Omnisphere - will it be worth the hype ?

[TristezaOrange]

I don't think it will. For anything to live up to that amount hype, it would have to contain the largest library of sounds evarrrr (sic) and also descend from the skies to end all wars and stop world hunger.

It's advertising. And, how did you encounter it? If there is a way other than visiting their website on your own volition, clicking a link on your own volition, reading that Sound-on-Sound preview on your own volition, or entering a discussion thread on your own volition, I don't know what it is. It's not like the videos flashed on your tv screen all day long and/or all night long like those annoying (to me) MAC vs PC commercials, the Ford has caught up with foreign competition commercials, or the Video Professor's commercials. I guess you can say the hype was self-inflicted. You can't shoot yourself in the foot and then blame the gun. I didn't go over to Spectrasonics' website until all videos were completed and the music competition had concluded. I didn't even know about the music competition until I read about it at Spectrasonics' site. I wasn't driven crazy by the release cycle of the movies, whatever it was. So, I guess the hype bothered me less than some, and what I did encounter was of my own doing. BTW, I don't have any of the troubles the PC does in the MAC vs PC commercials; I don't think Ford has caught up with foreign competition; and the Video Professor's training courses are a major rip-off, considering the alternatives. It's all advertising and there is almost always exaggeration - sometimes gross exaggeration.

The only thing Omnisphere has to be, for me, is worth the upgrade price -- nothing more, nothing less. What could I expect from something that will cost me less than $479?

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't blame the advertising, I was just trying to be 'funny'!

[Dean Aka Nekro]

When you have a system that is based on presets or samples it takes you away from the true art of making music, sound design.

That's ridiculous! Sound design is just that... SOUND DESIGN. Making music is something different. Sound design is music production. Good production is a wonderful thing but without music its pointless. There still has to be a song and a song can be written on anything. Its doesn't have to be constructed only from sounds that you personally "designed"

and @ Sascha (not so hot at quoting two posts: yes i am an interweb numbskull!) could not of put it better myself guys. Perfect IMO

Nekro

[Kicklicker]

When you have a system that is based on presets or samples it takes you away from the true art of making music, sound design.

That's ridiculous! Sound design is just that... SOUND DESIGN. Making music is something different. Sound design is music production. Good production is a wonderful thing but without music its pointless. There still has to be a song and a song can be written on anything. Its doesn't have to be constructed only from sounds that you personally "designed"

and @ Sascha (not so hot at quoting two posts: yes i am an interweb numbskull!) could not of put it better myself guys. Perfect IMO

Nekro

Semantics...look it up!

Besides, it was an opinion.

Slow your roll.

[LarryAW]

Also, this is Spectrasonics' own sound engine. The sound engine for Atmosphere, Trilogy and Stylus RMX was licensed from a third party.

Actually, Stylus RMX is also a Spectrasonics engine, the SAGE engine. The original Stylus used the same 3rd party engine as Trilogy & Atmosphere.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I often am), but I don't think you will be able to make a preset from scratch. I think Omnisphere is all about making samples from other samples, and Omnisphere includes a lot of tools, and new technology, to accomplish that.

It depends on what you mean by preset. From what I've read & seen in videos, user sampling isn't an option at this point (maybe never), but creating presets with the existing samples +/or synth oscillators is certainly something we end-users can do.

I have been impressed by what I have seen and it will thankfully be an upgrade for me. But, a lot is certainly unknown about it. I have never been a tweaker before, but I'm planning on knowing Omnisphere intimately.

I used to tweak a lot back in the day, then things got busier in my life, and I haven't done nearly as much synth programming as I used to. I think Omnisphere is one synth that I am going to enjoy getting to know my way around, much like the Roland D50. I spent many hours creating new patches for that instrument.

You're exactly right. SAGE is definitely their technology. I should have said Atmosphere, Stylus (no RMX) and Trilogy, which all use the UVI-Engine http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/uvi.html . SAGE was the first of their new technology, and STEAM is their newest technology (audio engine), which is oriented toward synthesis.

Regarding presets, I personally have no problem using presets anyway. There are some people who like to make their presets from scratch, from a basic saw or the like. I am not now, nor have I ever been, one of those people, but I was addressing them. Many aren't going to like making samples from other samples, which is what you'll be doing in Omnisphere, I'm pretty sure. That's their problem, not mine. That's what I was trying to convey. I can assure you, I will gladly make a new sample from another sample and call it my own. Whether it should properly be labelled a preset will be irrelevant to me. It's new, I made it, it's mine. I am going to try very hard to master the nuances of Omnisphere, which won't be an easy task for me.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

When you have a system that is based on presets or samples it takes you away from the true art of making music, sound design.

