Omnisphere 3

[Bombadil]

(if it's an upgrade it's just an envelope with a serial number in it)

Really? Well, that gives me pause. My dl speed is 1.7 mb/sec. Oh well. I‘ll wait until I have a burning desire to wait a day for the download.

[sellyoursoul]

There is not that much overlap between thor, Repro and Omnisphere in my books. They can all do basic VA stuff but they are very different products. Omni is way more vast than the other 2 you can create more detailed and layered patches. It has more soundsources, more layers, more effects, more filters more everything. With all that power you will sacrifice some of the immediacy of Repro and Thor. I don't think Omni will replace those 2 it's just a different type of tool.

I guess I'm not really looking at Omnisphere for it's full range of capabilities. I might use some layering with sampled sources, but nothing too eleborate. I probably wouldn't use too many of the filters either, being more concerned with quality than quantity here. The range of the effects looks nice to have handy - quality dependent, since I already have lots of effects.

I think I'll have to make of it what I can from videos in determining quality of features that would be useful to me, and the quality of the filters and effects.

[IvyBirds]

If you are looking for a super simple synth where all of its features can be on a single page, Omnisphere isn't it, it's way to deep and powerful

My main softsynth is Reason's Thor, and if I want something more analog sounding, Repro. I guess I'm trying to determine whether Omnisphere would be worth it to me, covering those in features + effects at a minimum and going further in covering territories of other analog and digital synths of interest (not so much direct emulations). Feature wise, Thor is pretty good for my needs. .

I haven't used Thor in a long time. My guess is it's been updated since I have so I can't give you a head to head comparison, what I can do however is give you what I think are unique and why it has become my favorite for many things.

Omnisphere has two types of oscillators, they are called sample and synth. The sample based stuff is of course well known and what most people think of so I won't dwell on that.

Instead I will focus on the Synth which is VA/Wavetable. One of the biggest mysteries to me is why more people don't talk about it and how amazing it is with version 3

Omnisphere has over 500 Wavetables. Some are classic analog waveforms, some are classic digital PPG like waveforms, some are modern aggressive EDM style, and some are just cool sounding. These are very different than the Wavetables used in most Wavetable Synths. Most of those are sample based. In Omnisphere 3 they are DSP generated, so when you look at them it seems on the surface that they are not very deep and can't do much. However since they are DSP based they are very deep and powerful. For example there is one called "SawSquare Fat". On the surface it looks like it would have just two waves inside of it a simple square wave, and a simple saw wave, however there is a control called Shape. You can modulate that with an envelope, an LFO, velocity, your mod wheel, a knob, etc or just use your mouse, then you discover that the DSP will seamlessly and smoothly morph between the two so it's a a saw, a square or anything in between. There is also a handy scope to show you in real time the waveform it's making. You can sweep between them as slow or as fast as you want, or you can just use find one you like and use it as an Oscillator.

Beyond the Shape control you also have a Symmetry control and a Hard Sync control. That can be modulated of course and can further shape the waveforms

Those controls are also really handy to map to a controller. You play a few keys with one hand and move the slider that controls shape with the other and you can hear the sound change. It's quite fun and easy

There are three additional Oscillator controls, "Analog", "Phase", and "Drift" these allow you to dial in as much color and vintage tones as you want. All the way off everything is clean and modern, all the way up and things will sound like it's being played on a broken synth from 1970s that can't stay in tune and is destined for the trash heap, obviously the sweet spot fir analog/vintage tones is somewhere in-between

This means for you can have basically any wave form you want, and have those morph from one thing to another if you want as fast as you want and color it anyway you want

Then you have a large and diverse collection of filter options. Some are models of classic Synths, some are modern, some are unique, some are morphing

Finally you get a large collection of effects most of which are quite good. Some are clean and modern, others are vintage sounding and add lots of color

All of this is rather simple to use, and allows you to build your own Synths, with the Oscillators you want, the filters you want, and the effects you want, all with the envelopes, LFOs, and other Modulations you want

[billinder33]

Aside from the top notch sound design, how is Ominisphere 3 as a general synth in quality, ease of use, and breadth? How is the quality of the filters and coverage of analog sounds? How is quality of the effects? It looks like a killer synth, but since it has no demo I'm trying to determine if it would be worth it for me, since it is obviously an expensive softsynth.

Do you like to sound design or preset browsing? If you prefer preset browsing and maybe doing some minor tweaking, then there's not much better than Omnisphere in terms of the range and breadth of sounds. Really nice bank of FX too, though the 4U per-rack limitation is pretty annoying.

