Spectrasonics build up to Sonic Extensions....

[AudioAlien]

Here is audio for all 4 sonic extensions, since there is no demo I found these helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFnAOSH2xjk

[LoveEnigma18]

^ Great video and what people need to decide.

For me, both Us (Undercurrent and Unclean Machine) sound great and seem the most useful. Seismic Shock is not bad, some presets are brilliant, but overall sounds a bit more aggressive for my taste. Nylon Sky is of no use whatsoever even though it sounds good - way too specific and not versatile.

Unfortunately, $238 for two extensions is a pretty significant amount given the numbers of plugins and presets we have these days. So, maybe the price is justified for their business and hard work, as a customer with tons of options these days it's extremely difficult to justify this price.

$150 for two would have been fantastic and worth considering!

Thinking other way, the high price helps to avoid GAS and instant purchases.

[Kinh]

So does anyone think it's value for money? I mean for those who pulled tha trigger?

[ghettosynth]

So does anyone think it's value for money? I mean for those who pulled tha trigger?

I find your lack of faith disturbing. Spectrasonics products are synonymous with value.

[noiseboyuk]

So does anyone think it's value for money? I mean for those who pulled tha trigger?

For me Undercurrent and Seismic Shock absolutely are. All (except Nylon Sky) are vast in scale, the new bespoke controls for each patch are fantastic in use and a step up from regular macros, the new effects are great to have, there's a ton of new soundsources for original patches and of course you can tweak anything under the hood to be exactly how you want it. Most of all, you just land on some pages and stay there forever playing around with the possibilities. Good that all those bespoke controls are easy to map too for performance. Increasingly the number of patches you own feels less and less important (and arguably a hinderance) but playable, usable and tweakable GREAT patches are still things of joy.

Unclean Machine feels less esssential but still a broad range. Nylon Sky is nice-to-have, but offers the least range and the headline patch is found wanting for me.

All the products feel weighty labours of love, I don't begrudge the price, it's justifiable though I too think it should have been $99.

However, after some thought I think they've made one strategtic / ethical blunder with the pricing. They should offer the discounts if you buy one at a time - ie if you own two then later buy a third, I think they should give the full discount. As it is,if you buy one at a time as you can afford it, you will pay considerably more.

This feels like a decision weighted against people who have less money to spend. If you're lucky enough to have the disposable cash it's much easier to save money, and that's wrong. This decision feels Tawdry Salesman, and they should know better. I totally respect Spectrasonics' decision to never have sales - great - but I think this specific policy should be rethought.

[LoveEnigma18]

So does anyone think it's value for money? I mean for those who pulled tha trigger?

I too think it should have been $99.

However, after some thought I think they've made one strategtic / ethical blunder with the pricing. They should offer the discounts if you buy one at a time - ie if you own two then later buy a third, I think they should give the full discount. As it is,if you buy one at a time as you can afford it, you will pay considerably more.

Absolutely. Perhaps they like low customer count that pay more.

With the current policy it seems they want people to buy all 4 (or at least 3) right away as that's the only way to get all 4 (3) for the lowest price.

Also, they probably missed the deal here: these extensions are only useful for the existing customers; those that already have Omnisphere 2. So these extensions could have been priced in a way to entice users to get into the Omnisphere ecosystem. Who will think about buying an extension priced at $149 when they first need to spend $499 on the synth first to use them?

Would have been amazing and more value for potential new customers if they launched a bundle deal with Omnisphere 2 + some combinations of Sonic Extensions.

An opportunity missed? Anyway, Spectrasonics will always do/be Spectrasonics.

[pixel85]

It's not like Omnisphere got cheaper or went on a promo for $99 (or $29 ) to reach hobbyists and people who can't justify spending so much on one plugin instrument.
Spectrasonics is a serious business for serious professional musicians Something like "luxury" Apple and iPhone, but with actual real value in their products.

Maybe Behringer can do Omnisphere + Expansions clone?

[ghettosynth]

It's not like Omnisphere got cheaper or went on a promo for $99 (or $29 ) to reach hobbyists and people who can't justify spending so much on one plugin instrument.
Spectrasonics is a serious business for serious professional musicians Something like "luxury" Apple and iPhone, but with actual real value in their products.

