Ah. That explains it

I haven't had a chance to try Omnisphere first hand, but in an era of preoackaged specialized sound design it seems refreshing to see a synth that both sounds good and allows some measure of programming flexibility. At the end of the day, blending sound sources to evolve new ones can be as gratifying as building them from scratch, sometimes even more so as extremely complex textures can be achieved this way. Plus nothing prevents you from blending Omnisphere patches with other synths. (I never got why NI discontinued Kore; I personally think that was more of a political decision than an artistic or financial one. Someone should pick up that torch...)

Of course if one knows EXACTLY what one wants, and one has the programming chops to get there, then a more preset based synth is not the one to use. The difference is akin to knowing exactly what word to use in a literary context vs rifling through a thesaurus looking for the right word.

The other factor in favor of Spectrasonics' work is time. Some people work in relatively high stress situations (broadcast, gaming). If you have synths that get there or very close in record time because of the quality of the presets, then what you're doing is essentially subcontracting the sound design. In that context $500 is a steal.

At the end of the day, it comes down to your flexibility as a sound designer,your needs, your limitations, your budget. It's always a personal decision.

As a professional sound designer i find Omnisphere to be a powerful tool for creating all kinds of useful and interesting sounds. As a matter of fact a small number of my patches actually made it into the factory presets!
The fully customizable multistage envelopes are amazing for creating wicked rhythmic modulations that give most trancegates a run for the money. The mod matrix is powerful yet easy to understand and use.
I love the waveshaper with its Bit crusher and Rate Reducer features and the granular stuff makes it easy to introduce mysterious backwards effects in a sample or create a whalesong out of modulated noise.
The Pipefilters will turn any sound source into a playable instrument with an eerie and haunting quality.
The ability to use up to 16 effects on each part together the any realtime control possibilities and the giant collection of great presets are only the cherry on top of the cream for me.
That said- the FM module is a bit too simple for my taste but other than that i cant think of anything to brag about.

I have not read the rest of the replies, so if I'm being redundant here, I apologize. ...but I feel compelled to chime in.


Omnisphere is, in my opinion, one of the five best synthesizers ever created. Ever. Hard or soft. It's that good.

...Now, having said that, do you need it? It depends on what kind of music you write, really. It tends to have a very particular sound that, honestly, can get a little redundant. More accurately, it has a few sounds, and it definitely gravitates toward those sounds.

Hmmmn, this is actually a little hard to express. Obviously, Omnisphere is a very flexible synth! The collection of sounds Is decidedly diverse, and of extremely high quality. Of course, some sounds are "better" than others and some are certainly one-trick ponies... and the presets make use of those one tricks well enough, so you'll never use them yourself. And the modulation matrix is probably the best mod matrix you'll ever use: everything connects to everything (including, VERY usefully, the effects), and you get an incredible number of slots to work with (I have never run out), AND it's usefully visual, allowing you to alter param values right from the matrix: great touch

COMPLETELY unrelated, but worth saying: iTunes happens to have queued up Bjulin's "Asellus Borealis" demo of Helix, which is a track that has really grown on me. ...Another synth with a kick-ass mod matrix... But back to our regularly scheduled reply...

Where was I? Oh, the sounds. Right. Okay, so there are a few gravity wells of sound that you'll find yourself falling into with Omnisphere. ...Or, more accurately, that I find myself falling into: YMMV. One is a Virus-like arpy sound, created by modulating the start-time of a ROM setting. Omnisphere has a lot of superlative synth sounds, and they lend themselves to arps. ...And of course the built-in arpeggiator is (again) the best you'll ever have used. Omnisphere handles trance and Berlin School with finesse and style: if you write this type of music, you'll want to buy it, period. However, when you start applying delays and autofilters and built-in reverb to them, they will start to "sound like Omnisphere". The ability to modulate the attack to add noisy perks also ends up steering you toward a very Omnisphere-sounding noisy attack. There's something about it that is unique. It's great! Don't get me wrong... but it's identifiable and you may get sick of it (a little) eventually.

