Spectrasonics Omnisphere

[mgrier1]

Ummm, Wow... Just loaded in the 6 DVD's and registered it...

Moving through the many thousands of presets now and this thing is just stunning! So much in there it is almost overwhelming, in a good way! :love:

Realizing this is a guitar site, is there anyone else out there using this fine soft synth?

Best,

Mike

[Clumsy Fingers]

I've heard loads of talk about it at my other forum (a Mac-based recording hangout) and I've certainly been curious. Anything particularly exciting about it so far? I may have a look at their site to hear what it sounds like.


As it happens, I just got Absynth 4 in the mail today, so I've been messing about with that.

[LSchefman]

I used Atmosphere for years, and it was a great sounding synth; this one's supposed to be a lot better, more of a real synth and less of a ROMpler. I will probably upgrade when the right project comes along.

[elambo]

I'm using Omnisphere. It does sound great - sonically one of the best VIs I've heard - and its potential seems to go deep, but I've been having trouble finding a place for it in my tracks. For sound design it's indespensible, but maybe I just haven't found out how to best use it. Or I'm unlucky in my search among the presets. They released an additional 2000 presets recently, so there's no shortage of starting places. And if you want to roll your own, it's relatively easy to create from scratch. They also included all of the original Atmosphere patches, although not nearly as organized as the plugin version, and most patches have been "enhanced" a bit. I've found them to be very similar, but indeed not the same.

Soon they're releasing Trilian, which is an upgraded version of Trilogy, and allegedly it will run inside Omnisphere (no surprise as it's called OMNIsphere, suggesting all-in-one potential). It's one of the better upright bass samples available, and a pretty good source for synth bass. The electric basses are merely OK.

I think they'll stay on top of Omnisphere, although I expect most future upgrades to be mild.

[Audioholic]

Had atmosphere and my copy should arrive tommorow. I loved atmosphere, but also had a hard time finding ways to implement it when the music did more then 1 note. Hopefully this upgrade, there will be more usable sounds musically rather then just killer sound design.

[elambo]

I got a lot of use out of the CS-80 Sine Bells and Tron Strings and there was even an acoustic string patch that cut through pop tracks very well (forgot the name - I know it buy its relative location amongst the menus). Outside of bells and strings, and the occasional odd vocals effect, it was indeed more of a sound designer's tool. The sound designers I work with love it, but now they like Omni even more. Omni is more musical, but still far from a band-in-a-box for musicians.

[Sunbreak Music]

Pershing does some great stuff, but it always seems to have his "signature" on it sonically. I'd concur w/ others who say "sounds great on it's own....hard to fit into a mix". I don't own it, but am working with someone who does. 2000 more patches coming soon, according to him.

Film composer's dream, though.

[Brad Gregg]

I use it a lot; the textural synth stuff is amazingly beautiful. The interface is very easy to work with, too. It does eat up a lot of sonic room, but on the other hand I have a lot of other instruments that don't, so I guess it all boils down to what you're looking for at any given point in a track. Nothing else sounds like it.

[mgrier1]

Yep, there's no doubt if you score films, TV, etc. you'll have to have this one.

As far as other purposes: Songwriting, Pop, Jazz, etc. it remains to be seen how this will work out. Still, there seems to be a fair amount of CS-80, Juno, Prophet tones in here, so that bodes well...

Also, the Arp function is very cool as it really lets you dial in the arpeggio pattern in a very specific way.

More to come...

Best,

Mike

[KennyM]

I've been using it since the day it came out and it's brilliant. It's my go to synth now. I just make it a rule to buy every Spectrasonics product as they all are amazing.

[enharmonic]

My dual 2 G5 PPC can't handle the truth :D, so I'll have to wait until I can upgrade my machine before I jump to Omnisphere...which means later this year at best.

I use Atmosphere and Trilogy in my music. I'm sure that I'll be able to bend Omni to my will...now, if only I could bend an 8-core to my wallet. :rotflmao

[Audioholic]

My dual 2 G5 PPC can't handle the truth :D, so I'll have to wait until I can upgrade my machine before I jump to Omnisphere...which means later this year at best.

I use Atmosphere and Trilogy in my music. I'm sure that I'll be able to bend Omni to my will...now, if only I could bend an 8-core to my wallet. :rotflmao

I have a 2 gig PPC G5 with 2.5 gigs of ram and so far omnisphere seems to be working fine, I have been able to load in a few instances, but havn't loaded other VI's yet, so i doubt I will get much milage.

so far really loving it, much more musical then atmoshphere was.

[Bassomatic]

Pershing does some great stuff, but it always seems to have his "signature" on it sonically...

You can say that again.

