KVR Audio

damoog · Post by **damoog** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:11 am

I'm thinking of taking the plunge with omnisphere,I have tons of VA and real analogs so I'm catered for in that area but I need some bread and butter sounds and omnisphere looks like the right one to go for,is omnisphere still the best option for strings,pianos,flutes,brass,etc

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:20 am

damoog wrote:is omnisphere still the best option for strings,pianos,flutes,brass,etc

When I think of Omnisphere, I think of a huge range of synth sounds, not orchestral sounds. When I think of orchestral sounds, I think of Kontakt.

jeffb01 · Post by **jeffb01** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:31 am

I love omnisphere - probably my favorite synth... but it wouldn't be my goto for orchestra sounds. There is some of that in the library. but you have limited sources and varieties (like no staccato violins, etc).

For Orchestra sounds, I would go with kontakt or EastWest Play or some other sampler.

One program that I haven't used, but seems like omnisphere,but a sampler is machfive 3. It looks really cool.

Both machfive3 and east west play require a ilok dongle, so if that's a deal breaker....

The thing about omnisphere is you can't expand the sound sources (except for the trillian bass library and the moog expansion), so you get what you get (which is a lot, but...)

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:40 am

Was it ever king? I finally got to try it out at the Ilio booth during the show. It's okay, I did like the ease of programming layers, but the sound wasn't there to feel I wasn't getting better from what I already own. The other thing was the rep spent much time with others coming up with unresolved problems to which he directed responsibility to anything but the software itself.
Something else I noticed OT - quite a few people were coming up because of the controller he was using, not the sound of the software. And once they found out they didn't make the controller, they left just as quick.
Really find some place where you can try it yourself before you buy it. You may like it, love it, or hate it. Demo-ing it myself was enough to get any latent desire to buy it out of my system though.

muLperi · Post by **muLperi** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:27 pm

damoog wrote:I'm thinking of taking the plunge with omnisphere,I have tons of VA and real analogs so I'm catered for in that area but I need some bread and butter sounds and omnisphere looks like the right one to go for,is omnisphere still the best option for strings,pianos,flutes,brass,etc

Actually Omnisphere doesn't have that many good (traditional) pianos or wind or brass instruments. There are some great strings and guitars though.
That said, I think it's essential to me and would buy it again.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:33 pm

damoog wrote:is omnisphere still the best option for strings,pianos,flutes,brass,etc

Definitely not... it's a great VA, but as op said, get your hands on East West or NI's Kontact.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:39 pm

If you want a piano banged on with a buzzaw, or a Violin run through a blender. Straight orchestral stick with Kontakt, or East/West, but be warned the E/W files are HUGE...

damoog · Post by **damoog** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:34 pm

really?,i have heard some demos on YT and there are some gorgeous strings?

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:37 pm

Well, they are, but mostly synth strings. I'm always using the Prophet String pad.
People are always saying it doesn't have a decent piano, but it does - you just have to tweak the exteme reverb settings on it.

djanthonyw · Post by **djanthonyw** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:39 pm

Omnisphere is not an option if you're looking for a complete set of traditional sounds, a la rompler. It does not even include a regular piano...

Omnisphere could have been amazing for this, but Spectrasonics is against this because they claim there are already too many other options, even though there are hardly any that do it right. Hypersonic was pretty much the only one. Your best bet is to get Kontakt.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:45 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMrEmTd8nAM

Strings start @7:00...

electro · Post by **electro** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:46 pm

jeffb01 wrote:I love omnisphere - probably my favorite synth... but it wouldn't be my goto for orchestra sounds. There is some of that in the library. but you have limited sources and varieties (like no staccato violins, etc).

For Orchestra sounds, I would go with kontakt or EastWest Play or some other sampler.

cryophonik wrote:
damoog wrote:is omnisphere still the best option for strings,pianos,flutes,brass,etc
Sample Libraries are still the only serious option for acoustic strings.

When I think of Omnisphere, I think of a huge range of synth sounds, not orchestral sounds. When I think of orchestral sounds, I think of Kontakt.

Is Omnisphere supposed to be like a Roland JV sound module? ITB, you can have dedicated softsynths for specific instrument categories. FXPansion BFD for drums. WIVI for Brass + Wind, Kontakt libraries for Bass + Guitar, so a general soundbox doesn't have to be as deep as it once needed to be.

jeffb01 wrote:The thing about omnisphere is you can't expand the sound sources (except for the trillian bass library and the moog expansion), so you get what you get (which is a lot, but...)

You've got high quality modeled synths like NI Monark which eliminate the need for things like Moog samples.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 3:09 pm

damoog wrote:really?,i have heard some demos on YT and there are some gorgeous strings?

They'd be limited compared to a sampler that was dedicated to orchestration.

BasariStudios · Post by **BasariStudios** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 3:10 pm

cryophonik wrote:When I think of Omnisphere, I think of a huge range of synth sounds, not orchestral sounds. When I think of orchestral sounds, I think of Kontakt.

I mostly think of EWQL's pLay...LOL

Kaboom75 · Post by **Kaboom75** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:27 pm

My first synth was Omnisphere. Anything like a real synth sound I use u-he synths they don't have the static sound of samples and have more tweakability. Omnispher can make gorgeous leads from it's synth though. If I need acoustic real instruments like acoustic guitars and bass guitar or human voices I use Omnisphere and Trilian.

Omnispher has no Piano apart from the one they poured petrol over. For piano I use Galaxies The Giant.

Omnisphrees electric guitar is too limited and is no where near as good as Vir2's Electri6ity.

So Omnisphrere covers a lot of ground but mostly ground you never heard of.
The human voices and strings blow me away.

Is omnisphere still king?