Spectrasonics Omnisphere Reviews

William Blackford
from United States
April 26, 2013Music Background:
Hobbyist

I want to wed it

Friends, family and lovers may fail you; but this synth will elevate you. I swear this thing is alive! I want to use dryer language but this instrument just softens one and you fall in love. God bless Eric Pershing and Spectrasonics...now I can breathe again.

TB
from
April 19, 2013Music Background:
Professional Musician, Producer, Composer, Engineer

Amazing Sounds!!

It took me a while to get this thing installed properly but once I did it has blown me away. I have immediately found sounds that have a unique voice and easily a place in my creations. I would highly recommend!

David "DCee" B.
from Philadelphia, PA USA
February 14, 2013Music Background:
Drummer, Beat-maker, engineer and composer/producer

This INSTRUMENT is the truth!

I only had this for a couple of days and this synth is amazing! I'm not even at the 1/4 point of the sounds and already I've gotten creative just using this. Bottom line, this software will not disappoint. Worth the investment and time. It will help with expanding and opening up to what can be done, creatively. Music flows out of Omnisphere. Point blank.

David Theroff
from Moss Beach, CA
January 24, 2013Music Background:
Pro Sound Searcher..

Its at the top of the list of synths

I own most of the synths out there (ie: Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate, Maschine, Reason, Arturia Bundle, East West Composer, MachFive, etc..)

When I first saw the interface screen shot of this synth I thought "hmm, I will wait".. I read lots of good reviews.. but to be honest the interface looks kind of cheesy and boring.. (a few better colors here and there would have made it at least look more appealing). You look at the interfaces to all the Arturia products and they all look cool.. Omnisphere could of at least made it look futuristic or something...

When I installed OmniSphere I proceeded to go thru all the patches.. Woah..
I reviewed EVERY one of them.. and it took me almost 8-9 HOURS to do this.
It didn't take me that long to review all the patches in any of my other virtual instruments. (well - reason maybe if you add up all the refills)

Some of the sounds were similar to what I already had.. but many were totally unique.. which is what I was looking for. From my point of view the only reason to have more than one synth is for the uniqueness of sound.. They all let you edit the sounds so you can make it your own.. but as a composer, I am always wanting to find or create a sound that no one else has... and Omnisphere is just that tool.. IF I only could choose one synth out of all the ones I have the first would be Omnisphere... (2nd would be the Arturia V collection)..

Jarryl Smith
from United States
December 7, 2012

changed my life

buy u a good computer that can handle this program and make the hardest beats the world haa ever head this changes the game

John
from
November 4, 2012Music Background:
live artist / songwriter /producer

Buy it . dont even question it.

I own everything from Moogs to Jupiter 8 to Macbeth to Analog solutions Semi modulars , yet I still use this on all of my stuff . Its a great starter to give you ideas. It blew me away to be honest and is amazing value . I have not even done the update yet as I am still going through the orignal patches . Its a dream to use.

Art
from Fairfield , CA
September 28, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician

Amazing program

This is truly a amazing virtual synth, with endless possibilitys. It is very easy to get creative with this product.

Leon Robinson
from Kapolei Hawaii
September 23, 2012Music Background:
Military Bassist, Touring, Teacher, Freelance Producer

This Thing's a BLASTER!!!!

Mark Maxwell, my illustrious rep at Sweetwater first recommended this monster to me months ago, but I wasnt sure i should try it given i was happy with the East West plug-ins i recently bought. Guys, TRUST YOUR REPS!!! I had no idea that there was something like this killer in existance. everyone in my former band wanted me to let them use it. (Yeah, like they had as much chance of that happening as a ham sandwich making it thru a fat farm in one piece!!) But i cant blame them, There are worlds to explore, create, and realize sonically thru this Masterpiece, and i DONT use that word for anything.I'm having a ball with this synth. THIS IS ONE YOU NEED TO OWN!!!

James McKnight
from United States
July 28, 2012Music Background:
soloist

awesome

INCREDIBLE. Liked it so much I just purchased Trilian to go with it. HIGHLY recommended.

Ryan Mitchell
from Austin, TX
July 2, 2012

Powerful, inspiring software synth, ready to play

As primarily a guitar player who needed a sound-design platform for video, I needed a synth that was ready-to-go when I didn't have time or desire to fiddle with sounds and build something from the ground-up. Omnisphere meets that expectation easily. The sounds included are well-categorized and ready to play but still capable of being crafted into what I'm looking for in the end if it's not where I want it.

