Any Spectrasonics news?

[Touch The Universe]

Now we just have to wait til april huh?

[ghettosynth]

249 Dollar is the upgrade for user only of Omnisphere
https://www.spectrasonics.net/sales/tec ... ucts_id=28

Holy mother of .... Please just take my money now.

I haven't been this excited about a synth since I got my first Moog back in 1979.

Buy yeah, Omnisphere is just a rompler.

I still find it hilarious how much offense people take to that description. In the past, it has described more than just the architecture, but also the philosophy behind sound creation, that is, you use samples and layer them, both in amplitude and time. You can now import your own samples, cool, that's something a lot of people have been asking for, but they still haven't really changed the philosophy. It's now like a more advanced rompler with sample import, like the TG-500.

Eric devoted one sentence to the new filters in that video. That tells you how important he thinks that is with respect to the overall philosophy. The list was flashed briefly, it didn't appear that there was anything groundbreaking there.

Some of the user interface ideas are nice, e.g., holding one section constant while browsing patches, sound-alike searching, and some, for me at least, seem very gimmicky, e.g. the granular and unison visualizations, and the modulation (visualization) applied to sequencer steps.

It's a nice update, but, there goes one of the big reasons that people always cite for the price of spectra software, right? So much for new updates are free for existing users.

At any rate, it remains to be seen how close it is to a "sampler" as there was very little demonstrated in that video and in the user interface. An audio sample was dragged into the user interface, and then manipulated, but no detail was shown with respect to key/velocity triggering or any other advance sampling features.

When people call Omni a rompler, it is a way of characterizing the core philosophy of the product, it's not necessarily a pejorative. The core hasn't really changed, to me, it's pretty much still a rompler with tricks and celebrity patches and samples. Granted, sample import challenges that description, but, to be considered a "sampler" in today's market, you need to have features that compete with those in Kontakt, and Omnisphere is nowhere close to that.

Omnisphere is like the swiss army knife of synths, it has a little bit of everything in one convenient package and that's its selling point, but, it's not particularly good at any of the things that it does, except that, like the swiss army knife, it combines those tools in a fairly easy to use package. But, if you want granular, there are better choices, if you want sampling there are better choices, if you want a modern subtractive synth there are better choices, if you want FM, there are better choices, so, it's hard for people that have seen really good tools to get excited about a swiss army knife. As an example, the granular demonstration was cute, if you thought that it was mind-blowing, then you haven't been doing much with granular synthesis. It's like discovering that your swiss army knife has this great scissor tool that can be used to cut paper with. Holy cow, what will they come up with next?



This knife is $80 to $100, I suspect that for most of the tools, I can buy a better version of everything on there for less than a benjamin. That's how people who don't buy into Omnisphere think of Omnisphere. When you start waving it around as being a powerful tool you look like the helpful cubscout waving his swiss army knife around while dad's trying to rebuild an engine and mom's trying to make suzy's prom dress. Sure, it has tools for both of those tasks, but there are better tools for the job and they don't cost as much as that overpriced "swiss" knife that you wouldn't stop going on about.

[Phorous]

Non specialization isn't always a bad thing. Just because something does one thing better doesn't make it better as a whole in all situations. Look at your personal computer / Mac for instance. As generalized as it gets but you still are using it without issue.

[trusampler]

Is it possible to create a multi-sample with key zones from user samples in Omni 2?

[wagtunes]

Let's see. How many synths would you have to buy to do all the things that Omnisphere can do? For some people on a limited budget, that can be important. If I needed something that could do a variety of things but only had so much money to spend, I wouldn't buy a very specialized synth, no matter how much better it's one thing is than every other synth around if that one synth doesn't give me all the functionality I need.

Looking at the synths I have that are specialized, in order to get all the functionality of Omnisphere, picking the best of my collection, I would have to spend upwards of $1,000 to $1,200. That's a far cry from $500.

Sure, if you have money to burn and will only settle for the best of the best in each area of synthesis, sampling, or whatever, then no, Omnisphere is probably not the synth you're going to get.

And yet, ironically, it's the one synth that is heard on more movie scores than any other.

I can't help but wonder why that is.

Omnisphere may not be the best at every little thing, but it's not Brand X toilet paper either.

[BBFG#]

As if there is such thing as best that everyone could agree on...

My last reservation about buying Omnisphere is something Spectrasonics has no control over...

[ghettosynth]

Non specialization isn't always a bad thing. Just because something does one thing better doesn't make it better as a whole in all situations.

I don't disagree. Sometimes, in fact, that's ideal for a particular task, or customer. I keep a tool called a "gui-tool" in my guitar case when I go out to play. It's like a swiss army knife for guitar players, it has some hex wrenches, some screw drivers, and a string cutter. I'm not going to try to convince a guitar tech, however, that it is as good as the tools that he uses on his bench. It's better for my purpose because it is compact and fits easily in the case. At home, however, I have much better tools.

So, yes, I think Omnisphere is ideal for some customers, but it's not a better at any of the things that it does than more specialized synths. Go back and read some of the Omni threads, you will see that Omni owners try to convince others that Omni is a replacement for things that, quite simply, it just isn't as good as.

[Phorous]

Non specialization isn't always a bad thing. Just because something does one thing better doesn't make it better as a whole in all situations.

I don't disagree. Sometimes, in fact, that's ideal for a particular task, or customer. I keep a tool called a "gui-tool" in my guitar case when I go out to play. It's like a swiss army knife for guitar players, it has some hex wrenches, some screw drivers, and a string cutter. I'm not going to try to convince a guitar tech, however, that it is as good as the tools that he uses on his bench. It's better for my purpose because it is compact and fits easily in the case. At home, however, I have much better tools.

