Buy Omnisphere 2

[Echoes in the Attic]

a) Omnisphere cost 2.5 times of LogicPro including Alchemy...

Forgetting that they are not comparable, so what?

b) If you try to cover all, you won‘t excel in anything...

It's true on one hand, and yet Omnisphere excels in a few things

A few things are not enough to justify that price tag...
And comparability lies in the eye of the beholder...

I've discovered over the years, that I really like synthesis better than samples. I own Kontakt and at this point I don't even have it installed. I would not pay even $200 for Omnisphere because I have zero interest in the massive sample library. And take away the sample library and the synth itself is not worth $200 to me. For example, for $200 I would rather have Cypher 2 than Omnisphere. I would also much rather have Bazille, RePro, or Phonem as synths and each of them costs significantly less than $200.

So for my interests, Omnisphere is way overpriced

And that’s a totally reasonable opinion. Personally I love sample based synthesis. By that I don’t mean just sample playback I mean granular and sample mangling. And then mixing this with dsp synthesis. Omnisphere has a wonderful library to mangle and granularize and it’s one if the few that does granular on multi-sampled instruments as well. And that can swap out a dsp engine with a granular sample source and vice versa, and can switch entire sample sets while keeping the effects and modulations intact. In fact it’s the only one that can do that easily. So it doesn’t do every little bit better than other things but does some things that would be very difficult with other things. So I can understand if someone doesn’t care or need it themselves, but I think if someone doesn’t see how it useful to others, it’s basically willful ignorance.

[ghettosynth]

a) Omnisphere cost 2.5 times of LogicPro including Alchemy...

Forgetting that they are not comparable, so what?

b) If you try to cover all, you won‘t excel in anything...

It's true on one hand, and yet Omnisphere excels in a few things

A few things are not enough to justify that price tag...
And comparability lies in the eye of the beholder...

I've discovered over the years, that I really like synthesis better than samples. I own Kontakt and at this point I don't even have it installed. I would not pay even $200 for Omnisphere because I have zero interest in the massive sample library. And take away the sample library and the synth itself is not worth $200 to me. For example, for $200 I would rather have Cypher 2 than Omnisphere. I would also much rather have Bazille, RePro, or Phonem as synths and each of them costs significantly less than $200.

So for my interests, Omnisphere is way overpriced

And that’s a totally reasonable opinion. Personally I love sample based synthesis. By that I don’t mean just sample playback I mean granular and sample mangling. And then mixing this with dsp synthesis. Omnisphere has a wonderful library to mangle and granularize and it’s one if the few that does granular on multi-sampled instruments as well. And that can swap out a dsp engine with a granular sample source and vice versa, and can switch entire sample sets while keeping the effects and modulations intact. In fact it’s the only one that can do that easily. So it doesn’t do every little bit better than other things but does some things that would be very difficult with other things. So I can understand if someone doesn’t care or need it themselves, but I think if someone doesn’t see how it useful to others, it’s basically willful ignorance.

I will say that you are one of two people who I think have made fair points in defense of Omnisphere as a unique tool. FWIW, your points have some overlap with the other person that I'm thinking of and, for the moment, can't remember his name.

I'm not quite as far over the fence as pdxindy on this, but those features aren't that valuable to me either and that's largely because I think that all of that isn't very interesting when it's implemented with mediocre technology.

Said differently, I think that there's a market gap there for a good synth that can do those things.

[pdxindy]

Well if you're going by a small sample size of whatever it is you've listened to and are making an assumption that it's representative of my LFO skills, don't you think that's a little bit presumptive?

The "66 sound banks" signature may be some indicator of this. How is "learn LFOs" relevant criticism? Don't think Wags response was very sensitive at all.

Anyway. Regardless of the rampantly justified opinions in any of these threads, Omnisphere is still a solid VST. Cost and value is going to come down to how useful it is to you. My little collection of instruments would cost more than Omnisphere at MSRP, and it's very possible that I would be able to fill all the same needs with Omnisphere, while keeping all my sounds mostly in one plugin and spending a bit less.

If Omni can replace all of your synths then you don't have much of a collection in terms of interest and capability. Which explains why you don't understand how my comment is relevant.

Oh, and LOL @ MSRP!

Omnisphere doesn't even begin to come close to replacing my other synths.

It does not allow user multi-samples... so there goes the possibility to replace samplers
It does not do audio-rate modulation... so no chance to replace Bazille
It does not do wavetable stuff... so forget replacing Serum or Icarus
It cannot replace the analog emulations like RePro
It cannot begin to duplicate the vocal synthesis of Phonem
Wont replace the physical modeling of synths like Chromaphone, String Studio, Kaivo.

[pdxindy]

I've discovered over the years, that I really like synthesis better than samples. I own Kontakt and at this point I don't even have it installed. I would not pay even $200 for Omnisphere because I have zero interest in the massive sample library. And take away the sample library and the synth itself is not worth $200 to me. For example, for $200 I would rather have Cypher 2 than Omnisphere. I would also much rather have Bazille, RePro, or Phonem as synths and each of them costs significantly less than $200.

So for my interests, Omnisphere is way overpriced

And that’s a totally reasonable opinion. Personally I love sample based synthesis. By that I don’t mean just sample playback I mean granular and sample mangling. And then mixing this with dsp synthesis. Omnisphere has a wonderful library to mangle and granularize and it’s one if the few that does granular on multi-sampled instruments as well. And that can swap out a dsp engine with a granular sample source and vice versa, and can switch entire sample sets while keeping the effects and modulations intact. In fact it’s the only one that can do that easily. So it doesn’t do every little bit better than other things but does some things that would be very difficult with other things. So I can understand if someone doesn’t care or need it themselves, but I think if someone doesn’t see how it useful to others, it’s basically willful ignorance.

