Spectrasonics rumors...

[ghettosynth]

Spectrasonics are great at the hype. With Omni 1 it was burning pianos, in Omni 2 it was the secret radioactive caves, now we hear with Keyscape it was 10 years in the making. So what? Just means it was a side project they were stuffing about with for years. That's just pure marketing palaver. After that we're down to how many Gbs it is in the same way camera manufacturers used to try to convince people that more megapixels = a better camera.

Draw the wizard's curtin aside and we see a single market-leading product in Omni, others that are now feeling like abandonware, and a company trying to spin a huge PR line on a $400 piano rompler when they can't even get the launch date right. No wonder this has gone down so poorly.

Pretty much. Still, it sounds good. Will I spend $400 on it? I don't know, would I spend $400/36 for one or two of the keyboards in that collection, almost certainly. I think that this is the kind of justification that most of us use at some point when buying bundles or trying to see the value in an instrument.

I think that it's hilarious that local Spectra fans can't see the same arguments that they make all the time for Omni, that you're getting great programming, that the value is more than just the synth, that all of the samples sound great, that you're paying for the skill and attention to detail that Eric brings to his products.

To be clear, I think that it's overpriced, but, I think that all Spectra products are overpriced, especially Omnisphere. Cycling 74's Max was overpriced a few years ago as well when I purchased it, as was SynthMaker. Just because something is overpriced doesn't mean that I won't buy it, it just means that I think that other products provide better value.

[wagtunes]

In fact if I go ANYWHERE and start to purchase a compilation of pianos and keyboards, that even when combined WON'T touch the QUALITY or QUANTITY of this project, I am paying over $100 for a lesser product.

You have no idea what the quality of this product is like in comparison to other pro pianos.

And people who want top quality keys would likely already have one of the many available products. The question they ask is whether this additional expense gives them a significant margin of extra capability or quality. There are lots of good piano modules around.

Exactly. If I didn't own one decent piano, I'd probably invest in this package and cover everything I need with it as far as keys go.

But how many established musicians (established as in making music) don't already have this covered?

Ultimately, it comes down to this. How much more am I getting for my $400 that I already don't have?

It's not that this is a bad product. I am sure it is great. But it's not like buying yet another synth where you can program your own sounds and bring your own vision to the synth, even if it is just another VA. This thing is a rompler, plain and simple. What you hear is what you get. And if you already have it elsewhere, do you need it again?

In other words, who exactly is the target market? Unless I'm totally dead wrong about musicians who play piano and related keys. But even I feel I already have way too many and I'm talking only EWQL, Kontakt and Pianoteq.

I mean I can only play one piano at a time.

[noiseboyuk]

Not when we have a $500 synth that does everything else.

I'm a 92% enthusiastic Omni 2 owner ("fresh!") and I can unequivocally state that Omni 2 does not do everything else, and this might be the silliest statement yet in a thoroughly entertaining thread. In terms of real instruments, there's actually not a whole lot it CAN do. Sure there's some 15-20 year old sample content in there that covers voices, guitars and so on, but there isn't a single patch of a straight workaday acoustic instrument you'd use in a realistic exposed way, certainly compared to whatever else is out there now. This notion that we get everything except a piano for $500 and just a piano for $400 is very silly indeed. (And btw - it's a myth that Omni doesn't have a piano, never mind the burning one. I've used Dream Piano in many different forms, and even pretty much straight - sometimes its raw simplicity with some reverb is just the thing).

Here we are, nearly 10 years on, and we're still having these same conversations about Omnisphere. No, its not a rompler, and no, it's not a workstation. There's no multisampled piano, and there's no brass, no woods, no acoustic drums no a-whole-lotta-things. Just a myriad of eclectic, esoteric soundsources and now wavetables that are heavenly for synthesis.

To do real instruments justice, you'll need to spend some serious time, serious effort and serious cash. Now, if someone has all the acoustic and electric pianos they need and very happy with the sound of them, then that's one thing and a perfectly fine position to take. I'd guess the vast majority of Omni users simply don't NEED Keyscape. I'd also guess a fair chunk of them would still rather like it, and that much of Keyscape will be better than what they already own (plus the enticement of manipulating all that stuff in Omni itself).

I'm disappointed that this is the next instrument, I have other far higher priorities and technically sampling these keys is pretty simple stuff (not talking about the restoration, which I have no doubt was very difficult). None of this feels like new ground, so I'm no flag-waving fan. I also think the release was pretty botched. But I can definitely appreciate that it all sounds fantastic, that it will be a high-watermark for many of the instruments sampled, that if you are likely use much of the content it represents good value for money. All those things are quite different to those who don't really want or need it being enticed to buy it anyway at a tempting price. And yes, of course there's a lot of competition - and as many have pointed out, the best of that is often more expensive.

[TS-12]

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[sirdavidabraham]

Given Spectrasonics pedigree....Are there 2500 musicians in the world who would buy this? Probably and then some.

