After many years of development, Spectrasonics has released its brand new flagship virtual instrument Omnisphere. This epic 'Power Synth' claims to break completely new sonic ground by combining a wide variety of hybrid realtime synthesis techniques, an epic library of 'Psychoacoustic' sounds, and many innovative features that have never been seen before in any hardware or software synthesizer. The new instrument is the first to be based on Spectrasonics newly developed STEAM Engine. Omnisphere has an MSRP of $499 / €379. An upgrade for all Atmosphere customers is available from the online Spectrasonics Techshop.
"Omnisphere's release is an historical moment for Spectrasonics," said Eric Persing, Founder and Creative Director of Spectrasonics. "Omnisphere is our new flagship synthesizer, and points the way to all our future virtual instruments. After over 6 years of very intense work towards the goal of having our own in-house technology to offer our customers, Omnisphere is finally here. It really is a new beginning for the company. From this day forward all our products will be based on our own technology, the STEAM Engine for synthesis products like Omnisphere and the SAGE Engine for groove-based instruments like Stylus RMX. Customers will get the benefits of this in the years to come with regular updates and upgrades offering new sounds and new capabilities."
Persing continued, "The massive core library of Omnisphere is filled with unique sampled sounds and amazing patches created by our international sound design team. The hybrid synth engine offers powerful features never offered in software or hardware such as Harmonia, Chaos Envelopes, Composite Morphing, the Flex-Mod modulation routing system, and arpeggiator Groove-Lock integration with Stylus RMX. In the end it's all about making music, and Omnisphere was deliberately designed for all levels of musicians to create their own sound. It's easy to use, and yet extremely powerful."
Omnisphere is designed with a unique user interface containing progressive layers of 'zooming' to accommodate the complete range of users - from musicians who just want to be inspired by the sounds and customize them in an easy way, to expert synthesists and the most advanced sound designers. Users can go deeper and deeper into the software and progress in their synthesis knowledge by simply exploring additional levels of sound manipulation options. To make sure that all users get the most out of the new capabilities, Omnisphere includes an extensive set of video tutorials and synthesis lessons taught by the Spectrasonics sound design team.
Omnisphere offers a host of hybrid synthesis and new control capabilities including Variable Waveshaping DSP synthesis, Granular synthesis, Timbre Shifting, FM, polyphonic Ring Modulation, high-resolution streaming Sample Playback, Harmonia, Dual Multimode Filter structure, Chaos Envelopes, an advanced Unison mode, and the innovative Flex-Mod modulation routing system - to name a few.
The huge core library of Omnisphere is filled with years of creative sampling experiments and thousands of inspiring patches. Spectrasonics has pioneered several brand-new types of sampling for the core library of this instrument, including unique "Psychoacoustic" sounds and soundsources created with a new Composite Morphing Technique (CMT) - which morphs the harmonic characteristics of one instrument to another. As a bonus, a section of the core library is also devoted to representing the best of Spectrasonics sample libraries. When all of these organic core library soundsources are combined with the synthesis power of the STEAM engine, the sounds become "alive" in a truly dynamic and expressive way.
Among the many unique features this new multi-timbral synth offers are its flexible arpeggiators with the world's first Groove Lock integration with Stylus RMX - allowing the arpeggiator's pattern to instantly groove with the feel of the RMX drum loop; Live Mode for transitionless patch switching and layering, Stack Mode for powerful performance mapping; and integrated modulatable FX Racks.
Omnisphere is also the successor to Spectrasonics' popular Atmosphere instrument, and contains enhanced versions of all the classic Atmosphere sounds. However, the brand new core library in Omnisphere is 10-times the size of Atmosphere and features thousands of completely new and different sounds.
The culmination of many years of development, Omnisphere is an instrument of extraordinary power and versatility. Omnisphere brings many different types of synthesis together into one instrument that will inspire a lifetime of exploration.
Pricing & Availability
Omnisphere is now shipping, and has an MSRP of $499 / €379. There is an upgrade for all Atmosphere customers, available from the online Spectrasonics' Techshop.
Omnisphere is cross-platform compatible with Apple Macintosh OS X 10.4 and higher as a native Universal Binary for Intel-Macs and also with Microsoft Windows XP/Vista. Audio Units, VST and RTAS plug-in formats are supported for compatibility with all major host software.
Omnisphere Features
System Features:
- Powerfully simple interface design makes key features accessible to every user.
- Advanced users can "zoom" into deeper and deeper synthesis capabilities.
- Sophisticated Browser with searching, sound attributes, descriptions and images.
- 8 independent Arpeggiators.
- World's first Arpeggiator with Groove Lock - which allows the Arpeggiators to match the feel of Stylus RMX and MIDI Files.
- Special performance-oriented Live Mode interface allows for seamless, interactive creative patch switching and layering on the fly.
- Stack Mode interface allows for complex patch layering, splits, and crossfades (velocity/positional/controller).
- 8-part multi-timbral with built-in Mixer, Aux FX and Mastering FX racks.
- Advanced MIDI Learn and Automation parameter handling.
- Comprehensive integrated Reference Guide.
- Hours of free Tutorial Videos available online to registered users.
Synthesis Features:
- Oscillators can be sample-based or synth-based.
- Up to 10 oscillators per patch with new Harmonia feature.
- Flex-Mod modulation system allows powerful modular-style routing.
- Dual Layer architecture.
- High-definition streaming engine.
- Variable DSP Oscillator Waveshapes.
- Sophisticated Unison Detuning.
- Variable Analog Feel.
- Modulatable Hard Sync.
- Granular Synthesis.
- Innovative Chaos Envelopes.
- Polyphonic Timbre Shifting.
- Polyphonic Timbre Crushing.
- Polyphonic Waveshaper.
- Polyphonic Ring Modulation.
- Polyphonic Glide.
- FM Oscillators.
- Dual Filter architecture per Layer.
- Create filter combinations in series or parallel.
- Arrange and blend more than 17 Filter algorithms.
- Fully modulatable FX racks.
- Alternate tuning scales supported.
- 6 full-featured LFOs per patch.
- 8 Advanced Multi-breakpoint looping Envelopes per patch.
- Unique Dual Envelope interface - Simple ADSR-style or Advanced Graphic-style.
- Sampled soundsources can be processed with synthesis features.
Sound Library:
- Vast Core Library - over 40GB with thousands of sounds.
- Cutting-edge sounds from the renowned Spectrasonics sound design team.
- Innovative "Psychoacoustic" soundsources for organic synthesis.
- Unique multisampled "Composite Morphing soundsources.
- Integrates the award-winning, original Atmosphere core library.
- Integrates best of Spectrasonics highly-acclaimed sample libraries.
- Massive variety of inspiring sounds for all types of music production.
- Searchable by sound attributes (Timbre, Genre, Mood, Tonality, Source, etc).
- Expandable sound architecture.
Effects Features:
- Integrated, full-featured FX Racks.
- Up to 12 simultaneous FX per patch.
- Layer FX modulatable from any mod source.
- Hundreds of FX presets included.
- Over 32 original FX Processors covering the full spectrum of signal processing.
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