Unfortunately, Omnisphere only allows factory multisampled instruments. You cannot make your own. Fortunately the new Bitwig sampler allows one to make multi-sampled instruments from ones own content. It has some granular capability, but not head of the class level. The new Bitwig Sampler will meet my modest sampling needs.

I've always found granular a bit underwhelming. It sounds good at first blush, but then after a while, it kinda always sounds like granular. I eventually stopped using it for the most part and created soundscapes, ambient washes etc via other, non-sample based means which are more sonically pleasing for me.

It's cool if you like to work with samples... being able to swap out sample sets is a valuable feature. Switching between samples has always been one of the least enjoyable and least creative feeling tasks. It's one of the reasons I found over time that I don't like working with sampled content.

When I speak up in an Omnisphere thread, it is usually when there has been some implication that it can do pretty much anything... which is very far from true. It has some unique features and is a solid and capable offering. There also happens to be a lot it cannot do

[low_low]

Omnisphere doesn't even begin to come close to replacing my other synths.

It does not allow user multi-samples... so there goes the possibility to replace samplers
It does not do audio-rate modulation... so no chance to replace Bazille
It does not do wavetable stuff... so forget replacing Serum or Icarus
It cannot replace the analog emulations like RePro
It cannot begin to duplicate the vocal synthesis of Phonem
Wont replace the physical modeling of synths like Chromaphone, String Studio, Kaivo.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think most of the users who are really head over heels for Omnisphere care about those points. This is PURELY anecdotal, but the people I've seen on (for example) Youtube videos who just flip out over Omnisphere, are mostly people who just want some samples for their music, they want to be able to hit a key and have it sound like some African tribal drum or something, they don't care about auto-rate modulation or sound design in general. Most of them just want to make some music.

Me, I'm more interested in the sound design end of things so I don't care as much about Omnisphere, but people who are just trying to lay down tracks or make some beats seem to love it. It has a huge amount of content with it, so big you better have some serious hard drive space to accommodate, and I think that's what most of them care about, the same as people liked hardware sound modules back in the 80's. They just want to hit the "pan flute" preset and have something that sounds kind of like a pan flute lol. Most of the people I've seen who are super excited about Omnisphere are all excited about the sheer number and variety of samples.

[low_low]

This is PURELY anecdotal, but the people I've seen on (for example) Youtube videos who just flip out over Omnisphere, are mostly people who just want some samples for their music [...] they don't care about auto-rate modulation or sound design in general.

It's like cars, even though mechanics might be able to build the best custom cars, you don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car ...

[layzer]

This is PURELY anecdotal, but the people I've seen on (for example) Youtube videos who just flip out over Omnisphere, are mostly people who just want some samples for their music [...] they don't care about auto-rate modulation or sound design in general.

It's like cars, even though mechanics might be able to build the best custom cars, you don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car ...

you dont even need to know how to drive to get in a car and drive it into a brick wall

[vurt]

you don't need to be a bricklayer to build a wall.

[layzer]

So for my interests, Omnisphere is way overpriced

but you get sooooooooooo many presets.
seriously, some people just dont need it because they
are skilled enough at sound design to make a song
without all of omnibloats baggage.

[ghettosynth]

you don't need to be a bricklayer to build a wall.

I'm a bricklayer...no wait, I lay pipe, not bricks. Even though I'm something of a pro at that, I don't that even I could fill up that Omnisphere box though, that's a big box.

[vurt]

you don't need to be a bricklayer to build a wall.

I'm a bricklayer...no wait, I lay pipe, not bricks. Even though I'm something of a pro at that, I don't that even I could fill up that Omnisphere box though, that's a big box.

im not a bricklayer and this is not any kind of site maintenance advice.

[chk071]

So for my interests, Omnisphere is way overpriced

but you get sooooooooooo many presets.
seriously, some people just dont need it because they
are skilled enough at sound design to make a song
without all of omnibloats baggage.

Poor Hans Zimmer. He needs orchestras to play instruments for him, and someone who creates Zebra presets for him. He could as well just do that himself, and get rid of all that bloat surrounding him. Wotafool.

[vurt]

So for my interests, Omnisphere is way overpriced

but you get sooooooooooo many presets.
seriously, some people just dont need it because they
are skilled enough at sound design to make a song
without all of omnibloats baggage.

Poor Hans Zimmer. He needs orchestras to play instruments for him, and someone who creates Zebra presets for him. He could as well just do that himself, and get rid of all that bloat surrounding him. Wotafool.

really, if you think about it, when all is said and done, using any instrument is bloat. anything beyond the human body, so we should all use our voices

ooooeeeeeooooooeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhooooooeeeeee

and be naked


ooooeeeeeooooooeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhooooooeeeeeeoooooaaaaahhhhh!!!!

[low_low]

This review of Omnisphere is VERY representative of how excited people are about the number of samples, and I know I've seen at least 10 videos like it where people just bought it for the samples.

Btw, I liked this guy's beat.

[vurt]

This review of Omnisphere is VERY representative of how excited people are about the number of samples, and I know I've seen at least 10 videos like it where people just bought it for the samples.

least he had his ready brek before he handed over the cash.