Additionally, just plugging in and playing with what's there is inspiring. Just go exploring, build a "live setup" that lets you flip between multiple sounds in the same patch (and on the same keyboard!) and you'll have a blast. Gets you into the creative mood quickly when you need a little help there.

Definitely recommended as a powerful, full-featured synth that has a ton of sounds ready to go as well as the capability to mold them into what you ultimately need.

Note, however, that you cannot (currently) load your own samples - you can only deal with the samples they have available (which is a lot - I think 50G of sampled material). This, however, is not a problem for me - plenty of ways to build what you need if it doesn't already have it.

steve berwick
from bellmawr nj
June 18, 2012Music Background:
i just hold on and let the music take me to places i've never been to.

incredible !!!

amazing sounds and there are over 8000 for you to try. it has inspired me every time i turn it on. buy it !!!

Omar
from Gary, IN USA
April 24, 2012Music Background:
Beginning Musician

The Sounds Are GREAT!!!!!

I Love It!!!!!!!!!

Drue
from Omaha Ne
February 10, 2012Music Background:
Pro engineer and musician

Just can't get away from it!!!!

I have a few big software libraries including Komplete, a bunch of EastWest stuff, and Omnisphere. I try to use Komplete a lot because I have it and it is really good for certain things and the EastWest stuff is amazing for what I need it to do. However, Omnisphere is inspiring! I try not to use it sometimes for the sake of variety but I always seem to go back to it. It just sounds so amazing and the sounds are so interesting and inspiring. No, matter what I'm working on whether it be a modern soundtrack for a video or an iOS video game, Omnisphere will be there no doubt. I also love using it live and blowing people away with the sounds that come out of it and the ipad app makes it easy to use in this situation. I just can't say enough good things about it. If you are thinking of getting this and you do anything from ambient music to dubstep to video games, this won't let you down. Just buy it!!!

pianopraze
from KY
February 10, 2012Music Background:
professional

Best Synth EVER!!!

10 stars, off the charts!

I have been in synths since the 80's. I've owned synths from Korg, Roland, Yamaha... and nothing can even come close to this synth!!!

Not only is there more samples than are even used in the patches... it is INCREDIBLY easy to come up with a sound from scratch. I can't describe how easy it is to make new sounds no one has ever heard before! And then you can easily save them, they just become another sound in the list! And there are THOUSANDS of already made patches.

Add an ipad and you can alter these sounds like nothing you've ever heard in real time!

Then you add in the multi mode with 8 patches that you can seamlessly play in any combination together or alone in real time to make an "omnisphere"... there are no words for how creative and inspiring this synth is.

On top of this each patch can have its own effects - and they are VERY high quality... it takes sound creation to a entirely new level.

If i were stranded on a desert Island and could only have one synth for the rest of my life I would pick this one without hesitation. You will never reach it's limits... and they keep releasing free patches with more sounds! Incredible company!

Just buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrew Edwards
from United States
January 25, 2012Music Background:
Composer/Musician/Producer

A Must Have

This is an indispensable instrument for the working composer. It has incomparable breadth and depth, with an easy-to-use interface, and gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous sounds. Incredibly versatile, I use this in nearly everything, and cannot recommend it highly enough. If you write music for a living, you should own this instrument.

Erik
from Mericen, CT
December 10, 2011Music Background:
Engineer, Sound Design, Ambient Music Artist

Most Amazing Soft Synth EVER !!!

I remember when I bought Atmosphere from Sweetwater, and how much I loved and still love it, but always felt it was missing things, such as effects, and deeper synth editing , Omnisphere not only takes care of all that, but has a WAY larger library of samples, including the whole Atmosphere set ! Indeed this synth is ideal for Ambient, film score, and general sound abstractions, not a bread and butter synth for which I am thankful ! It even has its own synthesis engine !!! You can stack up to 8 parts each having their own effects, and a master effects area, you can layer or split or both like most Workstations as well as being able to assign each part its own MIDI number. I have not even scratched the surface yet, and I am Absolutely blown Away !!! It's easy to navigate and use, very intuitive, and user friendly ! The new Orb is a mind bending experience, you will know what I mean when you try it, absolute INSPIRATION !!!! And if you have a touch screen, you will be in Heaven using thee Orb !!!!! I can not say enough nice things about Omnisphere, and to boot I am on an older dual core system 3.2 and 4 GB of RAM, frankly I don' think Omnisphere is at all the CPU hog that so many say it is, sure some patches and multis can be taxing, but IMHO Omnisphere is not horribly demanding of system resources at all !!! It only takes what it has to, no more no less ... I am astounded with what I hear just using one or two parts, a HUGE leap from Atmosphere, my only regret is I was not able to purchase my upgrade directly from Sweetwater ! This is a purchase from which you will not suffer even a moments regret !!!