If you prefer sound designing, there are lots of better options. Not that Omni can't do great sound design, but it's not as fast or immediately gratifying as a one-page synth like U-he stuff, Phaseplant, etc, or even lightly-tabbed synths like Serum or Current. There's a lot of menu diving involved if the Global settings aren't getting the results you desire.

[bmanic]

Essentially it becomes up to 4 oscillator polysynth with an insane Modulation Matrix,

.. umm no, the modulation matrix pretty much the bog standard source -> target. You can not go several layers deep. It's got kind of two layers if you count the Depth knobs of the LFOs and Mod Envelopes.. but that's it. About as vanilla and bare bones as it gets.

But there is still a lot of flexibility and control due to the numerous modulation sources and the minute detail the user has over keyboard tracking and velocity. This goes a long way in not needing a super deep mod matrix.

.. but I wouldn't mind one more extra layer of depth.

There are 51 Available Modulation Sources in Omnisphere 3 that you can send to over 300 targets

When it comes to sources
DIVA has 17
Oberheim Matrix 12 has 27
Minimoog had 4
Prophet 5 had 6
Jupiter 8 had 7

Most people would think 51 is insane, especially compared with 4,6,7 or 17 but you do you

51 sources and 300+ destinations including deep integration of hardware controllers for Modulation including MPE, and CC if you want it, in a pretty kick ass sounding four Oscillator VA synth engine offers insane sound design options, especially compared with the Analog Hardware Synths I am emulating and other VA plugins I have extensive experience with like DIVA but again you do you

I can't think of a single VA synth that offers more

Yes but that has absolutely nothing to do with the modulation matrix itself. Sorry for being pedantic here. And like I said, the amount of sources does indeed offset some of the inflexibility of the modulation matrix.

[bmanic]

I guess I'm not really looking at Omnisphere for it's full range of capabilities. I might use some layering with sampled sources, but nothing too eleborate. I probably wouldn't use too many of the filters either, being more concerned with quality than quantity here. The range of the effects looks nice to have handy - quality dependent, since I already have lots of effects.

I think I'll have to make of it what I can from videos in determining quality of features that would be useful to me, and the quality of the filters and effects.

The quality of the content, in this case the sound sources and even the purely VA oscillator waveforms, should never be in question at all. I'd go as far as saying it's industry leading in terms of sheer capability.

If you are just after "the best saw wave" into "analogue goodie filter" then it gets a bit more difficult to answer. Some dedicated synths may have the edge here. But no other system comes even close to Omnisphere 3 in terms of recorded sound content that is just a few clicks away.

Omnisphere 3 (and even version 2) are THE real successors to the good old workstation concept ala Roland, Korg and Yamaha, except the sound sources are vastly superior in every way possible. At least that's my opinion on it. It's not at all a coincidence that it's got such a great reputation over the past decade!

I know I keep posting this link but here it's yet again:

Omnisphere 2 sound sources demo (Google Drive, mp3, 74mb). It demonstrates how incredible Omnisphere can sound with a single sound source! No filtering. No effects. Heck, not even any ADSR manipulation. Just a simple INIT patch, single oscillator, where I'm flicking through the sound sources randomly and playing some nonsense on my keyboard. Just click randomly through the mp3 file and you'll quickly realize just how incredibly versatile the sound pool is. Perfectly recorded, perfectly looped. And these are the samples only, no VA oscillators demonstrated here at all.

[sellyoursoul]

I haven't used Thor in a long time. My guess is it's been updated since I have so I can't give you a head to head comparison, what I can do however is give you what I think are unique and why it has become my favorite for many things.

Omnisphere has two types of oscillators, they are called sample and synth. The sample based stuff is of course well known and what most people think of so I won't dwell on that.

Instead I will focus on the Synth which is VA/Wavetable. One of the biggest mysteries to me is why more people don't talk about it and how amazing it is with version 3

Omnisphere has over 500 Wavetables. Some are classic analog waveforms, some are classic digital PPG like waveforms, some are modern aggressive EDM style, and some are just cool sounding. These are very different than the Wavetables used in most Wavetable Synths. Most of those are sample based. In Omnisphere 3 they are DSP generated, so when you look at them it seems on the surface that they are not very deep and can't do much. However since they are DSP based they are very deep and powerful. For example there is one called "SawSquare Fat". On the surface it looks like it would have just two waves inside of it a simple square wave, and a simple saw wave, however there is a control called Shape. You can modulate that with an envelope, an LFO, velocity, your mod wheel, a knob, etc or just use your mouse, then you discover that the DSP will seamlessly and smoothly morph between the two so it's a a saw, a square or anything in between. There is also a handy scope to show you in real time the waveform it's making. You can sweep between them as slow or as fast as you want, or you can just use find one you like and use it as an Oscillator.

