Members Karma1 Posted June 15, 2006 Members Share Posted June 15, 2006 I'm thinking of getting the Special Effects expansion board to put in my JD990. I already have the Vintage expansion board and like it a lot and I've heard some good things about the Special FX one. From what I understand, it's adapted from the Distorted Reality sampling cd. The music I do is ambient electronic/ new age soundscape-type stuff. So the sounds I'm looking for are beautiful Wavestation-like evolving pads, atmospheric textures, and trippy sci-fi sounds. I know that this board has a lot of weird darker industrial kinds of sounds, which I'm NOT interested in. But I've heard that there are some others which would go well with the kind of music I do. Anyone here have any experience with the Special Effects expansion board and could share a bit on the different types of sounds it contains? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members b3keys Posted June 15, 2006 Members Share Posted June 15, 2006 Hi, I have the expansion board. There are a few ambient, wavestation like patches on the board, but most the patches are "sound effects." I use the "Heavy Thunder" patch to kick off "Riders on the Storm" the Jet Plane patch for "Back In the USSR" and a few others. You should check out the demos at www.synthmania.com to get an idea of what this board can do. If you are looking for Wavestation pactches, why not pick up a WS SR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paolo Di Nicolantonio Posted June 15, 2006 Members Share Posted June 15, 2006 I have several demos at my site if you're interested. http://www.synthmania.com/sr-jv80-15.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members k2500x Posted June 16, 2006 Members Share Posted June 16, 2006 how is this board with sound FX drum kits?I find one-shot 0-5 second sound FX can really spice up my tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Karma1 Posted June 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2006 I have several demos at my site if you're interested.http://www.synthmania.com/sr-jv80-15.htm First off, thanks to all for the responses. Paolo: to say that you have "several" demos of the sounds at your site is the understatement of the year. I'm blown away at the number of samples available - not only for this board, but for ALL the synths on your site. Unbelievable! You must spend every spare moment working on it. It's a totally incredible resource. Thanks for taking the time to create and maintain it. From what I've heard, the Special FX card sounds really cool. It definitely fits the name Spectrasonics gave it - "Distorted Reality". Like with any synth or card/exp board, there are sounds that I could see using a lot, and some that I'd never use. But it seems like this would be worth my investment if I find one for a good price. As far as the suggestion to buy a Wavestation - I already have one. I was just using it as a basis of comparison to describe the kind of sounds I was looking for. But I appreciate the advice - it's probably what I would tell someone in the same situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted June 16, 2006 Members Share Posted June 16, 2006 Originally posted by Karma1 I'm thinking of getting the Special Effects expansion board to put in my JD990. I already have the Vintage expansion board and like it a lot and I've heard some good things about the Special FX one. From what I understand, it's adapted from the Distorted Reality sampling cd. The music I do is ambient electronic/ new age soundscape-type stuff. So the sounds I'm looking for are beautiful Wavestation-like evolving pads, atmospheric textures, and trippy sci-fi sounds. I know that this board has a lot of weird darker industrial kinds of sounds, which I'm NOT interested in. But I've heard that there are some others which would go well with the kind of music I do. Anyone here have any experience with the Special Effects expansion board and could share a bit on the different types of sounds it contains? I have the exp board in my xp30. It certainly has some interesting sounds... none of which I would use composing actual songs with. It is more sound effects than anything else. Flange Blast is pretty cool, as are Big Sting and FM Static. More sound fx for soundtrack stuff... not really for song creating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Don Solaris Posted June 16, 2006 Members Share Posted June 16, 2006 Originally posted by Karma1 From what I understand, it's adapted from the Distorted Reality sampling cd. Hi,I got the original Distorted Reality CD ROM from Spectrasonics. It is not much oriented toward ambient music. If you follow some of the works of bands like FSOL, you will see they mostly sample - themselves. That is: get as much DSP as you can, software / hardware and sample anything you can think of. At least that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Karma1 Posted June 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2006 Thanks again for the responses. Don Solaris: I checked out the sounds on the link you provided. There's some very cool and unique stuff there - good job! wheresgrant3: From the sound samples I've heard of this exp. board, I'm sure you are right about it not being for song creating. But that's ok for me. I do most of my song creating on a Korg Karma, but am always looking for interesting sounds and textures for overdubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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