(P.S. a tip on reserving system resources on larger multis is to switch off Omnispheres effects and use your own plug ins, or alternatively only use the Master effects slot for your sounds)

Todd
from Seekonk, MA
September 28, 2011Music Background:
songwriter

The best

I've had Omnisphere for three years. I'm still THRILLED. I finally got a laptop and used it live to perform a big string part. When the strings came in, it was in stereo, and, just like in the studio, it was warm and full without any artificial brashness. The audience gasped, and the artist actually laughed for a moment. What a product, and more importantly, what a great live sound. I'm so happy with the products and the people at Spectrasonics. I'm still finding new sounds, and I use it every day.

Richard A. Kurtz
from Cadence Music Studio, New Jersey
September 26, 2011Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Professional Musician

Omnisphere

My salesperson Jeffrey Green has strongly recommended Omnisphere during many of our conversations on the soft synth subject, I finally took his advice. To say I'm blown away would be selling it short. It's going to take some time to realize the potential of this product, but isn't that great! If you understand the Spectrasonics interface, you'll be up and running immediately, but it's obvious the depth that's under the hood. Omnisphere really is the mother of all soft synths!

Gary Mirabelle
from USA
September 4, 2011Music Background:
Film Artist Musican

The Wow factor

Easy to use. Endless sounds. Great for scoring films.

Stuart Pregler
from Tulsa, OK USA
July 27, 2011Music Background:
Amateur Musician

My fingers are in pain..

From sitting at my keyboard all day and night with Omnisphere. Hands down the best virtual synth software out there in my opinion. Very well organized, compact, and easy to use. I also love the "background" description for each of the presets. Can't imagine writing sessions without it anymore....and I'm a drummer, not a keyboardist!

Michael "Blue" Erdmier
from Morton, IL
April 2, 2011Music Background:
Indie Studio Owner, Producer, Electronic Musician

Another 5-star review for Spectrasonics

I simply cannot say enough about this product!
More than 7,000 sounds (so far), a very high hit/miss ratio on sound design, TONS of programmability and flexibility, perfect DAW integration, easy on the CPU (at least on my system)...I couldn't be happier.
If you're even thinking about this one, just do it. You won't regret it!

Derek Douville
from San Francisco Bay Area, USA
January 17, 2011Music Background:
Hobbyist Producer

Top Quality Massive Sound, Fun, Deep, Expansive

I'm on the 5-star bandwagon. The sound quality generated by this astounding Synth/Sample engine from Spectrasonics is sometimes bold, sometimes ethereal, sometimes otherworldly. I've played with it for over a month and still I haven't scratched the surface of this monster. The samples it ships with alone are moving, awesome, surprising and emotional. That's before you get to blending them on the A+B channel, messing up the oscillators, running the sound through the built-in arpeggiator (which, by the way, is probably the coolest arp interface I've played with), messing up the filters, constricting the sound to a specific range of the keyboard, bleeding in the high or low notes with a cross-fade to another sample next to it on the keyboard, tuning the envelopes with ease... That's only the second or third level down. It's not just samples, it's a full on synthesizer engine which can take a generated tone and really manipulate it. Omnisphere is like Reason's Thor, NI's Absynth and East West Studios sample quality (yet of odd things like burning pianos or mic'd lightbulbs or strings plucked inside an oil drum) seamlessly integrated into a powerful, professional quality instrument.

Yes, this thing will push your system. It takes some drive space, CPU and memory. Professional-level software runs best on professional quality systems, and this should be no surprise to a musician considering making a $500 purchase. Omnisphere works well with other top-level sample libraries, like East West Studios' Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra or Stormdrums or Pianos. Where the real instruments of the world leave off, Omnisphere fills in, producing ambiance, imaginative, bold and bright, eerie or subtle dark sounds.