Beyond the Shape control you also have a Symmetry control and a Hard Sync control. That can be modulated of course and can further shape the waveforms

Those controls are also really handy to map to a controller. You play a few keys with one hand and move the slider that controls shape with the other and you can hear the sound change. It's quite fun and easy

There are three additional Oscillator controls, "Analog", "Phase", and "Drift" these allow you to dial in as much color and vintage tones as you want. All the way off everything is clean and modern, all the way up and things will sound like it's being played on a broken synth from 1970s that can't stay in tune and is destined for the trash heap, obviously the sweet spot fir analog/vintage tones is somewhere in-between

This means for you can have basically any wave form you want, and have those morph from one thing to another if you want as fast as you want and color it anyway you want

Then you have a large and diverse collection of filter options. Some are models of classic Synths, some are modern, some are unique, some are morphing

Finally you get a large collection of effects most of which are quite good. Some are clean and modern, others are vintage sounding and add lots of color

All of this is rather simple to use, and allows you to build your own Synths, with the Oscillators you want, the filters you want, and the effects you want, all with the envelopes, LFOs, and other Modulations you want

Thor isn't anything wild in terms of features, but I find it to be no-nonsense, having a good selection of oscillator types, filter types, a big enough mod matrix, and routing options, under a quick and easy to use interface. It won't win any awards for analog emulation character, but it sounds on par with other modeled synths sound quality wise. Repro has more analog flavor for sure, but I wouldn't say that it's a significantly better sounding synth in terms of sound quality. And I tend to think that well done modeled synths are roughly on the same quality level, hitting the same ceiling, with convolution based synths getting to the next major level of sound quality (which there are few examples of so far). The only way that I'm going to find out is by hearing relevant examples, since there is no demo.

So my first inquiry about Omnisphere 3 is in whether it pushes the ceiling of modeled synth sound quality or if it falls under the same ceiling. I don't mean specific emulation of given synths so much as general integrity of sound, having characteristics of focus, weight, elasticity, airiness, and overall smoothness.

My other major inquiry is whether Omnisphere 3 is featureful enough to cover a pretty wide range of classic analog and digital synths. I'm much less interested in elaborate layering and modulations for achieving far out sounds as much as having the right set of features so as not to be cut off at the knees in achieving a lot of classic sounds. Again, I think here that I'm only going to find out by seeing relevant demos, since there is no demo.

My last concern is determining whether I think Omnisphere's paged UI will be satisfying for me to use. I definitely do prefer single page UI's (or close to it), but everything is given and take.

Any way, I appreciate the info, which gives me some more aspects to watch out for in demos / tutorials.

[sellyoursoul]

Do you like to sound design or preset browsing? If you prefer preset browsing and maybe doing some minor tweaking, then there's not much better than Omnisphere in terms of the range and breadth of sounds. Really nice bank of FX too, though the 4U per-rack limitation is pretty annoying.

If you prefer sound designing, there are lots of better options. Not that Omni can't do great sound design, but it's not as fast or immediately gratifying as a one-page synth like U-he stuff, Phaseplant, etc, or even lightly-tabbed synths like Serum or Current. There's a lot of menu diving involved if the Global settings aren't getting the results you desire.

I like both creating sounds from scratch and tweaking presets, or studying them if they really interest me.

I definitely wouldn't be much of a user of the Global settings, even for any presets that I really like. I'm always going to dive in to play around with things and see what's going on. So yea, the paged UI is definitely a concern. But everything in balance, between sound quality, relevant features, and usability.

[sellyoursoul]

The quality of the content, in this case the sound sources and even the purely VA oscillator waveforms, should never be in question at all. I'd go as far as saying it's industry leading in terms of sheer capability.

I can relate in saying the same for Keyscape. Nothing really compares. Even the C7 alone. I went on a hunt, going through way too many sampled and modeled pianos to arrive right back at Keyscape's C7. I really do wish that it had half-pedaling, higher polyphony, and resonance options. But when it got down to it, the integrity of Keyscape's piano sound beat the pants off everything that I tried. And my experience with Keyscape's quality (the whole suite) weighs heavily in why I'm looking at Ominisphere. Spectrasonics obviously has a passion for quality that so many other companies don't.

