Omnisphere seems meh to me.

[beats me]

Long time Omni 1 owner and upgraded to 2. After many years of preset hit and miss (more miss than hit) I buckled down and watched some tuts to help me better understand it. It seems like it just tries to do too many things and the interface is antiquated compared to more recent and specialized softsynths. Too much window diving. Routing modulation through dropdown menus, excuse me? The new drag in and morph any audio file is less amazing and musical than Spectrasonic’s demo video would have you believe.

Anybody else less than awestruck by it?

[nathannn]

I've felt that way about it since v1. The presets, the looks and the sounds all seem dated.
Really, if you have something like Komplete, or even Logic Pro's factory synths and content Omnisphere becomes unnecessary.

[EasyWorkflow]

I am a newbie (5 months into learning a MIDI and Ableton ) and all I can say is when using my MIDI guitar to control Omnisphere, I am having more fun and creating the most unique amazing sounds. Like I said, I am a newbie so I have nothing to compare it to but I am digging the shit out of it. There is also a great tutorial on Macprovideo.com that really helped me to understand how amazing this software truly is. Again, this is an opinion coming from a newbie but I have been a musician for almost 40 years so my ear knows when it hears something it likes. I also love Trillian for laying down bass lines and Stylus RMX in my opinion is the greatest drum/groove machine I have ever owned and I have owned at least 10 drum machines over the past 38 years of playing guitar. Spectrasonics is a great company. I also have Komplete Ultimate so I am done buying software and any future money spent is going into education and training. But you guys are long term Omni 1 users and this is the first time I ever heard Omni 2, so my perspective is completely different than yours.

Peace & happiness

BobbyD

[sana48]

Omnisphere obviously is not for everybody.

For me it is perfect. Everyday I find and learn something new. No, its not bread and butter, but it is very inspiring and original..
I am in love with it... but to your point- there are some really amazing things coming out of other (newer) synths. Thats why we buy more than one synth.

rather than compare- just get both! No need to have one or the other:)

[ambientidm]

omni is really about rolling your own which is easy to do
sound match is awesome
paramenter locks are awesome
omni-tr is fantastic

[Machinesworking]

Omnisphere looks great, version 2 adds a lot of great things for sure, but I own Komplete Ultimate, Machfive3, Zebra 2, Z3ta+2, Hive etc.
Because of what I already own Omnisphere seems redundant.

Starting out though, it would be a great thing to be your first major synth/sampler I think.

[sana48]

Audio import...

Hellur?

Lol

[login]

The GUI puts me off, as OP states way too much menu diving and menus.

[Tarekith]

I thought you needed Omnipillar for that?

[crystalmsc]

and maybe a high quality scripted adult film.

I prefer Live Suite number 9 for the task

[TomViolenz]

and maybe a high quality scripted adult film.

I prefer Live Leisure Suite number 9 for the task

/edited for accuracy

[dented42ford]

I use Omni/Trillian as one of my primary synths when composing for film. Haven't upgraded to 2 yet - been without internet for a while, moved to Europe from The States - but will soon...

Being pretty experienced with it, I must say that Omnisphere really, really isn't for everyone. Sure, it can be used as a very good workstation, a'la Halion Sonic or a Motif - though it really isn't as good at the "bread and butter" as those two. It also can be a crazy-preset-machine, for those of a more ambient bent - there are evolving patches in there that just can't be achieved through other means, or at least not without a ton of work. But its real strength is in quick composition, harnessing the power of both the deep editing features and the massive preset library...

That's why it works so great for scoring - once you get your head around it, it is really easy to find a "feel", then edit it to work with whatever else you are doing!

While it is more than capable as a "bread & butter" softsynth, it is a bit of overkill for most of those applications. As the OP said, it can be a PITA to build patches from scratch, mainly because the plugin does it all - the mod matrix, for instance, is about as simple as it could be, given its power level, but that doesn't mean it is actually simple!

[stoersignal]

i completely understand the OPs opinion about the GUI. my biggest hope for v2 was that the give it a complete overhaul to minimize all this menu/window diving, but beside that it is really a unique instrument and i disagree that it`s redundant if you own komplete. there are so many sounds that would be very complicated or impossible to recreate in most other synths.
audio import is great, but you need to know what you want
+ parameter lock is the best feature imho

[Tarekith]

Now that I own Komplete I'd agree as well, there's some overlap but Omni really does have some really unique sounding patches and abilities. The GUI is so so for me. It's definitely more utilitarian than a looker, but given how many possibilites there are I think they do a good job of keeping it easy to figure out. When I want something more fluid and abstract, I tend to use the Orb app on my iPad when browsing and shaping sounds. I do wish it would have at least gotten a new color or something in the new version though, just to mix things up a bit.

I haven't used the new version yet, still wading through Komplete now that I've been focusing so much of my time on Maschine Studio. If I could only have one synth though, it would definitely be Omnisphere.

[mholloway]

Regarding the "meh" comments to the presets, it really just depends where you are looking. I effin hate that new EDM bank in Omni 2, it's horrible horrible horrible. BUT, there are so many gems tucked away in Omni, it's just that the thing is so damn big, you get lost...

The functionality is top notch, but the UI isn't. Which gives me mixed feelings. I do a lot preset-tweaking in omnisphere, and a lot of just loading raw Sound Sources (not presets, but the sample library files) and editing, and I can pretty much always do what I want, and fairly easily -- so, you know, it just works, BUT I've never much liked the "zoom in" functionality, the knobs and sliders all feel small and clunky to me, and so basically it's just not nearly as fun to work with as other synths I own. But it sounds amazing! It's a trade off, one I'm willing to make. I don't see myself steering away from it anytime soon... the #1 thing is the quality of the sound, it really is pristine and huge, whether using the synth engine or sample sources.

-M