Still, I'll reserve judgment here until I can check it out.

[GP_Hawk]

The latest 1.03 software update, patch library(2000) and soundsource library are out so go get those...unless the recent buy you got was already up to date.
I agree with all the comment thus far here, so not much else to add. Very lush pads, easy to create unique soundscapes, and honestly the fx is top notch.

[LSchefman]

>>I'm using Omnisphere. It does sound great - sonically one of the best VIs I've heard - and its potential seems to go deep, but I've been having trouble finding a place for it in my tracks. For sound design it's indespensible, but maybe I just haven't found out how to best use it.<<

I mainly used Atmosphere as a sound design tool and quite rarely used it in my music tracks. It does have that Eric Persing "sound." I don't even have it loaded into my current machines, figuring I'd load it when I need it. Haven't needed it so far.

In fact, I recently bought Camel Audio's Alchemy, also a nice sound design tool, but works a bit better for me in the context of music mixes. As does LinPlug's CronoX.

Truth is, I have so many VIs, and each has its own thing going on...

S0 I've become a hardcore (heh) Kore user lately; with 35 or so VIs to deal with, it's simplified my workflow quite a bit. It's also a nice sound design tool.

There's so much STUFF out there, it's really becoming a mad, mad world. My problem is that I used to drop a few grand on a synth, more on a sampler, tons on outboard gear, etc., to keep ahead of the pack in my work.

But this didn't happen every day; I had to make choices, I had to schedule my buying and plan ahead, be careful about what I bought to make sure it was going to really work in the context of my studio, etc. Now with these soft synths/samplers/effects, it's become, "$200? Sure, why not?" So at least for me, there's a temptation to buy everything out there, and it's really too easy. I confess, I've become a junkie (XL)!

There's no "winnowing out" process. See it, buy it, on to the next one. And if you don't wind up using it much, big deal, you take it off your hard drive and move along.

I dunno. Too easy.

[kludge]

S0 I've become a hardcore (heh) Kore user lately; with 35 or so VIs to deal with, it's simplified my workflow quite a bit. It's also a nice sound design tool.

There's so much STUFF out there, it's really becoming a mad, mad world. My problem is that I used to drop a few grand on a synth, more on a sampler, tons on outboard gear, etc., to keep ahead of the pack in my work.


Have you tried using Kore live yet? I'm really thinking about getting it to power up and simplify our live rig as well as for the studio. Our "one finger keyboard player" would be much happier if we could easily and visibly manage performances, and I'd be happier if she wasn't duct-taping program info to my keyboard for live shows!

[LSchefman]

>>Have you tried using Kore live yet?<<

Nope. I'm strictly a studio cat.

[Stanley]

I have a 2.4 dual core imac and have a 4GB RAM upgrade on the way

Would Omnisphere struggle on this!?

Im running Logic Studio and Pro Tools LE8

[elambo]

That computer will be fine as long as you're not asking it to do a lot of other things simultaneously, like running several other VIs in addition to Omnisphere. As soon as you start filling Omnishpere with complicated patches it will consume your CPU and RAM rather quickly. Realizing that PT8 will take a fair share, I'd say 4GB is the minimum for typical use.

[LSchefman]

>>I have a 2.4 dual core imac and have a 4GB RAM upgrade on the way

Would Omnisphere struggle on this!?<<

I don't think you'd have a problem.

[KennyM]

I'm running on a G5 dual 2.5 with 8gb ram. A bass line and two or three complex pads and things start to get a little dicey in Pro Tools. A lot of CPU gets eaten up by the outstanding fx. You can turn those off freeing up CPU resources but it's sort of defeating the purpose.

While I do a lot of film score stuff which obviously Omnispere is phenomenal on, I also find it great with more song oriented material. The arpeggiation features are great and I can usually put Omnisphere to great use on just about anything I work on.

I said it before, but having every Spectrasonics product is just a no brainer for anyone half serious or interested in software VI's. It's all brilliant and just keeps geting better.

[enharmonic]

My music is leaning more and more towards the Muse, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, Oceansize side of things with each passing day. I think I'm going to pull the trigger on Omnisphere this week :)

[UnderTheGroove]

I've had Omnisphere for a few months now. I use it a lot more for score music than pop and rock stuff, but have used it that way a couple of times as well. It sounds amazing and the interface makes it very easy to sort through all of the sounds.

[GP_Hawk]

I have a 2.4 dual core imac and have a 4GB RAM upgrade on the way

Would Omnisphere struggle on this!?

Im running Logic Studio and Pro Tools LE8

I have my DAW setup with a dedicated OS drive, a dedicated AUDIO drive, and a dedicated VSTI drive and have NP running omni in this machine.