That's ridiculous! Sound design is just that... SOUND DESIGN. Making music is something different. Sound design is music production. Good production is a wonderful thing but without music its pointless. There still has to be a song and a song can be written on anything. Its doesn't have to be constructed only from sounds that you personally "designed"

and @ Sascha (not so hot at quoting two posts: yes i am an interweb numbskull!) could not of put it better myself guys. Perfect IMO

Nekro

Semantics...look it up!

Besides, it was an opinion.

Slow your roll.

well we all know what opinions are like dont we? well look up the word 'arse holes' and you will be redirectumfied to a wiki page dedicated to the the term 'Klicklicker' 'Klicklicker' a word used to describe one's backside

[Kicklicker]

When you have a system that is based on presets or samples it takes you away from the true art of making music, sound design.

That's ridiculous! Sound design is just that... SOUND DESIGN. Making music is something different. Sound design is music production. Good production is a wonderful thing but without music its pointless. There still has to be a song and a song can be written on anything. Its doesn't have to be constructed only from sounds that you personally "designed"

and @ Sascha (not so hot at quoting two posts: yes i am an interweb numbskull!) could not of put it better myself guys. Perfect IMO

Nekro

Semantics...look it up!

Besides, it was an opinion.

Slow your roll.

well we all know what opinions are like dont we? well look up the word 'arse holes' and you will be redirectumfied to a wiki page dedicated to the the term 'Klicklicker' 'Klicklicker' a word used to describe one's backside

Learn to spell arse hole (Kick not Klick). Besides don't most Nekro's like phuck the dead......

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Yes Butlicker i sleep with dead people after hunting, torturing, Hanging & butchering them. As luck would have it i have not been caught (blood) red handed up until now and you come along and you bust me. Im going to hell for this
See you in Disneyland...

[Kicklicker]

Yes Butlicker i sleep with dead people after hunting, torturing, Hanging & butchering them. As luck would have it i have not been caught (blood) red handed up until now and you come along and you bust me. Im going to hell for this
See you in Disneyland...

You need help!

[LarryAW]

I don't think it will. For anything to live up to that amount hype, it would have to contain the largest library of sounds evarrrr (sic) and also descend from the skies to end all wars and stop world hunger.

It's advertising. And, how did you encounter it? If there is a way other than visiting their website on your own volition, clicking a link on your own volition, reading that Sound-on-Sound preview on your own volition, or entering a discussion thread on your own volition, I don't know what it is. It's not like the videos flashed on your tv screen all day long and/or all night long like those annoying (to me) MAC vs PC commercials, the Ford has caught up with foreign competition commercials, or the Video Professor's commercials. I guess you can say the hype was self-inflicted. You can't shoot yourself in the foot and then blame the gun. I didn't go over to Spectrasonics' website until all videos were completed and the music competition had concluded. I didn't even know about the music competition until I read about it at Spectrasonics' site. I wasn't driven crazy by the release cycle of the movies, whatever it was. So, I guess the hype bothered me less than some, and what I did encounter was of my own doing. BTW, I don't have any of the troubles the PC does in the MAC vs PC commercials; I don't think Ford has caught up with foreign competition; and the Video Professor's training courses are a major rip-off, considering the alternatives. It's all advertising and there is almost always exaggeration - sometimes gross exaggeration.

The only thing Omnisphere has to be, for me, is worth the upgrade price -- nothing more, nothing less. What could I expect from something that will cost me less than $479?

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't blame the advertising, I was just trying to be 'funny'!

You're not expecting it to end poverty and war? Your expectations are far too low, then. I realize you weren't being entirely serious. It was more of a general post, because a lot of people in this thread think it's hyped way too much. Posts like mine contain a lot of hype, and I don't know that much about Omnisphere. That's pretty funny, and that's probably part of Spectrasonics' overall marketing plan. I haven't been disappointed with any Spectrasonics' product yet, but expectations are pretty high for this one.

[spectrum]

Greetings!

Great to see all the interest in what we're doing. It's been an intense summer for us, but I'm very pleased to report that Omnisphere is now at the manufacturing plant!

Which means it will indeed be shipping on Sept. 15th.

We always get a big kick out of reading these threads and all the speculation.

Here are some responses to the questions and comments posted in this thread, that will hopefully provide a little more insight into Omnisphere and what it's all about:

Spectrasonics are the kings of Hype!

Ha!

