Omnisphere 3

[seangm]

I bought my Omnisphere 2 from Guitar Center and it was boxed and contained a serial number that I registered on the Spectrasonics site. My account says "Standard License" for O2 which I'm assuming is upgradeable. Not sure why they wouldn't count a new purchase as eligible for the upgrade.

[muzicxs]

My account says "Standard License" for O2 which I'm assuming is upgradeable. Not sure why they wouldn't count a new purchase as eligible for the upgrade.

Mine also says "Standard v2 License" so I guess I'm safe.

[muzicxs]

It's annoying that you can have only a single polyphonic modulator. Not sure why they'd add this limitation.

[kgbrolic]

Real Gs move in silence.

Like Lasagna

[Stokely]

It's more good for musicians, who wanna get a sound of a certain quality quickly and then being able to adapt it to their needs

Good description here, and one that fits me. I wish I was like many of you that hear a sound in their head first--if I did, I'd do a lot more programming starting from init. Generally I hear a preset, get inspired and then proceed to tweak and automate and eventually it might change quite a bit. Omni is great for us "preset tweakers"

I also really appreciate some of the QOL features like locking (e.g. find an arp you like on one preset, lock it so that it remains when you try another preset). Same goes for locking FX on or off as you browse presets, that's a nice feature.

[Morty-C-137]

Of course you can make own sounds from scratch, but it's not as much fun as in Serum, Pigments, Phase Plant IMHO because the GUI is pretty cluttered and convoluted and nevertheless there are many limitations or features missing I would wanna count on (e.g. only one polyphonic LFO, no remapping of modulators, no side-chaining of modulations, etc.)

As much as I think Omni sounds superb, the UX is not great and inviting to me for making my own patches. I’ve used many synths. Had Omnisphere for about 3 years. Made about 8 patches on it before I sold it. Made about the same amount in Serum2 and Vital in just the first hours with it.

Everyone’s brain prefers a certain flow.. but this does not flow for me. Which made making my own patches tedious. Great sounds in the library absolutely! But I want to use a synth like that for more than just a preset machine.

[wintoid]

Depends: I would say it's more about browsing and layering the presets or make sounds from the sound sources and adapt what is there. You can import own samples, but not as multi-sample and you can not import own wavetables. It's more good for musicians, who wanna get a sound of a certain quality quickly and then beeing able to adapt it to their needs.

Of course you can make own sounds from scratch, but it's not as much fun as in Serum, Pigments, Phase Plant IMHO because the GUI is pretty cluttered and convoluted and nevertheless there are many limitations or features missing I would wanna count on (e.g. only one polyphonic LFO, no remapping of modulators, no side-chaining of modulations, etc.)

Thanks that's very clear and really helps me. I think perhaps it's a pass for me.

[rockhopper]

But why in hells gate is EVERYBODY releasing their new stuff at this very moment ?
It´s beyond me........it´s contraproductive to just about everybody, any side.

Just wait. Maybe in some days we'll see a Falcon4 or Halion8... Pigments7 or Nexus6 or Avenger 3.....

Falcon 2026 announced today https://www.uvi.net/falcon

[Cinebient]

Oh it finally happens.....very nice! Time to blow the dust from my tools.

[soundman007]

But why in hells gate is EVERYBODY releasing their new stuff at this very moment ?
It´s beyond me........it´s contraproductive to just about everybody, any side.

Just wait. Maybe in some days we'll see a Falcon4 or Halion8... Pigments7 or Nexus6 or Avenger 3.....

Falcon 2026 announced today https://www.uvi.net/falcon

149 $ at the moment 50 $ cheaper than the Omnisphere upgrade. Seems a no-brainer to me.

[Caine123]

Falcon is very strong but i wouldnt compare it to Omnisphere at all, I like the GUI of Omnisphere much more and it invites me more, but if you learned Falcon I think it might be more fun to create presets etc and can be as complex as you want.

[IvyBirds]

Depends: I would say it's more about browsing and layering the presets or make sounds from the sound sources and adapt what is there. You can import own samples, but not as multi-sample and you can not import own wavetables. It's more good for musicians, who wanna get a sound of a certain quality quickly and then beeing able to adapt it to their needs.

Of course you can make own sounds from scratch, but it's not as much fun as in Serum, Pigments, Phase Plant IMHO because the GUI is pretty cluttered and convoluted and nevertheless there are many limitations or features missing I would wanna count on (e.g. only one polyphonic LFO, no remapping of modulators, no side-chaining of modulations, etc.)

