Buy Omnisphere 2

[polarsky]

Time and Space are mailing out 10% store discount codes right now which can be used on Omni.

They used to do 20% discounts a year or two back and I think the price was lower as well so you could pick up Omni for about 200 quid

[zenophilix]

Omni can't replace every synth out there. Omni excels at one thing, mostly because of a huge sample library and some really awesome onboard FX. The synth engine is decent but not excellent. There are things Omni can't do well and for those things I use specialized synths.

But for people to say that Omni is a total piece of crap and can be replaced by One Ping Only and a reverb, that's the kind of crap that burns me up because it's pure trolling.

And just to make the record straight. Omni cost me nothing. I bought it with money I earned selling old junk hardware that I was never going to use again. Otherwise, I wouldn't own it. No synth, IMO, is worth $500 and I would never spend $500 on any synth unless it could also cook my breakfast and drive me to the store.

The problem with these Omni threads is you get both ends of the spectrum (those who praise it like it's God and those who think One Ping Only is just as good) and the truth is somewhere in the middle. But there is so much elitism and snobbery in this forum that trying to have an intelligent conversation about any synth is downright close to impossible.

If you'll notice, I am involved in very few synth discussions anymore because of this long running problem here. I've simple lost interest and prefer to spend my time instead just making music.

Some of the guys here should try that sometime.

This. Yes, I've wanted the hell out of it for a while, but I'm happy where I'm at, and I definitely wouldn't drop $500 on one synth. Serum was a stretch at $189. Saying that it's absolute Jesus in a synth is kind of ridiculous, considering the advances that have been made since then - again, Serum, the anti-aliasing present there, the wavetable oscillators -, but saying it's total garbage is just silly. If you really could get the same sounds out of OnePingOnly, well, why does anyone still buy Omni? I still feel pretty sure that I'd be able to get by more than comfortably with just Omnisphere, but clearly that perspective is going to bother some people. And again, by all means I'm not saying it's the perfect synth, but I do think that it's capable of some pretty great sounds. Sounds worth $500, well, that's down to personal priorities and taste.

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.

This is also very true. I get the sense people like him see it as a sort of Nexus-esque proposition, without spending as much time in the actual synthesizer portion.

[noiseboyuk]

More heavy sighs... look at the fan videos... Omni can’t do wavetables... Omni can’t go virtual analogue....

This is absolutely a law of nature. Ask a question about Omni on KVR, it will hit 20 pages with everyone - including me - saying everything they said 3 months ago, with all the same hyperbole, nonsense, fandom, trolling and a few attempts at balance which get drowned out. For many of us, we patiently explain what we see the strengths and weaknesses as, how it will be a great tool for some people while others will get little value over it. None of it matters, because the next posts will say “it’s too expensive” / “it’s a rompler” / “it does nothing well” / “it’s all just fx” / “there’s no wavetables” / “it’s just a big preset machine for people who can’t program” / “look at this guy’s terrible YouTube video”.

And I’m pretty sure I’ve typed that paragraph before too.

[Echoes in the Attic]

More heavy sighs... look at the fan videos... Omni can’t do wavetables... Omni can’t go virtual analogue....

This is absolutely a law of nature. Ask a question about Omni on KVR, it will hit 20 pages with everyone - including me - saying everything they said 3 months ago, with all the same hyperbole, nonsense, fandom, trolling and a few attempts at balance which get drowned out. For many of us, we patiently explain what we see the strengths and weaknesses as, how it will be a great tool for some people while others will get little value over it. None of it matters, because the next posts will say “it’s too expensive” / “it’s a rompler” / “it does nothing well” / “it’s all just fx” / “there’s no wavetables” / “it’s just a big preset machine for people who can’t program” / “look at this guy’s terrible YouTube video”.

And I’m pretty sure I’ve typed that paragraph before too.

Yep. We just go in circles. And here is another thing I’ve said many times, while we are on the subject of buying it just for the samples. If you compare the Omnisphere library to other sample libraries that include a fair amount of sound design content, Omni comes out much better value. Look at Kontakt products from Sample Logic or 8dio or Spitfire or soundironnor even NI. You will often find that one library can cost from half to almost as much and Omni for far less sample content. And being inside kontakt will have an ok scripted interface but not as powerful or customizable as Omnisphere. That’s without considering the dsp synthesis at all, which is quite good (I’ve never been super impressed by Omnis filters but I’m looking forward to trying the new oberheim type filter). So the value issue just does not hold up if you compare it to anything remotely similar at all. Like I said, not needing it is understandable, but pretending that’s its poor value is willful ignorance.