Spectrasonics hasn't released a new instrument in 4 years. So we haven't had any major news in all that time. The reason for this was that we've been working very hard on the STEAM engine and Omnisphere.

If you search the last six years of kvr threads about Atmosphere and Spectrasonics, you see us getting blasted for being too quiet about what our future plans were. Now that we have something exciting to announce, we're blasted for being the "kings of hype!"

Oh well...

There is hype presenting it as some sort of messianic synth which is going to elevate the vst to divine heights.

Hehehe....

Wow...apologies if anything we did gave that impression. The point of the marketing is simply to illustrate the large, powerful, "epic" nature of the instrument.

Divinity might be pushing it a bit much.

It is not going to make anyone a great musician if they buy it...

Very true. Of course that statement applies to every instrument and musical tool ever made.

Hopefully as creative people, we're all still interested in something new and interesting.

Heck, I'd almost forgotten about Omnisphere's impending release.

Hence demonstrating the need for a bit of marketing.

There are many superb sounding synths today so no, it is not going to sound appreciably 'better' than what is out there now...

Well, it's definitely true that there are indeed many great sounding synths....but we've gone to great lengths to create something that produces some unique sounds. You guys can be the judges on whether we've achieved that or not, but I know that I'm going to enjoy using it.

I'm a believer in the concept that there are still some interesting new sounds out there to discover.

I'm banking on the answer being 'yes' and I hope that Spectrasonics is very kind to those of use who own Atmosphere (and Stylus RMX).

Yes. There will be an upgrade available for all Atmosphere customers directly from Spectrasonics.

We will also be offering special "VIP" upgrade deals to original owners of all three Spectrasonics instruments (Atmosphere, Trilogy and Stylus RMX)

Check out the website on the 15th for all the details.

[spectrum]

I've got a folder full of amazing sounding VSTs. Probably too many....

Right!

This is an issue we considered very carefully in designing this instrument. The plug-in instrument world is incredibly crowded and there are numerous great synths and samplers already.

So the reason we took so long to develop this instrument is that we wanted to provide something special and different than the hundreds of quality products that are already available. It was essential to provide something unique and inspiring.

Our goal was to create the foundation for something that we could develop and expand for many years, that would be something extremely powerful, but accessible to any level of user. Something that would appeal to any type of user, from the songwriter to the most advanced synthesist.

So at least for us at Spectrasonics, STEAM and Omnisphere are a big deal....because it's the beginning of the next chapter of what we are doing.

I bought Atmosphere a month ago... I wish there was some way to "stream" a demo of each sound because waiting for the load of the entire sound is really annoying. Maybe they'll have fixed that in Omnisphere.

Omnisphere uses disc streaming so it laods fast and it also has a special Preview Load mode, where you can audition sounds prior to loading them completely.

I do believe in desirable character though and I bet Omnisphere will be that for sure.

Yep.

I am more in a less is more attitide these days.

Sure, a big instrument like Omnisphere doesn't appeal to everyone's working method.

That's why we have the abundance of options that we do in the VST market.

I will add though that Omnisphere is not a difficult instrument to use at all....we've worked hard to make it very fun to use. The more advanced features are available by "zooming" into deeper levels.

Anyway, the idea of a sample playback engine as a synth was never that attractive to me.

Me neither. That's why we made Omnisphere.

Omnisphere is an extremely powerful synth on it's own without using any of the sample oscillators.

Check out the full synthesis features when they are announced on the 15th.

We purposely kept the synthesis details out of the preview video episodes for competitive reasons. But I will reveal one spec here for the first time that might interest you sound designers:

How does up to 10 oscillators per patch sound?

[spectrum]

A good compromise is imo Absynth.

Absynth is indeed a great synth. I've been one of it's champions since it was introduced as a shareware Mac synth by Rhizomatic software. (long before it was an NI product)

What I can tell you is this:

Anyone that likes synths with powerful modulation capabilities like Absynth, the V-Synth and Zebra2 is going to really love Omnisphere.

It's right up your alley.

But can you imagine what would it be like if those kinds of instruments had much more powerful sample playback oscillators and a high-quaility 40gig core library of interesting and unique waveforms?

They've developed their own engine this time around, and it's unknown how this will hold up compared to what's say Kontakt. Hard to imagine it will be flawless in the synthesis aspects.

"Flawless"? Not sure what synth hits that mark.

The best way I can describe Omnisphere is that the sample oscillators' architecture are on par with something like Kontakt, but with some unique features that Kontakt does not have. Also, Kontakt doesn't offer real-time synthesis like Omnisphere has.

