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

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Problem is, without the free upgrade for Omni 2 , they'd be spending $500 on Omni 1 now and another $500 for Omni 2 in 3 months. That's absurd. No one would do it. So the end result is they have to wait 3 months to use the instrument. Why should they be punished because they just happened to have never heard of Omni before this? Even an extra $250 for just a few months of use is a high price. Me? I'd wait the 3 months if I had to pay $250, even though I want the instrument now. In the meantime, those who knew about Omni 1 and bought it have had all this time to use it

but the normal scenario to cover this would be a 'grace' period. i have no problem with spec's offering it (it is a good thing). nor do i have any issue with the 6 months they have chosen

the thing is that for a long time spec's have declined to do trade shows, and have answered update inquiries with 'you will know about it when it's here.' i guess their excitement got the better of them, and they showed at namm, even though the product is not ready. this generates the necessary hype, but also turns 'grace' period into 'sale' period. of course, without the omni 2 news, people would have been buying omnisphere in the coming months. and they would have got their 'grace' (as they should). what would not have happened is people (many of whom would have been omni 1 detractors) scurrying to grab this great intro price on omni 2

i think these criticisms are just, without being harassed and labelled an ingrate or a troll

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Camel apparently decided to cash out by selling to a single company than continuing to sell to customers. Hmm, wonder why that might be? Maybe the work that went into Alchemy 2 was worth more to that one buyer than what Camel thought would be the "bitching free" upgrade price to users?

is anyone suggesting the upgrade should be free ??

[Gamma-UT]

Camel apparently decided to cash out by selling to a single company than continuing to sell to customers. Hmm, wonder why that might be? Maybe the work that went into Alchemy 2 was worth more to that one buyer than what Camel thought would be the "bitching free" upgrade price to users?

is anyone suggesting the upgrade should be free ??

No. I don't see where I wrote that the A2 upgrade should or would have been free unless you mean that is the only "bitch free" price possible.

I am saying that companies fix these prices at a level they believe is sustainable. Is it on the high side? Yes, compared to some other companies. But Spectra have comparably few side products to sell, because that's the way they choose to do things. The one they do sell (Moog Tribute) pretty goes primarily to a charity.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Camel apparently decided to cash out by selling to a single company than continuing to sell to customers. Hmm, wonder why that might be? Maybe the work that went into Alchemy 2 was worth more to that one buyer than what Camel thought would be the "bitching free" upgrade price to users?

is anyone suggesting the upgrade should be free ??

No. I don't see where I wrote that the A2 upgrade should or would have been free unless you mean that is the only "bitch free" price possible.

I am saying that companies fix these prices at a level they believe is sustainable. Is it on the high side? Yes, compared to some other companies. But Spectra have comparably few side products to sell, because that's the way they choose to do things. The one they do sell (Moog Tribute) pretty goes primarily to a charity.

sorry, i misunderstood

as regards to it being on the high side ?? it isn't if you are really excited by the idea of going from 7,000 sounds to 10,000; for these guys it's a clear no-brainer

[cocoazenith]

I too am one of those who are turned off by the high upgrade price. I'm not a sound designer,
I am more inclined to concentrate on composition and I mainly use Omnisphere for its amazing
sound sources and patches. So I will make a quick calculation based on the core value of Omnisphere.
The sounds that it comes with. Spectrasonics says that sounds mean patches + sound sources.

Here goes:

In Omnisphere 1.5, which is $499, you get 8000 sounds right now.
Based on this price using simple arithmetics I get a price of $187 for
the 3000 extra sounds.

After all, the number, diversity and creativity of those patches is
a reflection of that synthesizer's power, and I really believe the
3000 new patches are amazing. But again…they are worth $187,
not $249.

Now that I think of it, the best way to get a value purchase for this
upgrade is to go the VIP way. Anyone selling Trillian and Stylus RMX?

[noiseboyuk]

Well, we seem to be going round in circles (imagine that, on KVR). Here's my potted summary that explains (to me) 95% of the previous 20 pages:

1. Spectrasonics only do a package deal. The broader your scope of what you need from a synth, the more use and value you will get from Omnisphere. It will therefore either represent poor value to you, or better value than any other synth on the market, or anything in between.

