So, Omnisphere...is it ever on sale??

[sellyoursoul]

Would Omnisphere be better than Sampletank 4, or just the same thing in different packaging, so to speak?

They're different types of products in content and quality. Sampletank is about sampled instruments, with some sampled synth presets included that are minimally tweakable. It's a Rompler. Omnisphere is about synthesis, with sample content included as sound sources for synthesis, including a ridiculous amount of high quality presets that are fully tweakable. Omnisphere is both a Rompler (if you want it to be) and a deep synth.

I have Sampletank as part of Total Studio Max, which I purchased on sale to get a handful of select IK products, because the package was much less expensive than buying those select products separately. Sampletank, in my opinon, is an overall crap product, because IK just doesn't care to make it better. Same goes for a lot of their other products (especially instruments). Their business model seems to be selling big bundles at discount prices at a fast upgrade pace, neverminding the quality of much that is included in the package. They do seem to care more about producing decent quality effects than instruments, though. Spectrasonics is on the opposite end of the quality spectrum, in my experience, giving good attention to quality of their whole product. And Spectrasonics doesn't do the frequent sales business model. And they have very long periods between product upgrades.

[BBFG#]

Something we learned a long time ago as salespeople was when it's asked "what's on sale?" was to answer "everything". Because it's never given away. (Except rarely as a promotion for advertising purposes. And even then, there's often a "bump" to buy other things to go along with it.)

[keys_au1]

Would Omnisphere be better than Sampletank 4, or just the same thing in different packaging, so to speak?

They're different types of products in content and quality. Sampletank is about sampled instruments, with some sampled synth presets included that are minimally tweakable. It's a Rompler. Omnisphere is about synthesis, with sample content included as sound sources for synthesis, including a ridiculous amount of high quality presets that are fully tweakable. Omnisphere is both a Rompler (if you want it to be) and a deep synth.

I have Sampletank as part of Total Studio Max, which I purchased on sale to get a handful of select IK products, because the package was much less expensive than buying those select products separately. Sampletank, in my opinon, is an overall crap product, because IK just doesn't care to make it better. Same goes for a lot of their other products (especially instruments). Their business model seems to be selling big bundles at discount prices at a fast upgrade pace, neverminding the quality of much that is included in the package. They do seem to care more about producing decent quality effects than instruments, though. Spectrasonics is on the opposite end of the quality spectrum, in my experience, giving good attention to quality of their whole product. And Spectrasonics doesn't do the frequent sales business model. And they have very long periods between product upgrades.

Appreciate that informative reply! It is a large investment and I am trying to see if I can justify the expense is all. I use predominantly "bread and butter" sounds....Acoustic/Electric Bass Acoustic/electric guitars then keys and synths. About the only synth/sound editing I do is in the ADSR envelopes and/or EFX.

And to complicate it even further, I am considering tossing it all (softsynths etc) and moving to a Yamaha MODX M6/7 and run the ESP software instead hahaha!

[sellyoursoul]

Would Omnisphere be better than Sampletank 4, or just the same thing in different packaging, so to speak?

They're different types of products in content and quality. Sampletank is about sampled instruments, with some sampled synth presets included that are minimally tweakable. It's a Rompler. Omnisphere is about synthesis, with sample content included as sound sources for synthesis, including a ridiculous amount of high quality presets that are fully tweakable. Omnisphere is both a Rompler (if you want it to be) and a deep synth.

I have Sampletank as part of Total Studio Max, which I purchased on sale to get a handful of select IK products, because the package was much less expensive than buying those select products separately. Sampletank, in my opinon, is an overall crap product, because IK just doesn't care to make it better. Same goes for a lot of their other products (especially instruments). Their business model seems to be selling big bundles at discount prices at a fast upgrade pace, neverminding the quality of much that is included in the package. They do seem to care more about producing decent quality effects than instruments, though. Spectrasonics is on the opposite end of the quality spectrum, in my experience, giving good attention to quality of their whole product. And Spectrasonics doesn't do the frequent sales business model. And they have very long periods between product upgrades.

Appreciate that informative reply! It is a large investment and I am trying to see if I can justify the expense is all. I use predominantly "bread and butter" sounds....Acoustic/Electric Bass Acoustic/electric guitars then keys and synths. About the only synth/sound editing I do is in the ADSR envelopes and/or EFX.

And to complicate it even further, I am considering tossing it all (softsynths etc) and moving to a Yamaha MODX M6/7 and run the ESP software instead hahaha!

On the plugin side it sounds like you would be better off with Kontakt (summer sale!) and a versatile synth with a range of good presets rather than Omnisphere. But if the MODX M is feasible, having everything onboard and then duplicated as a plugin could be really nice. I think the Montage's sounds are very decent.

[Shabdahbriah]

Would Omnisphere be better than Sampletank 4, or just the same thing in different packaging, so to speak?

They're different types of products in content and quality. Sampletank is about sampled instruments, with some sampled synth presets included that are minimally tweakable. It's a Rompler. Omnisphere is about synthesis, with sample content included as sound sources for synthesis, including a ridiculous amount of high quality presets that are fully tweakable. Omnisphere is both a Rompler (if you want it to be) and a deep synth.