A word on these sounds, though: I own and use ElectraX, Largo, and Diva: they sound better at the sounds they make. Omnisphere has some great old synths, but Diva sounds fuller and richer because of it's exceptional filter. Omnisphere has GREAT digital bells and attack sounds, but ElextraX is edgier and more versatile with them. If Omnisphere has a comb filter (off the top of my head, I don't think it does), it can't compare to Largo's ability to sound metalic or plastic (which, sometimes, you want). I find that Omnisphere supersedes the other synths when you want something--bear with me, here--either milder or harsher than the other synths. For example, if I want a gentle arp sitting in the background, I'll reach for Omnisphere and dial up, say, a Farfisa sound and turn it into a pluck (which I highly recommend, BTW). Sounds great, doesn't hit the CPU too hard, easy to modulate with the Orb for variation over time. ...Or if I need a sound that's going to tear open the mix and rip it to shreds, I'll reach for Omnisphere again. Yes, the other three can do this, but IMO Omnisphere has a more compelling, rich capability of noise. There's just something that sits right about it. [shrug]

The second type of sound is, obviously, evolving pads. It's full of them, having grown out of Atmosphere. They're all incredibly usable, and--honestly--with all of the mod routings, you'll never run out of variations if you're a bold programmer. When I need a pad, the first synth I reach for is Omnisphere. Period. If you write pad-heavy ambient or the like, buy Omnisphere. You'll love it.

That said... :D ...I own and use both Absynth and Massive. I don't understand WHY (because of Omni's great mods, this shouldn't be the case), but Absynth is STILL better at "weird shit" that evolves dramatically over long periods of time. That said, Absynth lacks the ability to make you say "whoa" at the width and power of the sound being played. THAT said, the two of them stack very very well. ...And Massive has better real-time control, period. Being able to set real-time knobs to MULTIPLE destinations with custom depths makes it a keeper. It sounds very digital to my ear, but in a good way. The pads from massive are still some of my favorite pads ever, particularly when performed with the knobs.

Also, the IN-ability for Omnisphere to layer (easily) more than two oscs for a pad is a mark against it. Yes, you can set up a multi to get four or six or sixteen oscs... but that's a PITA and will devour CPU. I prefer Absynth and Massive's three (plus) oscs for layering up some complex pads.

The third kind of sound Omnisphere gravitates toward is those LUSCIOUS bells. You'll hear them all over the place, once you own Omnisphere, because THEY ARE AWESOME, and it's very, very hard not to use them. :) I'm addicted.

The fourth kind of sound is harder to pin down... but it's those "weird samples" that are characteristic of the synth, like the burning piano or the choirs or Tesla Coil or...or... well, when/if you own it, you'll see: they stand out. And like the bells, they are very cool... but also they are VERY characteristic. Painfully so... so much that I'm disinclined to use them, because they're the kind of sound really stands out, and everyone will be either saying "Whoa! Cool!" or "Totally copied from _this other song they heard that used the same sound_." [shrug] They're nice to have, but I feel like I would never actually use them, so it's a bit wasted. ...Does this make sense?


...Anyway, I stick by my original statement: Omnisphere is a top-five, all-time synth. If you're jazzed about synths for the sake of synths, you really need to own this. But if you're looking for a particular type of sound... listen to the demos. Repeatedly. ...Because you're going to end up sounding a lot like them. ...Don't get me wrong! These are world-class, top-notch sounds. Some of the best ever. ...but they are very... Omnisphere. I think "Omnisphere" is likely to be an adjective that sees more and more use over the years. :D ...Or perhaps "Spectrasonic", since Trilian tends to sound quite similar, too. ...Which leads me to believe (I don't own Trilian and haven't tried it) that it must have a lot to do with the effects. [shrug] ...The effects, BTW, are very, very good. It's like having Guitar Rig attached to your synth.

A few additional specific notes...

