Omnisphere - worth $500?

[BBFG#]

For what it offers, it is worth the price. There are a lot of pro's but also a few con's and it depends on what you want to do.

i'm impressed, that a hugely detailed analyse...

Please combine all these deja-vu-Omni-debates into one thread and make that one a sticky, all new threads iterating the same debates should then be redirected to that sticky.

+1
Intelligent advice, IMO

Well, it is worth A price, and this thread poses that at it's main query with the whys of it to add at our own subjections. Not exactly a deja vu of the previous threads, except in the responses that come from it.

It's a synth every bit worth the $299.00 asking price. Unfornately, they're asking for $479.00 (MAP).
Everything else has been simple testimonial commercials and the negating of those (which are quite deja vu). However I do see a trend of comments pointing out things to consider of it's abilities and limitations that are growing to a more cognitive direction.

BTW, why is it we tend to think of ROMpler as a limitation?
In and of itself, I don't. Anymore than simple analogs that have the basic three oscillations.
A ROMpler with 43 GB of Samples does have a plethora of starting places.
Not being able to import is a limitation, but not a crippling one.
For me though, some of the engines could be improved to actually do what they say they can do instead of just throwing it in as a buzz term. The one thing I've learned in all these threads and listening closely to what Eric says and doesn't say in the sale pitch is that; where I want to like the synth the most, it let's me down.
Psycho-acoustics is just a buzz added ambiguously in a way they think they can't be disproved. And Granular, according to the users telling me here, is not something you want to use it for, because it by their words, it's weak in that department.
So looking at what it does have that is its real strengths. It looks and sounds like a great rompler and VA synth. and again,seemingly worth $299.00, just not $500.00
Improve those other engines to do what they advertise and maybe bring up the question again after that.

[BBFG#]

I will say this, it would be priced right at $500.00 if that was the bundle price for all three Spectrasonics VIs. Not sure I would buy it now, since I have everything I need covered easily without it, but would definitely consider it at that price and may even have a moment of GAS to push me into the STEAM)

[Sampleconstruct]

My Alchemy will only load samples in granular mode.

What's broken with your Alchemy? Maybe owning less synths and learning those a bit more will help.

[noiseboyuk]

Yay! Page 10! Here's to the next 10 of pointless bickering!

[Neon Breath]

Just wondering, does Elton John use it? If he does, I'll use it me too! Proabably using it yeah, since it's more than $299.

[BBFG#]

BTW, the thread last year around this time did result with EP coming in and making a change to their website because of the complaints and suggestions here (and I assume elsewhere too).

They now have mp3 demos so that anyone considering their product is not inundated with the video sales pitches unless they want to be. Seems like a minor thing, but it really is major. Especially when there is no trial demo to download and the music store chains are so weak in hardware and skill to adequately try it out.

The only other things I would continue to suggest to them is if they can't produce some download demo version (and I understand their reasoning behind why they think they shouldn't), then:

Kill the NFR status for secondhand sales.
Find out why the chains have such weak systems and weak 'experts'.
(And maybe add a bundle price.)

[MachineClaw]

My Alchemy will only load samples in granular mode.

What's broken with your Alchemy? Maybe owning less synths and learning those a bit more will help.

sorry I was being simplistic.

My Alchemy loads samples and SFZ files just fine.

I have only tried loading my own samples as a wave form into the granualar synth engine in Alchemy. I haven't tried any other application. I thought this was a limitation of Alchemy that Camel was looking into addressing with Alchemy 2.0 - though no features have been disclosed as of yet.

I tend not to think of loading a sample when I am doing synth stuff. I just think of loading a wave form to apply, though many times those are samples. I just don't think that way.

when I think samples I think of the old days of my hardware Ensoniq EPS or EMU EMax II - now I think Kontakt, Mach3Five.

[JonSolo]

Page 10! Do not watch this video unless you are PAST ready to spend $500+...



Jon

[pdxindy]

most people that say Omnisphere is to high priced at $500 seem to not have a lot of hardware synths or use freebie or lower priced synths.

Hey, I think Omnisphere is overpriced... and I just recently purchased an Elektron Analog Keys

I think Omnisphere is overpriced, not because I cannot pay $500, but because there are other synths that I would rather have regardless of cost and that cost 1/3rd of what it does.

For plenty of other people it is worth the price. I am only stating its value to me.

