omnisphere! criky damn this synth is just no words awesome.

[AstralExistence]

it took about 3 hours to install but think it was shorter (not sure how long it really took cause i kept coming back to check on the progress and change disk) i played one note the first bassy arp patch and knew right away that this is the best synth i ever heard in my life ...

So Astral, how did you manage to miss all the classes in school where they taught you how to use capital letters at the start of the first word in a sentence, and for proper nouns, etc.etc.etc. How do you manage to ignore what you see every time you read a book or a magazine, or a newspaper (or am I hoping for too much) and just write the way you do?

why do you feel the need to make fun of me. that i don't understand. for all you know im smarter then you. i do have an iq of 151. your question ill answer just to satisfy your desire to be rude and my desire to defend myself. i went to a special needs school due to being a child born in the 80s before george bush implemented the no child left behind act.

i have high functioning aspergers syndrome so because i went to a sn school, it wasn't there first priority to teach typing. and much of the studies was remedial. im naturally smart but not educated smart. again i really don't understand why you felt so inclined to point out my grammar or lack there off. that said, i have an incredibly diverse vocabulary but i am poor at grammar and typing its true.

[Aural Chaos]

it took about 3 hours to install but think it was shorter (not sure how long it really took cause i kept coming back to check on the progress and change disk) i played one note the first bassy arp patch and knew right away that this is the best synth i ever heard in my life ...

So Astral, how did you manage to miss all the classes in school where they taught you how to use capital letters at the start of the first word in a sentence, and for proper nouns, etc.etc.etc. How do you manage to ignore what you see every time you read a book or a magazine, or a newspaper (or am I hoping for too much) and just write the way you do?

Yeah, that's what this thread was missing: someone bitching about grammar and punctuation. Extra points for a ranting with such horrible syntax and run ons....

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

it took about 3 hours to install but think it was shorter (not sure how long it really took cause i kept coming back to check on the progress and change disk) i played one note the first bassy arp patch and knew right away that this is the best synth i ever heard in my life ...

So Astral, how did you manage to miss all the classes in school where they taught you how to use capital letters at the start of the first word in a sentence, and for proper nouns, etc.etc.etc. How do you manage to ignore what you see every time you read a book or a magazine, or a newspaper (or am I hoping for too much) and just write the way you do?

Yeah, that's what this thread was missing: someone bitching about grammar and punctuation. Extra points for a ranting with such horrible syntax and run ons....

[Uncle E]

Users speak in testimonials and post their own examples which still only show the smallest of what it may do in relationship to those specs.

Omnisphere and Trilian are exactly the right synths for a lot of people, I just don't think you're one of them. There are aspects of Omnisphere and Trilian that I think you'd like but maybe after you've exhausted all the possibilities of Alchemy, Reaktor, Tassman, and Kontakt first, which may not be possible.

[bmrzycki]

So, cmon, share with us one or two of the interesting things that you learned, that's the kind of detail that many people want to discuss?

Well, it's kind of hard to sum up all the lessons I've learned from Omni. Let's see if I can pick a few highlights.
* Delaying the start of one soundsource (and a little HP filter) can add a gloss or sheen to a pad sound.
* The sounds with really complicated starting soundsources tended to do very little other than some modulation, filtering, and FX. I didn't really learn much from those.
* Small amounts of modulation from the same source to several different destinations (pan, detune, sync, FX dry/wet, can liven up a sterile sound)
* With sample soundsources modulating the starting sample point makes a huge difference to the final sound.
* bandpass in parallel with allpass filters can create accentuated emphasis (beating) that is somewhere between multi-osc beating and phasing.
* The pure DSP engine in Omni isn't bad, but I prefer Zebra2 for pure synthesis. The waveform morph in Omni is somewhat limited but there were some presets that used it to good effect. I found that morphing a waveform while opening/closing a lowpass filter (same modulation source) can make the attack and sustain sounds very different. Really useful for sounds that have an attack portion completely different from the sustain portion like plucks.
* Eric *loves* FX-drenched sounds. Disabling the FX on some of the soundsources yields absurdly different sounds.

I still have a lot to learn. There are hundreds and hundreds of sounds.

Can you estimate what percentage of the synth samples in Trilian are unfiltered? Do most of the (synth) sounds rely on the built in filters for resonant filter effects?

I don't know, that's hard to say but I'll try. Trilian doesn't have the DSP engine that Omnisphere has. To compensate for that Spectra added considerable number of raw waveforms. They have about 85 waveforms from various classic synths. The total synth category has over 300 sounds. Some filtered, some not. It's a pretty diverse list. The other soundsources (electric and acoustic) are pretty nice to, if that's your thing.
http://www.spectrasonics.net/products/trilian-lib.php

Each product is different and they compliment each other well. I enjoy it as a sound platform and (personally) compare it more to tools like the Korg Kronos' sound palate or a subset of Komplete.

