What workhorse synth would you buy if you couldn't get Omnisphere?

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IvyBirds wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 5:50 am Omnisphere is my most used synth. If I had to start over again it would be the first thing I would buy.
Me too. In fact, throw in the expansions and the 10,000 3rd party patches I have amassed over the years and I honestly don't think I need any other synth at all, and I have about 50 of 'em. I love the Repros, Diva, Avenger... even Nexus has its place. So many brilliant synths and sounds in the V Collection. Zebra remainds eternally unused, even though its excellent. I have a ton of NI and Korg synths that see little action, many are fantastic.

Essentially the clue was always in the name. OMNIsphere does it all, pretty much. I love the UX, I get around very quickly. The patch browser is idiosyncratic, but even with its flaws it is by far the best in class out there. For any kind of media work it's almost the only game in town, simply because of its Mood type. Want a hopeful playable soundscape? Press the hopeful tag in Playable Soundscapes. You'll have something in seconds, it will sound incredible. And it's embarrsingly easy to manipulate to make it just right. Sound Match and Sound Lock provide amazing gateways to more variation. With the Orb you can create performable variations. All clicks away.

KVR values absolute sonic purity, and sees no value in patches. If you're not rolling your own, every time, it's postively unethical. Never mind that ever since synths came with presets (circa 1980) musicians have been using them on countless hits, usually just the sound they had in the studio that day. It's how you use the sounds, how you arrange them, that is far more important than oscilloscopes on absolute filter purity.

The HZ Legend has received universal praise here, despite it having a Y2K browser. That deficiency is completely irrelevant for KVR members who always want to roll their own - it's never even discussed. And the sonic purity is second to none. No member of the public could tell the difference when used in a track vs Diva - or indeed Omnisphere.

Every time I read a comment about Omni's UI being "dated" I just laugh. At the coal face getting good work done, it's the fastest way to achieve almost any sonic result (not counting fully acoustic VIs such as violins or guitars).

In short, Omnisphere is for musicians. KVR is for programmers.
http://www.guyrowland.co.uk
http://www.sound-on-screen.com
W11, Ryzen 7900, 64gb RAM, RME Babyface, 1050ti, PT 2024 Ultimate, Cubase Pro 13
Macbook Air M2 OSX 10.15

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My history:
I bought Omnisphere... I tried to put it into my production workflow more than a year... failed massively... touched it less and less... sold it with much loss (better than collecting virtual dust though)... never looked back.

For me it doesn´t bring anything on the table other than tons of bloat for a preset library which is mostly crap for my taste, long loading times, crackling envelopes and a overly complicated UI...

But it seems it´s a pure matter of taste as many like it... different people different taste...

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Trancit wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 7:37 am long loading times, crackling envelopes
.. must have been a long time ago as both of those things have since been fixed. The way Omnisphere loads HUGE sound sources (7gb+) is actually by far the fastest in the business. You can start playing a preset/soundsource virtually immediately.

The crackling envelope (if we are talking about the same thing) was actually a bug and it was fixed quite quickly.. like half a decade ago.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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bmanic wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 8:23 am The way Omnisphere loads HUGE sound sources (7gb+) is actually by far the fastest in the business. You can start playing a preset/soundsource virtually immediately.
This is true. The very long-standing slow performance on some Windows systems was fixed a few months ago. I then did some tests and - notably unlike Kontakt - Omnisphere can make full benefit of the very fastest streaming NVMe drives. Combined with the way it lets you start playing before everything is loaded, it is fantastically snappy now.
http://www.guyrowland.co.uk
http://www.sound-on-screen.com
W11, Ryzen 7900, 64gb RAM, RME Babyface, 1050ti, PT 2024 Ultimate, Cubase Pro 13
Macbook Air M2 OSX 10.15

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Kr07JyAfg

DSP56300 Xenia is coming soon :)
...want to know how to program great synth sounds,check my video tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/sergiofrias25

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Omnisphere was un game change when they bring a synth with 4 independent (or not) osc, vcf, msg, effect per osc, modulation per osc, delay in the envelope (an osc can start later than another one). All these cool stuff with a simple UI.

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bmanic wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 8:23 am
Trancit wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 7:37 am long loading times, crackling envelopes
.. must have been a long time ago as both of those things have since been fixed. The way Omnisphere loads HUGE sound sources (7gb+) is actually by far the fastest in the business. You can start playing a preset/soundsource virtually immediately.

The crackling envelope (if we are talking about the same thing) was actually a bug and it was fixed quite quickly.. like half a decade ago.
It was (don´t know exactly) 2 years ago??
With long loading times I mean actually loading the plugin, opening the GUI... etc...
I hate this too with Avenger but it is too good to drop it for that issue...

The crackling envelopes I still had in that time but it was worse back in the days though...

Anyway... I personally cannot understand the hype made around it... it has for my taste the by far worst presets available and picking the few pearls out of 10.000 presets is no fun either...
It doesn´t do for me anything better than my other synths other than wasting a lot of resources and disk space...

This is my personal experience with it...
For everybody it works well... fine... enjoy! :tu:

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Trancit wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 1:02 pm It was (don´t know exactly) 2 years ago??
With long loading times I mean actually loading the plugin, opening the GUI... etc...
I hate this too with Avenger but it is too good to drop it for that issue...