But that's not to say that Omnisphere is intended as a replacement for a great sampler like Kontakt. It's a totally different thing - a powerful and unique synth.

The Omnisphere interface also couldn't be more different than Kontakt. We have our own approach to interface design.

The demo's seem interesting enough. Not sure why the UI has to be so fuggin' big that it blocks your DAW with vast swathes of blank panels.

More advanced pages like the Mod Matrix Zoom and the Browser fill the full GUI. That's why it's big. You need as much space a possible to display a lot of info at a glance.

[spectrum]

Lately I've been having more fun with free VSTs like Tal-Bassline. With limited presets comes a desire to tweak the synth just to see how many cool sounds you can make.

Sure....that's a great approach and it's important to have focused instruments like that.

I think the world of synthesizers is big enough to include large-scale instruments like Omnisphere. There's room for IMAX movies after all.

Huge sound libraries and preset organizing have become a selling point used to jack up the prices for soft synths.

It's definitely not about trying to "jack up the prices". It's about the desire to make something really special, comprehensive and massive in every way.

In fact, because this instrument includes well over $2000 of our award-winning sample libraries, we could easily charge more for it and then it would be a "pro-only" type of instrument. Omnisphere will effectively kill our sample library business for good.

But we'd rather produce something that the majority of synth users can afford. Certainly, Omnisphere is expensive for a hobbyist and they would have to save quite a while for it, but we'd like to still keep it within the realm of possibility for the serious hobbyist and semi-pros if they are interested in it.

I just hope that all of the time and effort used to promote this vst yeilds a product that inspires producers to create music rather than stare at the computer screen while scrolling through thousands of "sparkly" presets.

I agree completely!

We'll be doing a lot of education videos after the release encouraging people to explore Omnisphere and find their own sonic voice with it. It think that's incredibly important.

[spectrum]

Honestly, the smug factor of the Spectrasonics crew at past NAMM's was palpable. Snarky attitudes that would be hard to justify under any circumstances.

That's really a shame that anyone would feel that way, because that's certainly not where we're coming from at all. In fact, we have lots of good friends within the development community - like Dave @ GForce, Ben @ Camel, Urs, everyone @ IK, the Propheads and many others. We're competitors, but we root for each other too.

After 6 years of very hard work making this thing, we're just very passionate about it and pretty excited to finally release it.

I'm betting Omnisphere won't be a typical ROMpler as you're expecting.

And you would indeed win that bet.

I reckon it will impossible to max out the potential of the thing and create the exact same sound twice by different users (unless you saved it as a preset of course) so the variations will be huge

Yep.

As a golden rule I never buy software that is as expensive as a hardware synth.

Cool...but let me know when you find a hardware synth with these features for $500.
(or for any price.)

When you have a system that is based on presets or samples it takes you away from the true art of making music, sound design.

I agree.

That's why we made Omnisphere.

Scrolling through presets is simply not as fun as getting your hands on the knobs and creating your own sounds. IMHO I beleive your music becomes more intense if you are physically involved in the process. That is not to say that can't do this with VA synths, but you need some innovative modulation options and at the very least Midi Learn.

Absolutely!

That's why Omnisphere has killer modulation possibilities and MIDI Learn.

However, it must be stated that I am not sure how much sound designing you will be able to do with this new product,

That's actually what it's designed to do.

...but if their previous products are any indication, it will lean more toward flashy presets that have no practical value.

OK. Don't use the Factory patches if you don't like them.

The reason we include them is because some of our users find our sound design work useful:

http://www.spectrasonics.net/companyinfo/users.php

Plus, one of the gripes I have toward Spectrasonics is that they don't update their software enough.

That's another reason why Omnisphere and the STEAM engine is such good news.

Now that we have our own technology, we can update the instruments much more regularly. We have a lot planned for the future.

You'll see,

Here is the true test though. If you find yourself listening to the presets of a synth more than learning its features, you are not making music!

I basically agree with this. Far too many people don't explore the potential of what these instruments can do, and they are missing out on the more 'connected' feeling that a sound designer has.

That's why Omnisphere starts up with a raw Sawtooth wave.

Use that as your starting point for whatever you want to create. It's wide-open for exploring your own possibilities.

[spectrum]

Yes, this is my point. I am tired of huge, enormous, gigantic, 40 gig sound libraries being a major selling point. I have so many sounds already that I will never use.

I think you've got the wrong idea about this instrument entirely.

Omnisphere is NOT the bloated ROMpler, grotesque workstation thingie that some of you folks would like to bash it into being. It's really not that kind of thing at all.

