Is Omnisphere 2 still worth it?

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Echoes in the Attic wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:02 pm
There are 6 per part. One each for amp and filters and then 4 mod envelopes.
:tu:

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Last edited by jocknaethick on Fri Dec 13, 2024 2:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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worth it:

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buzz1 wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 11:33 am
LFO8 wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 11:25 am
buzz1 wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 9:27 am I have just seen an Omnisphere tutorial where it was mentioned that all the LFOs were monophonic except no. 8.
Is this actually true?
If by 'mono' you mean unipolar, then no. All LFO's can be set to be either uni- or bipolar.
No I mean Monophonic as in each Lfo is common to all the notes played within a part.Instead of poly where the is an LFO acting on every note played separately.
Uni or bi polar just means whether the Lfo modulates above a certain point or above and below same.
Love the username BTW. Could not be more appropriate for this discussion!
Oh, I see. Then I misunderstood your meaning.

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To me, the capacity to modulate a digital sound in a natural/organic manner is more and more the direction is going music and electronic music in many of its genre. In this context, being able to decorrelate the polyphonic modulation of a preset with a preset and then build say, very complex modulations for a lead and be able to browse different leads while keeping the modulations is very important in my workflow.

I don't see any other way to do that than using CLAP.

In this context, to me (and it is only my view), Omnisphere is not anymore the killer synth doing everything better than the others. So it is not anymore a king as it used to be (the same apply to Falcon or Avenger for example).

So is Omnisphere still worth it, certainly, for many people, is it still the king it was ? No, certainly not...

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Sharing a little diddy, 100% Omnisphere ;)

https://soundcloud.com/ttu-ivory-328368 ... ent-cinema
100 High Quality Soundsets: Omnisphere 2, Dune 3, Tone 2 Synths, Pigments, Uhe Synths, Halion, Spire, and others.

TTU Youtube

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Jac459 wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 1:16 am To me, the capacity to modulate a digital sound in a natural/organic manner is more and more the direction is going music and electronic music in many of its genre. In this context, being able to decorrelate the polyphonic modulation of a preset with a preset and then build say, very complex modulations for a lead and be able to browse different leads while keeping the modulations is very important in my workflow.

I don't see any other way to do that than using CLAP.

In this context, to me (and it is only my view), Omnisphere is not anymore the killer synth doing everything better than the others. So it is not anymore a king as it used to be (the same apply to Falcon or Avenger for example).

So is Omnisphere still worth it, certainly, for many people, is it still the king it was ? No, certainly not...
What is then?
100 High Quality Soundsets: Omnisphere 2, Dune 3, Tone 2 Synths, Pigments, Uhe Synths, Halion, Spire, and others.

TTU Youtube

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Touch The Universe wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 4:57 pm Sharing a little diddy, 100% Omnisphere ;)

https://soundcloud.com/ttu-ivory-328368 ... ent-cinema
Don't worry, you can fix it in post. :wink: :hihi:

Quite lovely! Are those all stock sounds, sounds you designed, or...? Omni has its own basic overall sound, just like any other instrument, which I really do like, but I've just never gotten along with it. The stock sounds are too unusable for me personally and it's rather unwieldy for me to design my own sounds with it. I just don't feel like i can take it down to the pub and have a beer with it...
I started on Logic 5 with a PowerBook G4 550Mhz. I now have a MacBook Air M1 and it's ~165x faster! So, why is my music not proportionally better? :(

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Touch The Universe wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 5:01 pm ...

What is then?
I think there is no more kings, the offer is so rich now that no synth can win all.
For example for me, clap support is mandatory. For others the immediacy of phase plant is the best, for others, sound richness of Omnisphere, UI of pigments, power of Avenger, Falcon, energy and simpl8city of Serum.... etc.

What I meant is omnisphere is an excellent synth among others. Not head and shoulders ahead.

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syntonica wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 5:18 pm
Touch The Universe wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 4:57 pm Sharing a little diddy, 100% Omnisphere ;)

https://soundcloud.com/ttu-ivory-328368 ... ent-cinema
Don't worry, you can fix it in post. :wink: :hihi:

Quite lovely! Are those all stock sounds, sounds you designed, or...? Omni has its own basic overall sound, just like any other instrument, which I really do like, but I've just never gotten along with it. The stock sounds are too unusable for me personally and it's rather unwieldy for me to design my own sounds with it. I just don't feel like i can take it down to the pub and have a beer with it...


Fix what, haha, am i missing something?

Thanks man! Much appreciated and yes - all sounds were designed by me to be released sometime soon - "Ethereal Electronics Vol.2" hehe.

There is a lot to wrap your head around in the synth tbh, a ton of presets can seem overwhelming and not to mention the quite pedantic browser categories, but I must admit, still love this synth mightily. I'd say give her another go again making your own presets or grabbing some external ones that fit your taste better than the stock ;) hehe. It has a truly lovely workflow imo.
100 High Quality Soundsets: Omnisphere 2, Dune 3, Tone 2 Synths, Pigments, Uhe Synths, Halion, Spire, and others.