That's a million dollars right there. Should cover the costs.

Sign me up....(2499 to go)

[Mystic]

$400 is a good price point for this. Hell, I'm getting ready to spend $150 on Wavesfactory Mercury and that offers one single piano where this offers many more boards, many of which are rare and have been restored to a point where they meet Spectrasonics extremely high standards. Judging by the video and having talked to some people, these things sound great as well which again, is part of the high standards Eric Persing has for his products. If nothing else, I expect this will be much higher quality than a lot of the pianos I already use.

That said, there are places you can get discounts on Spectrasonics programs as they typically don't do sales themselves.

Whether or not you are happy with the product decision or not, one thing is certain: these sound damn good.

[Guenon]

That's a million dollars right there. Should cover the costs.

If I had to guess, probably doesn't.

[Mystic]

Given Spectrasonics pedigree....Are there 2500 musicians in the world who would buy this? Probably and then some.

That's a million dollars right there. Should cover the costs.

Sign me up....(2499 to go)

Consider the amount of composers who will want this. Then add musicians across multiple genres. I have a feeling this is going to be big after certain people get over being butthurt that it isn't what they wanted. Had it been a Stylus upgrade, many others (myself included) would be quite "meh" about it. It's all perspective. The thing is, most people who frequent this forum seem to lean towards EDM so they have less of an interest.

[JonSolo]

You have no idea what the quality of this product is like in comparison to other pro pianos.

And people who want top quality keys would likely already have one of the many available products. The question they ask is whether this additional expense gives them a significant margin of extra capability or quality. There are lots of good piano modules around.

I agree with that. All I have is some video evidence and the reputation of a company to clue me into the quality of this product.

Perspective is all I was creating. The challenge dealt with the price point...and I was addressing the price point challenge.

[noiseboyuk]

Consider the amount of composers who will want this. Then add musicians across multiple genres. I have a feeling this is going to be big after certain people get over being butthurt that it isn't what they wanted. Had it been a Stylus upgrade, many others (myself included) would be quite "meh" about it. It's all perspective. The thing is, most people who frequent this forum seem to lean towards EDM so they have less of an interest.

Yes, agreed all round. Initially I thought it wouldn't sell as well as Trilian, but now I'm not so sure. I've been round quite a few sites, and with the exception of KVR, there's been an increasing inexorable disposition towards "I WANTS IT MY PRECIOUS", doubly so for live players and pros. Bottom line - it sounds very very good. Piano is bread and butter - so boring practically nobody thought it was worthy of a release in such a crowded market place. But we need bread and butter, and if someone has breaded and buttered better than anyone else, fair play. Likely every other Spectrasonics release in the months and years to come will be more exciting than this (well, save for the organ expansion perhaps), but this is gonna stand the test of time.

[rod_zero]

LOL, sampled pianos and other keyboards.

For pianos IMHO samples just doesn't cut it anymore, Pianoteq is wayahead in many ways. Any new product based on samples should include modeled resonance and other interactions.

As it is this new omnisphere product is quite a dissapointment.

[Krakatau]

another disappointment...what about bananas ?

[mhog]

LOL, sampled pianos and other keyboards.

For pianos IMHO samples just doesn't cut it anymore, Pianoteq is wayahead in many ways. Any new product based on samples should include modeled resonance and other interactions.

As it is this new omnisphere product is quite a dissapointment.

Well, what do you expect from a sampling house? As far as I know, Spectrasonics has always made and sold samples. The only difference is that nowadays they put them into nice and functional interfaces.

[JonSolo]

BTW, my mention of Pianoteq was in no way to slight the product in any way. It was merely to compare price points. Pianoteq has many advantages, the least of which is the size of the footprint.

Nor am I in the camp with the fanboys who blindly follow and/or defend everything about a company.

However, Spectrasonics is a great company and all of their products seem to be a class act. Not that there were not any, but I don't remember any show-stopping bugs in their products. For Keyscape, 80gb is a small footprint considering the variety of keyboards it comes with (for a rompler). Integration with Omnisphere is just a bonus.

Overall I think all computer musicians/producers are a spoiled bunch, myself included. We have everything we could ever need/want/askfor for the most part and done quite easily. We expect innovation around every corner. We have been spoon-fed innovation since the mid 1990's and are addicted to it.

So Keyscape is like a new iPhone...it's just another iPhone. Great or not it is the next big thing from the company. It appears to be solid and sound good. I have had very few regrets with my purchases over the years, and I doubt I will regret this one. And out of the dozens of piano products I have, this one will get its fair share of usage along with the others.

[gremlinmoon]

I think this is a shot across the bow at Clavia, Casio, Yamaha, etc and the "electric" piano market. Why get a Casio Privia or equivalent Yamaha when you can have this and run it on the laptop you already own? Especially since a common laptop will soon be able to run this.

I also think this was a good way for them to ditch the VIP discount. At some point they figured out they were leaving a lot of money on the table because it is exactly those same hardcore fans who will pay full price.