The filters on Omnisphere are really, really excellent. Lots (!) of variety and very good sound. "Juicy" in particular is wonderful (I think this is the impOSCar filter, honestly). They are not as good as the filter on Diva... but that's not saying much; nothing comes close. :D

The envelopes on Omnisphere are... good, but a little frustrating. I wish I could get a snappier attack, sometimes, and they seem to jump quickly from short to VERY VERY long... wish there were a little more control on the sliders, there. That said, the complex envelopes are better than (easier to use than) Absynth. Also, as I'm sure others have noted, many sounds come with slow attacks in the sample. This is, of course, easy enough to fix by moving the start time along the sample. Do it.

The "granular" aspect of Omnisphere is weak. I mean, it's useful! And it sounds nice... but it's not *really* granular and it's not very flexible. Ignore this as a feature, really: it's just a way to add a little motion to a pad, mostly.

The "Orb" feature of Omnisphere is INCREDIBLY AWESOME. Watch a video to see what I mean. This really is very, very useful; they cannot oversell it. ;)

Patch-management in Omnisphere is the best I have ever seen, hands-down. No contest. You will grow increasingly frustrated trying to use other synths because they can't handle patches this well. (Native Instruments, are you listening, you bastards?) It's insanely good. Don't underestimate the awesomeness of this feature.

The multi feature of Omnisphere is one of my favorite things about it. I load up one Omnisphere in a song and just patch the channels to other MIDI inputs... I actually don't think I've ever had two instances of Omnisphere in a single song, now that I think of it.

And, of course, Omnisphere is... heavy. It loads slowly, it changes patches slowly, and it has such a HUGE collection that it will take you a while to find what you want (and you will waste at least a week of your life simply going through the patches and rating them, I promise you).


In summary, Omnisphere would be my desert-island synth: I wound't hesitate to choose it. ...But if I were writing music on a desert island (inexplicably wired), my music would definitely smell of Omnisphere. That's probably not a bad thing, but depending on your situation and attitude, it may be something to consider. It is well worth the price tag: no three other VSTs are better-sounding or more capable, over-all.

Apologies for being so long-winded... but I've been meaning to review Omnisphere for some time. ;)

Oh, I apologize for being too vague, I hadn't read the specifications properly for the answers we were to provide. Let me see if I can help you out a little more.


Ok, you do realize my first point was that it isn't technically amazing right? Or did you completely miss that part and skip to the part where I gave my opinion that it was fun to use, so that you could say it wasn't technical enough?


There are quite a large number of filter types and I think the variety is a good thing. I'm not going to list them all because it's really not worth my time. Many of them can really scream with high resonance, and give new life to many of the sound sources, especially used in series together like you would to get crazy fx sounds out of an MS-20 for example with the interplay of the high resonant HP and LP filters.


Again, I apologize for being too vague, I guess I was in a rush that day. I didn't foresee people who are ignorant of the envelopes being hostile about them being interesting.
The envelopes in Omnisphere have several types of shapes that can be easily inserted beyond the simple multi-stage lines and curves, for more complex sequences. They also have a few cool tricks like a chaos function and the ability to bring in rhythms from Stylus rmx grooves. Much of this type of multi-stage envelope rhythm you can do with many other synths (I would also say that those are typically good and interesting synths), but again Omni's implementation is fairly inspiring and lets you get cool results fast.

So like I said, I see it as a bunch of typical subtractive sculpting tools like you'd find in most standard VAs, but implemented in a way that works quite well for experimenting quickly. When you take a sample library of the size and quality of Omnisphere's and put it into this structure, I think you have a synth/rompler hybrid that is of good value, but absolutely not a replacement for all other synths and something that will necessarily impress those who are obsessed with technical details. It's something that will simply impress those who try it and enjoy using it.

Wow, thats what I call cool posts. Let's assume I've got pads pretty much covered. Is it worthy to buy it for leading sounds?

Damn. Amazon has it for $375.00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001G53NZC/ref=sr_1_1 _olp?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1340214291&sr=1-1&key words=omnisphere&condition=new
Damn you washer and dryer

I suspect that if you bought it for leads, you would end up using it for pads too. They're really the best you can get.