Yeah, like the Louis Vuitton of the synth market.

Maybe Behringer can do Omnisphere + Expansions clone?

It would be ugly though, who would want that? Not any professional musician that I know. At minimum, it would require wooden end cheeks to have any chance of succeeding.

[LoveEnigma18]

Of course, no one is expecting it be sold for that less. But a professional business needs money, right? They might have a lot already, but this was a good opportunity to cash in on more customers. These days even hobbyists are/can spending more than ever even if they are not doing music for a living. But as I said Spectrasonics seems to like low customer base or only want pro musicians to actually use their products.

[vurt]

As far as I know a shared Omnisphere patch or bank references the sample, if the sample is used from Omnisphere's core library. Except, when the sample used is a user sample.

thanks, that's all i was interested in knowing

[vurt]

There is no sample. It was a saw wave no sample. All is good everybody, NoiseboyUK is an innocent man.

yes, but we are asking "if" someone made a preset using one of the new expanisons, does it include the sample? or does it just use code to find the same sample if you already own it?

for curiosity's sake!

Christ on a cracker. It does NOT contain a sample at ALL! It is an oscillator (See below). That's all. He tried adding the effect, Nylon Sky Reverb, but as you can see it does nothing unless you have Nylon Sky.

hey.PNG

christ on a cracker indeed, do you know what the word "if" means?

forget the previous preset, try to imagine, someone in the future, uses one of the new samples, do you understand now, or would you like a diagram?

You and the other fella are inferring a new sample was used which in fact it was not. Put down on the joint bro and pay attention and stop jumping to false conclusions.

learn to read, and stop accusing people of things they are not doing

[vurt]

There is no sample. It was a saw wave no sample. All is good everybody, NoiseboyUK is an innocent man.

yes, but we are asking "if" someone made a preset using one of the new expanisons, does it include the sample? or does it just use code to find the same sample if you already own it?

for curiosity's sake!

Christ on a cracker. It does NOT contain a sample at ALL! It is an oscillator (See below). That's all. He tried adding the effect, Nylon Sky Reverb, but as you can see it does nothing unless you have Nylon Sky.

hey.PNG

christ on a cracker indeed, do you know what the word "if" means?

forget the previous preset, try to imagine, someone in the future, uses one of the new samples, do you understand now, or would you like a diagram?

I don't think he comprehends the written word.

we definitely need to start some sort of screening pre sign up.

[noiseboyuk]

It's not like Omnisphere got cheaper or went on a promo for $99 (or $29 ) to reach hobbyists and people who can't justify spending so much on one plugin instrument.
Spectrasonics is a serious business for serious professional musicians Something like "luxury" Apple and iPhone, but with actual real value in their products.

Ah - Apple don't give value but Spectrasonics do? You're the arbiter of value - good to know.

My only issue is their specific discounting model precluding people spreading out their purchasing power. Eric was asked about Rent To Own in the Q&A and he gave an emphatic, unequivocal NO. Never. However, he did say that retailers often offer payment options. Fine. But you can only buy the Extensions from their website, no retailer option, which actively works against any way of spreading out payment. Just feels disingenuous to me.

[pixel85]

It's not like Omnisphere got cheaper or went on a promo for $99 (or $29 ) to reach hobbyists and people who can't justify spending so much on one plugin instrument.
Spectrasonics is a serious business for serious professional musicians Something like "luxury" Apple and iPhone, but with actual real value in their products.

You're the arbiter of value - good to know.

Of course I am.

[LeVzi]

And they've happily said "No Sales EVER" which really p!ssed me off. I am using Omnisphere a LOT now I have it, offers me something different, but they need to revisit their pricing on these extensions.

That has been their policy for the last couple of decades, so you can't be surprised?

Which reminds me - people have said that the existence of a PROMO code suggests their comments are disingenuous. I could be wrong, but I think that box has always existed.

Yesterday they ran a contest and gave away all 4 expansions to one lucky winner. I expect he got a PROMO code. That, essentially, is what it will be for (not just this one guy I mean, but when they give away gratis copies for whatever reason).

My experience with Spectrasonics started 4 days ago.