So, yes, I think Omnisphere is ideal for some customers, but it's not a better at any of the things that it does than more specialized synths. Go back and read some of the Omni threads, you will see that Omni owners try to convince others that Omni is a replacement for things that, quite simply, it just isn't as good as.

For me the strength of Omni has never been one specific thing but rather a collection of things coming together as a whole. I like the sound, the user interface and workflow, the modulation system, LFO and MSEGs, effect racks, multi system, live/split modes, the huge amount of good sounding (to me) presets. I like the fact that it is a swiss army knife

There were some weaker points with the first version sure, but with Omnisphere 2 many of them appear to have been addressed. Sure, the jury is out till we can play with the filters and improved granular system on those. But I still don't think Omnisphere 1 was a bad deal depending on what your were producing.

[ghettosynth]

Let's see. How many synths would you have to buy to do all the things that Omnisphere can do? For some people on a limited budget, that can be important. If I needed something that could do a variety of things but only had so much money to spend, I wouldn't buy a very specialized synth, no matter how much better it's one thing is than every other synth around if that one synth doesn't give me all the functionality I need.

Reaktor alone will get you there, but, at cost of usability, for most people at least, for me, not so much. This comparison is often made, however, and the general consensus is that Komplete is a better value than Omnisphere for most people. That is, if you have $500 to spend, you're going to be better off with Komplete than you are with Omnisphere.

And yet, ironically, it's the one synth that is heard on more movie scores than any other.

I can't help but wonder why that is.

Because it suits the workflow of the customer. Film scores are generally not cutting edge in terms of sound palette. It's not like how a filter sounds at high resonance is going to be a dominant issue for the vast majority of scores. Moreover, the sampling and sound choices reflect that market.

[GHOST19]

And yet, ironically, it's the one synth that is heard on more movie scores than any other.

I can't help but wonder why that is.

That's because film scorers mostly don't use synths. Omnisphere competes with samplers and specialised libraries on that market.

O2 has more synth features, let's wait and see how that compares to top synths.

[mandolarian]

249 Dollar is the upgrade for user only of Omnisphere
https://www.spectrasonics.net/sales/tec ... ucts_id=28

Holy mother of .... Please just take my money now.

I haven't been this excited about a synth since I got my first Moog back in 1979.

Buy yeah, Omnisphere is just a rompler.

I still find it hilarious how much offense people take to that description. In the past, it has described more than just the architecture, but also the philosophy behind sound creation, that is, you use samples and layer them, both in amplitude and time. You can now import your own samples, cool, that's something a lot of people have been asking for, but they still haven't really changed the philosophy. It's now like a more advanced rompler with sample import, like the TG-500.

Eric devoted one sentence to the new filters in that video. That tells you how important he thinks that is with respect to the overall philosophy. The list was flashed briefly, it didn't appear that there was anything groundbreaking there.

Some of the user interface ideas are nice, e.g., holding one section constant while browsing patches, sound-alike searching, and some, for me at least, seem very gimmicky, e.g. the granular and unison visualizations, and the modulation (visualization) applied to sequencer steps.

It's a nice update, but, there goes one of the big reasons that people always cite for the price of spectra software, right? So much for new updates are free for existing users.

At any rate, it remains to be seen how close it is to a "sampler" as there was very little demonstrated in that video and in the user interface. An audio sample was dragged into the user interface, and then manipulated, but no detail was shown with respect to key/velocity triggering or any other advance sampling features.

When people call Omni a rompler, it is a way of characterizing the core philosophy of the product, it's not necessarily a pejorative. The core hasn't really changed, to me, it's pretty much still a rompler with tricks and celebrity patches and samples. Granted, sample import challenges that description, but, to be considered a "sampler" in today's market, you need to have features that compete with those in Kontakt, and Omnisphere is nowhere close to that.

Omnisphere is like the swiss army knife of synths, it has a little bit of everything in one convenient package and that's its selling point, but, it's not particularly good at any of the things that it does, except that, like the swiss army knife, it combines those tools in a fairly easy to use package. But, if you want granular, there are better choices, if you want sampling there are better choices, if you want a modern subtractive synth there are better choices, if you want FM, there are better choices, so, it's hard for people that have seen really good tools to get excited about a swiss army knife. As an example, the granular demonstration was cute, if you thought that it was mind-blowing, then you haven't been doing much with granular synthesis. It's like discovering that your swiss army knife has this great scissor tool that can be used to cut paper with. Holy cow, what will they come up with next?



This knife is $80 to $100, I suspect that for most of the tools, I can buy a better version of everything on there for less than a benjamin. That's how people who don't buy into Omnisphere think of Omnisphere. When you start waving it around as being a powerful tool you look like the helpful cubscout waving his swiss army knife around while dad's trying to rebuild an engine and mom's trying to make suzy's prom dress. Sure, it has tools for both of those tasks, but there are better tools for the job and they don't cost as much as that overpriced "swiss" knife that you wouldn't stop going on about.

Great analogy...and I prefer the more specialized tools and various workflows. While Eric's sonic army knife has some great sounds, it augments rather than replaces stuff in my 500lb tool belt.

[Armadillosound]

What about Stylus RMX lets have some updates for that

[Phorous]

What about Stylus RMX lets have some updates for that

Glenn said "never say never" in this thread

[hibidy]

199 isn't totally unreasonable, now who was that that was scaring me with "no upgrade price"

[Echoes in the Attic]

199 isn't totally unreasonable, now who was that that was scaring me with "no upgrade price"

That's if you have all three licenses and if all three are standard and not transfer licenses. I've got one transfer and two standard, so I'm very curious to see if they will allow the VIP upgrade for me. I would think that it would be pretty lame not to but I've been surprised by some of their overly strict and not so friendly policies in the past. Hopefully hey can bend a little there.