Noise Engineering: SB 1 or SB 2?

[DJMaytag]

SB1 is more faithful to the respective hardware modules, but I suspect the “improvements” made them easier for Reason users, notably the integrated full envelope controls. With hardware, you’re not going to get very interesting results without external modulation, notably envelopes (the hardware versions only have basic envelope controls, if any at all).

Loquelic Iteritas Percido might be the only RE in SB1 that I’d want over the SB2 version. You ought to be able to all of the same stuff with the other two RE’s. That said, I don’t regret having bought both bundles and hope they bring more things to the RE platform.

[DJMaytag]

On second thought, I did some double checking:

Both SB1 vs SB2 RE's have similar mono/poly controls. SB1 it's mono or poly, while SB2 allows you to select the max polyphony (1 would be monophonic). The full ADSR envelopes on the SB2 models also have VCA/LPG on the outputs, with resonance for the LPG, and the SB1 RE's don't have this. Again, that's remaining faithful to the original hardware.

MI (SB1) has a "liquid" mode and a "bash" control that MIV (SB2) lacks. These two CAN produce some similar sounds, but the MI can sound more raw and aggressive.

BI (SB1) also has the liquid mode, and a very different envelope than BIV (SB2), besides the obvious AD vs ADSR. There's a way to introduce noise in the envelope attack section that can only be done on BIV with a dedicated noise button. Is that easier? I guess that's up to you, but I like the percussive sound of BI better. If you want more control, BIV might be the one for you.

LIP (SB1) and LIV (SB2) have similar algorithm and modes, so they're probably going to be closer in sound. LIP arguably has much more control than the "improved" LIV, so that's one huge difference between them and enough of an argument to say get SB1 for these three and get SB2 for the other three (AIV, SIV, and CIV). Also fun: use both of any of these three similar RE's in a Combinator with a 6:2 mixer and pan the hard opposite each other. The stereo effects from the similarities and differences is pretty fun to hear.

Thanks for the question. TBH, when I bought these, I honestly didn't exactly them very well until I'd gotten some of the Noise Engineering hardware modules. As I noted in an earlier post, these things being brought from the modular world ABSOLUTELY NEED EXTERNAL MODULATION TO COME TO LIFE!!! Bring in LFO's and envelopes from other things and patch TF out of those generous back panels. I'm currently working on a track that uses an external filter as well, so considering using this very much like you might use an actual modular synth.

[bharris22]

This is very helpful - thank you very much for your perspective and your thoughtful comments.

I'm going to try to get both if I can, but I guess I will start with SB2.