The crackling envelopes I still had in that time but it was worse back in the days though...

Anyway... I personally cannot understand the hype made around it... it has for my taste the by far worst presets available and picking the few pearls out of 10.000 presets is no fun either...
It doesn´t do for me anything better than my other synths other than wasting a lot of resources and disk space...

This is my personal experience with it...
For everybody it works well... fine... enjoy! :tu:
Cinematic loops 2 soundware from VPS for Avenger 2 is what I was thinking is the usual material of Omnisphere. Gorgeous ultra complex Pads, with tons of Macros to play with...
Not very much my style as I prefer to construct a sound more than deconstruct sounds made by others to make it mine (both are valid process, just my own personal taste here).

But when I am watching YouTube videos on Omnisphere presets, I am really struggling to find any sound actually explaining the hype. I find hit very very blend... And not justifying the gb of data in the hard drive.

I am surely missing something here. Can an "Omnisphere advocate" point me to any material that would help prove me wrong ?

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I believe we already said everything about Omnisphere

PRO
It's super easy to sound fat, lush, warmth, digital, epic.
The palette of sound is insane. Sample (4.000) are no classic, a piano doens't sound like a classic piano, the capture these sample for sound design. A huge list DSP waveform.
It's build for live with control on ipad, with set list, it can be split or even a second keyboard ca be use by someone else

4 independent (or not) osc, vcf, msg, effect per osc, modulation per osc, delay in the envelope (an osc can start later than another one)

integrated analog for tune and phase drift.

8 part ! Up to 64 osc ! If your cpu can handle

The buil in arp is one of the most powerfull.
Cpu friendly with granular

Love the alternate source for pan spread

Link with Trillian and Keysacape. You can load in Omnisphere a change everything.

Flow capture is great for creation (a simple way to record midi, wav and preset)

CONS
8 LFO but only one polyphonic, same for mod envelope
12 mod matrix isn't enough
missing OSC modulation for FM and noise FM VCF
Missing envelope modulation
Still not multi thread
missing real time step sequencer/arp

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What percentage of your Spectrasonics plugins/patches/presets do you actually use though?

Not saying it's bad, but measuring "bang for the buck" is more relative to what we actually get out of them rather than what they burden us with imo. When you do that math, you can see it for what it is instead of what you sell it as. And loading times are okay, but I wouldn't say "snappy".
Not a bad set of plugins and a good company. However, I've learned to avoid the user community as much as possible. They're too cringe worthy for my time.

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Gam456 wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 2:13 pm I believe we already said everything about Omnisphere

...
Well, if by any chance you were answering to my question just before your post... It doesn't answer it...

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I’ve owned Omnisphere since the day v1 was released and it’s by far been my most used soft synth over the years (and I rarely use its presets). But, there’s nothing to “prove” about it. If it’s not for you, then be happy you saved yourself $500 and a lot of HD space. :tu:
Logic Pro | PolyBrute | MatrixBrute | MiniFreak | Prophet 6 | Trigon 6 | OB-6 | Rev2 | Pro 3 | SE-1X | Polar TI2 | Blofeld | RYTMmk2 | Digitone | Syntakt | Digitakt | Integra-7 | TR-8S | MPC One | TD-3 MO

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cryophonik wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 3:01 pm I’ve owned Omnisphere since the day v1 was released and it’s by far been my most used soft synth over the years (and I rarely use its presets). But, there’s nothing to “prove” about it. If it’s not for you, then be happy you saved yourself $500 and a lot of HD space. :tu:
I don't expect any proof. I am just curious if I missed any interesting materials about it.

For example for Avenger 2 (my favorite synth), I advise you the Jon Audio tutorials, if you still don't like avenger after watching those, then you are not made for Avenger 2.

I wonder if there is similar material for Omnisphere. I just saw a bunch of 70 years old guys (nothing wrong about being 70, I hope I'll go there) playing with some boring pads.

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BBFG# wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 2:45 pm What percentage of your Spectrasonics plugins/patches/presets do you actually use though?
Well "plugins" is easy - all of them.

With regard to the patches - I never use the favourite stars. Often my travels take me to paths I've been to before, then I usually shake them up. I try to use Omni as a bottomless well, searching for - and finding - something new most of the time.

It's one of the main reasons I keep turning to it. It's just more productive to go to something you know very well that keeps delivering new goods than to roam around a dozen other synths. Of course if I know I want something Repro-ish I'll usually go there - I have it after all - but if I didn't I'd likely have something awfully close in Omni.
http://www.guyrowland.co.uk
http://www.sound-on-screen.com
W11, Ryzen 7900, 64gb RAM, RME Babyface, 1050ti, PT 2024 Ultimate, Cubase Pro 13
Macbook Air M2 OSX 10.15

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There might be some good demos, but I only tend to watch demos when I’m deciding to buy something or not. Since I’ve owned Omni for forever, I haven’t had a reason to pay attention to them. Maybe someone else knows of some good ones, though. :shrug:
Logic Pro | PolyBrute | MatrixBrute | MiniFreak | Prophet 6 | Trigon 6 | OB-6 | Rev2 | Pro 3 | SE-1X | Polar TI2 | Blofeld | RYTMmk2 | Digitone | Syntakt | Digitakt | Integra-7 | TR-8S | MPC One | TD-3 MO

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