Is Omnisphere 2 still worth it?

[legendCNCD]

Have and recommend.

I browsed their store and I think ESC Personal Flavours sounds like a great all-rounder for $25. Any other recommendation/favorite from Plugin Guru website?

By the way, beautiful music at Bandcamp. I will be exploring more.

We have also Neutronics - it gave us some needed twisted analog style stuff.
Thanks We'll have some new stuff cooking, albeit slower than normally because of covid...
Older stuff available at https://soundcloud.com/soft-knees

[iPlogger]

The PluginGuru libraries are highly recommended. I have a large number of his libraries. My favorite is "Del Norte". This is based on samples from his Virus and the results are really nice. "MegaMagic Pads" if you like pads. "Northern Lights" for pads and bells.

He has fairly thorough walkthrough videos for the libraries and gives you a really great chance to hear their contents. Above and beyond, he provides in-depth tips on programming Omnisphere.

[LoveEnigma18]

Have and recommend.

I browsed their store and I think ESC Personal Flavours sounds like a great all-rounder for $25. Any other recommendation/favorite from Plugin Guru website?

By the way, beautiful music at Bandcamp. I will be exploring more.

We have also Neutronics - it gave us some needed twisted analog style stuff.
Thanks We'll have some new stuff cooking, albeit slower than normally because of covid...
Older stuff available at https://soundcloud.com/soft-knees

Neutronics, one more ESC pack. Nice! I will check it out too.

You're welcome. Glad to know new stuff is coming. Thanks for sharing the link. I am definitely going to listen to them.

[LoveEnigma18]

The PluginGuru libraries are highly recommended. I have a large number of his libraries. My favorite is "Del Norte". This is based on samples from his Virus and the results are really nice. "MegaMagic Pads" if you like pads. "Northern Lights" for pads and bells.

He has fairly thorough walkthrough videos for the libraries and gives you a really great chance to hear their contents. Above and beyond, he provides in-depth tips on programming Omnisphere.

Thank you for your suggestions. Yes, Del Norte sounds great too. I will check out the other ones you have mentioned.

Yes, exactly. That's what I really liked about him. He seems to be one of the very best at least as far as Omnisphere is concerned. He has so much stuff that I hardly have time to go through it all. It will be good to watch at least some though.

[lastmessiah]

If you have Equator 2 you don’t need Omnisphere at all. In fact you already have something more modern and advanced than Omnisphere, with a huge library of presets and sounds.

The best advice I can give you is to just let go and make music. Focus on what is real, stop making rationalizations on why you need this and that. People are always going to claim that something is the “best”, but when you’re talking about audio it has no basis in reality and doesn’t make any sense. It is just a popularity contest. There is so much sonic overlap out there between products that most of them are just redundant. I have Bitwig Studio and can do with that 99% of what most hyped-up plugins do. It’s all just a game and it won’t help you make tracks in the end.

[Fraggle]

I just don't have a raging hard on for it like most people seem to here and in other forums/groups I frequent.

People pay around $500 for it - that is a significant reason for their 'hard ons' - when you have invested that big, you make sure you love it.

[DrGonzo]

- Considering there are lots of great instruments available these days
(synths: Massive X, Pigments 3, Equator 2, V Collection, etc. and tons of Kontakt libraries as part of Komplete or 3rd party libraries), what makes Omnisphere 2 special?

- Is it the huge number of high-quality ROMpler type of sounds or the possibilities with its engine?

- What (genres) is it actually best for?

- Can it replace all these instruments in terms of sound creation possibilities and number and type of sounds/presets?

I am sure Omnisphere 2 owners and fans will be slightly biased towards it, but I am looking for an unbiased opinion. If I own the above instruments, does it make sense to get Omnisphere 2 - of course from your point of view.

As a soundguy who works with Omnisphere daily, I am highly biased, but it's not my only favourite synth and I'll try to chime in with an as unbiased opinion I can do.

I own most of the synths you do and I still wouldn't be able to replicate what I can do with Omni with any of the others. The only synth I personally comes close is Pigments 3, which from my perspective which might be Arturias finest moment. When making sounds, Pigments is the only synth where I get the feel of Omnisphere. In a handful respects, it even manages to surpass Omnisphere. Give it a few more years of big updates and maybe in a couple of years it can start being a competitor.

The biggest thing - again just me talking as a sound designer - is the sample library that comes with Omnisphere, which is absolutely bonkers. Let's say you are working on a nice supersaw pad, you're done and decide to swap out the supersaw for something else - with a few clicks you have changed the smooth pad into something entirely different. Let's say you swap it for a Mellotron Strings. Sounds great! Then you feel like layering it with a real choir. Click-Click done. Adjust the envelopes individually and you have a great sound.

One of the absolute killer features of Omnisphere is that you can create Multis, by layering your single presets into one huge complex mega-sound (oohhh... now I am starting to sound like a fanatic again ). You can even work with it multitimbrally with the layers responding to individual midi channels if you want.

