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

[Gamma-UT]

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?

I vaguely remember Thomas Dolby tweeting about this as he went through them one by one, so if anyone knows...

EDIT:...a Dolby blog post from 2009 says 1700.

[Synapse2k]

1700? Weird I thought I remembered more than that in 2009. 1.0.0 came out in 2008 according to the dates on the install files. You should estimate around 100 patches or more per general category for the initial release. My memories not too sharp but I think there are more than 10 categories and the initial release I'm pretty sure 1.0.0 included redubs of the whole Symphony Of Voices set so that makes more than 100 sounds for the voice category ranging from Tuvan Throat Singing to Female/male ahhs and ohs and oohs and mms to Gregorian to a little bit of Jazz to whistling, etc.

Maybe Thomas got it wrong. If Spectrasonics goes my preferred route after about a year since the release of Omnisphere v2 there'll be 15,000 superb sounds especially more textures pads and bells. Ethereal sounds and space sounds and ambient pads. Good ones not vanilla organ and string and choir pads. Hear me Spectrasonics? Maybe someone out there'll do a bell set. 150 bell sounds for $59. Vintage Synth came out with the wonderful sounding blue box and red box for Omnisphere v1 I hope both well affordable superb sounding in the demo patches work straight away in v2.

-Syn

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

so, now we have noisyboyuk criticising komplete ultimate for having a huge amount of kontent that isn't necessarily useful for everyone.....oh. the irony

[noiseboyuk]

so, now we have noisyboyuk criticising komplete ultimate for having a huge amount of kontent that isn't necessarily useful for everyone.....oh. the irony

Oh how terribly tiresome this is all getting.

Re-read.... well, everything. You seem to be missing every point, and most others seem to be picking them up, so it can't be all my terrible communication skills.

I own K10U. It's great. I don't want to sell it or get rid of it. It's phenomenal value, packed with excellent quality stuff. It's also true that - for me - 3/4 is bloat - I just don't need that 3/4 and likely will never use it. But it's STILL phenomenal value, even if you only use a 1/4 of it.

I was answering a specific point about which was better value - a K9/K10 upgrade, or Omni 2, and for that poster it was clearly the former. For me, for all the reasons I said (don't make me cut and paste it again), it's Omni 2 by a country mile. I ALSO said - REPEATEDLY - that this wouldn't be true of everyone, and the people for whom it isn't true should look elsewhere. And I ALSO said this (dammit I am cut and pasting now):

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.

Unlike NI, they don't break it all up into individual components that if you bought them all that way, would cost a fortune, but would be a cheaper entry point. That's the Spectrasonics deal - if you don't get on with it, please do do do look elsewhere.

*waits for more rolled eyes and cult taunts*

[r1chard]

I own K10U. It's great. I don't want to sell it or get rid of it. It's phenomenal value, packed with excellent quality stuff. It's also true that - for me - 3/4 is bloat - I just don't need that 3/4 and likely will never use it. But it's STILL phenomenal value, even if you only use a 1/4 of it.

Well different people have different needs, uses and budgets. I suppose if I was a composer for the BBC I would have just about everything, because my livelyhood depends on it. I think Omnisphere/K10U are right up your alley and you don't care about the fluff because it is making you the big bucks, or the heavy pounds in your case.

I was answering a specific point about which was better value - a K9/K10 upgrade, or Omni 2, and for that poster it was clearly the former. For me, for all the reasons I said (don't make me cut and paste it again), it's Omni 2 by a country mile. I ALSO said - REPEATEDLY - that this wouldn't be true of everyone, and the people for whom it isn't true should look elsewhere. And I ALSO said this (dammit I am cut and pasting now):

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.

Unlike NI, they don't break it all up into individual components that if you bought them all that way, would cost a fortune, but would be a cheaper entry point. That's the Spectrasonics deal - if you don't get on with it, please do do do look elsewhere.

*waits for more rolled eyes and cult taunts*

I am not going to roll my eyes because I agree with some of what you say. For me my budget is not as big and music is not my primary source of income. So for me, having an entry point and buying only the sound packs I need is a deal unless I start approaching the cost of purchasing the package. For a composer of television productions, Omnisphere 2, it is the only way to go. To, say, a garage band or bar band keyboard player, that writes music on occasion, that is a huge investment.

Since this site has every type of musician from some guy in a garage band to some Guy on the Rowland isles , the value of a product like this is going to vary greatly, thus the wide variation of opinions.

