KVR Audio

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:37 am

I personally find Omni 2 indispensable. Other than Kontakt, if I were only allowed 1 vst instrument it would be Omnisphere 2. Besides past TV projects, Omni 2 is very essential to my albums, as it has many ethereal and ambient sound I haven't found elsewhere. No software will work for everyone, and I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but there is a very good reason why, even at the hefty price, it has been one of the most popular vst instruments and industry standard for the past 10 years.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:56 am

Kind of comforting to read the quarterly Omnisphere thread, with all the usual arguments for and against wheeled out once again like we haven't all been here a hundred times before. And who am I to be any different? So...

1. It's not a workstation. If you want realistic, deeply sampled guitars and pianos, go elsewhere.

2. The broader your range of requirements from it as a synth, the more you will get from it. If you just need a minimoog or a sylenth, you will be wasting your money.

3. Given its remarkable breadth, it is very quick to navigate, partly explaining its popularity for media work. As a workhorse, it rarely lets you down (though Omni 2 muddied the waters a little by massively over-complicating the tagging, it's somewhat offset by tools such as sound lock and sound match). Very quick and easy also to edit and create patches.

4. Excellent audio engine.

5. It's a trove of surprising niches, including a lot of vintage and broken stuff such as trons or string machines.

6. It particularly excels at organic / hybrid sounds - instruments and textures that sound real but aren't.

7. Personal taste, but I like the UI. Plays to a VI's strengths by offering a paradigm of simple overviews, then drilling down for details. No concessions to hardware emulation.

8. Connects perfectly to the rest of the spectrasonics ecosystem. The dedicated bass and keyboard libraries slot right in, allowing for even more experimentation.

9. Tied to (9), an excellent record on free updates. Support very good.

If I could only have one synth, there is no question for me - Omni.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:30 am

Kinh wrote: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.

It is a bit too heavy on resources, takes up too much hard drive space and is not focused on sonic areas that catch my attention. I have zero interest in the 50GB library and tools like Reaktor Blocks, Bazille and Aalto stimulate my creativity far more. There is lots of stuff Omnisphere simply cannot do.

If they offered a version with no included sample library and only non-sample presets, I'd be more likely to consider it.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:45 am

aumordia wrote:Bought Omni 2, was not impressed, sold it shortly thereafter. My infamous feedback thread is here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=481399

Spectrasonics has some rabid, Reaper-tier fanboys (and plenty of sane-but-silent users, as with Reaper), so take the enthusiastic recommendations to get Omni 2 with a grain of salt. A lot of these hoarders get personally offended if you don't like their favorite toy, it's like you called their baby ugly.

That said, Omni 2 is probably indispensable if you're trying to crank out toothpaste commercial jingles or the underscore for the umpteetnth variation of CSI, it excels at that sort of "xylophone made of paint cans run through a waveshaper" type of thing. I think that sort of thing is like the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" of sound design, and unlikely to age well, but if that's what you're going for, Omni 2 can't be beat, nothing comes close.

For pure synthesis it's unremarkable, I also have Spire which blows Omni2 out of the water IMO. Yes Omni 2 has a hundred effects... and if you're the kind of dude who thinks a hundred-string guitar is a good idea, this might appeal to you. If not, I'd say stick with Spire, and then pick up quality sample libraries one at a time as you need them.

Best review ever! LOL!

Armadillo · Post by **Armadillo** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 10:21 am

layzer wrote:
Armadillo wrote: I really don't think it's expensive for what it is. What other synth have over 7.000 patches and 60 GB of content?
bloat, pal.

it reminds me of my grandparents that have every closet and storage area stuffed with
crap that they "might use someday" learn to sound design and go on a HDD diet FFS.

Sorry but 60 GB is nothing. You can get a 4 TB HDD for just over £100. That's £1.50 for storage space for Omnisphere. I really don't get why anyone complain about size these days

Sound design... Nah, I'd rather leave that to the experts and concentrate on what I do best, which is composing. Each to his own.

aumordia · Post by **aumordia** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 10:47 am

I think it's less the fact that it takes up 60 gigs then the fact that you're tasked with navigating 60 gigs of content. Hans Zimmer has some interesting remarks about how un-creative it is to have to troll through all of that in search of a sound, you can find him discussing this on vi-control.net, he posts as Rctec. I can't say I'm much of a Zimmer fan, but I think he has a point.

I highly recommend finding a local music shop that will let you demo Omni in person and trying before you buy. It's the polyester shirt of synths -- if that's your sort of thing, go for it, but if not, steer clear, or you will be terribly disappointed (and forever ashamed).

What will it let you do that you can't do better with Spire? People might grunt about the mediocre granular algorithm, but in truth, it all boils down to the sample content. There will never be a version of Omni without the samples because it could not stand without them.

BTW these are proprietary multi-samples, nobody else can provide sound sets like that (the most you can do is load in a one shot). But if you really want to make a keyboard out of a gig of samples of some guy whacking light bulbs with a pencil, or a pad out of horrendously cheesey jazz scat voices, Omni is the only game in town.