Let me put it into a different context in terms of the evolution of my thinking on this instrument and how it came into being with some milestones from my own experiences:

1987 - Roland D-50
When I worked as Chief Sound Designer for Roland, my job was to make the core library of samples and presets for the Roland D-50. The sample playback engine of the D-50 was extremely limited (no filtering!), and we only had a few hundred KILOBYTES to do it in, The sampling technology was limited to low quality, mono 8bit, 30khz sampling rate with bad aliasing. (and no multisamples!)

However, within those limitations we came up with an interesting approach for the core samples and some ways to make it sound interesting.

Now if you were to take away those samples from the D-50, it wouldn't be nearly as compelling or unique sounding. The synthesis and the effects of the D-50 were noisy and limited, but the combination of everything together was pretty cool sounding at the time.

So it was the combination of the samples + the synthesis + the effects that made the D-50 what it is.

1991 - Roland JD-800
I was really excited to design the JD-800 waveforms and presets for many reasons, but one of the biggest was that it finally offered 44.1k sampling rate, so the sound quality of the waveforms could be much better. There were still some limitations though, like limited split points and compressed, mono audio.

To make up for those limitations, the JD-800 has excellent sounding filters and a more extensive selection of quality FX.

The end result was a very nice instrument, but it had the limitations of no real synth oscillators like the D-50 had, so what you could do with the oscillators was very limited. Plus, the core library of sample waveforms were only single-cycle waves and no real instruments or more interesting sounds to manipulate. (and no expansion possibilities)

Interestingly, the JD-800 is now considered a classic synth and I've never heard it referred to as a dreaded "ROMpler".


1992/1994 - Roland JV -series (JV-1080, XP series, etc)
When the JD-800 did not succeed in the market and the Korg M-1 was a monster hit, Roland felt that it was important to get away from creating synths and get more into the workstation type of approach, which is what most customers wanted at the time.

To create the JV-series, Roland needed to lower the sampling rate to 30khz and compress the audio much more, which obviously reduced the sound quality.

Although the effects and sound quality of the JV series was much lower than the JD-800, it was an enormous success because of the good balance of useful sounds we were able to include, good price/value, etc. Although the core library of the JV was limited to only 8mb, we luckily convinced the engineers to include the Expansion capability, which was a successful concept and we were then able to make many interesting expansion boards because of that.

Roland went on to produce many variations of these type of instruments, (XV, Fantom, etc) with improvements like stereo samples,128mb ROM, etc.

Because these types of instruments included no synth oscillators and more limited synthesis capabilities, they became known as the dreaded "ROMplers" - enemy of true synthesis.


1994 - Spectrasonics founded
I was always more interested in pushing the boundaries of synthesis and high-quality sound, so I wanted to pursue that approach on my own - outside of what I did for Roland.

So as a side business - we started Spectrasonics to produce our sample-libraries for high-end pro users with hardware samplers.

It ended up turning into kind of a big thing.


2002 - Spectrasonics introduces virtual instruments
The sample library business was successful, but the limitations and frustrations of supporting the constantly shifting world of samplers was too much.

We realized that we needed a completely different approach, so that we could realize our sampling ideas without the limitations of other companies' samplers.

So we worked with the French company USB on their UVI-engine and did a licensing deal to create the first dedicated, large-scale sample-based virtual instruments - Atmosphere, Trilogy and the original Stylus - which were successful in the market.

These instruments had a very nice sample-based engine with great sound quality, but did not have all the synthesis, effects, expansion and unique control and modulation capabilities that we ultimately wanted to have, so we decided to turn Spectrasonics into a full-blown software company, building our own engines to pursue this ultimate goal.


2004 - Spectrasonics Stylus RMX and S.A.G.E
The first result of our in-house software team (led by GlennO) is Stylus RMX and the Spectrasonics Advanced Groove Engine (SAGE) technology.

Our best success yet, RMX starts to show what Spectrasonics can achieve with it's own technology. We now have the power to tackle what we've always wanted to do:

The killer sample+synth+FX engine!

aka: STEAM


2008 - Spectrasonics Omnisphere and STEAM
After a long time in the works, our flagship Omnisphere power synth is finally ready for release!

It combines everything I wished the previous synths I've worked on had, and a whole lot more. It's also the history of everything we've done to date.

It's big in every way.

Great synthesis, great sample playback technology with no limitations, tons of great-sounding modulatable fx, a huge and interesting core library pallete to create with, expansion possibilities and the list goes on...

In other words.....a pretty exciting future for Spectrasonics!

(hence the hype)