Considering Omnisphere 2

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[noiseboyuk]

Ok, I'm lost.

A) do you have a link for that review? I'm genuinely curious to read.

B) exactly how many additional Kontakt libraries, alongside Komplete (?) are you saying that would cover everyone's bases? And how does this relate to Omni as a proposition?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[bmrzycki]

just noticed they charge extra for downloading or getting a usb installer.. great for those of us no longer possessing an optical drive, through being forced out of them, not by choice. Thanks Spectrasonics! LOVE the idea of being charged extra to be able to install it.

Yeah, it's one of their more bone-headed decisions. They also don't let you re-download the Omni1->Omni2 upgrade and original install media.

[noiseboyuk]

it was this:

Ah ok, thought it was a print review. I did hear the quote at the beginning - I couldn't quite face the whole review to better hear in context, but it's perfectly ok to say it's the best instrument you can have without it implying it can attempt the most bread and butter things in the entire world of music.

This stubject has come up for years (indeed that review is old and relates to Omni 1), and I don't think Omni is gonna change - it's never been a workstation and I don't think it ever will be one. It's fine for a video like the above to focus on what sampled content is in there such as guitars or voices, but it's never been anything like a comprehensive selection or an especially deep one - it's always been esoteric. Take the guitars, originally part of Hans Zimmer guitars, which is part of a library from the mid 90s I think. Great it its day and still useable with a little care or when manipulated into new sound, but of course it can't hold a candle to good modern samples. It's in there primarily because they had the material on the shelf already, I assume.

I haven't really looked at Sampletank 3, but that's the kind of product that sounds like it's more what your after - it'll cover a massive range of acoustic instruments, immeasurably more than Omni. The reason why I don't own it though is it's pointless in my case - I will already own better versions of everything it does. That's the pitfall of the workstation, and it's what Eric and Co are keen to avoid with Omni.

None of that precludes that a few more acoustic textures wouldn't hurt. Personally I'd love to see some ensemble brass in there, not to play regular brass but as a texture for use in new synth patches.

[jamesbernard]

just noticed they charge extra for downloading or getting a usb installer.. great for those of us no longer possessing an optical drive, through being forced out of them, not by choice. Thanks Spectrasonics! LOVE the idea of being charged extra to be able to install it.

Yeah, it's one of their more bone-headed decisions. They also don't let you re-download the Omni1->Omni2 upgrade and original install media.

Hiya, just wanted to chime in and clear a few things up here..

As far as being able to do a first time install of the software because of not having an optical drive, have a chat with our support department and I'm sure they will be able to sort you out and get you up and running. info@spectrasonics.net

Regarding any additional re-downloads of the installers -

We have found that many users were needing many re-downloads over the lifetime of their instruments for a wide variety of reasons. Instead of limiting the number of re-downloads or requiring an approval process for each one, we wanted to build a system that was more innovative and provided faster results with no wait time.

The great advantage of our new service is that we can provide 24/7 instant worldwide service to every user with an unlimited number of re-downloads, with no need for special requests or an approval process which would cause delays. This makes a huge difference in an emergency situation when a user is on the road and time is of the essence.

BTW, the price of a re-download simply covers our costs...This is actually what the downloads cost us from our provider.

So our focus is not to make extra money with this , but rather to provide the highest level of critical service available. We can provide this level of service to our users without limitations if we simply cover our delivery costs on each download.

There are also many free alternatives for future installations as well. (Copying the STEAM folder, backing up downloads, keeping media, etc)

Hope this helps clear things up,
James Bernard
Media Director
Spectrasonics

[bmrzycki]

Regarding any additional re-downloads of the installers -
We have found that many users were needing many re-downloads over the lifetime of their instruments for a wide variety of reasons. Instead of limiting the number of re-downloads or requiring an approval process for each one, we wanted to build a system that was more innovative and provided faster results with no wait time. The great advantage of our new service is that we can provide 24/7 instant worldwide service to every user with an unlimited number of re-downloads, with no need for special requests or an approval process which would cause delays. This makes a huge difference in an emergency situation when a user is on the road and time is of the essence. BTW, the price of a re-download simply covers our costs...This is actually what the downloads cost us from our provider. So our focus is not to make extra money with this , but rather to provide the highest level of critical service available. We can provide this level of service to our users without limitations if we simply cover our delivery costs on each download. There are also many free alternatives for future installations as well. (Copying the STEAM folder, backing up downloads, keeping media, etc)

