So, I Purchased Keyscape & Omnisphere ...

[QualityJunky888]

...and I really, really like both - but I want more of what I love about Omnisphere and Keyscape, with a different sound character, for lack of a better word. In other words, I don't want to buy something and say, 'Well, this is no different than what I already have.

I'm a keyboardist. I'm not much into the EDM, etc. stuff in Omnisphere - and there is A LOT of that stuff - but pianos/electric pianos, pads, etc .... I've never been more impressed. Some of it, especially when layered, sounds surreal. For example, when I first layered 'Blue Tines' w/ Black Hole Rhodes, I almost fell out of my chair.

Let me add this: The human experience is clearly a diverse one, because I see a lot of complaining about pricing when it comes to soft synths, etc., - but I come from hardware background. I currently own a Roland Fantom, which I got new for $3750, not including taxes and loved it. I bought Jupiter 80 used for 2800 dollars. I'm not saying that to make it seem as if I'm rich, because I'm not. 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.

I'm ONLY concerned with the quality of the sounds. Well, UI matters too, but I'll even deal with a less than stellar UI if it sounds great.

Am I doomed to be disappointed in my attempt to match or exceed what I have, or does KVR have some suggestions for me?

[Michael L]

Don't buy anything else for at least a year, and focus on expressing yourself with what you have.

[QualityJunky888]

Don't buy anything else for at least a year, and focus on expressing yourself with what you have.

With all due respect, kind sir, it is my inalienable right to pursue eargasms ... soulgasms, even - to the point of financial ruin if I see fit.

[Fornicras]

The only thing keeping me away from Omnisphere is the UI and outdated workflow of it.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.

[elassi]

Constantly wonder why apparently old KVR-farts create a new user-account to place a topic or a motion.

What's wrong with those guys?

[QualityJunky888]

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.

Thanks for your response.

I feared this would be the case.

I'm a 'newer/bigger/better' type of individual down to my bone marrow. I'm not suggesting I don't need therapy to fix hat, but in the meantime, it sure makes me uncomfortable to know that as a newbie to software, I've probably already reached the mountain top.

[QualityJunky888]

Constantly wonder why apparently old KVR-farts create a new user-account to place a topic or a motion.

What's wrong with those guys?

Are you referring to me?

I just found out this forum existed about two months ago, and signed up for the first time this morning.

If I'm incorrect in assuming you're referring to me, surely you can understand why I thought you were.

[elassi]

Bla bla...

[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.

But I wouldn’t go that route. I love Omnisphere, but I also love smaller, more focused instruments. Arturia’s V Collection is a great value and has a lot of excellent emulations of classic instruments that also include features that go way beyond those instruments. Their effects bundle is also excellent.

U-He is another great developer, though they focus more on unique instruments. Their only pure emulation is Repro (Pro 1 and Prophet 5) but Diva contains looser versions of classics that can be mixed and matched to make Frankenstein creations. Think Moog Model D oscillators with SEM filters, etc.

I love a lot of the GForce plugins too. More emulators, but great.

Pigments, Serum, Icarus, all great instruments.

I could go on all day. Maybe hang out and see what people are talking about and see what interests you. There’s a lot and most of them are great. Good luck.

[QualityJunky888]

But I wouldn’t go that route. I love Omnisphere, but I also love smaller, more focused instruments.

This stood out to me the most.

I was thinking about that. I don't need a plugin a massive sound library.

I was telling a friend of mine, if there was a plugin, that had only 100 amazing presets, with great effects and laying capability, I'd buy that. It's not so much the amount of sounds, but the reality is, no one will make a plugin where most people like most of the sounds; so the larger the library the more sounds you will like, even if it takes awhile to go through and find all you like.

[zerocrossing]

But I wouldn’t go that route. I love Omnisphere, but I also love smaller, more focused instruments.

This stood out to me the most.

I was thinking about that. I don't need a plugin a massive sound library.

I was telling a friend of mine, if there was a plugin, that had only 100 amazing presets, with great effects and laying capability, I'd buy that. It's not so much the amount of sounds, but the reality is, no one will make a plugin where most people like most of the sounds; so the larger the library the more sounds you will like, even if it takes awhile to go through and find all you like.

Well, there’s quality, which is fairly common these days, and there’s what you like. For instance, Tone2 make very high quality instruments, but their presets are very EDM oriented. Are they good? I’m sure to someone who makes modern dance music, they’re great. If you’re not into that, you may hate them, but that’s a mistake, imo, because a bit of programming prowess can turn those dubstep presets into whatever you want. Better yet, initialize the preset you hate and then roll your own.

U-He has Howard Scar and others on their sound design team, and I personally like their approach a lot more. One of the things about Omnisphere is that Eric Persing is a sound design genius who made digital Roland synths the success they were. I personally find them to much, so while I’ll enjoy going through them, I nearly always start from scratch. Once you get the right-click-modulation-assign paradigm, they are very easy to work with.

When I (briefly) left hardware synthesizers, I made a spreadsheet of all the different options available from the major developers. It was pretty helpful to sort out what was worth buying and what wasn’t. You almost can’t go wrong buying from any of the big developers, these days. Sometimes you can find great deals on plugins in the for-sale thread, but make sure your seller has good feedback from a few sources.

[Michael L]

Bla bla...

[otwer22]

Op something I noticed around here is that people put out a lot of posts that are sarcastic or posts poking fun. I think the thing to do is not take it seriously, or take offense to it.

[billcarroll]

Focus on Omnisphere and if you need to spend money, buy the best presets for Omnisphere:

The Unfinished - Summer Sale 2023 - 40% off with code HELIOSYNTH until August 25th.

Omnisphere Colossus Bundle - https://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/om ... us-bundle/

[kritikon]

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. Wavestate 1 and 2 seem to be essentially the same engine & samples. HW analogues are mostly my thing but in the digital world Wavestste makes sounds that no way I can get with analogue. I got both a hw Wavestate and the plugin...TBH I've been using the plugin more recently - it's quite massively easier to program in sw, actually quite awkward in hw. If going hw then the sw editor/librarian is a very good idea.

Think cinematic evolving textures, massive evolving pads, weird digital noises, voices, clangs and wibbles. It's sample based but you sequence those samples and can manipulate the sequences so many ways - pitch, timing, gating, speed, shape etc. The onboard FX are superb, and you could never run out of modulation options - almost everything can be modulated. If you compare it to a traditional mod matrix (which it's not) then you have several hundred LFOs etc. All the FX can be modulated too. TBH it's not a straight forward synth to program, it takes time to get to grips with. But there are more and more performances for sale if that's your thing.

The greatest compliment I can give it is that I use it in almost everything I do. It's always my synth for pads, even in strictly analogue doof doof stuff. I even use it for drums sometimes (the sample set and the sequencing capability make it powerful for anything rhythmic) and I even use it for analogue style wibbles (Korg filters are great on it - Polysix, MS20 and loads of others). Turn the lights down and just play on it...some of its presets evolve over minutes. Wavestation was all over cinema soundtracks...Wavestate will be the same. It's a classic synth remade and overdosed on steroids.