So, I Purchased Keyscape & Omnisphere ...

[zerocrossing]

Melbourne Instruments Nina had a massive price drop, $2999 now.

That’s how much I paid. I think it was also the preorder price. Maybe they weren’t selling as quickly as they had expected at $3,500. It is summer time, when people are spending money on vacations and other things. Might go up again as retail spending picks up. It’s my favorite sounding hybrid of all time, passing the PPG Wave. It’s really that good, IMO.

[simmo75]

Melbourne Instruments Nina had a massive price drop, $2999 now.

That’s how much I paid. I think it was also the preorder price. Maybe they weren’t selling as quickly as they had expected at $3,500. It is summer time, when people are spending money on vacations and other things. Might go up again as retail spending picks up. It’s my favorite sounding hybrid of all time, passing the PPG Wave. It’s really that good, IMO.

Yeah I’m intrigued. Looking forward to testing one out. Have you checked out the 3rd Wave? It’s incredible! My favorite right now.

[zerocrossing]

Melbourne Instruments Nina had a massive price drop, $2999 now.

That’s how much I paid. I think it was also the preorder price. Maybe they weren’t selling as quickly as they had expected at $3,500. It is summer time, when people are spending money on vacations and other things. Might go up again as retail spending picks up. It’s my favorite sounding hybrid of all time, passing the PPG Wave. It’s really that good, IMO.

Yeah I’m intrigued. Looking forward to testing one out. Have you checked out the 3rd Wave? It’s incredible! My favorite right now.

Oh yeah, the 3rd Wave is another “dream synth” for me, but the size is too big for my world. If they do a desktop or a version with a polyphonic aftertouch keyboard, I’ll definitely buy one.

[QualityJunky888]

Does u-He HAVE a 'central command center' like Arturia Analog Lab where you can access all of the process from the various plugins they have?

I heard u-He makes better sounding products, overall, than Arturia - but Arturia having analog lab, where you can access everything in one place is extremely hard to pass up.

[Touch The Universe]

Are you not enjoying Omni?

Maybe try crafting some presets from scratch.

Instead of browsing the presets and starring them, start at the sound sources first to star, and then combine.

Truly a lovely synth imo.

Listen to me, what's happening here is the story of my adult life and hardwired into my DNA, apparently.

In almost every facet of my life, when I come across something amazing, I wallow in it and then my next thought is, 'I need to find something even MORE amazing!'

I don't know how to stop doing this, so I just roll with it.

Last night, I played Phoenix Rising with Black Hole Rhodes and damn near cried. Omnisphere + Keyscape are ridiculous. That being said, I just can't help wanting more.

Hey dude, go for it. For such an answer, I'll be happy to give you one of my omnisphere libraries for free if you'd like. Hopefully you'll buy out my shop hehe

[zerocrossing]

Does u-He HAVE a 'central command center' like Arturia Analog Lab where you can access all of the process from the various plugins they have?

I heard u-He makes better sounding products, overall, than Arturia - but Arturia having analog lab, where you can access everything in one place is extremely hard to pass up.

I’d say that the newer Arturia plugins are on par with U-He plugins. The “overall” is because some of the Arturia plugins are old, and from a time when they just weren’t that great. Many have been completely redone, but a few aren’t. I think SEM, Mini, Modular, ARP 2600 and Matrix 12 V are the only ones yet to be revamped. Don’t get me wrong, the old one’s aren’t really bad, they’re just not up to par with the recent stuff. U-He only has 6 instruments for sale, so it’s scale thing.

[TS-12]

Roland XV-5080 and Triton have really good keyboard patches.
Even thou my favorite keyboard patches are In Korg 01/W, Trinity and Ensonig TS-12/10. But there are no VSTs of those yet

[dlandis]

delete

[QualityJunky888]

I jumped completely out the window and bought Arturia's Sound Explorer Belledonne. It is virtually everything they have to offer. I'm a preset-guy, basically looking for something I'd like at the level of my Spectrasonics products, and I do not like Arturia's sound overall.

Smh.

If you love analog, you may love it to death.

[unaufadox]

What I'm saying is, don't neglect to suggest something because you think it may be expensive. As much as I love the Fantom 7 and JP80, if you roll both of them up together, they wouldn't impress me as much as Omnisphere and Keyscape together.

Serious statement right there. I was about to ask what you thought of the Fantom 7 but what followed was like...really?? I have Omnisphere and similarly I was blown away.

I just wrote on a post about sample rates (44.1khz vs 48kHz) and the sentiment of my point rings true here. Omnisphere feels like it has a higher sampling rate to the sound....as in, the sounds feel like they still have emotion. They feel dense and lush.

I was creating a track (before Omnisphere) and was looking for what I was calling an 'expensive' sound for the break-down. I got Omisphere and from literally, the first preset I tried, I knew I would find what I needed - and did.

In short, it's good to hear that what I am hearing is shared by others. It's up there in terms of sound quality.

[unaufadox]

The only thing keeping me away from Omnisphere is the UI and outdated workflow of it.
Keyscape on the other hand, sounds awesome. I like all of their EPs a lot.

I think, technically and sonically you don't need any other soft synth or piano library. Try to build yourself a preset library and try to use it on your songs often. You'll see you don't need anything else.

Maybe a different workflow for sound design would suit you better, e.g. Phase Plant and Pigments, but since you're coming with a hardware background, I don't think you will not need/search for a better workflow soft synth.

Interesting. I thought this myself. From altering the presets that are there, to creating them from the ground up, to layering them! It's a one stop shop. I do not work for them haha

[unaufadox]

On topic…

If you are looking for another multi-eng behemoth, Falcon’s a great choice. It has far better sample abilities and each type of synth engine is more fleshed out than Omnisphere.

The UVI workstation??

[unaufadox]

If surreal pads and weird textures are your thing, then Korg Wavestate. Either hw or sw, the latest Wavestate2 has full sized and better keyboard, though for me the original 3 octave one is fine.

Thanks for posting this. Went on a shallow dive about to go deeper with this. On the back of an Omnisphere post, for this to come up has me intrigued. I am relatively new to forums and already I can feel my gear list growing....

[zerocrossing]

On topic…

If you are looking for another multi-eng behemoth, Falcon’s a great choice. It has far better sample abilities and each type of synth engine is more fleshed out than Omnisphere.

The UVI workstation??

Yeah. It's not as easy to navigate than Omnisphere, but in many ways it is more flexible.

[mek42]

I'm somewhat confused. I think OP was asking for more keys / piano sounds, but people suggested many other things. Anyhow, it looks like you made a purchase. The next time you decide to spend money, check out UVI Falcon with their expansion LoFi Dreams, specifically Nordic Piano. Falcon is on sale right now for $200 until November 5th. It comes with a $100 voucher for UVI soundware, which works in conjunction with their also ongoing buy one, get one expansion sale (also until Nov 5th). I'm not the biggest fan of piano sound, but I like the Nordic Piano.

Also, have you looked into Pianoteq?