Getting Omnisphere 2... or not?

[tibah]

I decided to sell most bits and settle with Spire + a supplement to it.

I feel that Spire + Omni 2 could be a great combination, instead of buying 3-4 synths over the next months, I feel like saving up for Omni will save me a lot of disappointments and hiccups. I'm not interested in the things Spire can already do, but all the things Omni can provide, especially acoustic and non-traditional instruments, but also a good stop for some vintage sounds and the odd sound in between.

I'm running an i5 3570k with 8 GB RAM using Bitwig Studio 1, unsure how well it handles multi-out instruments, if this would be the appropriate way to use Omni vs. using one sound per instance. I also read that the granular engine of Omni is rather demanding, which is another selling point for me on it, just not sure how usable it really is with the high CPU hit it has.

Opinions and impressions welcome, especially on how well Omni runs in Bitwig and how the library can provide with non-synth stuff. Also, "patches vs. sources" - if some patches are simply a source with a delay and some filter or is there more to them and how far can you take a source. Is the library as vast as I think it is when it comes to bread and butter e.g. strings, piano, rhodes, with all the additional synth engine tweaks you can do to them or do I have the wrong impressions?

Of course you do have other options that are kinda in the same ballpark. Falcon seems powerful, but maybe more of a synthesis/sound design contender than having that awesome library? Halion Sonic 3 is another contender I keep having an eye on, even if it's the lesser version of Halion 6, especially since it seems to cover the whole granular quite well and is about half the price than Omni is.

Cheers!

[beachmaster]

Ok.

Most patches are by no means just sound sources with a couple of effects. Many use plenty of modulation and stacked effects racks to get their final sound. Many give you good ideas about how to exploit omni.

The sound sources are vast and outnumber the patches by a big margin. However, the sound sources are not generally bread and butter type stuff. There is a lot of experimental and field recording stuff in there that rewards creative experimentation. BUT: If you are after the standard strings, piano stuff then you may need to supplement omni with something else. this isn't omnispheres intended role.

But there's a huge amount you can do with each source. Run it through amp envelopes, filters, effects racks (57 effects), unison, granular, shift the pitch, modulate everything including sample start... And you can import your own sources (i haven't done that much). I hear that you need to prepare imported samples if you want them to loop. No multisamples.

[Zexila]

Better go with HALion, it cover your needs better than Omnisphere.

[egbert101]

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[tibah]

Thanks for the inputs guys!

While I managed to finally download the 28 GB of the Halion Sonic 3 trial, it seems this is indeed something that covers my needs rather well, since I'm a bit of a genre hopper anyways.

Seems like Omnisphere could be more of a experimentation with synthesis and samples kind of thing, while still offering some good stock sounds here and there. Halion is by no means cheap (230€ish at most stores around, 249€ directly from Steinberg), but Omni truly reaches a different gut feeling.

The sound sources are vast and outnumber the patches by a big margin

This is odd, since the library tab on the official product page says otherwise. Mentioning 7540 patches and 4879 sources.

[Bombadil]

FWIW, I have Omni 1, and have found no good reason to upgrade. Haven't used it in an actual project yet, either, but I know that I will. Someday.

[Ryan99]

My 2 favorites synths are Omnisphere 2 and the recently released Vengence-Sound Avenger. You should try the demo of Avenger. It's a real beast, you can import your samples, it's very easy to play with, it has quickly become my go-to synth, and I already have a lot of them, including Spire.

[beely]

The sound sources are vast and outnumber the patches by a big margin

This is odd, since the library tab on the official product page says otherwise. Mentioning 7540 patches and 4879 sources.

Probably what he meant is that there are many sound sources unused in the factory patches, so there is a good amount of stuff to explore...

[zerocrossing]

Seems like Omnisphere could be more of a experimentation with synthesis and samples kind of thing, while still offering some good stock sounds here and there.

This is an ongoing myth. Omnisphere 2 is as good as anything out there in terms of being able to create more or less any kind of synth sound you can imagine. The only thing it's really lacking is audio rate modulation via the main oscillators. I'm not sure if Spire does that, or you even care about such things. There's also no feedback options. But other than those, I can't really think of much it doesn't do and do well, plus you have all the other more experimental options. Even those options can come in handy in general purpose electronic music. They even included a s-load of EDM orientated presets in the last iteration.

Falcon, is a little more capable and flexible, but in my opinion the UI is a bit of a mess and it definitely takes some getting used to. Omnisphere is much more intuitive and fun to work with. If you're a preset user, Omnisphere definitely comes with a giant library. UVI wants you to buy a lot of their expansion sets.