I love the STACK mode. Layering sounds upon sounds at different areas of the keyboard (with the ability to blend between them) and combining one sample/synth with another for each patch (A/B) is incredibly powerful. It's SO EASY. It means I don't have to mess with MIDI keyboard splitting and assignment, it just works so well. The mixer is straightforward and intuitive.

Lastly, Omnisphere is FUN and inspiring! The built-in help and descriptiveness of each patch spurs the imagination. Tagging sounds is easy and makes searching for them later a breeze. Just have to spend time with the manual (which is very detailed).

Todd Maki
from Youngstown, OH
May 5, 2010Music Background:
Composer for Film

Over-rated.......IN NO WAY AT ALL

In my opinion, the only reason that someone would state that this is "over rated" or perhaps a "memory hog" is because they were intending to use it for pop music or some such thing. While it can be used in pop, it would be like going fishing on a yacht in a small stream...it wasn't meant for that. If you are looking for profoundly mind-boggling tools to create lush soundscaping, dark, ethereal atmospheric currents, and foreboding tapestries of orchestral beauty, this is what you need. My breath is completely taken away with every sample.

Jason Lartigue
from Sin City, Nevada
March 24, 2009Music Background:
Recording Engineer

Holy Crap!

I admit, I was sceptical. After all, how many soft synths are presented to us each year claiming to be our savior?? Omnisphere is worth every penny. Even though the sounds produced by the STEAM ENGINE can't be put into words, think "MAGIC". Want to take your projects to the next level? BUY THIS SOFTWARE NOW!

REAL TALK.

Facie
from Dallas, TX
January 22, 2009Music Background:
Hobbyist

I wanted to hate it . . . but can't.

I was skeptical. There was hype. There was a piano lit on fire (google this if you don't know what I mean). There was too much self-promotion. I wanted to hate it.

Then I bought it.

Wow.

Deep sounds, amazing synth engine, literally limitless tweek-ability. I don't know where to begin. Go to Youtube and watch some of the user demos. Spectrasonics' web site isn't very good at letting you hear the samples (which I don't understand). A quick web search fixes that. Listen. Then know that Youtube doesn't begin capture what it really sounds like in person.

This is worth your $$s. It'll replace a few of your outdated rigs and grow with you for a few years to come.

Peace.

Pod
from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
December 20, 2008Music Background:
Musician, Producer, Soundscaper, Synthesizer Maven, Engineer

As Deep As The Ocean

After eight years of experience with nearly every major softsynth on the market, I feel the bar is set as high as the moon with this new amazing labor of love from Spectrasonics.

To simply call this an upgrade to Atmosphere does not do it justice. It's an entirely new paradigm of
what a softsynth (and indeed synthesis in general) can do.

The possibilities for sound sculpting and shaping are nearly endless. For every mood, emotion or musical purpose there is a sound here for you.

If you can't find the sound you want here, you can probably achieve it by mixing/matching/melding.

Honestly, it will take at least a month to get a good grasp on the full capabilities of the sounds alone.

The arpeggiator, Stylus RMX integration,
Atmosphere patch inclusion and other things that
are here could literally take you years to go
thru every feature in depth.

Make sure you get as fast a computer as you can
afford and as large a hard drive as you can stand
(I installed this on a 1 terabyte SATA drive).

Sounds: inspirational, crystal clear with deep
thunderous basses, shining washes, eerie gray
brooding atonal clouds, searing synth leads,
indescribable sonic vistas - you name it.

One thought: if this is the start of the Steam
engine, just think about the future of where this
can go - if future Spectrasonics synths use the
Steam engine perhaps all future products could be
integrated in a massive "mega-product" production
system.

Kudos to Eric Persing and his team for a masterwork
in software engineering.

Chad Cohoon
from Great Falls, Mt
November 5, 2008Music Background:
Pro Hobbyist, forever a student.

Omnipotent!

Quite a bit has already been covered in the previous reviews.

Yes, "this is not a meat and potatoes synth"

No, "You'll just throw away all your hardware synths"...are you nuts! They still used those to make Omnisphere!

That being said this is an astonishing accomplishment of Spectrasonics. The sonic clarity and improved fidelity of even the old Atmosphere patches is well worth the asking price (especially worth the upgrade price...thanks Eric P!).