[IvyBirds]

Essentially it becomes up to 4 oscillator polysynth with an insane Modulation Matrix,

.. umm no, the modulation matrix pretty much the bog standard source -> target. You can not go several layers deep. It's got kind of two layers if you count the Depth knobs of the LFOs and Mod Envelopes.. but that's it. About as vanilla and bare bones as it gets.

But there is still a lot of flexibility and control due to the numerous modulation sources and the minute detail the user has over keyboard tracking and velocity. This goes a long way in not needing a super deep mod matrix.

.. but I wouldn't mind one more extra layer of depth.

There are 51 Available Modulation Sources in Omnisphere 3 that you can send to over 300 targets

When it comes to sources
DIVA has 17
Oberheim Matrix 12 has 27
Minimoog had 4
Prophet 5 had 6
Jupiter 8 had 7

Most people would think 51 is insane, especially compared with 4,6,7 or 17 but you do you

51 sources and 300+ destinations including deep integration of hardware controllers for Modulation including MPE, and CC if you want it, in a pretty kick ass sounding four Oscillator VA synth engine offers insane sound design options, especially compared with the Analog Hardware Synths I am emulating and other VA plugins I have extensive experience with like DIVA but again you do you

I can't think of a single VA synth that offers more

Yes but that has absolutely nothing to do with the modulation matrix itself. Sorry for being pedantic here. And like I said, the amount of sources does indeed offset some of the inflexibility of the modulation matrix.

Modulation Matrix (or "Mod Matrix") is a centralized routing system used to connect modulation sources to modulation destinations.

Omnisphere has a fantastic system for doing just that, with 51 sources and over 300 destinations

With Omnisphere 3 the entire plugin is one giant Modulation Matrix. You simply right click on your target (knob, slider, whatever) and select Modulate from the pop-up window then another window will pop up and you select the source and you are done. Would you prefer having to tons separate screen? Do you think it's the 1970s and we need to physically patch in Modulations with cables or pins? Again with so many sources and destinations it would take multiple screens to make all of that work. If you want a 1970s style system. That would work great with a handful of options but when you approach 400 it doesn't

Beyond that if you want to manage and organize everything at the layer level each of the four layers has a had a Modulation Matrix Zoom page. You navigate there and you can manage up to 48 slots. I can't imagine if there was one for all the layers at once and you tediously had to work through 200 that would suck, but since each layer is essentially its own synth having each layer have its own Mod Matrix Zoom screen is easy to navigate, and let's be real each one if those is larger with more options than pretty much every other plugin out there

Beyond that of course is the brand new Quadzone Modulation that allows you manage and modulate the balance and interaction of the four layers.

Finally there is the MPE Modulation section, this is where you go if you want to use MPE as a source

Quote frankly the Plugin as Mod Matrix approach that Spectrasonics has implemented is pretty insane, and makes for an EXTREMELY easy to use and intuitive system, with dedicated screen for various sub groups of that in logical places just where you would expect them to be. This spares you the drudgery and complexity of having to shoehorn 400 things on a single page and having to go navigate to that page when you want to do something

[IvyBirds]

So my first inquiry about Omnisphere 3 is in whether it pushes the ceiling of modeled synth sound quality or if it falls under the same ceiling. I don't mean specific emulation of given synths so much as general integrity of sound, having characteristics of focus, weight, elasticity, airiness, and overall smoothness.

I would say yes absolutely, especially with the enhancements in version 3.

My other major inquiry is whether Omnisphere 3 is featureful enough to cover a pretty wide range of classic analog and digital synths. I'm much less interested in elaborate layering and modulations for achieving far out sounds as much as having the right set of features so as not to be cut off at the knees in achieving a lot of classic sounds. Again, I think here that I'm only going to find out by seeing relevant demos, since there is no demo.

With Omnisphere 3 you are really getting 3 products in one. You have the Sample Based Synth, the Wavetable/VA Synth, and the Effects Collection

All of those three are really pushing the boundaries of what those things can do. Can you find specialty plugins that focus on one things that might be better at that one thing than what's in Omnisphere? Sure but as for a whole package that sounds awesome it's incredible

As far as classic analog and digital synth sounds they are there in droves

First off don't overlook the Sampled Stuff. There are tons of top notch samples and presets of classic Synths both analog and digital inside of Omnisphere 3.

