Looking to buy new soft synth - Omnisphere high on my list

Well I'll just give you the feelings I have on the three I own:
 
Komplete 9: $500, same basic price as Omnisphere. Over all, if I could only keep one thing, this'd probably be it. Not a single synth, but a bunch. Kontakt (sampler), Reaktor (synth designer), Massive (wavetable), FM8 (FM additive), Guitar Rig (amp simulator) and a host of samples. Real good quality, and quite good coverage. I are a NI fanboy now :). Only real negatives I could give is the coverage isn't as wide as some other packs in the same price. It is more quality over quantity. Also things are all housed under one roof, you have a number of different programs to launch. Totally expandable in every way. You can buy or find new samples for Kontakt, synths for Reaktor, presets for FM8, etc, etc. Has some nice plugins too, which work outside of the synths.
 
Halion Sonic 2: $250 + $30ish for eLicenser (DRM dongle). This is a real nice "ROMpler" style synth, so if you are looking for something like hardware synths, maybe the way to go. Really wide coverage, including the entire general MIDI capital tone set, and variations on every instrument. Also has some nice simple knob controls for parameters of instruments, and is multi-timbaral. Nice if you want "one interface to rule them all." You load everything in the same setup, regardless of what synthesis it is using underneath and the browser is pretty good. Not the best samples in the world, but good, and not too large (I measure about 10GB on disk). Also lots of built-in FX and so on (internal to the program only). Sound is reminiscent of a Yamaha Motif since Yamaha had the Motif team work on the samples (Yamaha owns Steinberg). You can also upgrade to the full version of Halion for the cost difference ($100) if you want. Halion Sonic has no expansion, no editing at all, just a ROMpler, Halion is like Kontakt and is fully expandable, though there's not a lot of content for it (I have only Sonic).
 
EastWest Play: $variable. Also requires an iLok (another DRM dongle). EastWest makes quite possibly the best sounding samples I've ever heard. Orchestral/movie focused, but plenty of new age EDM stuff, and world instruments. Prices are fairly high, generally $300-600 for most sets, prices also can vary a lot as they do various sales all the time. Sets vary in content. Goliath is a general purpose 40GB set covering the GM tones and then some, Pianos is just three grand pianos spanning 260GB recorded at 3 mic positions each. Amazing stuff, hampered by Play. I find it to be a fiddly, problematic, program, that I've been fighting with for years. I would caution you only to buy their stuff if you have other things you like, and if you are willing to potentially put up with a lot of crap. Play is also unexpandable and offers little in the way of customization. They do sound amazing though.

Sycraft . . . excellent, thanks for your in depth reviews of some alternate options.
I have looked at  Komplete 9 from NI, since I have a limited edition version of it called "Komplete Elements" which I use frequently. NI Kontakt seems to be an industry standard that many on the forum here use, and recommend.
The others you suggest, I will have to investigate . . . thanks again for your input.
 
 
 

noynekker
Sycraft . . . excellent, thanks for your in depth reviews of some alternate options.
I have looked at  Komplete 9 from NI, since I have a limited edition version of it called "Komplete Elements" which I use frequently. NI Kontakt seems to be an industry standard that many on the forum here use, and recommend.
The others you suggest, I will have to investigate . . . thanks again for your input.

 
NI has been at it a long time and seems to have their software down real well. They also have favourable licensing terms. As such, pretty much any company that doesn't make their own software uses NI. Some release stuff in other formats too, but NI is real popular. Particularly since they'll let companies do "player" releases where the company pays NI licensing, and their samples work in Kontakt Player so that people don't need to buy anything. It also supports some DRM, which companies like. Also some companies will release stuff that requires the full Kontakt, because then there is no licensing fee.
 
EastWest actually used to release their stuff for Kontakt, and I wish they still did. However they decided they had to have the iLok DRM, so they wrote their own problematic sampler.
 
If you go for the NI stuff, Komplete is pretty much the only way to go on account of their pricing structure. Kontakt or Reaktor alone are $400 each, and Massive, FM8, and Absynth are all $200 each. Komplete Ultimate, which is $1000, isn't a huge upgrade and you can always buy the upgrade for the cost difference later, if you want.