I have Sampletank as part of Total Studio Max, which I purchased on sale to get a handful of select IK products, because the package was much less expensive than buying those select products separately. Sampletank, in my opinon, is an overall crap product, because IK just doesn't care to make it better. Same goes for a lot of their other products (especially instruments). Their business model seems to be selling big bundles at discount prices at a fast upgrade pace, neverminding the quality of much that is included in the package. They do seem to care more about producing decent quality effects than instruments, though. Spectrasonics is on the opposite end of the quality spectrum, in my experience, giving good attention to quality of their whole product. And Spectrasonics doesn't do the frequent sales business model. And they have very long periods between product upgrades.

Appreciate that informative reply! It is a large investment and I am trying to see if I can justify the expense is all. I use predominantly "bread and butter" sounds....Acoustic/Electric Bass Acoustic/electric guitars then keys and synths. About the only synth/sound editing I do is in the ADSR envelopes and/or EFX.

And to complicate it even further, I am considering tossing it all (softsynths etc) and moving to a Yamaha MODX M6/7 and run the ESP software instead hahaha!

On the plugin side it sounds like you would be better off with Kontakt (summer sale!) and a versatile synth with a range of good presets rather than Omnisphere. But if the MODX M is feasible, having everything onboard and then duplicated as a plugin could be really nice. I think the Montage's sounds are very decent.

I agree with this ^^^ should you choose to go with/or to whatever degree, embrace software. Kontakt is (IIRC) $99.00 on sale, and basically comes with everything you mention you use, and then some. Omnisphere is a top tier, profoundly flexible premium instrument, as expressed in the previous pages, and the price is reflective of that 'tier'. [2c]

[keys_au1]

....On the plugin side it sounds like you would be better off with Kontakt (summer sale!) and a versatile synth with a range of good presets rather than Omnisphere. But if the MODX M is feasible, having everything onboard and then duplicated as a plugin could be really nice. I think the Montage's sounds are very decent.

From what I understand, the new MODX M is the same synth engines as the Montage, just with inferior hardware, less connections and less polyphony iirc.

And thanks to you and to Shabdahbriah for the advice. Appeciated.

EDIT: just as an update, I checked and it is $149 AUD (USD 99) so at that price I bought it. JUST in case the MODX M doesn't work out. Might try and flog off all my IK stuff, cheap hahaha!

Any disadvantage to not looking at Komplete as well? IE am I missing much at all?

[BBFG#]

....On the plugin side it sounds like you would be better off with Kontakt (summer sale!) and a versatile synth with a range of good presets rather than Omnisphere. But if the MODX M is feasible, having everything onboard and then duplicated as a plugin could be really nice. I think the Montage's sounds are very decent.

From what I understand, the new MODX M is the same synth engines as the Montage, just with inferior hardware, less connections and less polyphony iirc.

And thanks to you and to Shabdahbriah for the advice. Appeciated.

EDIT: just as an update, I checked and it is $149 AUD (USD 99) so at that price I bought it. JUST in case the MODX M doesn't work out. Might try and flog off all my IK stuff, cheap hahaha!

Any disadvantage to not looking at Komplete as well? IE am I missing much at all?

Maybe consider Halion/Absolute instead of IKM or NI. I've been much happier having to not deal with them.

[Grizzellda]

IS GRATITUDE!!!

And that's right.

I'll add this to my growing collection of screenshots in my ongoing series. "entitlement in the 2020s in music production."

Get a grip.

Are you saying that gratitude is uncool? Please explain.

So, you're saying that, because u-he used to not to many sales and now does that that's a reason to believe Spectrasonics might, too?

Oh, sweet child...

No I am not at all saying such a thing!

Could you be with Spectrasonics? Ha! ha! even if you are, it would not affect my viewpoint.

What I am saying...is this whole "music instrument, synthesizer, plugin" industry is different than around 20 years ago, or so, alright? Also, I respect Spectrasonic, u-he, and Acon, and a bunch of them other software dev's, who make cool products, often at really cool, affordable prices, and!!!

EVEN FREE, SOMETIMES,

and that...to quote the Beastie Boys...

IS GRATITUDE!!!

And that's right.

Omnisphere is more than just a plugin, it's also a very deep sample library full of amazing samples that every other company would break up and sell to you as expensive sample and/or preset libraries for

When you compare what it comes with and does relative to what that would cost with other options, it's actually a tremendous bargain

With Omnisphere 3 you get

1.)Excellent Sample and Synthesis Synth Engine
2.)Industry Leading Sample Library for that included
3.)one of the best VA and Wavetable Synth Plugins on the market
4.)Super nice collection of effects, many of which are actually developed by other companies and sold as separate plugins that if you purchased separately would cost more than Omnisphere, and you can use them inside and outside of Omnisphere

That is a tremendous bargain even at full retail

And there is nothing like it in freeware

Agreed. Thank all of you for posting!

