Omnisphere 3

[bermudagold]

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?

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.

to HOTF's point, this guy has provided a lil wrinkle on the concept of a plugin review channel...here is his showcase of the "analog vibes" content


Here is a playlist for the rest of his omnisphere showcase

[sellyoursoul]

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.

Having considered V Collection previously, it looks like way more than I want to deal with. I remember spotting during the holidays a shop selling old versions + upgrade price to the latest version for less than $200, and I passed. I would much rather deal with a single UI and get close enough in sound, as long as the sound is high quality.

[sellyoursoul]

to HOTF's point, this guy has provided a lil wrinkle on the concept of a plugin review channel...here is his showcase of the "analog vibes" content


Here is a playlist for the rest of his omnisphere showcase

I'm not a fan of that person's demo format of playing the same riff with every sound to a drum beat, but those videos might actually be the best demos available. Thanks for pointing them out.

[Opaloka1974]

I am considering purchasing Omni 3 purely for its presets and would appreciate some advice on the following.
I have a Novation SL61 mkiii controller which would be used to control Omni via the keyboard integration feature. However all I need to control from the keyboard is to be able to select patches from Directories and Categories without having to use the mouse, is it possible to map buttons on the SL61 to do this ?
I have a PC monitor above the SL61 so I will be able to see the selections made.
If this is not possible could I replace the monitor with a touch screen and select the patches that way.
I would be running Omni as a stand alone and not as a DAW plugin.

[agharta]

Having considered V Collection previously, it looks like way more than I want to deal with. I remember spotting during the holidays a shop selling old versions + upgrade price to the latest version for less than $200, and I passed. I would much rather deal with a single UI and get close enough in sound, as long as the sound is high quality.

It comes with Analog Lab Pro which is a single plugin that allows you to play a lot of the presets from the included synths.
It also allows you limited editing and if you want deeper control it can launch the actual synth.

[IvyBirds]

I am considering purchasing Omni 3 purely for its presets and would appreciate some advice on the following.
I have a Novation SL61 mkiii controller which would be used to control Omni via the keyboard integration feature. However all I need to control from the keyboard is to be able to select patches from Directories and Categories without having to use the mouse, is it possible to map buttons on the SL61 to do this ?
I have a PC monitor above the SL61 so I will be able to see the selections made.
If this is not possible could I replace the monitor with a touch screen and select the patches that way.
I would be running Omni as a stand alone and not as a DAW plugin.

I am very familiar with the SL61MKIII

On your SL61 by default in the hardware integration button one and two are pre programmed to as up and down buttons on the patch browser (it's using CC 51&52 by default for this)

There are however thousands of patches to cycle through so up and down can get tedious

You can however also use the Novation Components software to have the 16 drum pads output MIDI CC. This will allow you to program 16 patches for instant recall. Just find the patch you want in the browser, right click on it. Select midi learn and hit the pad and you are done. The the next time you press that pad that patch will instantly recall. This would give you 16 staring off points, but it's still tedious to browse the hundreds of patches

However as you know there is a lot of empty space in the upper right corner of the SLMKIII

On Amazon you can buy the Rii X8 wireless mini keyboard and mouse. It's about the size of a game pad controller. It has a small blackberry style qwerty keyboard, a couple mouse buttons, a joystick like control for the mouse, a scroll wheel and a touch pad

This is what it looks like

Screenshot_20260129-120909.jpg

It's the best $22 you can spend. I have one velcroed to my controller which becomes part of the controller and makes browsing for patches and other things a breeze. Omnisphere also has something called "The Orb" which is like and x/y vector control that you can drag around with your mouse and do cool things. The touch pad on the Rii X8 is perfect for this

Of course since your computer will just see it as a mouse it works on everything

[Ben.juodvalkis]

I’m pretty sure you can do this via midi mapping the previous and next buttons, but I’d recommend confirming with spectra Sonics sales, they are per responsive

I am considering purchasing Omni 3 purely for its presets and would appreciate some advice on the following.
I have a Novation SL61 mkiii controller which would be used to control Omni via the keyboard integration feature. However all I need to control from the keyboard is to be able to select patches from Directories and Categories without having to use the mouse, is it possible to map buttons on the SL61 to do this ?
I have a PC monitor above the SL61 so I will be able to see the selections made.
If this is not possible could I replace the monitor with a touch screen and select the patches that way.
I would be running Omni as a stand alone and not as a DAW plugin.

