Omnisphere 3

[sellyoursoul]

I think I give up on trying to find a reviewer who provides a good look at Omnisphere on the fundamental level of a classic synth, as in what are the provided oscillators, and what do they sound like; what are the provided filters, and what do they sound like; what sonic territory does Omnisphere cover for classic analog and digital synths, aside from presets browsing, sampled content, modulations, layers, multis, effects, and hardware integration. By analogy, if I were looking at a guitar processing package, the first thing I want to know is what are the included amps and speakers and what do they sound like. Everything else is extra and ultimately meaningless without the core of the amps and speakers being personally useful in quality and range. So it seems to be down to jumping in pretty blindly, or not.

[BBFG#]

Well., if you "jump in blindly", you're basically buying a "pig in a poke" and can get a big disappointment when you instead "let a cat out of the bag."

Find a place to demo the F out of it first.

[sellyoursoul]

Find a place to demo the F out of it first.

We have two shops in the area. One sells nothing much, and the other is a consignment shop, which probably isn't a too uncommon scenario today for anyone not living in a bigger metro area.

[BBFG#]

Find a place to demo the F out of it first.

We have two shops in the area. One sells nothing much, and the other is a consignment shop, which probably isn't a too uncommon scenario today for anyone not living in a bigger metro area.

Yeah, I had to travel about 50 miles to demo it. And only did so when taking someone to the international airport five miles from it. Took maybe ten visits to get whether I would like it or not.

[Grizzellda]

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.

Usual route when choosing sound is to drop reverb and delay off from Omni, and use external one, also to be able to sidechain properly them if needed. 95% of time its external effects for those two. Sometimes "its in the sound" and works on the track.

Now with 3 one can use them outside the synth and sidechain them too. Nice.

Also in terms of mixing, getting things to fit, filters are your best friends here. Don't be afraid to remove things below 500Hz and above 3kHz or just keep the 3 to 8kHz range for some sizzle.. or just keep the 100 to 500Hz range for some body, etc.

This is why good "musical" filters are so in demand. Some filters just have an uncanny ability to "remove stuff" without it feeling removed. Though generally that means it's a rather gentle filter. My personal favorite in this category is the ones found in Curve Bender hardware, which was modeled very nicely by Softube.

Oh and don't forget to also experiment with narrowing the stereo image and then panning things. That's another typical problem when trying to fit a lot of huge synth sounds within a mix. Simply reducing the stereo width to almost mono can help immensely.

Nice advice here, thanks. Almost to mono? I am gonna try that. Actually I think narrowing a few central sounds could really work, but perhaps not a full mix,...I like a nice full stereo sound. But also, there are alot of plugs today that "widen the stereo image".

[billinder33]

I had a look over Nexus 5's manual, and it looks extensive enough in features. The UI looks like less paging than Omnisphere, and less clicking is always a good thing. I'm just not hearing any demos out there that aren't focused on EDM, not getting a good idea of what oscillators and filters are included and how they fair for getting classic analog and digital sounds, which is what I'm interested in Omnisphere for.

What kind of music do you write? And what gaps do you see in your current collection of synths that you are looking to fill?

[sellyoursoul]

What kind of music do you write? And what gaps do you see in your current collection of synths that you are looking to fill?

I'm a scattered hack of a musician. Guitar player first, with a leg in blues/soul and the other in post punk / 80's-90's independent rock to more general rock; drummer second, with a love for funk, hip hop, and classic rock; keys hacker third, with a fond streak for 80's synth pop and independent rock, since I grew up in that era, and random bits across genres. I'm far and away from EDM and anything sequenced of any kind. I'm mostly using Thor as a general synth since it is versatile, about as featureful as I need, sounds pretty decent, and is easy to get around in, being one page. I like wrangling my own sounds, but I also don't shy away from starting with presets for inspiration. But as I have said elsewhere, Thor won't win any awards for analog emulation, so it leaves something to be desired a lot of times. I'm also using Repro for analog emulated sounds to help fill that analog emulation gap, but it's not nearly as versatile as Thor. I would like to arrive at one synth that sounds as good as Repro, is at least as versatile as Thor, and isn't a pain to work with. Omnisphere might very well be what I'm looking for, but there is no demo, it's expensive, and there isn't much out there in youtube demos/reviews/tutorials in showing it off as a basic synth for getting a good idea of what it sounds like and what ground it covers for that. Watching videos of Omnisphere is a lot like watching videos for guitar amp emulations, where everyone is more interested in showing extremes of features and piles of effects rather than core sounds, as one would do with an analog synth or a tube guitar amp.

[HOTF]

What kind of music do you write? And what gaps do you see in your current collection of synths that you are looking to fill?

I'm a scattered hack of a musician. Guitar player first, with a leg in blues/soul and the other in post punk / 80's-90's independent rock to more general rock; drummer second, with a love for funk, hip hop, and classic rock; keys hacker third, with a fond streak for 80's synth pop and independent rock, since I grew up in that era, and random bits across genres. I'm far and away from EDM and anything sequenced of any kind. I'm mostly using Thor as a general synth since it is versatile, about as featureful as I need, sounds pretty decent, and is easy to get around in, being one page. I like wrangling my own sounds, but I also don't shy away from starting with presets for inspiration. But as I have said elsewhere, Thor won't win any awards for analog emulation, so it leaves something to be desired a lot of times. I'm also using Repro for analog emulated sounds to help fill that analog emulation gap, but it's not nearly as versatile as Thor. I would like to arrive at one synth that sounds as good as Repro, is at least as versatile as Thor, and isn't a pain to work with. Omnisphere might very well be what I'm looking for, but there is no demo, it's expensive, and there isn't much out there in youtube demos/reviews/tutorials in showing it off as a basic synth for getting a good idea of what it sounds like and what ground it covers for that. Watching videos of Omnisphere is a lot like watching videos for guitar amp emulations, where everyone is more interested in showing extremes of features and piles of effects rather than core sounds, as one would do with an analog synth or a tube guitar amp.

