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Post by Tbone81 on Oct 23, 2019 15:54:23 GMT -6
I'm budgeting for some end of year purchases and need some advice. I'm pretty familiar with the spectrasonics stuff, including omnisphere (even though I've never owned it). I'm starting to do more writing/composing and Omnisphere seems to really meet the need. I really like the interface, not to mention so many of the sounds. But its been a while since I looked at any vst synths, is there anything else/newer I should consider? Anything that has similar functionality? For reference I already own Komplete and tend to use Massive when needing a heavy, modern synth sound.
Thanks in advance.
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Post by drbill on Oct 23, 2019 16:11:39 GMT -6
i dunno....on the synths end of things, Omnisphere carries the heavy loads. For sampled stuff, I'll lean to Kontakt. Between those two, I can cover pretty much any base I need to. I'm still using other stuff, but if I had only 2 VSTi's, those would be it.
I do want to check out some of the u-he synths when I get the chance....
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Post by Tbone81 on Oct 23, 2019 16:25:48 GMT -6
Thanks Dr Bill, that's the perspective I was looking for. I'll look into the u-he stuff, but I'm heavily leaning on picking up omni
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Post by drbill on Oct 23, 2019 17:14:28 GMT -6
Thanks Dr Bill, that's the perspective I was looking for. I'll look into the u-he stuff, but I'm heavily leaning on picking up omni <thumbsup> It's hard to imagine anyone not liking Omni or not getting their money's worth out of it. |
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Post by Guitar on Oct 23, 2019 18:44:27 GMT -6
I've never really grasped Omnisphere. I guess it's a big thing to grasp and I've only just messed around with it.
I was thinking about buying another "power synth" UVI Falcon and I guess I decided that, on a personal level, I'm still trying to master basic synthesis and sound design. For me personally a power synth will be more useful later in my development I guess. Even though I've been playing synths for 7 years or whatever. It's just such a vast realm.
I have a massive library of "regular synths" that I think still have a lot of tread left on them.
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Post by lando on Oct 24, 2019 2:05:08 GMT -6
Omnisphere is in my opinion still best in class on many things. It's truly massive, with over 10 000 presets in every conceivable genre. Only problem is that it's sometimes too big. It is very tweakable, and is a powerful VA softsynth in it's own right but it's even stronger suit is the sampled sounds and masterfully programmed presets. It's basically king of everything pad-like, but also has lots of good leads and basses, both vintage sounding and EDM-style. It has surprisingly good choirs, a beautiful ambient string orchestra and lots and lots of drones and cinematic textures. What it lacks is pianos (that's what keyscape is for). Together with Keyscape and Trilian it becomes even more powerful with combined patches.
I have Uhe Diva and Repro, and sometimes use them as well. I can highly recommend them both. They are different beasts than Omni though, and can do much less than what omni can, but those things they do extremely well. I cannot compare to Massive unfortunately as I have never owned it.
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Post by johneppstein on Oct 24, 2019 20:57:43 GMT -6
Omnisphere is in my opinion still best in class on many things. It's truly massive, with over 10 000 presets in every conceivable genre. "Presets" are bullshit and are anti-creative. "10,000 presets" are a reason NOT to buy such a thing, not an attractive feature.
Homogenation of music? Lack of originality? HELL, YEAH!
Learn your art and learn to use your tools. Presets are the antithesis of that.
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Post by lando on Oct 25, 2019 2:39:22 GMT -6
Omnisphere is in my opinion still best in class on many things. It's truly massive, with over 10 000 presets in every conceivable genre. "Presets" are bullshit and are anti-creative. "10,000 presets" are a reason NOT to buy such a thing, not an attractive feature.
Homogenation of music? Lack of originality? HELL, YEAH!
Learn your art and learn to use your tools. Presets are the antithesis of that.
