Xpand!2 expansions?

[Starship Krupa]

I came across this deal at Pluginboutique, 7.99 for 3 expansion packs for our favorite ROMpler, Xpand!2:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/6717-Xpand-2-Expansion-Multivation-Bundle

It's a total of 95 presets.

Curious if anyone has tried any of these. I use Xpand!2 often enough that eight bucks for a bunch of new presets seems interesting, but it's a ROMpler with limited controls. I guess it would be the various sounds layered and tweaked.

I usually end up using the more "vanilla" presets, like if I want a double bass or drum machine. I don't use it for inspiration like I do with say, Vacuum Pro or Hybrid 3 or Element or my AAS player packs.

[Kurre]

I'm about to visit PB to buy Scale 2. Thanks for this tip.

[Kurre]

I have installed it. Took a little time before i found where it was in xpand. The only three i tested right now is called arppad - insomnia/ something or nothing/ zion - and was great fun. Especially the first insomnia was alone worth the 8 euro.

Ok, maybe i exaggerate a bit. But if the first three expansions is that good the rest should be totally ok. ?

[Wibbles]

On 11/21/2020 at 10:04 PM, Starship Krupa said:

I came across this deal at Pluginboutique, 7.99 for 3 expansion packs for our favorite ROMpler, Xpand!2:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/6717-Xpand-2-Expansion-Multivation-Bundle

 

Bizarrely it's only €4.44*/£3.95 if you follow this link: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/70-Expansion-Packs/6718-Xpand-2-Expansion-Multivation?refSrc=6717&nosto=productpage-nosto-1

 

Edit: scrub that. See Kurre's reply below.

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Wibbles

[Kurre]

48 minutes ago, Wibbles said:

 

Bizarrely it's only €4.44*/£3.95 if you follow this link: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/70-Expansion-Packs/6718-Xpand-2-Expansion-Multivation?refSrc=6717&nosto=productpage-nosto-1

Probably because your link goes to one pack. The bundle contains 3 packs.

I too had to compare bundle and packs.

[Wibbles]

Oops. I wasn't paying close enough attention. 

[JoeGBradford]

Kurre - are they new sounds or just new layering of existing sounds?

[Starship Krupa]

4 hours ago, JoeGBradford said:

are they new sounds or just new layering of existing sounds

XPand!2 is a ROMpler, so what it has under its hood is a collection of sampled waveforms that can be tweaked (with filter and volume envelopes) and layered and effected and arpeggiated to create presets. It comes with 2500+ presets. Each preset can layer 4 of the waveforms.

These are more presets, not more waveforms. Whether the folks at Patch Hut have done something interesting with the sounds is the big question. I went to their site and listened to some of the demos, and perhaps to their credit, they tend to leave the reverb out of the patch, which is my strong preference, I like to use my own way better sounding reverbs on synths rather than the ho-hum ones that tend to come built into synths.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Starship Krupa

[JoeGBradford]

Thanks for clarifying - I've got Xpand2 and like it - just wasn't sure if they were totally new sounds or just layering and tweaking of existing sounds. I'll have a listen to the demos ?

[Kurre]

@JoeGBradford

As @Starship Krupa says. It's new presets. I understood that early on when i downloaded. It was only 1.7 MB zip for the whole bundle. ??

[Terry Kelley]

I use Xpand! a lot. It's got some great balls-to-the-wall pads among other things. I too grabbed the expansion pack and never noticed it's all in the X86 folder. I thought Xpand! was 64-bit. Maybe the preset location is legacy (where it was when it was 32 bit.)

Also, has anyone found a keyboard stroke to step through the presets? I noticed +/- or any arrow keys will not do it.

Regardless, I love this instrument.

Edited November 25, 2020 by Terry Kelley

[Starship Krupa]

On 11/24/2020 at 6:21 AM, Kurre said:

@JoeGBradford

As @Starship Krupa says. It's new presets. I understood that early on when i downloaded. It was only 1.7 MB zip for the whole bundle. ??

Kurre, @Terry Kelley, I'm curious as to how you liked the expansions and whether you consider it worth the money.

Cheers.

[Kurre]

@Terry Kelley My Subzero szcommandkey49 can change program on xpand2.

When i push the program button the first control knob steps thru the programs in that bank. Up or down.

I just found out by testing. This commandkey is an early christmas present to myself and i havn't read the manual yet.

[Kurre]

@Starship Krupa It was worth the money for me.

Xpand2 have good sounding samples to make new presets with.

Most of them is inviting you to play them and have fun. Very playable.

Very few is unusable. Maybe 10%.

An example of a bad preset for me is; a good sound but with a single sound that comes when you let go off the key/s and sustains forever until you press a key again. There was a couple of those.

Off course it could be a midi cc thing in my setup but i don't think so.

Arppads and rhypads where most fun. I also like when there is different sound on different parts of the keyboard. That's new to me but i think i got the hang of it.