2. In general (and in tandem with the above), the longer you use a Spectrasonics product, the more value you get from it both in use, and in ongoing major free updates.

The following groups of people are advised to look elsewhere

1. Those needing a low price entry point, building in a modular way as they go (even if they spend more in the end)

2. Those who resent new users getting more stuff for the same price they paid (even if you got free stuff on the way too)

3. Those for whom presets are literally worthless

4. Those who work in one or very few specific genres exclusively

Eric says at the very start of the video that there's something for everyone in Omni 2, and that seems exactly right. Those expressing disappointment I can only assume fall into one of the above groups. I'm going to pick some of the headline features and demonstrate why I'd be happy to pay the full asking price rather than an upgrade, in terms of what it is personally worth to me as someone who's income is in part derived from music. The important point to remember is that I know not all of these things will be important to everyone else, which at least partly explains the wild discrepancy of views here.

1. New Browser features. I'll have over 12,000 patches from Omni, Trilian, Moog and 3rd party expansions. It would be pointless to have even a tenth of that if there were just traditional two letter prefixes. The detailed tagging by genre, mood, oscillator, author, synth model etc; the boolean search; soundmatch to find alternate similar patches and sound lock to retain elements of a patch and switch around others are all invaluable to me, getting me every quicker to exactly where I want to be, and making it easier to do that with an original sound, not one that everybody else is using. That's a core experience in working with a synth. Add in the mini browser on the side for even quicker working.

2. 400 Morphing wavetables. There are a few kinds of sounds that Omni 1 has not been so strong in. This will fill a large gap, and its range appears to be vast.

3. Unison drift. This will fill another, supersaws are finally with us (among other general bigness and fatness)

4. The new granular engine, coupled with sample reverse etc.

5. Expanded FM and ring mod, new filters. Combined with 2-4, that expands the range of all synth sounds I'm ever going to be looking for, in the best and fastest engine. I reckon I use Omni for around 60-70% of my synth needs, I'm hoping that will up around 90% with Omni 2.

6. Sample import. I don't yet know how much I'll use this for building my own patches, but I know folks far cleverer than I that will. Which leads me on to:

7. Project sharing. The 3rd party market has really matured in the past 2 years with some developers equalling the Spectrasonics standard. I now have over 3,000 3rd party patches, and I'd say around half are of top quality. For those developers - and some new - I'm giddy at what they might be able to do. Daniel James at Hybrid Two has already said that he'll be releasing Project Charlie as an Omnisphere 2 bank, not Kontakt. Exciting times, and a huge vote of confidence in the new product.

8. 3,000 new sounds. Great to see a new EDM patch bank in there, that will no doubt be making full use of the new engine. A good bank of 150 patches from 3rd party suppliers will cost circa $30, so assuming there's 2,000 new patches that's worth $400 right there. But that's not all, it also includes:

9. New factory soundsources. Thomas Newman's in there. Circuit bent stuff. Phrases. The already infamous radioactive stallactites. New Dieggo Stocco custom instruments and doubtless much more. Other developers wouldn't think twice about charging $99 for any one of those sets.

10. Pitch shift in the ARP (plus other improvements). Long overdue, admittedly. The downside will be lots of 3rd party melodic riffs which I don't want so much, but there's no denying its fundamental use.

11. New modulation pop up and options. This looks like a superb workflow enhancer. Right click to modulate, instantly the quick window pops up to get you up and running faster.

12. New FX. No, not just echo and reverb, some really interesting stuff like the resonator or innerspace, which morphs the sound with others.

13. The Trilian front page for Trilian patches - no need to ever open the other plugin now, with those handy front page controls.

In summary - There's a lot more content and synthesis options, the breadth of material you can pull off massively expands and you can access and manipulate it faster and deeper in new ways. That's my complete checklist I'd look for in a synth. (incidentally, consider this post a response to the moronic "cult" taunts that always come up. No, people like Omnisphere not because they are mentally deranged, they use it because it works and here's some bullet points regarding specifically how it works).

To me, anyone saying this is a minor upgrade or not worth $249 is living on another planet. But to reitorate the start of this post - if you're not going to use a lot of the features on that list (and I left out a lot more), then sure, it won't represent good value to you. Just move on to what you're looking for.