The deeper you dig the better it gets, there is an enormous ammount of included material from other Spectrasonics libraries such as Distorted Reality, Symphony of Voices, Hans Zimmer Guitars, etc. Not to mention the amazing synthesis base sounds you can tweak to your hearts content and then throw a blanket of effects over it to top it off with that sheen you were craving for.

I won't bore you with the same review of how great the psychoacoustic ideas sound through the STEAM processing, or with how impressive the arpeggiator and live options are.

Neither will I take up any more of your time expressing how many hours of work I save with dropping my RMX midi files into Omnipshere's arpeggiator for it's groove lock function.

The possibilities are endless with this one, and I'm sure Spectrasonics has some interesting future enhancements in mind (Omnisampler anyone?). It can be a CPU hog at times, but remember you can have 16 parts playing with each having multiple effects, so just up your ram!

I really do love it.

Jawanza Kobie
from Wilmington, DE.
October 19, 2008Music Background:
Composer,Musician

You will need this!!!

I too upgraded from Atmosphere and assumed like some upgrades that the difference would be noticeable but nothing more.
This is not the case with this particular upgrade, its like buying a completely new product. The way it is laid out within the software and new sounds along with noticeable new treatments to the older sounds is incredible.If this is your first time getting this product, I believe you'll be even more blown away. I am not prone to writing reviews so this is rare for me. It's hard to leave my studio because of auditioning the sounds.
If you're doing sound-design, movie, game, tv, dance hip-hop, or anything else...you will need this!!!

jimmy gibbs
from chicago, il
October 10, 2008Music Background:
post-production, film, tv, studio

Next Big Thing

Remember when you couldn't throw a stick in the 80's without hitting and/or hearing a dx7 sound somewhere.....

well, 2008 and beyond.... it's Omni

don't get me wrong... it's not a meat and potatos synth, but the pads and sounds it has will be used all over..... and the amazing thing is that a large % of the sounds are jp8, p5, pv, along with the mad scientist steam engine turning out sounds from eric and the teams nightmares and passions....

go get it.........

Al Jamaitis
from Los Angeles Ca
October 2, 2008Music Background:
Pro musician

comes with 2 kitchen sinks

I can't believe all the outrageous sounds and the beyond belief ability to "tweek" those sounds that are present in omnisphere. The thought that went into this soft synth is amazing. I am equally impressed with the video tutorials offered for FREE by Spectrasonics. They helped me tremendously in getting started with this very complex and very mind-blowing instrument. I can't imagine a sound you could not create and am drooling with anticipation at the sounds I will be able to create!

Jared White
from Santa Rosa, CA
September 27, 2008Music Background:
Composer, Synth Guru

A whole new world of sound

I've been a huge fan of Atmosphere and eagerly awaiting a native Intel Mac solution. I would have been quite pleased with an "Atmosphere 2.0" -- but, well, Omnisphere is not just an upgrade. This is not your daddy's Spectrasonics rompler.

Omnisphere is basically a large workstation-like synthesizer that just happens to include a gigantic sample library. Using multiple types of oscillators, filters, effects and modulation routings, you can create almost any kind of sound imaginable. Not only that, but you can stack multiple patches together in multi mode (told you it was like a workstation) for uber-large presets. The built-in arpeggiator is pretty neat, and the included FX like reverb, chorus, compression, distortion, delay, etc. can not only be used at the patch level but can be used at the post-multi mixer level in four different aux channels plus the master.

I just got to start playing with Omnisphere this week and I'm already making my own patches and using multiple instances of it in my latest compositions. Like Atmosphere, it has quickly become my "go-to" synth any time I need something with pizazz that's fast and easy to use. If you're wondering if you really need another soft synth, I have a suggestion: cut it out and go buy the darn thing. You'll thank me later.

Congrats to Eric Persing and the team for another bang up job. You deserve all the accolades you can get.

jdm
from Portland, OR
September 24, 2008Music Background:
Composer

Must-have upgrade from Atmosphere

I just got mine installed yesterday (it takes *hours* to install the 6 DVD set...) and to be cliche, it's like Atmosphere "on steroids." All the things that made Atmo the lushest synth - software or hardware - but way, way, way more. And that's just the beginning. There is so much to this thing it will take years to explore - they're not kidding. Even still, it is presented in the easiest interface I've ever seen, esp for something this deep.