Hi James, thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

I understand that Spectrasonics has to pay the cost of hosting download and I completely understand why you decide to charge. I'm not asking for unfettered, free-for-all downloads of products I own. What would be nice is a system where, for example, I'm allowed one free download a year for all products I own with the option to purchase more per yer. Or possibly a token system where I'm given two complete download tokens. Once I run out of those I have to pay to purchase two more. These options strike me as a much more reasonable compromise between my responsibility for maintaining personal backups and Spectrasonics' hosting costs.

And when talking about costs I'm willing to bet the physical packaging, shipping costs, and reseller percentage of sales ends up costing Spectrasonics much, much more than my request to re-download bits.

Native Instruments allows for free downloads of Komplete. Camel Audio allowed for free downloads of Alchemy and all its libraries. The entire Valve Steam library allows free downloads, and several games are 30+ GB now. Small companies like Rifftrax (rifftrax.com) allow unlimited downloads of the movies they sell and that's 2+GB a movie. Your former employeer allows unlimited downloads of the Reason installer and factory library, a multiple-gigabyte package. MOTU Mach 5 is another large package that lets you download the installation media free of charge.

The Spectrasonics instruments are some of the most expensive virtual instruments on the market. They are wonderful and I really enjoy them. But I've spent over $1,100 with Spectra (Omni1, Omni2 upgrade, Trilian, Moog). It's a little disappointing at that premium price-point they won't invest back in a loyal customer the rare $6-$15 it costs them in the event I need to re-download the product I purchased.

I know you're just the messenger here but I'd appreciate it if you'd at least let Eric and the others know this pay-for-installer business doesn't sit well with some customers.

Thanks.

[jamesbernard]

Hi James, thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

I understand that Spectrasonics has to pay the cost of hosting download and I completely understand why you decide to charge. I'm not asking for unfettered, free-for-all downloads of products I own. What would be nice is a system where, for example, I'm allowed one free download a year for all products I own with the option to purchase more per yer. Or possibly a token system where I'm given two complete download tokens. Once I run out of those I have to pay to purchase two more. These options strike me as a much more reasonable compromise between my responsibility for maintaining personal backups and Spectrasonics' hosting costs.

And when talking about costs I'm willing to bet the physical packaging, shipping costs, and reseller percentage of sales ends up costing Spectrasonics much, much more than my request to re-download bits.

Native Instruments allows for free downloads of Komplete. Camel Audio allowed for free downloads of Alchemy and all its libraries. The entire Valve Steam library allows free downloads, and several games are 30+ GB now. Small companies like Rifftrax (rifftrax.com) allow unlimited downloads of the movies they sell and that's 2+GB a movie. Your former employeer allows unlimited downloads of the Reason installer and factory library, a multiple-gigabyte package. MOTU Mach 5 is another large package that lets you download the installation media free of charge.

The Spectrasonics instruments are some of the most expensive virtual instruments on the market. They are wonderful and I really enjoy them. But I've spent over $1,100 with Spectra (Omni1, Omni2 upgrade, Trilian, Moog). It's a little disappointing at that premium price-point they won't invest back in a loyal customer the rare $6-$15 it costs them in the event I need to re-download the product I purchased.

I know you're just the messenger here but I'd appreciate it if you'd at least let Eric and the others know this pay-for-installer business doesn't sit well with some customers.

Thanks.[/quote]

As with any situation like this, it's always best to contact us directly and speak with us about your situation. We are very understanding and reasonable when it comes to any extreme circumstances.