[ghettosynth]

So the value issue just does not hold up if you compare it to anything remotely similar at all. Like I said, not needing it is understandable, but pretending that’s its poor value is willful ignorance.

No no no. The problem with your thoughts here is that it's wishful thinking that Omni is "similar" to Kontakt in terms of value extracted from samples. Samples are useful, hence valuable, in a sampler that has the kind of power that Kontakt's scripting engine has. That's what brings the values to the samples in Kontakt, not the number of them, or how many gigs there are.

In Omnisphere they're just quasi-oscillators that you're paying too much for. Nobody pays that much for just samples, when you pay that much for samples from reputable sampling companies what you're paying for is the effort put into how the samples are triggered.

Granted, there are a lot of overpriced cinematic and ambient Kontakt libraries that are full of similar (to omni) overpriced and bombastic nonsense, but I'm just as critical of them as I am of Omni. Unlike Omni, however, most of those seem to show up at vstbuzz or the other similar site for pennies on the dollar at some point.

[wagtunes]

So the value issue just does not hold up if you compare it to anything remotely similar at all. Like I said, not needing it is understandable, but pretending that’s its poor value is willful ignorance.

No no no. The problem with your thoughts here is that it's wishful thinking that Omni is "similar" to Kontakt in terms of value extracted from samples. Samples are useful, hence valuable, in a sampler that has the kind of power that Kontakt's scripting engine has. That's what brings the values to the samples in Kontakt, not the number of them, or how many gigs there are.

In Omnisphere they're just quasi-oscillators that you're paying too much for. Nobody pays that much for just samples, when you pay that much for samples from reputable sampling companies what you're paying for is the effort put into how the samples are triggered.

Granted, there are a lot of overpriced cinematic and ambient Kontakt libraries that are full of similar (to omni) overpriced and bombastic nonsense, but I'm just as critical of them as I am of Omni. Unlike Omni, however, most of those seem to show up at vstbuzz or the other similar site for pennies on the dollar at some point.

Okay, logical question. If Omnisphere is such a piece of crap, why do so many "working" professionals who are actually making money, some of them LOTS of money using it IF there are better alternatives?

It's a fair question.

[low_low]

“look at this guy’s terrible YouTube video”.

I posted his video, but I never said it was terrible! I said I thought it was a good representation of the reviews that I had seen, that people were excited about the number of samples.

[ghettosynth]

Okay, logical question. If Omnisphere is such a piece of crap, why do so many "working" professionals who are actually making money, some of them LOTS of money using it IF there are better alternatives?

It's a fair question.

Are you seriously asking why people who work in TV use something that is full of bombastic over the top sounds? Really?

A lot of people make a lot of money making youtube videos with crappy podcasting mics. Just because they make a lot of money doesn't mean that their mics are comparable to better mics, it just means that their audience isn't critical.

Logic isn't your strong point wags.

[ghettosynth]

“look at this guy’s terrible YouTube video”.

I posted his video, but I never said it was terrible! I said I thought it was a good representation of the reviews that I had seen, that people were excited about the number of samples.

Indeed, note the exaggeration both here, and in wags comments above where asks if Omni is "such a piece of crap." That's hyperbolic projection.

[wagtunes]

Okay, logical question. If Omnisphere is such a piece of crap, why do so many "working" professionals who are actually making money, some of them LOTS of money using it IF there are better alternatives?

It's a fair question.

Logic isn't your strong point wags.

And common courtesy apparently isn't yours.

Assuming I have any intelligence at all, if I'm a working professional, and my job depends on the tools that I use, doesn't it make sense that I use the best tools possible if for no other reason than for self preservation and keeping my job?

By your reasoning, these guys doing soundtrack work, or whatever it is they're doing, might as well just use One Ping Only and a reverb and save the company some money.

Logically, it makes no sense to use something that is inferior if something superior exists that can do the job better.

[Echoes in the Attic]

So the value issue just does not hold up if you compare it to anything remotely similar at all. Like I said, not needing it is understandable, but pretending that’s its poor value is willful ignorance.

No no no. The problem with your thoughts here is that it's wishful thinking that Omni is "similar" to Kontakt in terms of value extracted from samples. Samples are useful, hence valuable, in a sampler that has the kind of power that Kontakt's scripting engine has. That's what brings the values to the samples in Kontakt, not the number of them, or how many gigs there are.

In Omnisphere they're just quasi-oscillators that you're paying too much for. Nobody pays that much for just samples, when you pay that much for samples from reputable sampling companies what you're paying for is the effort put into how the samples are triggered.