I would say that statement is highly subjective to say the least. Speaking from my own experience, the presets in Omni have saved me hundreds, maybe thousands of hours. The sheer number of them can definitely be a problem, but what makes it worth it is using starting points programmed by geniuses like Eric Persing who (among other greats) have shaped the whole sound of synthesizers one the music world. Luckily enough the presets in Omni are extremely well categorized so stuff can easily be found. I rarely, if ever, use a preset just as it is, but always tweak it to match what I want. As to learning the art, well I bought my first synth in the mid nineties and have worked as a keyboard player for over 20 years now, always programming my own stuff, so I have quite a lot of hours doing this stuff, but some of the things I’ve found in Omni I couldn’t even have dreamed up even if I wanted. As always ymmv. |
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Post by Cyrus Melchor on Oct 25, 2019 3:16:18 GMT -6
It's definitely worth the price of admission because it covers everything. You can find whatever you need. And once you do, remove all of their effects and filters and go at it with your own plugins and outboard. If you do it that way you can get away with it being your only synth. (But I say, get a Moog Mother-32 and a gang of patch cables!)
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Post by MorEQsThanAnswers on Oct 25, 2019 9:54:16 GMT -6
I bought Omnisphere 1 at least 8 years ago and it’s still the best instrument I own. Haven’t felt any urge to upgrade at all. While there’s a learning curve to the GUI, it sonically kicks the shit out of everything else in my computer (emphasis on “in my computer.”) Their other products, Trillian and Keyscape, are mind blowing too.
Dr Bill took the words out of my mouth. Omnisphere for synths and Konakt for more organic sounds (although I might reach for Keyscape/Trillian too if I need more than a “simple” sound.)
About the presets, I get the argument that presets kill originality, but I’d argue that starting from a raw Saw Wave on a GUI this gigantic is a creativity killer. Begs a personal question of: do you value Creativity or Originality more? Personally, I find that it’s simple to tweak from a preset on this synth and the FX rack adds a whole other dimension to it.
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Post by popmann on Oct 25, 2019 12:24:34 GMT -6
Do you need to be a luthier to play guitar?
Ehh...presets ARE synth instruments. Now--I won't pretend to be an expert given how little I care about synth textures for my "taste"...but, I think it's silly to think a synth preset is homogenizing any more than having a 6 string Martin tuned to standard tuning makes everyone's music the same.
I used to do sound design in the 90s, because I HAD to...those early digital synths required that. IMO. But, mine were all some combo of an EP and bell and "string" pad--think Eric's Fantasia...only...more made to gel into guitar tracks than be a "listen to ME, I'm a synth" sound. Since then, I've become much more "simple" dat way...most all my keyboards are pianos or some sort and Hammond.
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Post by Johnkenn on Oct 29, 2019 11:45:54 GMT -6
Omnisphere is in my opinion still best in class on many things. It's truly massive, with over 10 000 presets in every conceivable genre. "Presets" are bullshit and are anti-creative. "10,000 presets" are a reason NOT to buy such a thing, not an attractive feature. Homogenation of music? Lack of originality? HELL, YEAH! Learn your art and learn to use your tools. Presets are the antithesis of that.
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Post by soundintheround on Oct 29, 2019 12:59:09 GMT -6
Omnisphere is in my opinion still best in class on many things. It's truly massive, with over 10 000 presets in every conceivable genre. "Presets" are bullshit and are anti-creative. "10,000 presets" are a reason NOT to buy such a thing, not an attractive feature.
Homogenation of music? Lack of originality? HELL, YEAH!
Learn your art and learn to use your tools. Presets are the antithesis of that.
I kind of agree with this.....but to a certain degree. Presets are sometimes nice, but In my opinion once you get beyond about 32 or even 99 or so to me that is overkill. I also think the artists should generally at least tweak the presets to make them fit their style. Using 10,000 presets created by 150 different people isn't exactly refining your sound. Having this all-in-one digital sound machine that can make any sound might be nice for a film composer, but less so for artists trying to make unique interesting music, if ya ask me. Just my personal taste. I much prefer Spectra Sonics 610 Comp Limiter than their Omnisphere  Was never a big fan of omnisphere when I tried it out |
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Post by johneppstein on Oct 29, 2019 13:04:13 GMT -6
"Presets" are bullshit and are anti-creative. "10,000 presets" are a reason NOT to buy such a thing, not an attractive feature. Homogenation of music? Lack of originality? HELL, YEAH! Learn your art and learn to use your tools. Presets are the antithesis of that.