[IvyBirds]

I’m pretty sure you can do this via midi mapping the previous and next buttons, but I’d recommend confirming with spectra Sonics sales, they are per responsive

Yes you absolutely can, and those are even premapped for many controllers under the hardware profiles

[ATS]

do the VST3 versions of Stylus RMX and Trilion crash anyone else's DAWs? Studio One and Cubase both end up stuck when I try to load either of those. I wrote support but they said they haven't seen this problem. I just ran the VST2 versions since didn't feel like going through all their millions steps they wanted me to go through.

[Opaloka1974]

@ivybirds, many thanks for your reply and bringing to my attention options to help with navigation especially the Rii X8 controller on top of the keyboard which I hadn't considered and which eliminates the need for an expensive touch screen.
Once again thanks for taking the time to reply.

[IvyBirds]

@ivybirds, many thanks for your reply and bringing to my attention options to help with navigation especially the Rii X8 controller on top of the keyboard which I hadn't considered and which eliminates the need for an expensive touch screen.
Once again thanks for taking the time to reply.

No problem, good luck with the Rii X8. It's been EXTREMELY handy for me the last year or so I have had it. While I wouldn't use it to type out a novel, for navigating around Plugins and DAWs and typing in patch, track, and file names it's perfect. Using Velcro on it has been great as it won't slide around and I can pull it off and hand hold it if I need to type something longer

[bmanic]

I am considering purchasing Omni 3 purely for its presets and would appreciate some advice on the following.
I have a Novation SL61 mkiii controller which would be used to control Omni via the keyboard integration feature. However all I need to control from the keyboard is to be able to select patches from Directories and Categories without having to use the mouse, is it possible to map buttons on the SL61 to do this ?
I have a PC monitor above the SL61 so I will be able to see the selections made.
If this is not possible could I replace the monitor with a touch screen and select the patches that way.
I would be running Omni as a stand alone and not as a DAW plugin.

https://support.spectrasonics.net/manua ... e-61sl-mk3

In short: Yes, you have somewhat control over selecting previous/next preset but not detailed control it seems.

However, I'm unsure how Omnisphere works with MIDI Bank and Program change messages though as I've never tried. If it does react to these, then you can program it freely on the Novation keyboard as it's got very deep programmability right on the keyboard itself.

EDIT: Looks like you already got all the answers needed. Sorry for repeating already known information.

[Raketenbauer]

do the VST3 versions of Stylus RMX and Trilion crash anyone else's DAWs? Studio One and Cubase both end up stuck when I try to load either of those. I wrote support but they said they haven't seen this problem. I just ran the VST2 versions since didn't feel like going through all their millions steps they wanted me to go through.

Both VST3s work fine in Bitwig (MAC OS).
I think there is a way to reinstall the plugins without installing the massive library files. Maybe you can try that?

[ATS]

do the VST3 versions of Stylus RMX and Trilion crash anyone else's DAWs? Studio One and Cubase both end up stuck when I try to load either of those. I wrote support but they said they haven't seen this problem. I just ran the VST2 versions since didn't feel like going through all their millions steps they wanted me to go through.

Both VST3s work fine in Bitwig (MAC OS).
I think there is a way to reinstall the plugins without installing the massive library files. Maybe you can try that?

I am on windows myself. Just going to use the vst 2 versions for now I guess. Thanks so much for the reply!

[Chipi]

I use this program for 15 years and most of the time was happy. Recently got 20+ projects screwed up. All of them having Omnisphere3 track have no sound anymore. I've sent 3 Emails to the support - NO RESPONSE. I have called and left 2 messages asking for help - NO RESPONSE.
This year completely changed how I see SPECTRASONICS. Very disappointed.
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as far as v3 upgrade:
- the install should allow to keep v2 for backwards compatibility.

- the interface has improved just a bit, but it still looks like from Windows XP era (when comparing to Pigments or Serum).

- The sounds LIB are fantastic, but the tagging is to fragmented and inconvenient.

- searching the patch database is not very efficient (I guess they still using SQLite, which is quite slow).

- the custom patch tagging and saving options are as bad as it gets. Super counterintuitive and inconvenient.

- I certainly like the new libraries and like new adjustment screen.

- hardware mapping sucks, you select and load the patch and then select a hardware preset, and you loose that selected patch, ridiculous.

- once the preset is loaded into a Multi I see no easy way to empty the slot
- Omnisphere Menu does the job, but is super ugly and not convenient

There are of course lots of benefits, but I tried to point out what I do not like, so hopefully they can learn how to make this synth better. My main concern at the moment is compatibility and GUI (which really needs to be redesigned).