[mostlyjustj]

*waits for more rolled eyes and cult taunts*

noiseboyuk still wets the bed...

AND I heard a rumour he uses Supercharger GT!!

Just thought I'd take the suspense out of it

In all seriousness, I get your point that while nobody beats NI for pure value - and lord knows that Komplete, between Kontakt, Reaktor, Battery, and ALLLL the rest of it have the most insanely vast variety of tools and sounds that nobody could hope to ever fully exploit in a lifetime (but reliably will always have SOMETHING available for ANY need that might arise thanks to it's vastness), still.... yes, STILL a single number upgrade from say K(x) to K(x+1) for $199 is still probably not going to be as much bang for the buck for most people as the Omni1 to Omni 2 $249 deal.

Although depending on what you like to do music-wise combined with what you might get with any particular Komplete update, this definitely becomes arguable... in the end, the NI Komplete and Spectrasonics pricing models and the products themselves are Apples and Oranges, really. But your point is well taken.

[BBFG#]

It seems to me that Spectrasonics has always employed a calculation of whatever FMV is and then adding $100.00 to that. And it seems that calculation is relative to even their upgrade pricing.
(If FMV = x, then by their calculation, SpectraFMV = x+100).

IMO: Most Omni-threads denigrate to this debate over any other divide it presents.
(Save that of its sectarian cult bully drones.)
Though even when in its pure 'rompler phase' (and it remains to be seen how far into being a rampler the new version presents) - I do try to see that in comparison to any sample set I may buy for Kontakt. And some of those have been as pricey as Omni by themself. The question as far as samples then becomes the cross section of what each of us can actually use to determine 'value'.

So for the last three years I have gone through the process of checking and re-checking Omni in the B&M stores during NAMM and post NAMM through the first days or week of February. This year presents itself differently. I wasn't able to attend NAMM as my ability to walk was too limited this year and the fact that they have made these improvements make the trips to the B&Ms untimely until after April. But I think I may do it anyway as my regular due diligence, but will take yet another tact towards it. That is to say, I know I won't be getting any of the new features presented and will give it that leeway from the start. But instead of trying to dig in under the hood as I have done in the past, I think just going through the endless amounts of presets is what I'll do.

So I want to ask all of you that do own and use it regularly to maybe give me your top five or six factory patches that are your favorite that you think I should check out. Any little tricks you use to play those and the like would be helpful too. And maybe add the genre you use them for?

I promise, this is not any 'bait' to summarily dismiss you after the fact. I'm genuinely interested in taking a slightly different approach to demoing it this year. Both now and when the new version is released in April.

[rod_zero]

After considering much I still think the weakest point of omnisphereis is the UI, realy sucks for a product at that price and "complexity" (It is really not more complex than Zebra, alchemy, harmor or massive), it's just the interface that insist on presenting a synth in "layers" instead of a clear signal path.

Controls are small, text is aliased, too much wasted space, no drag and drop, no real time feedback. Seems to be stuck in the 90's.

it's a shame because it really has interesting possibilities with all the included samples which would make the granular engine super usefull, the rest of granular synths lack such a good library.

[quantum7]

I don't understand how the Omnisphere vs. Komplete debate started when they are completely different products. Native Instruments sells everything in Komplete separately, so they can afford to include them in their Komplete package. They also have to offer everything in order for people to upgrade, as a lot of users own much of those products anyway from separate purchases they made earlier....not to mention a lot of the new stuff doesn't appeal to many users.

Spectrasonics only has 3 products, and in order to survive needs to charge a premium price for an upgrade that most likely took them years to create. Personally, even as a VIP user I would have paid $500 for Omni 2. If you think the price is too high or "unfair" don't buy it- simple as that! Most serious Omnisphere users though, I'd bet will have absolutely no problem with the upgrade price because Omnisphere has given all of us such an incredible tool that most users would absolutely not want to be without.

[BetaAltairVII]

So I can see a lot of bickering going on - most of that is irrelevant to me as I don't own Omni v1 at all. However, given everything I saw in that video from Persing (he owes me a new keyboard, since I drooled all over my other one ) and the fact that Omnisphere seems to be able to just about fill Alchemy's shoes in the wake of its demise, I know only that I have a mighty f*cking need.

What I am curious to know however - would this make Iris 2 (another one of the items on my want list at this time) irrelevant? Or could the spectral filtering complement everything else Omni does?