It truly has that corner of the "sound design" world locked down. It's the sort of thing for which the Discovery Channel might just hire you to produce the underscore for their latest series about mentally challenged baby whales. It's a living, I suppose.

aumordia · Post by **aumordia** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:00 am

In sum, Omnisphere is THE way to get "that" TV sound. I happen to think this is about as laudable an objective as trying to get "that" Kardashian look, but... If that's what you want, then literally nothing else comes close.

It's certainly capable of doing all sorts of other things, but outside of its sweet spot it's nothing special, certainly not to the tune of $500.

egbert101 · Post by **egbert101** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:01 am

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:23 am

Yet somehow, to no surprise, kvr isn't the world of audio and omnisphere keeps winning reader/user voter awards year in year out.
http://www.sosawards.com/2017-winners/
http://www.sosawards.com/previous-winners/

Surely it is not for everyone and nothing is wrong with that, but thank goodness kvr really isn't a mirror of the professional audio world.
rsp

aumordia · Post by **aumordia** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:25 am

...did I mention how apoplectic Omni fans get when you criticize La Esfera del Dios?

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:40 am

Armadillo wrote:
layzer wrote:
Armadillo wrote: I really don't think it's expensive for what it is. What other synth have over 7.000 patches and 60 GB of content?
bloat, pal.

it reminds me of my grandparents that have every closet and storage area stuffed with
crap that they "might use someday" learn to sound design and go on a HDD diet FFS.
Sorry but 60 GB is nothing. You can get a 4 TB HDD for just over £100. That's £1.50 for storage space for Omnisphere. I really don't get why anyone complain about size these days
Sound design... Nah, I'd rather leave that to the experts and concentrate on what I do best, which is composing. Each to his own.

there ya go. fill a 4tb hdd with sounds only slightly differrent, the equivalent of many minimoog sounds with only a microscopic difference in the filter cutoff. wow am i glad i dont approach making music
like you and anyone else that relies on gig upon gigs of sample library presets. each to his own indeed. i chose simplicity and efficiency over bloat.

haha to me omnisphere is a 60gb collection of stick people clip art...i just draw the stick person
myself.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:54 am

You know, I love Layzer's stuff. Wen to his Soundcloud page one day and just listened to a ton of it. He's really good with what he uses.

Problem is, what he's not telling you is that to get these same sounds that you get with all this "bloat" as he calls it, you have to have some mean skills. You have to put in some long hours getting the FX and automation and whatever else is needed just right. You don't just open up Synth1, which mind you also has about 10,000 patches that all pretty much sound the same, and sound like Hans Zimmer.

If you're a producer on a clock, or simply don't want to spend your life learning intricate sound design and manipulation, sometimes these "bloated" synths are the only way to achieve your end goal. There is no way I can do some of the things I do just using Synth1. I'm simply not that talented. So I choose to buy the "bloat" so I can spend more time making music and less time trying to get that string patch to sound just right. And I do make music.

Tons of it.

egbert101 · Post by **egbert101** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 12:50 pm

aumordia · Post by **aumordia** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 1:16 pm

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 1:22 pm

egbert101 wrote:
wagtunes wrote: If you're a producer on a clock, or simply don't want to spend your life learning intricate sound design and manipulation, sometimes these "bloated" synths are the only way to achieve your end goal. There is no way I can do some of the things I do just using Synth1. I'm simply not that talented. So I choose to buy the "bloat" so I can spend more time making music and less time trying to get that string patch to sound just right. And I do make music.

Tons of it.
This is the difference between art and business. Of course most music produced is done as a business, and many artists make compromises in order to follow that model.

Hobbyists or amateurs, however, don't have to follow any such model unless they plan on making their music a business.

So, it depends on the artist's artistic integrity, and just how much someone wants to push into the sell out spectrum.

If anyone is a proper artist, well, then no need for me to explain that it's the artist rather than the tools. A good artist knows what tools to use, and masters them, but their sound doesn't depend on their tools, their sound comes from them.

Well, I don't know that I entirely agree with that but I respect your opinion.

I'd like to think that I make music for music's sake and not to "sell out" especially since I've been doing this for 40 years with almost nothing to show for it on a financial scale. And the music I make, the vision I have for my music, can't be made to my satisfaction by tooting on a kazoo. Because if what you're saying is true, then the instrument doesn't matter. Nothing matters but the actual notes. But we know that isn't true. We know certain styles of music are played on certain kinds of instruments because we associate those styles with those instruments. And I'm not talking about electronic music here.

If I were to do my prog rock project without synths, without a B3 organ, without a mellotron, without electric and acoustic guitar libraries, without all those things that I used, things we associated with the prog rock sound of the 70s, would it have sounded as good? Would it have even sounded like prog rock?

So like I said, I can't entirely agree with you. Sound does matter. It's not just about playing the notes.

Getting Omnisphere 2... or not?