Omnisphere 2 is here! (yes, it's really here!)

[Sampleconstruct]

I wrote it in so many threads, I can't write it all again, we need more stickies. Please read the Alternatives-thread in the patchool forum.

[Caine123]

I wrote it in so many threads, I can't write it all again, we need more stickies. Please read the Alternatives-thread in the patchool forum.

ok

[Ed A.]

Omnisphere 2 sounds very good, but I'm reluctant to buy it because:

1.) I just got burned buying Alchemy less than a year ago. Camel Audio was a small company that just decided to call it quits for no clear reason. Since Spectrasonics is also a small developer with a similar expensive software product, I don't want to have the same thing happen with Omnisphere 2. Just a hunch I have about the company.

2.) Their EULA, IMO, is oppressive. Last I looked, it forbid using Omnisphere for "sound effects" in professional film scoring, for example. It's at Spectrasonics' discretion as to what constitutes sound effects vs music.

[noiseboyuk]

2.) Their EULA, IMO, is oppressive. Last I looked, it forbid using Omnisphere for "sound effects" in professional film scoring, for example. It's at Spectrasonics' discretion as to what constitutes sound effects vs music.

If that's an issue for you (it sure was for me) then write to them. Don't think it's usually an issue if you describe what your job is and (in broadest terms) how you'd like to use it. I got permission to use it in non-musical context on any TV productions I work on.

To this day I don't understand why they can't re-word the EULA to cover this and exclude the re-selling as sound effects etc - should be simple enough. Nevertheless, in practice it isn't a problem, support were very good about it.

[noiseboyuk]

Double post

[Caine123]

Omnisphere 2 sounds very good, but I'm reluctant to buy it because:

1.) I just got burned buying Alchemy less than a year ago. Camel Audio was a small company that just decided to call it quits for no clear reason. Since Spectrasonics is also a small developer with a similar expensive software product, I don't want to have the same thing happen with Omnisphere 2. Just a hunch I have about the company.

2.) Their EULA, IMO, is oppressive. Last I looked, it forbid using Omnisphere for "sound effects" in professional film scoring, for example. It's at Spectrasonics' discretion as to what constitutes sound effects vs music.

what do you mean? when i bought omnisphere i was a bit riddled too 4 years ago and asked them if i may not use omnisphere for making commercial music etc.?

their answer was like "sure, we hope you do a lot of HITS with it "!

[Ed A.]

Read the EULA.

[Caine123]

Read the EULA.

but whats thepoint to buy a vst and not being able to use it?
why should they have told me that i may use it?

[Ed A.]

https://www.spectrasonics.net/support/k ... egoryID=78

"Non-music use: Not Allowed"

Imagine you're scoring a sci-fi film where you're using some eerie background sounds in a scene. If you did this, they could potentially sue you. Is this music or non-music? Who is to say which it is? As noiseboyuk mentioned, they should reword this to be more clear.

[Caine123]

https://www.spectrasonics.net/support/k ... egoryID=78

"Non-music use: Not Allowed"

Imagine you're scoring a sci-fi film where you're using some eerie background sounds in a scene. If you did this, they could potentially sue you. Is this music or non-music? Who is to say which it is? As noiseboyuk mentioned, they should reword this to be more clear.

for me it'S music as well, a score is music , yes they should be more clear! i think they meant if you upload whole textures and put your name on unaltered. but yes they should clear that out asap!

otherwise im not worrying myself as i said it'S music in my opinion and i would forward them to my mail, if i will be some hollywoodcomposer at all otherwise they dont give a damn about people who are not AAA...... even in the underground scene people sample star wars etc. and dont get sued .

[Ed A.]

for me it'S music as well, a score is music , yes they should be more clear!

Are you sure that's not considered Foley, as opposed to actual music?

[BBFG#]

Heheh, the foley sounds are ZebraHZ...
Omni is the non-musical ambient air.

[nIGhT-SoN]

Even if you made sound effects, what would be the problem with that? They are making tools and it doesn't seem right for them to dictate how you use them. To me it sounds like: Ok, you bought this hammer, but you can use it only for beating nails.

[valerian_777]

From another forum, an official statement from Eric Persing:

Hi Guys,

Lots of misinformation here, so I wanted to jump in to clarify about using Omnisphere for Sound Design. Hopefully, this can help clear things up about our policies, how they work in practice and the thinking that goes into them:

1. Omnisphere absolutely CAN be used for SFX/Sound Design applications and is widely used by many of the top sound designers legally and with our blessing. In fact, the Hobbit film is using Omnisphere a lot for SFX in the film and we are featuring this on our website right now...so it's no secret.

2. Just for background, keep in mind that Omnisphere was designed for music production and the standard license covers that type of use with no verification from Spectrasonics. We have a large user base of music producers and that's our primary business.

Since SFX use is a much wider field that includes things like industrial applications, various types of embedding in games, soundmark logos, mobile app development, etc, etc....we do require that our non-music production users check with us on using Omnisphere for SFX purposes - in an effort to have that conversation about their project/type of work and if the standard license covers it or an additional license would be required.

Since the SFX applications are constantly changing (ringtones, games, web uses, apps, etc), this is an important conversation to have with the user.

This is why we prefer to approve non-musical use case-by-case instead of trying to come up with a document to cover all possible uses.

Perhaps we will be able to design a FAQ for SFX use that covers every conceivable application in the future, but so far that has been elusive and handling them directly per user has been more effective for us.

We'll keep thinking about this to make our service to the Sound Design community better.

BTW, case-by-case doesn't necessarily mean that we have to clear every single sound on every project. Obviously, many SFX projects are similar in nature and wouldn't require special approval each time. What's more important to us is to have that dialog with the sound designer about the type of work that it is.....similar projects do not need special clearance once it's been given.

3. Most SFX use requests are quickly approved under the standard license.

We try to be as flexible as possible with the standard license in how we allow the SFX uses. Sometimes, the requested use clearly goes outside the standard license and we have to arrange a custom license.

Here are a few examples where we determined that the standard license did NOT cover the usage:

• One of the number one selling video games in the world wanted to use our straight samples as all the buttons noises for a certain level of the game.

• One of the largest corporations in the world wanted to use our samples for the startup sound of their mass market, well-known hardware product.

• Someone wanted to use samples of Omnisphere's multi samples for all the embedded audio in a music app for the iPad.

• The CEO of a well-known car company fell in love with a sample from one of our products and wanted to use it as the corporate logo for the whole company.

Each of these situations were brand new when we received them and clearly required us to arrange a special license, which we did. We are getting new types of requests that we never considered all the time, so that's why we handle SFX on a case-by-case basis.

Hope that's helpful!

Cheers,

Eric Persing
Spectrasonics

[noiseboyuk]

Thanks for posting that Valerain, not read that before.

This is one those subjects that comes up from time to time and people get huffy and indignant. In practice all you gotta do is talk to them and unless it's something quite extreme you'll be fine.