I was a little cheesed that I had to upgrade at all - Atmo never worked right with Intel Macs - but it's definitely worth the $200 to upgrade.

I've seen some reviewers having problems with high CPU load and/or crashing, but I haven't seen that on my 8-core MacPro. Your milage may vary.

Great job, Spectrasonics!

GDiaz
from Ft Wayne, IN
September 22, 2008Music Background:
Home Studio, etc.

Just plain Incredible...

From the marketing/progress videos on Spectrasonic's website to finally seeing it for myself, the effort, care and talent put into the creation of this product is self-evident. The plethora of sounds and the custom shaping one can apply results in a synth that is essentially infinitely moldable to your tastes and talents. The straightforward interface is hiding a monstrous engine! The quality of the patches and the radical creativity behind the creation of them should pique anyone's interest to take a listen (eg. "Burning Piano). This is an incredible standout soft-synth. You can't go wrong with it...get it and let your creativity fly.

Jesus Lopez
from Plano, TX
September 22, 2008Music Background:
Recording Engineer

The best soft synth ever!

Wow! I'm totally blown away by this synth! A must have for any serious virtual virtuoso!

Tim
from SG
September 22, 2008Music Background:
Serious Hobbyist

The ONLY Synth you'll EVER need!

That's right; this is the only software synth you'll need in your entire life; you can even ditch your hardware synths for this! The sounds are just incredible, extremely high fidelity, inspiring, informative, easy to navigate and pick. This synth just goes beyond anything and everything available! You want simple, out of the box? There's all your presets! You want to tweak a little of the sounds to make your own signature sounds? No problem! You a crazy sound designer and want to destroy the presets? They've got deep editing functions for that too!

It's just simply mind-boggling and lives true to the 'You'll need a lifetime to explore all the possibilities' motto. And for good reason too because you probably wont be spending any less time on other synths once you've got OMNISPHERE.

Plus
from Earth
September 20, 2008

YUP IT'S PRETTY SERIOUS....

I second the first review. This software is pretty crazy. Its with out a doubt a game changer...

7 Days production
from Greenville, SouthKrak
September 18, 2008Music Background:
Producer

MY ONLY WISH !!!

I wish that I was the only person to have this BEAST !!! I'm not going to get into all the details just know that I'm going to get a production deal with this baby.

Scott M. Ross
from Southwest Michigan
November 13, 2012Music Background:
Composer

Rich and Feature Packed

My studio would not be complete without the rich complex sounds in this box! A must have for synth lovers. A high end PC or Mac is a must to keep up.

Ryan McHenry
from Milford,NJ
June 28, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist,musician

To infinity and....

Only reason I put a 4.5 is becuase Im still learning about this product.Its amazing all that this powerful synth software can do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brandon Stephens
from
April 12, 2012

cool

awesome

Steve Lervold
from Seattle
December 28, 2011Music Background:
retired hammond pilot.

aural sex

If you want to design original sounds, this is the tool. It's going to take a long time (if ever) to get burned out on this unit . If you have all the standard musical instruments covered, this will introduce a whole new avenue(s) of creativity. Movie tracks, electronic music, sound /voice experiments, science fiction... and yet to be heard complex, abstract noises.

Ken Okajima
from Irvine, CA
September 29, 2011Music Background:
Audio Video Designer, Engineer, and Keyboardist

So much more to learn

I have only had the opportunity to mess around with Omnisphere for a few hours since purchasing it a few weeks back. So far the sounds are great and fun. The program appears to have a tremendous amount of depth, which I will hopefully undercover over the years. My intent was to acquire a soft synth for pads and adjustable airy sounds and the presets have been great for that. I'll add more to the review as I can invest in the learning process.

Roberto Supelano
from Bogotá, Colombia
April 18, 2009Music Background:
Hobbyst, Part time music for T.V. films and multimedia projects.

is a delight candy for my ears and my spirit.

If you are loking for emulation of real acoustic instruments sounds, perhaps this is not the right place, go to a dealer and get a good sampler ( Kontact3, Mach 5, etc) for the same price of Omni.

