Getting Omnisphere 2... or not?

[layzer]

If you're serious about music production you're gonna get it eventually anyway whether you buy a whole bunch of other vsts first or not. It's inevitable. Omnisphere encompasses a lot so for that reason it makes sense to buy it first so you can make a decision on what sounds you dont have.

for me it was the other way around. i realized i dont need the baggage and bloat of omnisphere to make similar sounds with the free shortcircuit, some of my own samples and an impulse convolution reverb.
and i'm serious about making great sounding music. just check my kvr music tracker on my kvr user profile page. sure, get it if you are a hotshot movie score producer ala danny elfman or hans zimmer....$500 is a drop in their bucket. cant justify spending the cash for making music for personal enjoyment.

"make a descision on what sounds you dont have?" < a serious sound hoarder statement if i ever saw one.
i suppose you have used every sound omni comes with or plan to. right.

[dune_rave]

Omni is a gigantic stuff, so you should demo it first. Go to a local distributor, or find another way.
The fact that I don't need Omni doesn't mean that it won't be your main intruments - so check yourself.

[ghettosynth]

If you're serious about music production you're gonna get it eventually anyway whether you buy a whole bunch of other vsts first or not. It's inevitable. Omnisphere encompasses a lot so for that reason it makes sense to buy it first so you can make a decision on what sounds you dont have.

Yeah, I don't know about that.

[tibah]

None of the stuff I'm currently interested in I consider cheap for a hobbyist, but at the same time I try to compare it to getting similar results with buying single products. Omni is 399€ and comes with THAT amount of sounds, which is great, but still, most of it is kept in the dark and with such an amount, one might easily get rather overwhelmed. I don't mind not being productive. For the most part, I noodle under my headphones without anything to show anyway. It's more about having that sound ready when I want it.

Halion Sonic 3 is around 230€ at most local stores or Thomann. Weirdly enough, it's still a digital download, no medium involved. That's still quite a lot of money for me. But since I can demo it, one could say I can make a better decision: Raven sounds great, so do the strings and the 2 granular engines are fun as well. If I compare that to getting single products in about the same quality, I might still end up at the same price and I have to deal with 3 more plug-ins in my VST folder. Yea, I know... I also can tell that it runs smooth and the balance slider between disk streaming and RAM use does come in handy.

So overall it seems currently that Steinberg will get my money, while I never thought I would say that again...

[DrGonzo]

So overall it seems currently that Steinberg will get my money, while I never thought I would say that again...

While Halion is a great concept and have lots of fantastic sounds, I'd just like to add one perspective that you might not have thought about. Steinberg are quite nasty when it comes to upgrades. They release paid upgrades with quite close intervals and more often than not you end up having to pay for an upgrade that you might not be interested in - but because the older versions doesn't support newer operating systems.

This happened to me with both Halion and Wavelab - I had to pay 99 euros each to just use them on a computer with a one generation newer operating system.

As I said - I like the Halion stuff. Great sounds. But I really dislike the milking when it comes to newer operating systems.

/C

[tibah]

So overall it seems currently that Steinberg will get my money, while I never thought I would say that again...

While Halion is a great concept and have lots of fantastic sounds, I'd just like to add one perspective that you might not have thought about. Steinberg are quite nasty when it comes to upgrades. They release paid upgrades with quite close intervals and more often than not you end up having to pay for an upgrade that you might not be interested in - but because the older versions doesn't support newer operating systems.

This happened to me with both Halion and Wavelab - I had to pay 99 euros each to just use them on a computer with a one generation newer operating system.

As I said - I like the Halion stuff. Great sounds. But I really dislike the milking when it comes to newer operating systems.

/C

Thanks for the input. I considered that. My own experience with Steinberg isn't that great either. Currently, my eLicenser can't be registered since it's not active anymore, but it took the trial license without any issues. Still expecting support to reply on that matter.

As far as upgrades go, I'm still on Windows 7. Never into 8 and the spam for 10 did turn me off. Not that kind of guy that always has to have the latest and greatest, also when it comes to OS. Even if Win 7 won't be supported anymore in the near future. I still got what I paid for. I currently have the same scenario with Propellerhead and their SDK related upgrades to Reason, but slowly but surely I simply don't use it much anymore or "as it is".