[Neon Breath]

Spectrasonics only has 3 products, and in order to survive needs to charge a premium price for an upgrade that most likely took them years to create. Personally, even as a VIP user I would have paid $500 for Omni 2. If you think the price is too high or "unfair" don't buy it- simple as that! Most serious Omnisphere users though, I'd bet will have absolutely no problem with the upgrade price because Omnisphere has given all of us such an incredible tool that most users would absolutely not want to be without.

I don't mind spending 500 bucks on an amazing synth, BUT… I'd like to be able to try it first before spending that kind of money. Not having a hands-on demo is what doesn't make sense to me, not the price itself...

[BBFG#]

So I can see a lot of bickering going on - most of that is irrelevant to me as I don't own Omni v1 at all. However, given everything I saw in that video from Persing (he owes me a new keyboard, since I drooled all over my other one ) and the fact that Omnisphere seems to be able to just about fill Alchemy's shoes in the wake of its demise, I know only that I have a mighty f*cking need.

What I am curious to know however - would this make Iris 2 (another one of the items on my want list at this time) irrelevant? Or could the spectral filtering complement everything else Omni does?

Just a guess, but I would venture to say they should be complimentary.
At this point, I'm not sure if anything will replace Alchemy for me, but I feel HALion 5 may come in closer to it than Omni for me.

[Gamma-UT]

What I am curious to know however - would this make Iris 2 (another one of the items on my want list at this time) irrelevant? Or could the spectral filtering complement everything else Omni does?

That kind of spectral filtering looks to be the kind of thing O2 won't do. However, you could always build the sound source in Iris first, treating it as kind of live RX, and then record as a sample to be used in O2. At a guess.

I've done similar things with Metasynth and RX.

[zerocrossing]

The more you guys talk about this, the more I think about it, the more I feel Spectrasonics is ripping off their current loyal customers and giving everything to their new customers for $500 instead of 750. Yes, I am becoming more than a little miffed.

You've got every right to feel the way you want, but honestly, I don't get it.

First of all, you bought and I assume enjoyed, Omnisphere. Show me the software that puts out a v2 that doesn't charge an upgrade price. It's ultra rare. The only one I can think of at the moment is Arturia gave me v2 of CS80v after I bought v1 for $75.

Now, I agree that $250 does feel kind of steep for an upgrade price, but we're talking about a synth that retails for $500. But then I start to think, well they added a wavetable engine. And more filters... and effects... and Eric's gym membership. You think those are cheap to join?

(Just kidding, we all know he lost the weight after he contracted some weird disease mucking about in some cave. Hang in their Eric, just make sure you use the extra gentle wipes with moisturizer... also, I hope some of those events were sampled and included in Omnisphere 2)

So, anyway, think about what a wavetable synth with 8 filters and audio import and 25 effects would cost. Surely it would retail for about $200.

Now, forget about those additions and look at the core. Updated UI and browser, better granulator, extra arpeggiator functions, more mod sources, etc. Surely you'd pay $50 for just that upgrade.

So there's your $250, but wait! There's more! Lots of expertly crafted presets! (an man, Eric and co. do it like no other company I know) and a ton of extra cool sample content! And if you act now, you get it ALL IN ONE SYNTH which has a synergistic effect making all those features more valuable than they are on their own. You get all that all for the price of a nice dinner for two!

[zvenx]

All of this boils down imho to:

Is Omnisphere worth its asking price?
IF your answer is yes but it, if you answer is no don't.

Is the upgrade from Omnisphere 1-2 worth it for Omnisphere and/or VIP owners?
IF yes we will buy it, if no then some won't.

Is the grace period, of those who bought in the recent past or those who will buy from now on fair? (well think of it, if the grace period didn't cover people who will buy it from now till April 30th, why would they buy it....sales for omnisphere would go to zero, how would this be a good thing for Spectrasonics?)
If it is fair then you buy it, if it isn't to you, then protest and don't buy it.

Is Spectrasonics suffering in sales to the point they have to thinking their model, of whether to have varying versions etc, etc?
I think that answer is already in.

If you don't want to buy omnisphere or its upgrade don't. If like me and quite a few others it is well worth it. Do I think in the 5+ years I have had omnisphere it has in multitude more than paid for itself and I have no problems paying for the upgrade or new users within the grace period getting it free. But that's my personal opinion, doesn't have to be yours.

What really is the argument?

To each his/her own.

rsp