Concern this, what can I say ?…. I have an arsenal of soft synths, there are nothing I can compare it until now, this is apart from the pack. Its unique sounds come from an immense miscellanie of common, rare, insane, crazy, care and well crafted root samples library and classical waveforms mixtures. Many other aspects like modulation routings, filters are at the same levels compare products like Absynth, or Masive of NTI Instruments Brand. The sound set is fantastic, effects well implemented, some of this modules and rack presets are outstanding an very useful, You can get modify many aspects of your taste sounds in seconds. If your music production are in the way to have sounds for movies, Tv. Film, ethereal pads, choirs, insane-rare mixtures sounds, swirling pads…etc, this is your choice, you are in the arena ready to sculpt inspired sounds with this “ Monster ” . Maybe lack some smallness, nothing is perfect in this world, for me is a delight candy for my ears and my spirit.

Thanks to Eric and his Team , there are a great efforts behind .

An add : I wish in my dreams incorporate to Omisphere library, a samples pack of vintage synths like EMI, Moog Opus 3, Elka, Arp Omni, and…..and…..and…

Ralph DeLong
from Seagrove Beach, FL
December 21, 2008Music Background:
Semi Pro

A Masterpiece!

This is an amazing piece of work. The programming that went into it is staggering. The sound is so clean and can be warm as well. I've owned it for a little over a week and have already wrote a song with it.

The 50 gigs of space is quite a bit. I bought a new hard drive just for it. It took about 3 hours for the install on my 2 gig iMac. It seems to work well with Logic Studio Pro and also my Arturia V collection. Doesn't like Novation V Synth. Crashes when they are together.

Graphics wise, I think it could look better. Getting around on it can be a bit confusing at times. The arpeggiators are cool and easy to use.

All in all, I'm very happy with my choice. Bad thing is now I want to also get Stylus RMX and I have run out of money!

Dean Madonia
from Nashville, TN
September 24, 2008Music Background:
Pro Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Studio Owner.

Great Sounds

Not Your Daddy's Synth

Keep in mind that this is not a "meat and potatoes" synth - get Kontakt for that. There are also not a lot of "straight ahead" synth sounds - get "Reason" for that. If you have all of the bases covered and you want to get some killer sounds that are VERY different, Omnisphere is your baby.

Great Sounds

- (of course) and a very flexible architecture. It has all of the major synth foodgroups; fm, granualar, wavetable, etc as well as a powerful LFo section.

I thought the interface would be a little more intuitive, it is not. Also, the search function is not as useful as the videos would have you believe, the cutesy names do not allow for generic searches in all instances, ie; I accidentally changed a cool rock guitar patch I was using and tried to find it again with no luck. It was a guitar sound but never came up under a "guitar" search. I also tried to type in the name or parts of it (as I remembered them) and no luck.

Manual Over-ride

The manual is attached to the synth. For this kind of money, a printed manual would be very helpful (and the "saving trees" thing is really getting old). At the very least, a PDF file that could be re-sized and perused at your leisure (AND PRINTED) would be nice. Instead, you have to have an instance of Omnisphere open to read anything about it.

Tutorials

I am a huge fan of Eric Persing, his software and his instruments. He seems like a nice guy too. I LOVE Stylus RMX and found the video tutorials to be quite helpful. The ads promise a video tutorial on CD-Rom (still says it on their site). No such luck. I have contacted Spectrasonics and they tell me that they decided to release them on the web (to keep more current). This is bull. They were obviously running behind and don't have it together yet. I was told that they were posting them that day, then I was told Monday. It is late on Wednesday and still nothing.

Conclusion

As much as I love the synth, I know that the big dogs will be using up the presets before I can release anything, and I know I will need to go in and tweak programs to make them my own and probably make a bunch of patches from scratch. I am actually looking forward to doing this. Unfortunately, without the tutorials, I feel I will never be able to learn this program the way I want to.
If you have $500.00 burning a hole in your pocket and you just need to know, I say get it. If you are not an experienced programmer and you don't have the basics covered, I would hold off - at least till they get the tutorials up (whenever that may be).

I think that the mark of a good keyboard is that it inspires you to create songs. I think a great one should also inspire you to create great sounds as well. This fills the bill on both counts, I just don't know my way around the thing yet and I feel disappointed.

This manual/ tutorial issue is a big one for me, after all, this is not freeware, it's $500.00. This is why I give 4.5 stars instead of 5.