[cocoazenith]

To me, anyone saying this is a minor upgrade or not worth $249 is living on another planet. But to reitorate the start of this post - if you're not going to use a lot of the features on that list (and I left out a lot more), then sure, it won't represent good value to you. Just move on to what you're looking for.

Another planet? Maybe this planet but with a wee bit of common sense. $50 of common sense, I am not asking for more. And I'm not stating that it's a minor upgrade. No way. I'm just stating that the upgrade price is a bit steep. Is this subjective? Probably, but it's based on a hunch on what normal means.

For example:

Komplete 10 price: $499.
Komplete 10 update: $199 (Komplete !2! - 9 elibigle for update)

What's new:
- Kontour
- Polyplex
- Rounds
- Definitive Piano Collection
- Session Horns
- Drumlab
- Supercharger
- Driver

[noiseboyuk]

To me, anyone saying this is a minor upgrade or not worth $249 is living on another planet. But to reitorate the start of this post - if you're not going to use a lot of the features on that list (and I left out a lot more), then sure, it won't represent good value to you. Just move on to what you're looking for.

Another planet? Maybe this planet but with a wee bit of common sense. $50 of common sense, I am not asking for more. And I'm not stating that it's a minor upgrade. No way. I'm just stating that the upgrade price is a bit steep. Is this subjective? Probably, but it's based on a hunch on what normal means.

For example:

Komplete 10 price: $499.
Komplete 10 update: $199 (Komplete !2! - 9 elibigle for update)

What's new:
- Kontour
- Polyplex
- Rounds
- Definitive Piano Collection
- Session Horns
- Drumlab
- Supercharger
- Driver

...and I can counter (and have already done so many times) by pointing out the many other products which end up costing far more. Comparing with Komplete will make every other developer wanting purely in terms of a headline bang for buck - but it's not the whole story. I own K10U and it's great, but as everyone says, however much content you get, you only end up using a tiny fraction. I quite like Session Horns (well, the pro version) and Supercharger (well, GT), but although the new products are perfectly fine, honestly I don't know if I've used the rest in anger... actually have I even used Session Horns Pro in a project? Hmm, not sure I have. So... just Supercharger. GT. For me. In fact, while I'm on Komplete - Komplete Kontrol is a perfect example of how poor the competition is next to Omnisphere. That browser isn't even at 1.0 level. In practice, its not far off useless - perhaps a modest help for searching round Reaktor ensembles, but that's about it. You can only search by one product at a time or All, you can't even list the All results by product. In fact, you can't even see what product each patch is from. And loading times when auditioning between all their different products are hellish. It's a slow, sluggish mess.

Do you see the problem? If I had to choose between $199 from K9 to K10 regular or $249 from Omni 1 to Omni 2, based on how I work, I wouldn't give it a second's thought - Omni 2, every time. Because I know for certain I will benefit from every one of those 13 bullet points I mentioned, plus many more. Oh, plus I know I'll get ongoing free updates to it, but that's purely a bonus.

How much of that Omnisphere 2 update will YOU use? Will you use the $400 worth of patches? The $400 of sample content update? The who knows how much $$$ of all the synthesis, the browser, the arp, the everything else? I can make a case for it being worth $1,000 to me - of that I'd maybe not use every soundsource collection (maybe I would in time), but I'd use pretty much everything else. Stop looking at the bloat, look at how you work, look at what you need to do your job / hobby / art and then figure out what is most valuable to you in terms of features.

And that was the point of my post. If you won't get half as much value out of it as I know I will - fine, stay on v1 and look elsewhere. But based on how I've relentlessly used Omni for the past 5 years, I look at the list of features and get giddy. The only one missing is undo/redo - it proved to be extremely complex, but I've already opened up discussions on that one....

I know its worth - I know its designed my musicians and sound designers for people to actually use, I know it won't be bloat or redundant, or just provide minor variations on what has gone before. And that's how I determine worth, not by lists of bloat.

[basslinemaster]

Take away the presets..

Yes, who needs 3,000 new presets. We can buy 128 at a time for $30 - $40 from somewhere else, until we have 3,000 new ones...

You have a bunch of fx. Granular is an effect, import audio should have been in the first edition. I don't need any more effects, my daw has plenty. This is minor and should be a free upgrade. Many companies do free upgrades, then charge you for the sounds.

