Is Omnisphere 2 still worth it?

[musicproducerdee]

With that much money, I could buy u-he Diva, Arturia Pigments, VPS Avenger & xfer Serum (VPS Avenger and Arturia Pigments on sale, Diva goes on sale very rarely, serum never goes on sale).

PS: You can create any sound with Pigments/Serum/Avenger that you can create with Omnisphere.

I'd still get it if I was like extremely rich or if money was never an issue, just because it's so popular.

[dune_rave]

PS: You can create any sound with Pigments/Serum/Avenger that you can create with Omnisphere.

Of course you can create any sound with a wooden stick, if you are an experienced sound designer (many of us never will be such person). if you just want to play "album ready" sounds, you can use Omni for such purpose. Just try the factory presets of Serum, they are nowhere compared to Omni presets. there's a reason, why Omni priced that way.

[GHOST19]

@yl0506 how does "no synth compare" when for example Falcon 2 has much more going on synthesis wise and UVI content dwarves what Spectrasonics has to offer?

[noiseboyuk]

@yl0506 how does "no synth compares" when for example Falcon 2 has much more going on synthesis wise and UVI content dwarves what Spectrasonics has to offer?

We’ve been round these houses for years, but FWIW…

I own Falcon and it is probably my least used plugin. The library is extremely poor, it has a terrible archaic browser and I hate the UI. Can it sound good? Can you do a ton of things with it? Yes and yes. But it is clearly not for me in anything like its current form.

Omni IS for me. It is a musician’s synth first and foremost, but one with bottomless sound design possibilities. The (non-financial) barrier to entry is very low - there’s a ton of amazing sounds to easily find and get you going, and tweaking them is endlessly simple and logical (to me).

As yl0506 said so well, it does what it does better than pretty much anyone. You probably don’t NEED it, there’s heaps of other good synths out there, but if you have it you don’t have to look anywhere else very often.

The thread will continue forever with people disagreeing. Everyone’s mileage varies. All just fwiw.

[GHOST19]

@yl0506 how does "no synth compares" when for example Falcon 2 has much more going on synthesis wise and UVI content dwarves what Spectrasonics has to offer?

We’ve been round these houses for years, but FWIW…

I own Falcon and it is probably my least used plugin. The library is extremely poor, it has a terrible archaic browser and I hate the UI. Can it sound good? Can you do a ton of things with it? Yes and yes. But it is clearly not for me in anything like its current form.

Omni IS for me. It is a musician’s synth first and foremost, but one with bottomless sound design possibilities. The (non-financial) barrier to entry is very low - there’s a ton of amazing sounds to easily find and get you going, and tweaking them is endlessly simple and logical (to me).

As yl0506 said so well, it does what it does better than pretty much anyone. You probably don’t NEED it, there’s heaps of other good synths out there, but if you have it you don’t have to look anywhere else very often.

The thread will continue forever with people disagreeing. Everyone’s mileage varies. All just fwiw.

Of course it's a great synth/preset bank and might be a particularly good fit for one's tastes and uses, but it's very difficult to argue that it's factually above the rest.

[noiseboyuk]

it's very difficult to argue that it's factually above the rest.

I’d say that goes for every piece of equipment that we own.

[musicproducerdee]

PS: You can create any sound with Pigments/Serum/Avenger that you can create with Omnisphere.

Of course you can create any sound with a wooden stick, if you are an experienced sound designer (many of us never will be such person). if you just want to play "album ready" sounds, you can use Omni for such purpose. Just try the factory presets of Serum, they are nowhere compared to Omni presets. there's a reason, why Omni priced that way.

true that, imo serum stock presets are nowhere near compared to any other synth I mentioned above, not just Omni, based on presets, Omni wins hands down. Actually I don't like serum that much, sound wise or otherwise, and because I myself am no sound designer, I use Serum simply because of the availability of presets. VPS Avenger, Pigments and Diva have good sounding presets ready to use out of the box as well. All the synths I mentioned, except for Diva, are available on a rent to own basis by paying $10 per month, which is affordable for me at the moment. As for Omnisphere, $500 is a lot of money regardless. As I mentioned, if I was rich and money wasn't an issue, I'd totally get it. But there are decent and same quality synths available for much less money. They might not be as extensive as Omnisphere, but they're still as good, just different.

[yl0506]

I will try to bring some precisions.

When you make a sound in a synthesizer, there are several things that will determine the variety of sounds you can make with it.

Some synthesizers, make the choice to have several synthesis engines. For example Pigments from Arturia (which I like a lot by the way), has an analog synthesis engine, a sample player (with 6 different samples to be distributed in different ways), a wavetables engine and an additive synthesis engine. Compared to Pigments, Omnisphere may seem light in number of synthesis engines.

However, it is not necessarily the diversity of the synthesis engines that makes the diversity of the programmable sounds. Certainly on paper, Pigments' sample reading engine seems more powerful than Omnisphere's. Omnisphere can only open one personal sample per layer, whereas Pigments can load 6 per layer. On the other hand, Omnisphere's sample library is huge compared to Pigments, and the quality of the factory samples varies according to need, with the quality being tailored to that need.

In fact, Omnisphere's high price tag is well justified by the difference in original samples. When you buy Omnisphere, you buy a gigantic collection of samples already made, and especially well distributed on the keyboard.

