omisphere... i dont get the big deal.

[nathannn]

so i finally tried omnisphere today. i did not start the program with the mindset like " this is going to suck" when it first came out i had doubts but since they included the orb and the ipad app i think i became brainwashed.
when i first opened it i was actually expecting something awesome due to all the hype. but now im wondering what everyone is going on about.
this thing is full of hype. not that it isnt a capable synth but there are many synths out there that are capable.
i dont find anything new here nor ground breaking. its just another synth.. and it is mostly a rompler. Yes its also a damn rompler!
another thing i dont get is why anyone would want gigs and gigs of other peoples sounds. no matter how much tweaking you do you still are just tweaking some one else's sample.
the orb thing is different, not that big of a deal but its kind of creative.

but still if you own live you really don't need this. i can record my own flicking of a lightbulb and flushing of a toilet with live.
i was also comparing some patches i wade myself with presets from omnisphere and i felt that my patches sounded more up to date. maybe i prefer my patches because i made them myself i dont know, i just feel like omnispheres patches sound like they are from the late 90s.

another thing about the patches, it seems like most of them are made for background music for a movie (a movie clint eastwood would write direct and score himself) instead of something usable for a song.

im not saying omnisphere sucks im just saying it is over hyped. maybe im missing something? maybe there is something completely new in it. if so its buried pretty deep.

[agent314]

Based on the admittedly limited time I've spent playing around with it, I think Omnisphere is a great, high-quality, "professional" synth that is great for some people's needs but definitely not for everybody.

It's great for sound designers/composers for film, video game music composers, people scoring TV shows, etc. and can't be bothered to spend hours creating and tweaking patches to get them right.

The presets that it has are a lot more nuanced and "professional" sounding than most other VST presets I've played, and while it IS mostly a rompler, it's a rompler with superb quality samples and a really high-quality engine.

That said, it is definitely not an all-purpose something-for-everyone plug. I was not especially impressed by its from-scratch synthesis, and its effects sounds good but suffer from a cumbersome enough workflow that I found myself never using them.

Really, I think it's a "professional" synth plugin, and I keep using that word in quotes because that seems to be how Spectrasonics presents/markets its products - boutique, no-nonsense plugs for people who need excellent audio fidelity and a ready-to-choose-from bank of great sounds.

I agree it's a little overhyped, but the people whose workflow it facilitates would definitely argue otherwise.

I friggn' LOVE Trilian though. That's a great piece of software right there, and absolutely worth its pricetag and hype.

[:Metaphor:]

You know, I see people on here consistently railing against Omnisphere for being a ROMpler, as if that's all it's good for. I think it's kind of a trendy thing to say, but it's inaccurate. Yes, it's a sample based Synth, but to call it a ROMpler implies that there's no flexibility to the patches, or that you can't build your sounds from the ground up, which is simply not true. It's a very powerful and flexible synth, and you can make patches from scratch that are amazing. It's definitely NOT a preset machine.

That being said, a lot of the presets ARE very slick sounding, and if you like your synths a bit more rough n ready, it can lead to a very mild first impression. In all honesty, it wasn't until I started digging into the sampled waveforms from different synths that I began to really love Omni and get how great it can be. It really does kick some serious ass, and is capable of a lot of incredible tones.

Why do people love it? Because it sounds amazing. To my ears, it sounds significantly better than a lot of synths, and it's ROMpler side becomes and advantage at making some really unique hybrid sounds. It does analog tones beautifully. Obviously, it's pads are great. But I can also make some really rude dubstep basses in it, and it layers well.
It's a really great synth.

[ambientidm]

i am a hardcore synth freak and i rarely use anyones presets
and i have designed some of the presets for omnisphere and i must say it is an amazing synth and calling it a rompler i think is a little silly (it's a rompler because it has a huge sampled waveform library?)
i am sure user samples will happen in the future (it's the biggest user request)
the most amazing thing about it isn't the 40 gigs of high quality samples (and many of them are just raw analogue waves from a large hardware collection) but rather the ease of the modulation engine and it comes close to being a modular synth in that regard
also the ability to modulate the effects is a very effective way to create some unusual interactive sounds
one of my favorite tricks is to route lfos into each other creating long complex movements

check out the bob moog tribute library
the hans zimmer moog modular drums are pretty sick indeed

the orb with an ipad is freaking crazy good for performance plus is it super stable and responsive (i read it took close to a year to design)

all that being said omnisphere is in for the long haul (like the virus) with who knows how many awesome things to come
the huge 1.5 update was a 2.0 for most companies and it was free!

yes many of the included polished presets would fit right into a hollywood score and spectrasonics is a big name for hollywood but to limit it to that is a lack of ones own imagination

start right clicking and get addicted to rolling your own sounds
here is a tip if anyone is interested
start with a nice melodic playable source and then spice it up with one of the strange, glitchy noise sources using some granular treatment and lofi waveshapers
modulate the amp envelopes and effects with lfos and arpeggiate

[ze2be]

Well, I actually wanted to read a review like that. So thanks, Nathannn!

Nr.1: What stops these huge synths for me, is the ram use. OK, its 8 ch multi timbral, but still 40 gigs is a no go. Nr.2: All the windows, and hidden scroll menus. Doesn't work with ADD musicians. I like to have a clear view of all the signal flows, front page.

