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!