etc. In hypercanvas all 16 channels are in a row in front of you and require only 3 clicks for every channel. In Hypersonic, you are presented with a panel that has another two subpanels blah blah. The possibilities are endless but take more time to master.

So if you mainly need synths, pianos, guitars and a good GM implementation, buy Hypersonic2 "blind" as we say here. Look no further. And have a small towel because you will drool. Key Rig might be a good alternative since apart from the GM set, it has a good enough piano module, a good enough organ module and a synth you can play with. (and there's Drum and Bass separate product which plays riffs and has a bass machine and very good sounding solo basses and very good sounding drum sets, but take Fran Carango's advice for them, I think he has them and he is a musician, I am not!!!!!). For sheer "quick and dirty playing", Hypercanvas will do for me, maybe for you too, especially bought from Ebay in a good price, the same applies for HQ Orchestral. Ahh yes, there is also Super Quartet that has a collection of pianos, basses, guitars, and 2-3 drum sets that are good).

I don't know if the above helps, I can't contribute that much in this forum due to lack of musical education and ability, but I feel (and hope) this rant can be helpful for some of you. On the nagging side, I am a little dissapointed that only 3-4 members had an interest in how the Hypersonic2 sounds and bothered to answer, but I'll sleep at night.

Feel free to ask about anything that needs clarification, more info, or argue of you don't agree.
Theodore

P.S. It doesn't matter much, but the guitar solo is from a 1981 song by Ozzy Ozbourne, (come on now, quit retching!), called "Goodbye to Romance". Sorry Randy Rhoads, I hope you are not spinning in your grave hearing me butchering your guitar solo!

oh dear...... I was way off the mark there then Apologies for that!.....Also try not to let the lack of replies niggle.....in my experience far more people actually listen to stuff that is posted than actually reply. It is only later when people chat about something else and mention that they listened to something or other posted that you realise that stuff has a much wider audience than we might think!
I for one have really enjoyed hearing of your experiences with software based systems and was almost a convert myself if only by the infectious enthusiasm from yourself, Frank and others on the subject.
The plan is to go and buy a new board this weekend but I may also invest in a software based system to potter about with, see if I can get hooked
Keep up the good work, it is appreciated.

Best wishes
Tony

Hi Theo,
they sound pretty good to me. Unfortunately at the moment I'm stuck with listening thru my computer speaker set which leave a bit to
be desired.
I've saved your mp3's & when I finally get to order my new laptop I'll be able to hear them properly. I'm still waiting till Dell comes up with the best deal for my needs. They change their specials every week , so I'm waiting till the right one crops up.
Thank you very much for going to all this trouble.

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by trident:
[B]Hi Rikki,

Hi there Rikki, Tony,
ok I admit the "nobody pays attention to my posts" was a joke fom my part.
After all, most people here want a good arranger to make business and money with, and software arrangers do not (at the present time) offer this thing. Or to be more exact, there yet a has to be a keyboard controller that can be used with OMB and VST's that has buttons for fill-ins etc the way hardware arrangers have had all those years. Such product would be a god send.

Side note: I will soon choose some midifiles I got off the net with a midi sent to me by Rikki, and I will do a sort of A/B comparison of various softsynths. I played with the idea yesterday, basically I load as many as I want, mute all but one and let it play a midifile, then simply unmute the next and mute the former and so on. Since most songs contain backing tracks that last for several measures before changing, you will be able to immediately hear the differences between the VST's, instead of waiting for the song to finish and then hear the other version. Preliminary verdict: Hypersonic2 GM is the most crisp of all, not that you expected anything different.

cheers,
Theodore

Arrangers send all types of weird signals to do fills and intros; like MOD + something. If OMB could be customized to accept other MIDI messages, then an arranger could be used, which would excellent. Any inexpensive arranger could be used.
Starkeeper