...Can it do leads? ...Yes, but I wouldn't say that was it's forte, and I wouldn't suggest spending $400 for its lead sounds. If what you're looking for is leads, I would suggest Diva if you're looking for smoother leads, either Dune* or ElectraX if you're looking for digital leads, Sylenth if you want trance leads ...or if you insist on a ROMpler (I don't personally feel ROMplers are well-suited to leads), Nexus.

Or, if you're really smart, save the $400 and put it toward a Moog LP**, which will cover all leads better than everything else combined.

Another surprisingly good lead synth on the cheap is Predator... it has a silky quality and a very nice attack (I suspect they've hidden some sampled transients to beef up the attack in that synth). Or, even more old-school but in the same genre is Albino 3... really excellent leads come out of that synth.


So, no, I wouldn't point to Omnisphere if you were looking for leads. It's really meant as a semi-modular, to handle a more diverse set of sounds. ...Or as a pad machine, at which it is best-suited. That said, it can do leads! ...Just not what it's meant for, and not worth the price of admission if that's your only goal.


* Note: I don't own this, so this comment is based solely on a couple hours' demo of it; I chose ElectraX over Dune.
** Note I don't own an LP, so this is based solely on my experiences playing one at the local store (and listening to endless demos).

I don't think you can judge Omnisphere (or really most other synths) in a 20 minute sitting. Playing with Trillian, it is just brilliant how you can groove lock the arp and envelopes using drag and drop of midi files from other VSTs that allow that like MicroTonic and iDrum. It is no simple Rompler and I have to say anyone with that notion is simply speaking out of plain ignorance. There is definitely no reason to just use the presets, it is an extremely capable synth.

EDIT: I do think that some may be put off by Omni/Trillian's layers of edit pages, and if you simply go through the presets and the edit settings on the main page I can see how you would get the idea that it is a rompler. And from the edit page there are deeper pages, so maybe not everyone has discovered them and so feel underwhelmed of the sound manipulation possibilities. The UI doesn't bother me, actually it keeps me focussed in the area I'm working and keeps controls from being crammed together and hard to see. But there was a thread here recently about 'one-page VSTs' and for those folks Omni must be a nightmare.

Great and elaborated opinion. Regarding the filters statement: There are more products using the zero-delay feedback filter DSP technology: discoDSP Corona, Pekka Kauppila MauSynth and the yet to be released Togu Audio Line TAL-U-NO-LX.

One of the reasons I love Corona is the arp is similar to Omni/Trillian's I do wish it had groove lock though, and would play 'song position' when the sequencer isn't running. Hopefully Spectrasonics updates with 0df filters too.

I really wanted to like Corona. I didn't. I don't think making a filter zero-delay is the key to making a filter good. U-He really went the extra mile (and then some) to make Diva sound delicious, and it's the best money I have ever spent on a synth. I was just playing Diva for hours last night for the sheer joy of it ...I didn't record a lick of it. (In retrospect, I wish I had, it sounded brilliant.) My point being: it's an instrument that reminds you how much you love music. The kind of synth that makes your hair stand on end. The kind of synth that gets your eyes a little watery.

But I'm getting off-topic. ;)

Omnisphere is like that, too. Really! ;D ...It's different, though. Diva is pure and full and wide and sonic and inspires you toward the more pure tones. Divine purity!

Omnisphere is detailed and textured and biting and brilliant and inspires you to move toward unusual territories. "What would happen if I made an arp sound with that feedback tone they sampled by leaving an FX rack on overnight?", or "What would a JD pad sound do to a boys choir?", or "What happens when you crank the timbre down all the way on a Virus pad?"

Both synths WILL make you say "holy shit, did that just come out of my speakers?!" ...but for two completely different reasons.

n/m,
Last edited by hibidy on Wed Jun 20, 2012 12:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

Maybe you can't.

maybe you can judge it in 20 minutes but you wouldnt do it justice.
i am using it since 3 years now and doesnt seem to get old