Granular is out there. There is no complete rework of the interface or coding of the product. They added a bunch of affects on. All they needed to do to import audio is another program built in that converts .wav to their format, they already had it otherwise they would not have been able to import their own samples into the product. If you think that is a major rework of the product, or recode, or interact do over, you can think that, but I think most intelligent people won't think so. At least those that are in the computer software industry.

This is hilarious. How you can't see all the new stuff that is offered is beyond me. They are presumably allowing anybody who buys Omnisphere now to get Omnisphere 2 for free, to prevent a massive drop in sales of Omnisphere, while everybody who was going to buy it would wait until Omnisphere 2 comes out. I think that's completely fair and a very good idea. I really can't understand what on earth people here are moaning about, saying the upgrade is too much.

[Synapse2k]

I'm confused that Omnisphere was supposed to have 10,000+ sounds and now suggests 7000-8000 sounds for v1. I was worried v2 wouldn't come out but I'll be right in line for it because I could really do with the extra features and patches. Omnisphere v1 is one of the best VSTi's easily but I'm confused about the patch losses. I'll be early in line for Omnisphere v2 because It's absolutely superb for soundscapes and ambient and the features I read about sound worth it.

I don't see how it could be possible that hardware can match plugins and software these days in the least bit. Companies like Roland and Korg and Kurzweil and Access and Waldorf can't touch plugins in my opinion. Samples of their waveforms can match them and Korg and Roland and Kurzweil have a bunch of fluff "bread and butter" ROMpler sounds. VSTi and VST Plugins these days are so much more creative/open ended. So much fun to keyboard and mouse around with plugs using a 61 key novation keyboard on a quad core 3.2 gHz computer. My RAM and my average speed HD's don't seem to limit things I have 8 gigs 1600 RAM. Biggest issue is the mixdown time in Cubase v8.1 Artist.

-Syn

[r1chard]

Take away the presets..

Yes, who needs 3,000 new presets. We can buy 128 at a time for $30 - $40 from somewhere else, until we have 3,000 new ones...

After playing Omnisphere last night this is the conclusion I have drawn. First, I like Omnisphere. One thing I did not like was there was no demo program, Alchemy has demo mp3s that you could listen to the presets. I liked this because I could preview and buy what I want. In the past, I would purchase a hardware synth in the same way. I would listen to it, find it had too may fluff patches and move on to the next. Many of the presets are useless to me. There still is no demo or way to here the sounds so the upgrade may have 3000 sounds that are useless to me. I am not going to spend another 250 on a crap shoot. That would be 750. I think I will cut my losses and from now on only purchase vsts that have a demo, or have demo mp3s and have a the ability for me to purchase the samples/patches I want, and not what a company like Spectrasonics tells me these are the sounds you want and will have and by the way you don't get to hear the presets, you just have to trust us.. I found out AFTER the purchase, didn't need a burning piano. You might counter, Omnispehre now allows 3rd parties to make the samples you want, sure but I have to be $750 into just to get what I want. You may counter and say, there other vst's that cost thousands of dollars, but I won't be buying those either. I will be buying a reasonable vst that has sample packs I can choose from so I don't have to pay for the burning piano and all the other non usable sound. There may be "something for everyone" in Omnisphere, but it appears mostly for everyone else. I think I will buy vsts that only have at least 2 of the following.

Working demo program
The ability to buy sample packs/patches
3rd party sample packs.
Mp3s of the sample packs (like camel did)


You have a bunch of fx. Granular is an effect, import audio should have been in the first edition. I don't need any more effects, my daw has plenty. This is minor and should be a free upgrade. Many companies do free upgrades, then charge you for the sounds.

Granular is out there. There is no complete rework of the interface or coding of the product. They added a bunch of affects on. All they needed to do to import audio is another program built in that converts .wav to their format, they already had it otherwise they would not have been able to import their own samples into the product. If you think that is a major rework of the product, or recode, or interact do over, you can think that, but I think most intelligent people won't think so. At least those that are in the computer software industry.

I
This is hilarious. How you can't see all the new stuff that is offered is beyond me.