Overall, I think Omnisphere should be in everyone's VST folder. It's amazing. There are many other synths that each can out do it on specific things (like Padshop pro having more capable granular options) but having it all in one place is it's own special magic. Also, Omnisphere's effects are really spectacular. I wish they'd release an FX version.

[wagtunes]

You know what they say about opinions, right?

Well take mine with a grain of salt.

Omnisphere is one of my favorite synths. But that does not mean it's without its problems or does it mean that it's for everybody.

For starters, on my I3 (finally upgraded to an I7) it was really tough running those granular patches and some other things that were a bit demanding and that was with 16 gig. So I have no idea how your rig will do with it. And since there is no demo, one of the things I don't like about it, you're taking chances getting it.

I use it for a lot of things but then there are things I don't use it for at all. So a lot will depend on what kind of music you do. I just happen to do a little bit of almost everything outside of Rap and Reggae.

Price wise, I think it's overpriced and the only reason I got it to begin with is that I sold some old hardware I was never going to use again, so effectively, it cost me almost nothing. But no way do I spend, what was at the time, $500 for this thing.

There are other WS type synths out there that are more than good enough. No, you won't get the extensive Omnisphere sample library but, with something like HALeon 6, you'll get something else. And, with H6, you can download a demo and see if it's something you can use.

With no way to demo it on your rig, as much as I love the synth, I would never recommend Omnisphere to anybody with issuing a very strong warning about the pitfalls.

On my I7, Omni works flawlessly. It's one of the reasons I finally upgraded.

Anyway, like I said, take all this with a grain of salt. Ultimately, it's your money and you've gotta make up your own mind.

[tibah]

My 2 favorites synths are Omnisphere 2 and the recently released Vengence-Sound Avenger. You should try the demo of Avenger. It's a real beast, you can import your samples, it's very easy to play with, it has quickly become my go-to synth, and I already have a lot of them, including Spire.

Seems someone really does like Avenger Won't try the demo since this thread isn't about another super duper big room EDM synth in my arsenal. There is something about looking at the Avenger UI in the demo videos that puts me off. Sorry. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Probably what he meant is that there are many sound sources unused in the factory patches, so there is a good amount of stuff to explore...

Might be that there are sources not used in patches, but still, saying the sources outnumber the patches seems not the case. That was my only reason to bring up these numbers. I'm sure Omni has a lot of territory to explore.

[tibah]

And thanks for more input zero and wag!

As far as preset using goes, I want a bit of both. A good stock lib with some additional surprises. I mean, additional features never heard and from what I can tell, Omni has a great potential of keeping things simple until you decide you like to dig deeper.

As far as Halion goes, as mentioned, I'm trialing Halion Sonic 3, not Halion 6. Too many things in the bigger brother I would never need and the UI is more streamlined in Sonic as well. As far as first impression goes, it's very close to what I was looking for, which is the advantage of being able to trial it, even if the *demo* is a 28 GB download. The granular stuff is quite fun, even if limited, and piano and strings seems decent as well. Have to explore it a little more though.

[layzer]

FWIW, I have Omni 1, and have found no good reason to upgrade. Haven't used it in an actual project yet, either, but I know that I will. Someday.

and i own 500 cars but havent driven any of them.

[JonSolo]

You cannot go wrong with Omnisphere 2 as it sounds incredible out of the box and has tons of great support from 3rd parties making great patches for it.

You cannot go wrong with Avenger as it sounds incredible out of the box and comes from a company with a background in delivering new sounds banks all of the time (like their sample packs and banks for Nexus2).

You cannot go wrong with Halion 3 as it sounds incredible out of the box and is gaining momentum with a number of sound programmers and has seemingly unprecedented flexibility.

I recently sold Falcon. I just did not use it that much. Still it sounds incredible out of the box and pretty good support from sound designers.

Extending the sounds of any plugin is usually not a labor of love and will cost some additional funds or skills of your own to get the most out of the plugin. Still the above, as is when you install, demonstrate that factory sounds are fantastic and you don't have to run out immediately looking for new sounds.

Since you have Spire, if it were me, and I had to choose just one, it would be Omnisphere 2 because of what it adds to my sound palette. It is also notably the largest install of the four mentioned above and the most expensive of the bunch.

[Kinh]

If you're serious about music production you're gonna get it eventually anyway whether you buy a whole bunch of other vsts first or not. It's inevitable. Omnisphere encompasses a lot so for that reason it makes sense to buy it first so you can make a decision on what sounds you dont have.