But it's not perfect. Getting into Repro / Diva territory is difficult. While I can do great analog type of sounds with Omni, Diva does it faster and more convincing. Going a genre like analog/FM techno with Omnisphere requires work. It can be done. But not as easy. But on the other hand, thanks to the built-in sample library, you can layer and add sound effects, ambient background noises and foley sounds that you cannot do with Diva/Repro.

Omnisphere scores 9/10 in my heart. So does Diva/Repro. Pigments comes in at 8. All bloody fantastic instruments that I wouldn't replace.

I hope I didn't become too fanatical

/Carl

[LoveEnigma18]

If you have Equator 2 you don’t need Omnisphere at all. In fact you already have something more modern and advanced than Omnisphere, with a huge library of presets and sounds.

The best advice I can give you is to just let go and make music. Focus on what is real, stop making rationalizations on why you need this and that. People are always going to claim that something is the “best”, but when you’re talking about audio it has no basis in reality and doesn’t make any sense. It is just a popularity contest. There is so much sonic overlap out there between products that most of them are just redundant. I have Bitwig Studio and can do with that 99% of what most hyped-up plugins do. It’s all just a game and it won’t help you make tracks in the end.

Thanks for the hard-hitting fact, appreciate it.

[LoveEnigma18]

Plughugger: Thank you for your suggestions. And coming from one of the Omnisphere experts, I can understand the bias part. I recently came across your Omnisphere libraries and they sound fantastic. IMO, while Omnisphere looks just a rompler and layering instrument, it is much more than that as proved by your and many other 3rd party libraries out there and needs one to devote probably as much time as one would for any advanced synth. But I also agree with the comments that say it faces a tough competition from today's modern synths (Pigments 3, Equator 2, Massive X, etc.) and it is probably not a must-have anymore. All I can think of it as: If you can have it, have it, love it, and use it.

[DrGonzo]

Plughugger: Thank you for your suggestions. And coming from one of the Omnisphere experts, I can understand the bias part. I recently came across your Omnisphere libraries and they sound fantastic. IMO, while Omnisphere looks just a rompler and layering instrument, it is much more than that as proved by your and many other 3rd party libraries out there and needs one to devote probably as much time as one would for any advanced synth. But I also agree with the comments that say it faces a tough competition from today's modern synths (Pigments 3, Equator 2, Massive X, etc.) and it is probably not a must-have anymore. All I can think of it as: If you can have it, have it, love it, and use it.

The only thing I can add to that is that the only must-have synths are the ones you feel perfectly comfortable with. They should be an extension of your mind to the degree that you already hear the effect before you start tweaking. Those are the must-haves. If those are called Massive X or Pigments, then you have found your must-haves. But it doesn't even have to boil down to features or ROMpler vs Analog feel. I've seen professional artists use insanely crude synths, if you think a polyphonic SH101 you're not far off, and they absolutely kill it.

The best synthesizer is the one that you know as intimate as your shoes. You don't even think about them being there.

IMO etc and so on.

/C

[cranium]

What is a reasonable price to sell Omnisphere 1 for, in euros?

[LoveEnigma18]

Plughugger: Thank you for your suggestions. And coming from one of the Omnisphere experts, I can understand the bias part. I recently came across your Omnisphere libraries and they sound fantastic. IMO, while Omnisphere looks just a rompler and layering instrument, it is much more than that as proved by your and many other 3rd party libraries out there and needs one to devote probably as much time as one would for any advanced synth. But I also agree with the comments that say it faces a tough competition from today's modern synths (Pigments 3, Equator 2, Massive X, etc.) and it is probably not a must-have anymore. All I can think of it as: If you can have it, have it, love it, and use it.

The only thing I can add to that is that the only must-have synths are the ones you feel perfectly comfortable with. They should be an extension of your mind to the degree that you already hear the effect before you start tweaking. Those are the must-haves. If those are called Massive X or Pigments, then you have found your must-haves. But it doesn't even have to boil down to features or ROMpler vs Analog feel. I've seen professional artists use insanely crude synths, if you think a polyphonic SH101 you're not far off, and they absolutely kill it.

The best synthesizer is the one that you know as intimate as your shoes. You don't even think about them being there.

IMO etc and so on.

/C

Absolutely, fully agree.

[LoveEnigma18]

What is a reasonable price to sell Omnisphere 1 for, in euros?

Sorry, this is not the right place for this question. However, since we have chatted before, I would say it is a little difficult to sell Omnisphere 1. The thing is Omnisphere 2 goes for $350 to $400 used. The upgrade from Omnisphere 1 to 2 is $250. So, the best you could sell it for is $150 inclusive of all fees. This way, the prospective buyer can upgrade to Omnisphere 2 and still stay within his budget.

(About 120 EUR would be reasonable, and you may get about 75 EUR in hand after all the fees.)

[cranium]

Thanks, and sorry for asking it in this thread.

[LoveEnigma18]

Thanks, and sorry for asking it in this thread.

No worries, I do understand why you felt like asking here.