TTU Youtube

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I just had an extremely unfortunate realization. I really hope I'm wrong about this but so far I can't find a switch or option.

The 4 extra mod envelopes are monophonic. Thus the only two actually polyphonic envelopes (aka "normal" envelopes) are the filter and amp envelopes.. and naturally the amp envelope is hard coded to affect the amplitude of the part.

This means Omnisphere is extremely limited in a very unfortunate way. There are so many nice modulation destinations but what on earth can you actually do with them when you have nothing to modulate them with? 7 monophonic LFOs, 4 monophonic modulation envelopes.

1 polyphonic LFO (nr 8 has a tiny 'p' switch)
2 polyphonic basic envelopes of which one is hard coded making it difficult to actually use for anything

Oh well.. so much for exploring Omnisphere as an actual "deep" synthesizer. I really hope Spectrasonic can fix this and add polyphonic options for the mod envelopes. As it stands now, it makes for one heck of a mono synth.. I'll give it that. :hihi:
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle

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bmanic wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:03 am I just had an extremely unfortunate realization. I really hope I'm wrong about this but so far I can't find a switch or option.

The 4 extra mod envelopes are monophonic. Thus the only two actually polyphonic envelopes (aka "normal" envelopes) are the filter and amp envelopes.. and naturally the amp envelope is hard coded to affect the amplitude of the part.

This means Omnisphere is extremely limited in a very unfortunate way. There are so many nice modulation destinations but what on earth can you actually do with them when you have nothing to modulate them with? 7 monophonic LFOs, 4 monophonic modulation envelopes.

1 polyphonic LFO (nr 8 has a tiny 'p' switch)
2 polyphonic basic envelopes of which one is hard coded making it difficult to actually use for anything

Oh well.. so much for exploring Omnisphere as an actual "deep" synthesizer. I really hope Spectrasonic can fix this and add polyphonic options for the mod envelopes. As it stands now, it makes for one heck of a mono synth.. I'll give it that. :hihi:
Wow, I thought that surely you must be doing something wrong, but, no, there it is, right there in the manual:
AMP ENVELOPE

Each Part has four dedicated AMP (Amplitude) Envelopes, one for each Layer. These shape the overall loudness of the Layer. A dedicated Velocity knob controls the dynamic output of the AMP Envelopes based on MIDI Velocity.

FILTER ENVELOPE

Each Part also has four dedicated FILTER Envelopes, one for each Layer. These shape the Filter Cutoff for each Layer. A dedicated Velocity knob controls the dynamic output of the FILTER Envelopes based on MIDI Velocity.

MOD ENVELOPES

Modulation Envelopes are global, meaning there are a total of four Mod Envelopes available per Part. The Modulation Envelopes are monophonic, in contrast to the FILTER and AMP envelopes, which are polyphonic. The best way to think of Modulation Envelopes is as uni-polar LFOs that can have custom-defined shapes.
So no polyphonic pitch envelope at the same time that you are using the polyphonic filter envelope, for example, like the JD800 had in the early 90s.

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bmanic wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:03 am Oh well.. so much for exploring Omnisphere as an actual "deep" synthesizer. I really hope Spectrasonic can fix this and add polyphonic options for the mod envelopes. As it stands now, it makes for one heck of a mono synth.. I'll give it that. :hihi:
Yeah... I think that partially answer the OP question... Omnisphere 2 is not up to the latest modern standards... It remains very good I guess, but with some (strong or not depending of your POV) limitations...

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bmanic wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:03 am I just had an extremely unfortunate realization. I really hope I'm wrong about this but so far I can't find a switch or option.

The 4 extra mod envelopes are monophonic. Thus the only two actually polyphonic envelopes (aka "normal" envelopes) are the filter and amp envelopes.. and naturally the amp envelope is hard coded to affect the amplitude of the part.

This means Omnisphere is extremely limited in a very unfortunate way. There are so many nice modulation destinations but what on earth can you actually do with them when you have nothing to modulate them with? 7 monophonic LFOs, 4 monophonic modulation envelopes.

1 polyphonic LFO (nr 8 has a tiny 'p' switch)
2 polyphonic basic envelopes of which one is hard coded making it difficult to actually use for anything

Oh well.. so much for exploring Omnisphere as an actual "deep" synthesizer. I really hope Spectrasonic can fix this and add polyphonic options for the mod envelopes. As it stands now, it makes for one heck of a mono synth.. I'll give it that. :hihi:
I lol at your post good sir.

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Truly, the vast range of soundbanks from Luftrum and others have always showed how greatly this synth suffers due to the limitation of those monophonic envelopes. Every patch, I thought "if only this synth were deeper, these guys could really have done some nice patches." :hihi:

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