I usually just end up using the tricks I learned to get lost for hours in Zebra2 though.

[Uncle E]

On the contrary, I would like more information and am quite open to whatever that brings. I'm just aware that it can't be found with its users or sales representatives at this time.

He who doesn't kick tires and counts the spare, drives off and often gets stuck with a flat in the middle of nowhere.
Likewise, if you don't check under the hood, you may find yourself blowing smoke sooner than you thought.

The several sessions of numerous hours of demoing that you've done with Omnisphere seems like far beyond tire kicking, particularly since it's such an easy synth to use and work with. If you have a background of working with synths, you probably have already learned everything there is to learn about it.

Personally, I know if I want to own a synth or not within 10 minutes of using it.

[BBFG#]

On the contrary, I would like more information and am quite open to whatever that brings. I'm just aware that it can't be found with its users or sales representatives at this time.

He who doesn't kick tires and counts the spare, drives off and often gets stuck with a flat in the middle of nowhere.
Likewise, if you don't check under the hood, you may find yourself blowing smoke sooner than you thought.

The several sessions of numerous hours of demoing that you've done with Omnisphere seems like far beyond tire kicking, particularly since it's such an easy synth to use and work with. If you have a background of working with synths, you probably have already learned everything there is to learn about it.

Personally, I know if I want to own a synth or not within 10 minutes of using it.

Some synths I know in the first three minutes of playing them, others take a bit more time. Especially if it has a ticket price that seems over the mark for what you see. It's also complicated by the fact that for whatever reasoning, GC runs it on a grossly under-powered Mac that's easy to choke when simply layering and modifying those layers. But that's only using the edit page which basically is a simple rompler style interface. If it has these other forms of synthesis, I want to check them out. So what you're telling me is they really don't; beyond effects.
If it is true that all it is , is what I've played, that's sad. Especially for that price.
But again, I had pretty much come to the conclusion that I don't need it. What I'm more interested in at this point, is Trilian and Omni becomes secondary at best in relation to it. If they had a 50% off deal, I would probably go for it, since that seems about what it is truly worth for the capabilities you say it has as well as the ones you say it doesn't.

[noiseboyuk]

It does sound like it's not for you, BBFG, but I definitely take issue with the notion that its overpriced. 8,000 factory presets and soundsources - compare and contrast that with Nexus2, for example. And I love that they don't have any sales - never any pressure of when to buy or not, always retains its value.

For me, speed of use alone is why its easily worth it. I work so so much quicker with Omni than anything else, and time is money. In general, I'd definitely recommend putting it on an SSD btw (I see Amazon now sell 120gb drives for £50, so it's peanuts compared to the cost of the library itself). Load times are virtually instant for all but the largest patches then.

[Ben H]

I agree with noiseboyuk and Uncle E.

After reading your comments in several threads and knowing that you have had the chance to demo it, I just don't think it is something that would float your boat.

[BBFG#]

Again, it is at best, a secondary product for me. If I have an interest in Spectra, it would be for Trilian. But since Ben H has popped into this, after seeing his signature, and seeing it very similar to what I use., I would be interested in the context you use omni with along with those?
(My mains are Camel, ZebraHZ, Iris, Kontakt and lately... Gladiator2.)

[LimboLoves]

You guy are STILL talking? Holy crap just give it a rest already.

[Aural Chaos]

You guy are STILL talking? Holy crap just give it a rest already.

You are STILL reading a thread that you are bored by?
Give it a rest already...

[quantum7]

Wow, this thread has been quite entertaining to read. Due to this thread I decided to spend an entire afternoon today with Omnisphere......since I have somewhat been ignoring it lately... playing with my newer synths. I've had Omnisphere since the day it came out and can honestly say that I enjoy it even more today....but to each his own, of course. After all these years my only gripe with Omnisphere is that it can not import samples like Alchemy can. Luckily the material Omnisphere has is still inspirational to me that I still desire to use in most of my productions. In contrast, I love Alchemy, but if it were not for 3rd party expansions, I would rarely use it when needing inspirational sounds very quickly. I have no doubt that Eric is working on Omnisphere 2, and because of the amount of inspiration it has given working professionals, such as myself, I would instantly purchase Omnisphere 2 if it went on sale today.... without needing to even hearing it first.

I grew up having to pay 2k or more for less than 1/10th of what Omnisphere can do with hardware synths. It cracks me up when people say that Omni is over-priced. I guess in the world we live in now, with pirated software and free music, perhaps $350 is expensive- it's still strange to me though, but I'm thinking about it from the viewpoint of a 45 year old I guess. 'Nuff said

[BBFG#]

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[noiseboyuk]

Perfectly put, Sean.