Once you have selected a sample, there are many ways to transform it: there are subtractive synthesis tools, granular synthesis, FM, different ways of stacking unisons, possible harmonic stacking, wave shaping. There is plenty to do.

I don't know if I'm making myself clear enough: the diversity and quality of the samples provided with Omnisphere alone justifies the very high price of the synthesizer.

I add what I already said in my previous comment: you have to take into account the impressive side of the available effects. Not only are they very diverse, not only are they numerous, but they can be distributed in many different ways, while keeping the possibility to modulate their parameters in different ways. I think that the innovative sound synthesis side of Omnisphere is greatly underestimated by those who don't have it, because they only compare Omnisphere with other plugins in terms of what it can do on paper. When you get into the actual use of the different synthesizers, it is impressive to see what Omnisphere can do with just a selected sample, the granular engine and the effects available (so choosing only a small part of what Omnisphere can do).

Sincerely yours

[Jac459]

I own Falcon and it is probably my least used plugin. The library is extremely poor, it has a terrible archaic browser and I hate the UI. Can it sound good? Can you do a ton of things with it? Yes and yes. But it is clearly not for me in anything like its current form.

Omni IS for me. It is a musician’s synth first and foremost, but one with bottomless sound design possibilities. The (non-financial) barrier to entry is very low - there’s a ton of amazing sounds to easily find and get you going, and tweaking them is endlessly simple and logical (to me).

Hello, I am curious about this. I am discovering Falcon since one month. I own already a ton of plugins (incl. Serum, Spire, Reason Rack with tons of Extensions, VPS Avenger, all the rob papen, phase plant, fabfilter twin 3, pigments, and much more...). Yet I must admit that I kind of felt in love with Falcon and the richness of its library (in particular because I also have a lot of extensions).
Can you be more specific on what you love about Omni ? What kind of sound is it better for ? In terms of UI/UX what kind of stuff is much better to do than falcon ?
Somehow I never have been interested by omni based on the few demos I have seen but maybe I missed the good ones.
I am mostly doing preset tweaking with all my synths except for Twin 3 and Phase Plant (both represent for me the pinnacle of easiness of use).

[yl0506]

On the other hand, I don't think there is a synthesizer cheaper than Omnisphere that can do everything it does. Can Falcon compare to it without having to buy additional sound banks? I doubt it.

After that, with several different synthesizers, you can probably do what Omnisphere does, but you'll need more than one, and in terms of price, you'll be in the same range.

Maybe Arturia can compete, but certainly not with Pigments alone. I would say that if Arturia is competing with Omnisphere, it is with their new "Sound Explorers Collection Belledonne". In that case, indeed Arturia could be cheaper than Omnisphere. Because it is currently at 799 €.

One can even probably have more diversity with Arturia. But this has a price: the time it takes to learn how to use the different interfaces of each synthesizer and each effect that Arturia proposes. But as we say in French : le temps c'est de l'argent ! So here is the real debate I propose you: Omnisphere vs Belledonne?

[LoveEnigma18]

For those who are wondering that what I as the OP decided, I bought Omnisphere 2 last year and I am using it in all my productions. It has sounds for just about everything and fits well in (any) mix. I am a happy user.

The reason $500 might seem too much is especially because it does not go on sale and most other comparable instruments/bundles that are priced at $500 or more usually go on sale or can be had via crossgrades/etc. for much less. So, after getting Omnisphere I realized that the price tag of $500 is justified.

[twal]

Omnisphere price is justified I agree. Look at all of the other expensive bundles and one should know. With all of the money spent on here buying tons of stuff (I'm guilty of this to an extent) it should be fairly easy to quantify.

[pdxindy]

On the other hand, I don't think there is a synthesizer cheaper than Omnisphere that can do everything it does.

Hell, Alchemy comes free with Logic and does significantly more than Omnisphere.

[pdxindy]

After that, with several different synthesizers, you can probably do what Omnisphere does, but you'll need more than one, and in terms of price, you'll be in the same range.

But there's the thing...

RePro does analog emulation better than Omnisphere
Bazille does FM and in general audio rate modulations far better than Omnisphere
Vital or Icarus is a better wavetable synth than Omnisphere

Take away its samples, and Omnisphere is middle of the road sound quality and synthesis flexibility. Lots of individual synths are better at their specific focus. Plus, simpler synths generally have less tabbing, menu'ing and so on.

[bmanic]

Can you be more specific on what you love about Omni ? What kind of sound is it better for ? In terms of UI/UX what kind of stuff is much better to do than falcon ?

In Omnisphere it is MUCH easier to mix and match built in sound sources to create your own. With Falcon you have basically no access to the source sounds unless you go deep into the synthesis level and find the sources manually, save them or re-sample them yourself. In Omnisphere it's literally one or two clicks of the mouse.

This is one thing that annoys me with UVI and it's expansions. They are all separate and not at all easy to combine. The only real way of doing it is creating layers of the whole sounds but that quickly becomes messy and way too thick.. in Omnisphere it works just like on any basic hardware workstation where each oscillator gives you ALL the sampled and readily mapped sound sources (and of course the VA synthesis, granular synthesis, FM etc).

So, for extremely quick "light tweaking" Omnisphere wins hands down.

Another good synth for exploring the sound library provided is VPS Avenger. There you get instant access to everything and it's extremely quick and easy to explore the full library of sampled sounds. The only negative I can find with Avenger is that it's a CPU hog compared to Omnisphere.