Well you did concede that you find kontakt libraries overpriced so maybe it’s beside the point, but I’m not comparing Omani to kontakt with its scripting abilities, I’m comparing it to kontakt libraries that are scripted that nobody is going to realistically alter, they will use as is. Omni is much more powerful than any kontakt library. Just like you said, not just the samples but how they can be triggered, or just generally how they can be used. So I don’t see your point since the value that can be extracted from samples in omnisphere is greater than most scripted kontakt libraries. Without even getting into the quality of the samples themselves which is important too.

[ghettosynth]

So the value issue just does not hold up if you compare it to anything remotely similar at all. Like I said, not needing it is understandable, but pretending that’s its poor value is willful ignorance.

No no no. The problem with your thoughts here is that it's wishful thinking that Omni is "similar" to Kontakt in terms of value extracted from samples. Samples are useful, hence valuable, in a sampler that has the kind of power that Kontakt's scripting engine has. That's what brings the values to the samples in Kontakt, not the number of them, or how many gigs there are.

In Omnisphere they're just quasi-oscillators that you're paying too much for. Nobody pays that much for just samples, when you pay that much for samples from reputable sampling companies what you're paying for is the effort put into how the samples are triggered.

Well you did concede that you find kontakt libraries overpriced so maybe it’s beside the point, but I’m not comparing Omani to kontakt with its scripting abilities, I’m comparing it to kontakt libraries that are scripted that nobody is going to realistically alter, they will use as is. Omni is much more powerful than any kontakt library. Just like you said, not just the samples but how they can be triggered, or just generally how they can be used.

Omni is not a more powerful sample manipulator than Kontakt. One can't, for example, create (or buy from Spectra) anything like Scarbee Funk Guitarist as a patch/sample library in Omnisphere. So, those samples in Omni are worthless, to me, because the essence of Kontakt libraries like that is how the samples are manipulated by the scripting engine to make a playable instrument. That's the value in Kontakt libraries. The ones that are just synth clones with lots of pads are as overpriced as Omni is. That is, when they are priced like Omni.

So I don’t see your point since the value that can be extracted from samples in omnisphere is greater than most scripted kontakt libraries. Without even getting into the quality of the samples themselves which is important too.

No, I don't think that you really grok how deep and powerful scripting and sample handling is in Kontakt. Do you use those kinds of libraries? I'm not talking about processing the samples with weak synthesis, that's not the value of Kontakt and, with a few exceptions, I don't think that's what Kontakt is very good at either.

So said differently, and as an exemplar, given a set of guitar samples, you will be able to approximate guitar playing in some style much more effectively in Kontakt than in Omni. In Omni you can only treat the guitar samples as a source in a traditional synthesis context. In Kontakt you can completely define how user input triggers various combinations of samples. This is what makes for a playable guitar like instrument and that is what people who pay for Kontakt libraries are paying for. To think that they are just paying for recordings of guitars is the ignorance here.

[Gamma-UT]

Okay, logical question. If Omnisphere is such a piece of crap, why do so many "working" professionals who are actually making money, some of them LOTS of money using it IF there are better alternatives?

Often for the same reasons that people cite as criticisms – it's a preset machine/rompler etc.

In soundtrack, ads, games, media sound design work (or any creativity-for-hire work for that matter) you are frequently dealing with clients who want stuff yesterday and find, ahem, novel ways to demand changes: "it's too chocolatey, needs more rubber...but with an edge".

Omni is the gift that keeps giving in that kind of environment. You've got an enormous set of tagged presets. There is one for every occasion. But, unlike, say Nexus, Omni is inherently tweakable (notice how Skippy Lehmkuhl's videos often stress how to adapt his team's presets). It may not be the deepest synth engine in the world but you can dial in sounds quickly and make significant changes just by clicking through the voice modifier tabs under the sample window. And presets will often have a decent set of macro controls, which Tracktion has emulated with Biotek - another synth that was aimed at the media composer.

But to the diehard synthetist with time on their hands, all that is sacrilege. Because supersaws must be carved by hand in the name of your own spirit animal. So, there's never going to be common ground.

[low_low]

One could argue that in a commercial advertising environment familiarity and repetitiveness is actually a feature and not a bug, it might actually pay to be using the same sample that 10 other advertisers are using.

[low_low]

One could argue that in a commercial advertising environment familiarity and repetitiveness is actually a feature and not a bug, it might actually pay to be using the same sample that 10 other advertisers are using.

The desire to be unique is a consequence of a social movement that puts emphasis on self-expression and individuality, but that has little or nothing to do with what works in advertising to the masses, most of whom like security, comfort, etc. The faster an advertiser can convey an idea and put a potential customers into a specific state of mind that is receptive to their message, the better as far as they are concerned, and if they can use the same sound effect that they know their customers have seen in 20 movies, all the better.