Spectrasonics build up to Sonic Extensions....

[pixel85]

I wouldn't put their 'expansions' at the same bench as many of other Halion/Uvi expansions. HALion is especially guilty of many 'expansions' with the sound of 2005 vst (cold, thin and lifeless).
Sometimes it's better to pay more and get one solid product than go cheap and for the same price get several mediocre products. I agree, it's nothing revolutionary but the sound quality is there.

[Sindikhate]

Around 300 presets per pack that I have no idea how much freedom you have to change, some soundsources, and 2 ok fx that you cannot use as FX outside Omni for 149$... On top of this they released all 4 at the same time instead of 2 today, and 2 in the near future (bad marketing)...

Overpriced...

I was so hyped for this... I missed the first 4 goals of the Liverpool Atletico game.

For less than the price of the 2 expansions you could have Falcon2.5 +2x Exp +100eu voucher for the UVI shop. hmm

[teilo]

Around 300 presets per pack that I have no idea how much freedom you have to change, some soundsources, and 2 ok fx that you cannot use as FX outside Omni for 149$... On top of this they released all 4 at the same time instead of 2 today, and 2 in the near future (bad marketing)...

Overpriced...

I was so hyped for this... I missed the first 4 goals of the Liverpool Atletico game.

For less than the price of the 2 expansions you could have Falcon2.5 +2x Exp +100eu voucher for the UVI shop. hmm

And in Falcon, you can actually build your own UI / Macros. In this thing, all the new functionality is locked away behind the presets, so for sound designers, this thing offers nothing except for some additional FX for way too much money.

[Neon Breath]

That's quite a ruckus for... Soundpacks

[Sindikhate]

I agree, it's nothing revolutionary but the sound quality is there.

Omni is a bit of a hog to fit in a mix with other things non-Omni.

[psynical]

These "new features" and "scenes" are very confusing to people

Confusing to you doesn't mean confusing for everyone else.

[pixel85]

I agree, it's nothing revolutionary but the sound quality is there.

Omni is a bit of a hog to fit in a mix with other things non-Omni.

When I still had access to Omnisphere around 2010-2013, I made several tracks and never had any problem with mixing it with other instruments, quite the opposite. Then later, from time to time, I had access to Omni2, and the experience was the same: no problems at all to mix it with other instruments.

[Hewitt Huntwork]

I'm through the first 2 walkthrough videos.

I am unapologetically psyched.

I'm excited about the discount pricing so I can prepare to get them all instead of having to choose.

On to the next 2.

[dblock]

Bought. If you're writing cues for TV this is extremely useful! They were right. I didn't expect anything like this.

[dblock]

Bought. For writing cues for TV this is extremely useful and even if you're not. They were right. I didn't expect anything like this.

[hoxclab]

These "new features" and "scenes" are very confusing to people

Confusing to you doesn't mean confusing for everyone else.

I'm not confused. I've seen users on multiple forums conflating sounds for scenes and not understanding what terminology they are using to get their point across but keep up the ignorant inferences, they're dope!

[dnalord77]

I was on the fence, thinking that "... but they are patches with a nice interface, right?". From all Extensions, the one that caught my attention was unclean machine - saw the video, I thought "nice, but I could dial those sounds myself..." and still on the fence, nonetheless I thought a few extra carefully crafted soundsources and a couple of fx, although expensive, would be a good addition to Omni. So I just went for it.

Two words: Oh wow (!)

Let me just start saying that these are not only patches; each "patch" has a specific selection of parameters/macros that seem to be carefully selected and calibrated to work well within the context of the patch. In addition to that, each patch has 5 "presets" (Spectrasonics calls them scenes) which are derived from the patch's building blocks and parameters. The scenes in each patch share the same DNA (soundsources and selection of parameters) but are dialed in differently so each scene sounds different enough, and it is just an invitation to experiment with the parameters.

This is similar to what Spectrasonics implemented in Trillian for its patches, a collection of carefully selected parameters to change the sound, but feels like a step further, taking advantage of all the new features of Omnisphere, new soundsources and seems that this time, there was significantly more attention paid into the balance and ranges of the patch's parameters.

I am on the 17th patch and so far I have not been disappointed.

All in all, if I were are a sound design wizard and loved to tinker with sound shaping, I would probably not bother as I could build these and the variations, but for users like me that know more or less what they want/need in terms of sound and need quick modification (and immediate gratification) using a set of readily available parameters to play with, this is it. I've still to play further, but I am pleasantly surprised so far.

Probably will not get the other Extensions as they are not really my cup of tea, but this one will keep me busy (and, hopefully, creative) for a while. Cant wait to experiment and add new soundsources and effects to patches that I've previously made.

[noiseboyuk]

For less than the price of the 2 expansions you could have Falcon2.5 +2x Exp +100eu voucher for the UVI shop. hmm

I have Falcon with my Pro Tools annual tax. I've given it a go a couple of times and never found a single sound I ever liked. I mean that MUST be possible to create sounds like I, obviously, but when the showcase is that poor I lack the will to,well, bend it to my will. When so many others beckon me in so seductively. Speaking of which...

First Thoughts

I had a good royalty quarter, and needed to check this out for Omnitag so got the lot and be done with it. Only a cursory play but so many astonishing patches in Undercurrent - just jaw-droppingly gorgeous. And highly useable. And customisable. Nylon Sky I was less bowled over with, I find the baked in vibrato to the main headline Expressivo patch quite artificial. Fortunately there is a clean patch, and that does sound very nice. Seismic Shock finally puts Omni 2 in the right sonic space for those who Like That Sort Of Thing - the earlier Spotlight EDM was mostly pretty horrible. Seth Norman is a terrific programmer. Still haven't tried Unclean Machine yet.

A few other random early observations:

There's no tagging for Scenes. So if a pad has a killer bass patch on Scene 4, you'll likely never find it when you need to.

There's some new Wavetables installed with Seismic Shock

There's some funky browser behaviour - some highlights were split across two patch names for a second or two when changing patches sometimes.

The custom controls are fantastic. Much like with the Hardware Integration, they often control a lot more than a single control, and are designed to be musical and useful. Diving deeper is of course a click away to refine or more drastically mod stuff.

Installation was a breeze, there's a lite downloader thing, then you run the individual installers. For all 4, installation is 22.3gb in Windows.

[BenfordLaw]

These "new features" and "scenes" are very confusing to people

Confusing to you doesn't mean confusing for everyone else.

I'm not confused. I've seen users on multiple forums conflating sounds for scenes and not understanding what terminology they are using to get their point across but keep up the ignorant inferences, they're dope!

He's too busy policing people's thoughts on the internet to stop...

[v1o]

That's quite a ruckus for... Soundpacks

You probably haven't seen Spitfire Audio launch a new string library. The BBCSO was like its the second coming.