[jacqueslacouth]

I wish I hadn't bought it and I wish even more that I hadn't upgraded to ver2.

It is just too expensive for what it is. Sure, it has a massive number of presets but honestly, some are just horrible (try the guitars for a start). Every time I open it I feel just a little bit sad and there is a plethora of far more interesting synths out there these days for a fraction of the cost.

[Armadillo]

I wish I hadn't bought it and I wish even more that I hadn't upgraded to ver2.

It is just too expensive for what it is. Sure, it has a massive number of presets but honestly, some are just horrible (try the guitars for a start). Every time I open it I feel just a little bit sad and there is a plethora of far more interesting synths out there these days for a fraction of the cost.

I really don't think it's expensive for what it is. What other synth have over 7.000 patches and 60 GB of content?
Obviously there'll be some patches that you won't like, but I do think a large majority of them oozes of quality. And it has a really good browser, making it easy to find what you are looking for.

If you are looking for realistic sounding guitars in Omnisphere I don't know why you bought it?
No synth provides realistic guitars.
The only reason I see people not getting Omnisphere is if they purely do EDM and need loads of supersaw, moog basses and other similar types of 'dancey' patches. Then you're probably better of with something like Sylenth.
But I don't know how many times I've looked for a sound that's a bit like a marimba/violin/piano but not quite, and Omnisphere has saved me. It's brilliant for organic sounds that are not your typical saw/square/sine kind. But of course, it's no replacement for realistic strings, brass, guitar etc. If you need that, Kontakt is the one to get.
And there's a ton of superb patch soundsets out for it as well. Instead of buying a new synth I often just buy a new soundset. I must have around 20 now.
Does it do everything? No, I recommend having something like Diva to get a more analogue sound - one thing that Omnisphere doesn't do too well.

[morelia]

I'm glad I have it. I find it has such a wealth of sounds I can get pretty close to most things I am after that I can't get with other plugins I am better at programming. The only thing that would stop me buying it right now (apart from the price) is the fact that it is unusable (for me) in FLStudio. Instacrash

[djmino02]

omni 2 is way better than 1. i think it should've been an update though. it's not extremely different than 1.

[Fleer]

Then there are those wonderful PlugInGuru libraries for Omnisphere 2, including pads, bells, winds, guitars ...
(https://www.pluginguru.com)

[layzer]

I really don't think it's expensive for what it is. What other synth have over 7.000 patches and 60 GB of content?

bloat, pal.

it reminds me of my grandparents that have every closet and storage area stuffed with
crap that they "might use someday" learn to sound design and go on a HDD diet FFS.

[aumordia]

Bought Omni 2, was not impressed, sold it shortly thereafter. My infamous feedback thread is here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=481399

Spectrasonics has some rabid, Reaper-tier fanboys (and plenty of sane-but-silent users, as with Reaper), so take the enthusiastic recommendations to get Omni 2 with a grain of salt. A lot of these hoarders get personally offended if you don't like their favorite toy, it's like you called their baby ugly.

That said, Omni 2 is probably indispensable if you're trying to crank out toothpaste commercial jingles or the underscore for the umpteetnth variation of CSI, it excels at that sort of "xylophone made of paint cans run through a waveshaper" type of thing. I think that sort of thing is like the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" of sound design, and unlikely to age well, but if that's what you're going for, Omni 2 can't be beat, nothing comes close.

For pure synthesis it's unremarkable, I also have Spire which blows Omni2 out of the water IMO. Yes Omni 2 has a hundred effects... and if you're the kind of dude who thinks a hundred-string guitar is a good idea, this might appeal to you. If not, I'd say stick with Spire, and then pick up quality sample libraries one at a time as you need them.

[ghettosynth]

Try the demo, it's new.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=481399&p=6733238&hi ... e#p6733238

[V0RT3X]

Honestly I'd prefer buying something like Halion or Falcon over Omnisphere.