The Library is now split into collections. On of those collection is Analog vibes. If you can find a demo that showcases only this collection maybe you will have a better idea what the "V.A type presets" sounds like.I think Omnisphere can do a wonderful job at being a versatile VA synth for you. However, it'sv seems overkill for doing just that and the price point reflects that.

[billinder33]

What kind of music do you write? And what gaps do you see in your current collection of synths that you are looking to fill?

Thor won't win any awards for analog emulation, so it leaves something to be desired a lot of times. I'm also using Repro for analog emulated sounds to help fill that analog emulation gap, but it's not nearly as versatile as Thor. I would like to arrive at one synth that sounds as good as Repro, is at least as versatile as Thor, and isn't a pain to work with.

This is helpful, thx.

For virtual analog, Repro and Diva are big players in that space, but since you don't really like working with Repro, then Diva probably wouldn't be much different. If you're just focused on analog emulations, I'd skip Nexus. Omnisphere's not an analog emulation either, and it's not easiest thing to work with, so I'd probably look elsewhere.

With potentially $500 to spend on Omnisphere, you might want to take close look at the Arturia V collection. I know you are just looking for 1 great synth, but if you went with V Collection, you'd have 18 analog synths to choose from, plus a whole bunch of other stuff. So your odds of finding a synth you love in that bundle should be pretty high, and your odds of buyer's regret should be pretty low.

The full V Collection is currently $700 which AFAIK is basically full price, but if you are patient, you could wait for the Summer Sale where it will probably be about 60% off, or at least certainly less than Omnisphere. If you don't feel like waiting, you could buy one of their synths to scratch the itch now and then wait for a good offer on a crossgrade.

[rod_zero]

Omnisphere looks, feels and is sold like a very old school product, basically how software was sold in the 90s.

The whole installation process looks so damn bad compared to the modern standards.

Their GUI design is stuck in the early 2000s, they haven't evolved in 20 plus years.

[sellyoursoul]

This is helpful, thx.

For virtual analog, Repro and Diva are big players in that space, but since you don't really like working with Repro, then Diva probably wouldn't be much different. If you're just focused on analog emulations, I'd skip Nexus. Omnisphere's not an analog emulation either, and it's not easiest thing to work with, so I'd probably look elsewhere.

With potentially $500 to spend on Omnisphere, you might want to take close look at the Arturia V collection. I know you are just looking for 1 great synth, but if you went with V Collection, you'd have 18 analog synths to choose from, plus a whole bunch of other stuff. So your odds of finding a synth you love in that bundle should be pretty high, and your odds of buyer's regret should be pretty low.

The full V Collection is currently $700 which AFAIK is basically full price, but if you are patient, you could wait for the Summer Sale where it will probably be about 60% off, or at least certainly less than Omnisphere. If you don't feel like waiting, you could buy one of their synths to scratch the itch now and then wait for a good offer on a crossgrade.

I don't mind using Repro, but Repro is just Repro. It sounds pretty good for doing Prophet sounds. The UI isn't my favorite, but it's easier to get on with than say, Diva. I'm prodding at Omnisphere to find out if it is on par with Repro in sound but as versatile or more than Thor. Omnisphere looks to have a lot of paging, but it also has a unified UI for it's various components, where say, Diva, has has different interfaces for each of it's components (each with their own quirks). What I haven't found out yet is what the components of Omnisphere sound like.

[IvyBirds]

Omnisphere looks, feels and is sold like a very old school product, basically how software was sold in the 90s.

The whole installation process looks so damn bad compared to the modern standards.

Their GUI design is stuck in the early 2000s, they haven't evolved in 20 plus years.

As opposed to looking like what? The myriad of plugins that look like Synths from the 1970s

Should they radically change the GUI and alienate all their existing customers who know it and use it?

Should they make it like Falcon which sucks?

As for the installation process, it's very straight forward for a synth with such a large sample library.

Beyond that Omnisphere is what it is. It either works for you or it doesn't

[dune_rave]

IMHO Omni3 GUI is good. BUT I Dislike GFORCE Oddity3 because that has too small GUI fonts.

[sellyoursoul]

I think a big reason for Omnisphere's UI is for touchscreens. But if you watch Eric Persing demoing it he uses a trackball.

I think Omnisphere has a tidy interface. Although, touchscreen not considered, it's not an efficient use of screen space.

[legendCNCD]

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.

Usual route when choosing sound is to drop reverb and delay off from Omni, and use external one, also to be able to sidechain properly them if needed. 95% of time its external effects for those two. Sometimes "its in the sound" and works on the track.

Now with 3 one can use them outside the synth and sidechain them too. Nice.

Also in terms of mixing, getting things to fit, filters are your best friends here. Don't be afraid to remove things below 500Hz and above 3kHz or just keep the 3 to 8kHz range for some sizzle.. or just keep the 100 to 500Hz range for some body, etc.

Yep. Doing this a lot