Dan de Gruchy
from Campbell, CA
November 22, 2008Music Background:
Hobbyist

When they say Huge they mean it

The sounds of Omnisphere are fantastic and you can mix and tweek to your hearts content. Im not going to go into that here as others seemed to have covered that well. What no one (except the box) tells you is that you will need 50GB of hard drive space to install this 6 DVD beast. It takes a good while to install (my experience was ~15-20minutes per disk). The install itself is hoaky as you need to agree to the license on every disk. This is teadious and needless. Basic usage is fairly straight forward and sound load times take about 3 seconds. I do find it difficult to load any patches i have created as they do not auto populate in the menu nor is there any kind of Load option, you just have to click around until you find the filter items you set and your patches appear. Its very easy to save, but a loading.... I also find that on a 4GB XP system running protools 7.4 you can't have any other softsynths running as you'll run out of memory very quickly. All in all I really enjoy this synth, you just have to get over some hurdles to get into it.

Phil
from Oregon
May 23, 2009Music Background:
Old Musician

Powerful, full sounding, but overkill?

The depth of some of the sounds on this synth are the grandest I think I've ever heard. They are diverse, big, thick, with incredibly detailed morphing timbers and spectral changes.

But after playing with it a while, and once I caught my breath back, I found that just like Atmosphere, Absynth, and many Reaktor patches, but even more so, the Omnisphere doesn't always play well with others. Because so much effort was put into the patches, and the way the samples and programs are laid out for structuring, this synth very quickly overwhelms a mix and takes up the entire audio spectrum. On some patches even hitting just one note can cause this to happen. This makes it really hard for anything more than some soundtrack work (that doesn't need a full arrangement) or some super cool interludes in prog rock, fusion, or trance perhaps.

If you're looking for an extremely full, and lush synth with incredible sound and layers, this is it. And I wouldn't hesitate to tell you to check it out. But if you're expecting some really nice diverse sounds to use as part of your set-up, you might find yourself like me, and not using it very often, if at all. And it may be more practical to turn to something like Rob Papen's Blue, or Cakewalk's Rapture, or U-He's Zebra. All of which are well less than half the cost of Omnisphere.

mr macky
from nova scotia
December 17, 2008Music Background:
fully qualified musical menace

don't eat all the wedding cake just yet

steady guys STEADY!
Ok iv'e only awarded a 2.5 just now until i really kick some *** with this thing so to get you all fired up and ready to hang me from a tree i'll list in order what i DO like and what i DON'T:
1. i'de hoped to see omnisphere in a new color instead of the old boring atmosphere screen.
2.i wish eric p would use an "on-screen keyboard" with this new baby . .@$500 it's a big hole in your pocket and even free vst plugins have them right?
3.why no new colors on knobs-n-sliders so it's easy to spot them ! you'd go blind on a lappy after a days session
4.love the idea of sync to stylus rmx and 8 arperigator thingies . .maybe a step/sequencer upgrade later THAT SYNC'S TO HOST !
steady guys . .i'm sure it's brilliant.

Rockgod66
from Michgian
February 21, 2009Music Background:
Musician

OVERRATED!!!!!!!!!!1

SPECTRASONIC'S OMNISPHERE IS MORE OVERRATED AND OVERHYPED THEN KIMBO SLICE!!!! The reason this synth sounds "better" then the rest is because the patches are in 24 bit maybe even in 32 bit floating. Once you dither everything down the only difference between another virtual synth is the gigs and gigs of useless patches you have stored on your computer. The interface is very user friendly but you have to search a long time just to find a patch that can be used for music. This synth might be good for movies, but for music this synth is a waste of money, time, and hard drive space. I know the creator of this synth wanted to create new sounds that nobody had out there, but I really need basic sounds that could be used for a song. Sure it's fun to write alien music once in a while but there isn't enough meat and potatoes patches. I can get the same quality of sounds as this synth by using Reason with some patch off the web. If music is your passion save yourself some cash and computer upgrades and get a practical usable virtual synth like Reason or one from Native Instruments. If you make music for movies this synth will do the job, but for the average musician look elsewhere.

pmc
from canada
October 23, 2012Music Background:
vst reviews

overated n costly

omnisphere is and always will be overated overpriced and self imploding, it ISN'T the rolls-royce of synths, why do people need more strings ? more pianos ? more basses? and stupid trumpets and sax ect iv'e used this thing for over 2years and it still doesn't impress me, i would have liked to have seen less hype and less bells-n-whistles and more control, i'm uninstalling this thing and going back to reason.