Thanks that's very clear and really helps me. I think perhaps it's a pass for me.

I am going to have to disagree with that assessment somewhat. While it can be true and there can certainly be some truth to that statement in reality it also misses the mark

The main guy behind Omnisphere is named Eric Persing. He has been the main driver in some of the most famous and best selling synths of all time going back to the 1980s when he was at Roland and was the driver behind the D50 and then the JV, JD, and XV line before he left to found Spectrasonics the company that makes Omnisphere

All of those Synths have the same paradigm as does Omnisphere. You take a sample of something cool, and run it through a synthesis engine and add some effects to make it even cooler than a sampler alone could do it. Then layer that with other things to make cool sounding patches you can't really make elsewhere

So with Omnisphere 3 you will get a sample library with tens of thousands of samples in it. Some are very plain vanilla like say a cello, while others are wild and crazy and not found elsewhere like a Piano sampled while it was on fire and thousands of other sounds that were made just because they sound cool when run through the Omnisphere synth engine

In addition to that Omnisphere comes with a VA engine and a Wavetable engine. Are these the best in class VA and Wavetable Synths ever made? Probably not however it would seem with version 3 those have been improved so maybe they are.

The idea here is that you can layer those elements along with the sample and synthesis sounds

I also own Serum, Pigments, and Phaseplant, in addition to UVI Falcon, HALion7, and pretty much every other "flagship synth" plugin on the market

If my goal or musical idea is to make a Wavetable sound when I sit down in my home studio I am probably not going to fire up Omnisphere 3. I would probably choose Serum, Pigments, Vital, Microwave, or something else

If however my goal is something that VA or Wavetables can't do, something that only sample manipulation can accomplish I will reach for Omnisphere every time. Why? Because it comes with a super vast library of factory samples and has a synth engine and effects engines designed to transform those samples into some pretty amazing things, things that Serum can't do, things that Pigments can't do, and things that Phase Plant also can't do

Omnisphere is also not intended to compete with or replace samplers like Kontact. While there can be some overlap if you goal is to make your own multi-samples and have them play back in a realistic way, Omnisphere is not the tool for that

I will say however that Omnisphere costs less than Kontact will once you start buying a sample library or two

Only you can answer if you have need for a wild and wonderful sample library filled with wild and weird things and wish to transform them into wild and weird things. If that interests you Omnisphere is a sound design playground like no other

Beyond that Eric Persing is a world class sound designer and oversees a team of world class sound designers and just like he did with the D50 and JV, JD, and XV lines he has included tens of thousands of really cool presets. So if you are a preset tweaker Omnisphere is a true sonic playground like nothing else, especially with the new Global Controls and Hardware Integration and the mutation feature

[IvyBirds]

But why in hells gate is EVERYBODY releasing their new stuff at this very moment ?
It´s beyond me........it´s contraproductive to just about everybody, any side.

Just wait. Maybe in some days we'll see a Falcon4 or Halion8... Pigments7 or Nexus6 or Avenger 3.....

Falcon 2026 announced today https://www.uvi.net/falcon

149 $ at the moment 50 $ cheaper than the Omnisphere upgrade. Seems a no-brainer to me.

I own falcon but it has one of the most convoluted and frustrating GUIs ever invented. It also ships with a significantly smaller and less diverse factory sample library. Of course UVI will be more than happy to sell or rent you more samples so if you spend significantly more than you would buying Omnisphere you might start getting in the ballpark

[rockhopper]

And you do still get a voucher you can use for sounds or UVI Instruments.

Falcon 2026 is 50% off, available now for $149 / 149€ (regularly $299 / 299€), with new licenses including a $100 / 100€ voucher toward any soundware purchase. So you are almost getting Falcone for $49, or 4 free expansions (since they are BOGO right now)

But I agree, a completely different beast than Omnisphere.

[IvyBirds]

And you do still get a voucher you can use for sounds or UVI Instruments.

Falcon 2026 is 50% off, available now for $149 / 149€ (regularly $299 / 299€), with new licenses including a $100 / 100€ voucher toward any soundware purchase. So you are almost getting Falcone for $49, or 4 free expansions (since they are BOGO right now)

But I agree, a completely different beast than Omnisphere.

I got Falcon several years ago, so it's a free update for me. I despise the GUI so much I use it as a preset machine