But, and there is a big but: If this could replace my Virus Ti, I might be interested. To run it I need a new i5/i7 computer, with SSD, Win7 and loads of ram.

[perplex]

trilian + omnisphere better than kronos

[condra]

Omnisphere, Nexus, Alchemy, etc... Not my kinda thing either.
For synths, I use Massive a lot, and for creative sampling, I use Abletons Sampler (which admittadly, lacks advanced sound design features).

I can see the appeal of Omni though, but theres something I like about building up a huge sound from humble waveforms in Massive or Zebra.

[arafel]

Well,
To run it I need a new i5/i7 computer, with SSD, Win7 and loads of ram.

I ran Omni on my old G5 PPC mac - dual 2 ghz.. 4 gig ram.
Could use several instances per project - np.

[studiologic]

to be honest... you cant test drive omnisphere in one sitting... or a few hours... it may takes months/years to understand the power of omnisphere....

[beats me]

I don't get the hype over women's vagina. I can get everything I need out of my hand at 1/20th the effort, hassle, and time. And the steep learning curve and fucking around with the unstable operating system just to get something ho hum out of the vagina before it crashes is a big joke.

Yet people heap nothing but praise on it.

[anybody human]

It's the modulation system. Control click and it's just really easy to program. If only you could load your own samples, and the two layers filters could be linked, it would be perfect.

Try programming some of your own patches with just the VA (or VA one one layer A and a sample of a synth waveform on layer B), using the modulation method I described. It's just really fun and fast to program.

Edit: Alchemy uses a similar modulation system and let's you import your own audio, which is great. Only problem is the oscillators, filters, and samples aren't even close to Omnisphere. As much as I like Omnisphere, and it is a beast, but the fact that you can't import your own audio has led me to move and more to using M4L devices to do sound design. It's still an awesome tool to have, even just for the VA.

[djerikschouten]

I don't get the hype over women's vagina. I can get everything I need out of my hand at 1/20th the effort, hassle, and time. And the steep learning curve and fucking around with the unstable operating system just to get something ho hum out of the vagina before it crashes is a big joke.

Yet people heap nothing but praise on it.

Good one !!

If Omnisphere had been available, say, 10 years ago, I would have had a lot smaller synth collection. The pads and strings are absolutely fantastic. For designing your own sounds it's absolutely fantastic as well.

By the way, with one instance of omnisphere you can put different midi tracks to trigger different channels, and if you'd like all off these different channels to have their own single audio channel, this can be done too.



All the best

[jestermgee]

As an owner of Omnisphere I have to say it does absolute wonders for creativity.

It's dowmfall is probably there is just TOO Much to use...

If you are a hardcore tweaker that hates presets and loves making their own sounds and creations it is BRILLIANT. The ability to easily morph waveforms with waveforms/patches/presets/multis etc makes it infinitely usable.

In the first 2 weeks of owning it I had created 5 tracks in full with just Omni and drum tracks (i'd be happy to share). I had to take a break because every sound I clicked through I thought would make a great track.

Each to their own but it not only serves a rompler preset boys wet dreams, but allows you to take all kinds of sounds and mesh them into thick low end, percussive fillers and heavy synth leads. I have found myself going back to older tracks and finishing them off by just adding some elements from omni to pad out my arrangements. It's the missing link.

The iPad app is dissapointing in Ableton though. Doesn't allow any app tweaks to be recorded in Ableton (though Cubase works fine)

[glitchrock-buddha]

The thing about Omnisphere is really two things: Ease of use and sound. It isn't a "do everything and route anything anywhere" type of synth like Zebra or something. But it has a decent synth engine and a huge library of interesting sound sources. So it may be part rompler but it does have a very versatile library which you can mix with the synth part and then run through the excellent filters. And this is a very important thing for a synth - there are tons of different types if filters which sound great and can really scream. Mixed which a great modulation system, it just works out that you can get many types of sounds very easily. It's not an endless laboratory of sounds (you can't import your sample maps for instance), but it's really the sum of many little things that work well, like the envelopes, filters, ways of assigning mods, the effects, the browser, the samples etc.

I used to think it was a bit pricey and then I started noticing the prices of sample libraries out there that are half the size and of lesser quality and they quite often are more expensive! Take something like Sample Logic Morphestra - 700 dollars for a kontakt library (about 25gb of sounds). Then there's Omnisphere with a vast library almost twice the size, much better quality instruments (beautiful guitars, string etc.), it's own synth engine and all the rest for 500 dollars. So while it's a rompler in some ways, it's a much better values than most sample libraries alone.

What it really comes down to is how much fun it is to use as well. Spectrasonics products do have a sound that is unique to them and you can often recognize it. But I can often recognize a stratocaster as well and don't always need to use a guitar that nobody will recognize so it doesn't bother me too much.

Overall it's great value and they provide free updates and thousands of patches on a regular basis so a good company to buy from for sure and an inspriational product.

[Tarekith]

I love Omni, it replaced both my Virus TI2 and Zebra2 for me. You can completely ignore all the sample content and you still get a brilliant synth in it's own right.