Cheers,
James

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Fleer]

Regarding any additional re-downloads of the installers -
We have found that many users were needing many re-downloads over the lifetime of their instruments for a wide variety of reasons. Instead of limiting the number of re-downloads or requiring an approval process for each one, we wanted to build a system that was more innovative and provided faster results with no wait time. The great advantage of our new service is that we can provide 24/7 instant worldwide service to every user with an unlimited number of re-downloads, with no need for special requests or an approval process which would cause delays. This makes a huge difference in an emergency situation when a user is on the road and time is of the essence. BTW, the price of a re-download simply covers our costs...This is actually what the downloads cost us from our provider. So our focus is not to make extra money with this , but rather to provide the highest level of critical service available. We can provide this level of service to our users without limitations if we simply cover our delivery costs on each download. There are also many free alternatives for future installations as well. (Copying the STEAM folder, backing up downloads, keeping media, etc)

Hi James, thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

I understand that Spectrasonics has to pay the cost of hosting download and I completely understand why you decide to charge. I'm not asking for unfettered, free-for-all downloads of products I own. What would be nice is a system where, for example, I'm allowed one free download a year for all products I own with the option to purchase more per yer. Or possibly a token system where I'm given two complete download tokens. Once I run out of those I have to pay to purchase two more. These options strike me as a much more reasonable compromise between my responsibility for maintaining personal backups and Spectrasonics' hosting costs.


Native Instruments allows for free downloads of Komplete. Camel Audio allowed for free downloads of Alchemy and all its libraries. The entire Valve Steam library allows free downloads, and several games are 30+ GB now. Small companies like Rifftrax (rifftrax.com) allow unlimited downloads of the movies they sell and that's 2+GB a movie. Your former employeer allows unlimited downloads of the Reason installer and factory library, a multiple-gigabyte package. MOTU Mach 5 is another large package that lets you download the installation media free of charge.

Completely agree

[zerocrossing]

Is there something in O2 that I can't find elsewhere?

Yes

tons of good samples? interesting effects? workflow? different sound?

All of this

And an effects system that's one of the best of any synth I've ever used. It's second, in this respect, only to Mpowersynth.

The real point of Omnisphere is that it's nothing new under the sun, but it's all packaged in such a way to make it really special.

[ckam03]

who would be interested in saving money for zero printed materials, zero disks, zero box, and just download? I know I would. Since spectrasonics force us to pay for those, charging a cent for any download is plain wrong and that's what i am sticking to.

Dude you are the biggest whiner I have ever seen on this site. You cry about everything. Whats next?

[Echoes in the Attic]

i just did some searching and already i found some great guitars on you tube - exactly suited to my needs, and included in omni 1. Surely these made it to V2 also.

Seems to be a few pianos and keys as well...

So it might not have a 50gb massive piano, that's not what i meant, nor would expect from it.

Plus with V2 sample import can't a third party dev make a piano omni library and sell it? I am watching a stunning classical piano omni demo right now on youtube from epic soundlab.

No you won't see third party detailed sampled instruments, because user audio only allows one sample. So the most they could do would be an 8 sample multi for different key ranges or velocities. That is a total of 8 samples. So could be 4 samples across the key range, each with 2 velocity levels. It's just not the right instrument for creating a true to life acoustic type instrument. It's really about using sampled sound sources in synthesis.

But yeah the guitar sound are very nice indeed. They won't match Kontact libraries in terms of articulation, but they are great anyhow.

And as for your idea of Komplete + Omnisphere. Yes this is probably the most powerful combination of 2 products you can get. Any additional real world instruments can be gotten for Kontakt on top of that. But synthesis-wise it covers everything. When I say Omnisphere I would have include Trilian because the vibe is just so great in that library. I would love to limit myself to just those two products but I have a weakness for simple, focused synths, especially vintage emulations like Oddity, impostor, Diva, Poly-Ana, Tal Bassline, Dexed. Or a more modern but straight forward one like sylenth1, and interesting simple digital ones like Synplant and Axon. Those types are just the most fun. And then who can be without Zebra! I think I've widdled it down as far as I can go...

[synzh]

FYI, it most definitely is GAS and, bought Omnisphere 2. Usually I like to try demos first, I guess it's too much to ask in this case, but it's got so much street cred that confidence is high that it'll be worthwhile.
Now I just gotta install all this mess...