I see it, I understand it, but do I need or want it? The answer is no not on this go around. You justify the cost with all that stuff in your mind. I have all that stuff already in other vsts and I have Omnisphere V1 so I have the sound too, they did not redesign the sound engine

They are presumably allowing anybody who buys Omnisphere now to get Omnisphere 2 for free, to prevent a massive drop in sales of Omnisphere, while everybody who was going to buy it would wait until Omnisphere 2 comes out. I think that's completely fair and a very good idea. I really can't understand what on earth people here are moaning about, saying the upgrade is too much.

Everyone is different in their needs and wants. Sometimes needs and wants change. Sometimes you figure out it is more important to be able to buy the sound packs you want instead of paying someone to sample a burning piano that you will never use.

[Synapse2k]

Wasn't the burning piano a "Diego Stocco" idea? Try "Diego Stocco" videos on http:/www.youtube.com He has some really cool videos and his patches are just another big plus in the Omnisphere patch list. General search - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... rom+a+tree He's very unique.

Direct link to "Music From A Bonzai Tree" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvyHHX6hNkY by Diego Stocco. I find Absynth growing a little old compared to Omnisphere but I created some nice stuff with it. If the plugins good enough you can dig for awhile and find perfect gems for your compositions.

REASON REASON REASON Propellerheads has the most sounds and some of the best sounds compared to Bitwig or Ableton. Just Rewire it and Walla better sound quality. Sorry for the OT I just keep making real music with Reason. The voice of Reason concludes MUSIC WITH REASON. Electronic or Voice library with Omnisphere.

-Syn

[VitaminD]

Response from Spectrasonics support is a player version was 'unlikely' but they would submit my suggestion.

So there we go. At least they were honest and direct about it

[mostlyjustj]

Well, we seem to be going round in circles (imagine that, on KVR). Here's my potted summary that explains (to me) 95% of the previous 20 pages:

1. Spectrasonics only do a package deal. The broader your scope of what you need from a synth, the more use and value you will get from Omnisphere. It will therefore either represent poor value to you, or better value than any other synth on the market, or anything in between.

2. In general (and in tandem with the above), the longer you use a Spectrasonics product, the more value you get from it both in use, and in ongoing major free updates.

The following groups of people are advised to look elsewhere

1. Those needing a low price entry point, building in a modular way as they go (even if they spend more in the end)

2. Those who resent new users getting more stuff for the same price they paid (even if you got free stuff on the way too)

3. Those for whom presets are literally worthless

4. Those who work in one or very few specific genres exclusively

Eric says at the very start of the video that there's something for everyone in Omni 2, and that seems exactly right. Those expressing disappointment I can only assume fall into one of the above groups. I'm going to pick some of the headline features and demonstrate why I'd be happy to pay the full asking price rather than an upgrade, in terms of what it is personally worth to me as someone who's income is in part derived from music. The important point to remember is that I know not all of these things will be important to everyone else, which at least partly explains the wild discrepancy of views here.

1. New Browser features. I'll have over 12,000 patches from Omni, Trilian, Moog and 3rd party expansions. It would be pointless to have even a tenth of that if there were just traditional two letter prefixes. The detailed tagging by genre, mood, oscillator, author, synth model etc; the boolean search; soundmatch to find alternate similar patches and sound lock to retain elements of a patch and switch around others are all invaluable to me, getting me every quicker to exactly where I want to be, and making it easier to do that with an original sound, not one that everybody else is using. That's a core experience in working with a synth. Add in the mini browser on the side for even quicker working.

2. 400 Morphing wavetables. There are a few kinds of sounds that Omni 1 has not been so strong in. This will fill a large gap, and its range appears to be vast.

3. Unison drift. This will fill another, supersaws are finally with us (among other general bigness and fatness)

4. The new granular engine, coupled with sample reverse etc.

5. Expanded FM and ring mod, new filters. Combined with 2-4, that expands the range of all synth sounds I'm ever going to be looking for, in the best and fastest engine. I reckon I use Omni for around 60-70% of my synth needs, I'm hoping that will up around 90% with Omni 2.

6. Sample import. I don't yet know how much I'll use this for building my own patches, but I know folks far cleverer than I that will. Which leads me on to:

7. Project sharing. The 3rd party market has really matured in the past 2 years with some developers equalling the Spectrasonics standard. I now have over 3,000 3rd party patches, and I'd say around half are of top quality. For those developers - and some new - I'm giddy at what they might be able to do. Daniel James at Hybrid Two has already said that he'll be releasing Project Charlie as an Omnisphere 2 bank, not Kontakt. Exciting times, and a huge vote of confidence in the new product.