Beyond that if course is the Wavetable/VA synth I spoke of earlier and of course you can combine those things

Finally the effects especially the new ones are just incredible and really complete the package, and of course as an added bonus you can use them outside of Omnisphere with anything in your DAW

[legendCNCD]

It was Atmosphere first, which started the journey for me/us. So amazing sounds. Then Omnisphere came and still on the bandwagon

[Erik_Lucas]

I guess I'm not really looking at Omnisphere for it's full range of capabilities. I might use some layering with sampled sources, but nothing too eleborate. I probably wouldn't use too many of the filters either, being more concerned with quality than quantity here. The range of the effects looks nice to have handy - quality dependent, since I already have lots of effects.

I think I'll have to make of it what I can from videos in determining quality of features that would be useful to me, and the quality of the filters and effects.

The quality of the content, in this case the sound sources and even the purely VA oscillator waveforms, should never be in question at all. I'd go as far as saying it's industry leading in terms of sheer capability.

If you are just after "the best saw wave" into "analogue goodie filter" then it gets a bit more difficult to answer. Some dedicated synths may have the edge here. But no other system comes even close to Omnisphere 3 in terms of recorded sound content that is just a few clicks away.

Omnisphere 3 (and even version 2) are THE real successors to the good old workstation concept ala Roland, Korg and Yamaha, except the sound sources are vastly superior in every way possible. At least that's my opinion on it. It's not at all a coincidence that it's got such a great reputation over the past decade!

I know I keep posting this link but here it's yet again:

Omnisphere 2 sound sources demo (Google Drive, mp3, 74mb). It demonstrates how incredible Omnisphere can sound with a single sound source! No filtering. No effects. Heck, not even any ADSR manipulation. Just a simple INIT patch, single oscillator, where I'm flicking through the sound sources randomly and playing some nonsense on my keyboard. Just click randomly through the mp3 file and you'll quickly realize just how incredibly versatile the sound pool is. Perfectly recorded, perfectly looped. And these are the samples only, no VA oscillators demonstrated here at all.

Nice stuff there.

[billinder33]

Do you like to sound design or preset browsing? If you prefer preset browsing and maybe doing some minor tweaking, then there's not much better than Omnisphere in terms of the range and breadth of sounds. Really nice bank of FX too, though the 4U per-rack limitation is pretty annoying.

If you prefer sound designing, there are lots of better options. Not that Omni can't do great sound design, but it's not as fast or immediately gratifying as a one-page synth like U-he stuff, Phaseplant, etc, or even lightly-tabbed synths like Serum or Current. There's a lot of menu diving involved if the Global settings aren't getting the results you desire.

I like both creating sounds from scratch and tweaking presets, or studying them if they really interest me.

I definitely wouldn't be much of a user of the Global settings, even for any presets that I really like. I'm always going to dive in to play around with things and see what's going on. So yea, the paged UI is definitely a concern. But everything in balance, between sound quality, relevant features, and usability.

Another similar synth you might want to look at is ReFX Nexus 5. It's a lot like Omnisphere in that it has a large sample library combined with virtual analog, wavetable, granular, etc. oscillators, but I find it a little easier to design in. It has the vibe of a hardware flagship workstation with a modern configuration UI.

Out of the box, it's not quite as heavy in the cinematic and lush layered sounds as Omnisphere. Instead Nexus' presets and sample libs are more focused on usable sounds for modern song production. I have both, but get way more use out of Nexus because I prefer it when sound designing. Plus it's out-of-the-box sounds are more aligned with the styles of music I write. I find a lot of Omni content sounds best in sparse arrangements, whereas Nexus content is easier to mix with other instruments. Both great synths though, but what's ideal for you will depend heavily on the styles of music you make.

Check out some videos on how editing is in the latest version 5 and compare it to editing in Omni and see what you like better. Just make sure it's newer video content, because the older versions of Nexus don't have latest editing capability.

[Stokely]

I haven't owned v2 all that long, and ended up getting v3 recently.

I'm not sure if the patches I've been messing with are old or new (or old with new effects), but the sound quality seems improved to me...not that it was bad before.

Agreed on the "patches tend to fill things up" nature of Omnisphere. I had the same impression from the Dune 3 demo, maybe due to the very wet nature of the patches but also because they tended to be layered and complex. it's one reason I use simpler patches from Zebra 2 and others, on their own they can sound a bit wimpy in comparison but played with lots of other tracks sometimes that's what you need.