I am curious about the sort of pricing that people accept. Sample libraries are generally accepted to cost more than synths. If Omnisphere were somehow identical in capability due to synthesis, but had no sample library, would $500 be an acceptable price to as many people?

The idea is there that sample libraries take a lot of work and so they cost more... Do sample libraries actually take more people hours than say the beautifully crafted analog emulations available today?

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

For plenty of other people it is worth the price. I am only stating its value to me

took 10 pages, but we got there in the end.

value is a relative thing. i don't need to convince anyone that they should value something as much as i do, nor should hey be trying to convince me

the thread should elicit a simple yes/no response. nothing else is of any relevance

[zerocrossing]

I don't understand the "Omnisphere isn't very capable" remarks. As a basic subtractive, it's pretty capable and honestly sounds fantastic. FM, polyphonic Ringmod, Unison, waveshaping, sync, all make for a pretty damn versatile osc section. All of which have every parameter modulateable with any one of 6 (count 'em!) LFOs with 9 waveforms. 6 envelopes, 4 of which are user drawable with as many breakpoints as you desire. A boatload (I couldn't even count them) of great sounding filters...with stereo spread... I think more than any other synth I own... and that's just the subtractive section.

Of course, multiply those two osc layers by 8...

So, I dare say that if you don't even touch a single sample in the Omnisphere library, the subtractive synth in Omnisphere alone is worth at least what a Diva or Lush-101 sells for. Easily.

Now let's move to the effects section. I'd say point me to another plug-in instrument with a better and more versatile selection of high quality effects, but I'd be wasting my time because there simply isn't one. In fact, I'd say as an effect processor alone it would be worth at least $200 as you're getting 33 high quality effects with the ability to run 4 on the master buss and 4 an an A and 4 on a B buss.

Oh yeah, and the orb modulation pad is pure brilliance.

So, if you don't think the amazing sample library (and I do mean amazing) is worth the extra $100, well then move on. But that's a simplistic way of thinking of Omnisphere because the magic starts when start layering and combining those engines with effects... of course you hit a level of synchronisity that would even surprise Sting, and that's a high level.

[gremlinmoon]

I think the question is why isn't Alchemy $400+? I think Omnisphere is justified in its premium pricing; I also think that Alchemy is underpriced in relation to something like Metasynth, ircam or Reaktor.

I use Spectrasonics products 75% of the time -- the sample "building blocks" are very strategic even though they seem way out there -- and the workflow is fast; this is why they are popular with the working jobbers (or time-limited) who are willing to pay that extra $100+ for future gains.

If I can't get it in Omni then I go to Reaktor. If I can't reasonably do it there then I bring it all into Alchemy for morphing, controlled granular, resynthesis, etc...

Omnisphere is Mithril Armor and Alchemy is The Ring (and FL Studio is my Mount Doom).

[pdxindy]

I don't understand the "Omnisphere isn't very capable" remarks. As a basic subtractive...

I don't think anyone said it isn't capable... but you said it yourself... as a basic subtractive.

[BBFG#]

I don't understand the "Omnisphere isn't very capable" remarks. As a basic subtractive, it's pretty capable and honestly sounds fantastic. FM, polyphonic Ringmod, Unison, waveshaping, sync, all make for a pretty damn versatile osc section. All of which have every parameter modulateable with any one of 6 (count 'em!) LFOs with 9 waveforms. 6 envelopes, 4 of which are user drawable with as many breakpoints as you desire. A boatload (I couldn't even count them) of great sounding filters...with stereo spread... I think more than any other synth I own... and that's just the subtractive section.

This would be a good segue to mention Blue II as a cheaper and equally capable option then.
As well as the Tone 2 offerings...
Still, Omni is really about its rompler side first and foremost for its own character. I mean you can make just about any VA subtractive synth sound like the rest, especially with effects.
(And please remember, I'm not using the term rompler as a degrading term here.)

It's just that you can achieve the same synth type sounds on most anything these days and that alone is not going to make the asking price worth it. As has been pointed out to me by the users, it's the 'other' engines that come up as 'not as capable to (fill in the blank)'.

[firepile]

I am curious about the sort of pricing that people accept. Sample libraries are generally accepted to cost more than synths. If Omnisphere were somehow identical in capability due to synthesis, but had no sample library, would $500 be an acceptable price to as many people?

Nope. But with 40GB of high quality samples and 5000+ (mostly amazing) presets the price is acceptable. At least to me.

Compare that to Alchemy Complete - $849 for 14GB of samples and 4000 presets.