8. 3,000 new sounds. Great to see a new EDM patch bank in there, that will no doubt be making full use of the new engine. A good bank of 150 patches from 3rd party suppliers will cost circa $30, so assuming there's 2,000 new patches that's worth $400 right there. But that's not all, it also includes:

9. New factory soundsources. Thomas Newman's in there. Circuit bent stuff. Phrases. The already infamous radioactive stallactites. New Dieggo Stocco custom instruments and doubtless much more. Other developers wouldn't think twice about charging $99 for any one of those sets.

10. Pitch shift in the ARP (plus other improvements). Long overdue, admittedly. The downside will be lots of 3rd party melodic riffs which I don't want so much, but there's no denying its fundamental use.

11. New modulation pop up and options. This looks like a superb workflow enhancer. Right click to modulate, instantly the quick window pops up to get you up and running faster.

12. New FX. No, not just echo and reverb, some really interesting stuff like the resonator or innerspace, which morphs the sound with others.

13. The Trilian front page for Trilian patches - no need to ever open the other plugin now, with those handy front page controls.

In summary - There's a lot more content and synthesis options, the breadth of material you can pull off massively expands and you can access and manipulate it faster and deeper in new ways. That's my complete checklist I'd look for in a synth. (incidentally, consider this post a response to the moronic "cult" taunts that always come up. No, people like Omnisphere not because they are mentally deranged, they use it because it works and here's some bullet points regarding specifically how it works).

To me, anyone saying this is a minor upgrade or not worth $249 is living on another planet. But to reitorate the start of this post - if you're not going to use a lot of the features on that list (and I left out a lot more), then sure, it won't represent good value to you. Just move on to what you're looking for.

Fantastic summary! Nodded my head in agreement frequently throughout.

Is it April 30th yet??!!??

I Also found the Hybrid Two tidbit interesting. Never used it before but the interface for Project Bravo looks amazing, and focused. But I guess most Sound FX programmers would be used to using Omnisphere anyway... Simon from Patchpool has already said that he isn't really into using Omni2 as a platform for sampled instruments since it lacks proper sample-mapping features. Less of a problem for FX vs. proper Instruments.

Still I think Omni2 still has the potential to crack the 3rd party sound market WIDE open compared to what we've seen so far. I'm interested in this, and even doing some more serious experimenting with my own sample imports, to see if I might be able to come up with some stuff worth sharing.

[noiseboyuk]

I'm confused that Omnisphere was supposed to have 10,000+ sounds and now suggests 7000-8000 sounds for v1. I was worried v2 wouldn't come out but I'll be right in line for it because I could really do with the extra features and patches. Omnisphere v1 is one of the best VSTi's easily but I'm confused about the patch losses. I'll be early in line for Omnisphere v2 because It's absolutely superb for soundscapes and ambient and the features I read about sound worth it

Spectrasonics often use the catch-all term "sounds" to cover patches, multis and soundsources combined - in truth, I don't think its the most helpful term. Here's the list of how many of each there are now:

Omnisphere
Patches 5,121
Soundsources 2740
Multis 144

(I don't think anyone has claimed 10,000 sounds for Omni 1 unless it is with the rest in the range or 3rd party stuff - the figure is just over 8,000)

Moog Expansion
Patches 817
Soundsources 407

Trilian
Patches 1477
Soundsources 1327
Multis 49

VIP patches (If you own Trilian and Omnisphere)
Patches 150
Multis 33

If you have the whole lot to date, by my calculator that's

All Steam
Patches 7565
Soundsources 4474
Multis 226
(sounds 12,265)

The only detail we have so far regarding Omnisphere 2 is that there are 3,000 new sounds. My guess, looking at Omni 1 and the Moog expansion, is it'll divide up roughly as 2,000 patches and 1,000 soundsources, with a smattering of multis.

I've been hunting around trying to find out how many presets 1.0.0 came with - I think it was 700, but can't find a source - can anyone out there?

(edited to reflect that I think Spectrosonics also include multis in their total sound tally on top of patches and soundsources, and I forgot the VIP patches and multis if you have Trilian and Omnisphere)