I think the reason Omnisphere has no demo is that because of the sheer size of it a demo couldn't really do it justice. FWIW if you watched the demo videos on their website, there is no smoke and mirrors going on - it does exactly what it says on the tin and more and although I haven't needed to have much to do with the customer service side, when I did they were first class. I have no regrets at all about buying it and it usually sneaks in somewhere in just about everything I do. Because of the way you can layer / split things , you do need a decent sized controller keyboard to get the best out of that. Also be aware that there is no standalone version, it only works as a plug-in through a host DAW, such as Sonar. Not a problem for me, but something to consider if planning to use it in a live scenario.
 
What it isn't is the type of synth you would use purely to mimic a particular instrument, say if you wanted to play a realistic sax solo or some such thing, I don't have kontakt/komplete, but that would probably be the way to go for "real" instruments if that is what you want. I do have EastWest Colossus (now called Goliath I think) for that sort of thing, but in truth I hardly ever use it now.
 
As others have said, it really depends what you want. The tone2 synths are quite nice too, and have demos, but for me a little more pricey than what they would be worth to me. Off the beaten track...a couple of steinberg (yeah, I know) synths are good value in my opinion - Padshop Pro and Retrologue. Steinberg customer service sucks imho and they have a habit of not developing stuff any further, but these are cheap enough for that to not be too much of an issue. 30 day demos avaiable of these on their site.

noynekker - I've been saving up spare change to acquire Omnisphere myself. Since it's a larger purchase than most I've been approaching it differently than an impulse buy.

I picked up the tutorial on Omnisphere from Groove 3. The tutorial is very low cost and goes through hours of explanation about the tool. It's a demo in regards to showing how to use the settings and then listening to the results.

It's a slam dunk to make the purchase because Omnisphere is fantastic. I'm almost now have saved enough for it and will be getting it soon. The Groove 3 tutorial has kept me plenty busy learning how to use Omnisphere while I was saving up for it.

I concur with the others - Kontakt for overall everything-is-here stuff (plus tons of add-ons), Omni for the awesome background/New Age/movie/TV soundtrack stuff.
Don't overlook Korg Legacy and Arturia for the olde skool synths - decent price for what you get.
The afore mentioned U-he (Zebra, Diva, etc), Synthmaster, and Camel Audio's Alchemy are also ones that are outstanding.  
 
And in 3 or 4 years Sampletank 3 might be out, so that's something to consider ... 

OMnisphere is a beast.  comes with some 8000 patches.  mostly sample based and layered.  Omni does have a synth engine and ALL the 3rd party sound packs are using the synth engine to produce new sounds.  you cannot import your own samples at all.  what you get is what you get.  sounds amazing though and my go to VST for inspiration.
 
ReFX Nexus 2 is another rompler with tweaking very similar to Omnisphere.  sample based sounds and requires a eLiceners (Steinberg).  many many addon packs and really great sounds for pop, dance, trance EDM.  it really is a preset user dream cause the sounds are so good and just usable.  - no 3rd party add-ons only ReFX makes add-ons but there are a lot available.
 
Korg M1 VST.  it's $49.00!!!! it comes with ALL the factory soundbank cards that Korg produced and you can find tons of sounds for free on the web.  it's a dated synth but just one of the Pop music go to synths.  still sounds great and it's ....it just sounds great and works.
 
Korg Wavestation VST.  it's $49.00 .....see Korg M1 LOL.
 
I also have NI Komplete started with Komplete 8 to get the basic programs (Kontakt, Guitar Rig, FM8, Massive, etc) it's you want 2 of any NI basic programs then just buy Komplete standard and you get so so so much more.  I now have Komplete 9 Ultimate cause I wanted a lot of the add-ons.
 
Camel Audio Alchemy.  great synth.  multiple type - FM, grandular, sample manipulation.  great addon packs available.  this is really a synth.  easy(ish) to program but presets and addons can get you by.  Alchemy player is free and you get some sounds to play with but the player can be used to start a fully functioning trial for 30 days of Alchemy.  I did it that way and fell inlove with it. 
 
My go to synth VSTs are Omni, Alchemy, Nexus2, Massive then Korg M1 and Wavestation.  I am a preset guy.  I don't tend to program or tweak much - I can, I just prefer to lay down a track or idea not get in LFO black hole LOL.

My only complaint about the stuff in Komplete is that the presets ain't all that...take something like Massive, I would never dream of using at least 95% of the presets you get with it. The synths are brilliantly designed and easy to learn, but I've heard the presets in Omnisphere are more usable.