Heh, heh.......
Just to clarify - I don't really see anything wrong with a few banks of presets for starting points, etc. In fact a good friend of mine used to do presets for Roland and Korg (among others) back in the heyday of hardware synths. But TEN THOUSAND? I don't see any reason to include ten thousand presets except to cater to the crowd that just likes to sit around and "play with sounds" without actually creating any of their own or even bothering to learn how. Which, in turn, contributes to the sameness of much "modern" music.
Or maybe I've just been exposed to too many of the people over at Gearslutz who prefer to "play with (canned) sounds" rather than actually playing music.
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Post by johneppstein on Oct 29, 2019 13:15:02 GMT -6
I much prefer Spectra Sonics 610 Comp Limiter than their Omnisphere Was never a big fan of omnisphere when I tried it out It's not the same Spectra Sonics.
Spectra Sonics is the hardware company. Spectrasonics (one word) is the software company.
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Post by soundintheround on Oct 29, 2019 13:22:13 GMT -6
I much prefer Spectra Sonics 610 Comp Limiter than their Omnisphere Was never a big fan of omnisphere when I tried it out It's not the same Spectra Sonics.
Spectra Sonics is the hardware company. Spectrasonics (one word) is the software company.
Yeh I know...i was just joking. Maybe that's why they finally changed it to Spectra 1964? Seems unfair tho.....certainly Spectra Sonics was first? I dont know any 20GB romplers from the 60's? |
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Post by johneppstein on Oct 29, 2019 13:26:14 GMT -6
Do you need to be a luthier to play guitar? It's not the same thing. The whole point of playing synthesizer is the freedom to make an unlimited variety of sounds if you know HOW TO PLAY THE SYNTHESIZER.
Relying on synth presets is like a composer writing a symphony by clipping bars or lines of other compositions.
Part of the problem is the perception by the majority of people that synthesizer is a keyboard instrument and treating it like a glorified organ. It isn't. In fact many of the most groundbreaking synths didn't even have keyboards.
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Post by lando on Oct 29, 2019 18:23:09 GMT -6
Do you need to be a luthier to play guitar? It's not the same thing. The whole point of playing synthesizer is the freedom to make an unlimited variety of sounds if you know HOW TO PLAY THE SYNTHESIZER.
Relying on synth presets is like a composer writing a symphony by clipping bars or lines of other compositions.
Part of the problem is the perception by the majority of people that synthesizer is a keyboard instrument and treating it like a glorified organ. It isn't. In fact many of the most groundbreaking synths didn't even have keyboards.
Omnisphere is a totally different beast than any hardware synth. It’s a monster with 5000+ different sampled sources, ranging from classic analog synths to string orchestras to a Tibetan man singing on the side of the road. All these sounds are put into a gigant blender, together with a 36 (or whatever it is) osc VA synth with a mod matrix, a granular engine, an arpeggiator and a huge fx rack. Then you can import your own audio and run through this crazy system. 100 presets doesn’t even cover the choir parts of it. Don’t get me wrong, I do love real synths and I will never part with my OB6 but Omni can create sounds that no analog synth can even get close to. Not better, just different, and as the sonic possibilities are so wide you can create hugely personal sounds or sound like everyone else if you wish to. It’s not for everyone, but I would argue that it is one of the biggest accomplishments ever made in the synthesizer history, |
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elcct
Full Member
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Post by elcct on Oct 31, 2019 8:23:20 GMT -6
It is definitely a good buy, but only because there is nothing like it. I really hate how sluggish the UI is. You have thousands of presets, but it would take you years to listen to all of them as they load extremely slow. Perhaps it is mimicking the experience of using old hardware with floppies.
I have fast NVMe drive, a lot of memory, good CPU and I can't imagine how slow it is on older machines.
That's one thing. Then if you want to edit those presets that's just another horror story. It's just counter-intuitive and stupid.
But it sounds great, so there is that.
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