As for IKM, I think their products are quite good, T-Racks for sure, and that new Tonex pedal is really cool. I love IKM's user interfaces and graphics. Nowadays, sound quality is great, so I focus on the GUI.

[sellyoursoul]

....On the plugin side it sounds like you would be better off with Kontakt (summer sale!) and a versatile synth with a range of good presets rather than Omnisphere. But if the MODX M is feasible, having everything onboard and then duplicated as a plugin could be really nice. I think the Montage's sounds are very decent.

From what I understand, the new MODX M is the same synth engines as the Montage, just with inferior hardware, less connections and less polyphony iirc.

And thanks to you and to Shabdahbriah for the advice. Appeciated.

EDIT: just as an update, I checked and it is $149 AUD (USD 99) so at that price I bought it. JUST in case the MODX M doesn't work out. Might try and flog off all my IK stuff, cheap hahaha!

Any disadvantage to not looking at Komplete as well? IE am I missing much at all?

Kontakt gives you the full editor (instead of just the Kontakt player), and the core library, which is decent quality for light weight instruments. Having the full editor is handy in case you need to make internal instrument tweaks, and some third party instruments require the full version of Kontakt. Komplete adds a mixed bag of other sampled instruments and effects, and some good synths. There is a lot of filler in there, and some of the instruments have annoying issues, while some are very decent. On sale at $199? Yea, sure.

Be aware that many NI products don't support hires displays.

My biggest complaint with Komplete is issues with the included pianos. It's obvious that NI doesn't take pride in curating issue free instruments from their contracted developers. NI instruments aren't generally down to the level of IK, but they are far and away from Spectrasonics quality. I forget how many add-on pianos are included in Komplete (like half a dozen), but none of them are on par with Keyscape's C7, even though Keyscape's C7 has fewer features.

Virtual pianos (sampled and modeled) in general is a can of worms. If you ask me, no one is hitting it out of the park, and there are way too many mediocre to junk products on the market. And that's coming from just a guy banging on keys at home, not from a classical pianist or anyone else who should be ultra picky. Thing is that it's not apparent when listening to demos by good to excellent players, but it becomes very apparent once you are playing them yourself (and probably already spent your money on them).

[sellyoursoul]

....On the plugin side it sounds like you would be better off with Kontakt (summer sale!) and a versatile synth with a range of good presets rather than Omnisphere. But if the MODX M is feasible, having everything onboard and then duplicated as a plugin could be really nice. I think the Montage's sounds are very decent.

From what I understand, the new MODX M is the same synth engines as the Montage, just with inferior hardware, less connections and less polyphony iirc.

And thanks to you and to Shabdahbriah for the advice. Appeciated.

EDIT: just as an update, I checked and it is $149 AUD (USD 99) so at that price I bought it. JUST in case the MODX M doesn't work out. Might try and flog off all my IK stuff, cheap hahaha!

Any disadvantage to not looking at Komplete as well? IE am I missing much at all?

Maybe consider Halion/Absolute instead of IKM or NI. I've been much happier having to not deal with them.

Halion/Absolute is definitely on my list to check out at some point. One downside compared to Kontakt is that there isn't nearly the third party instruments available for Halion. But I agree with your general sentiment.

[sellyoursoul]

As for IKM, I think their products are quite good, T-Racks for sure, and that new Tonex pedal is really cool. I love IKM's user interfaces and graphics. Nowadays, sound quality is great, so I focus on the GUI.

IK's effects are generally very decent. Many (most?) of their instruments aren't.

[IvyBirds]

And to complicate it even further, I am considering tossing it all (softsynths etc) and moving to a Yamaha MODX M6/7 and run the ESP software instead hahaha!

As an owner of the excellent Montage M8, I wouldn't get a Montage or a MODX unless you need it as a gigging board for which it's awesome

For studio use, just get HALion7 is better in just about everyway

[Ah_Dziz]

I'd never pick ikmm for any instruments. I've had universally negative experiences with them (ie replacing them in any track where they've ever been used).

[Grizzellda]

Virtual pianos (sampled and modeled) in general is a can of worms. If you ask me, no one is hitting it out of the park, and there are way too many mediocre to junk products on the market. And that's coming from just a guy banging on keys at home, not from a classical pianist or anyone else who should be ultra picky. Thing is that it's not apparent when listening to demos by good to excellent players, but it becomes very apparent once you are playing them yourself (and probably already spent your money on them).
[/quote]

Nice post, I think that it must be possible to accurately model a piano. And I mean model, not sample!

Has this not been done? It seems to have been done with guitar amplifiers. Or, it is an on going work in progress, like my silly life! (Drink less beer!)

It is the idea of a vibrating string, and I think good minded people have been working on that stuff...pretty sure, and I think the results are fabulous.

Hardware floor modelling pedals are awesome, and if anybody says that Amplitube 5 is "not good"...

Well I am going to disagree.

[DCrown]

Just wondering folks...I have been interested in this synth for a quite awhile, and simply asking if,well, has it ever been offered for a reduced price?

Buy Xpand2! instead, it is quite often on sale and you won't be faced with 20.000+ presets.