Yep, Omnisphere is an absolute must-buy but quite expensive, while SynthMaster will get you high quality at a crazily low price.

Yeah, I don’t think anyone is saying anything negative about Omnisphere 2 at all. It’s a basic economic decision. SynthMaster @ $79.00 vs Omnisphere @ $479. If SynthMaster delivers everything thing I need it’s a pretty easy decision. I’m sure there’s some really cool stuff in Omnisphere 2 that’s beyond SynthMaster, however, I really don’t need a lot of what it offers. For instance, I don’t need or want any EDM stuff...’just not my thing.

By the way, thanks everyone for chiming in. I never even heard of SynthMaster before this thread. You guys ROCK!

amiller
By the way, thanks everyone for chiming in. I never even heard of SynthMaster before this thread. You guys ROCK!

Rock on!  Can't wait to hear what you do with it! 

Fleer
Yep, Omnisphere is an absolute must-buy but quite expensive, while SynthMaster will get you high quality at a crazily low price.

I never doubted that Omnisphere is as good as they say.  Everyone that has it seems to love it.  But the idea of paying $500 for software in one shot is what has held me up.  The last time I did that was for Photoshop almost 20 years ago.
 
But I have surely spent more than that collectively on other virtual instruments, and I now have many to choose from, and stack together like a synth rack to create unusual multi combinations.  My favorites synths right now are the SynthMasters, IK Syntronik, and iZotope Iris 2.  Next up I would really like to add a few u-he synths, including the Zebra! 
 
I will probably acquire Omnisphere someday, when the budget allows, because I certainly would like to try it out.
 
I really wish Spectrasonics would make the Omnisphere purchase available in a modular fashion, like selling the core synth with a basic factory sound collection, and then allowing the customer to expand it with the full presets by buying a bank at a time. 

eph221
I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MEN! Omnisphere is in a class by itself.  The presets alone will give you any sound you could possibly want.  It's put together cleverly.  It's definitely worth the money, even if it's the only one you own.

 
Incorrect.  There are many sounds Omnisphere do not cover well or at all.  I have some other synths for example that produce sounds that Omnisphere could not even dream of doing too.  Once you have a battery of other virtual instruments then spending another $500 ($660 AU dollars BTW!!) just seems like less and less of a good idea.  Because between the battery of synths you may have you will more than likely have way more sounds and over a much larger range.  
 
The other thing you have to watch as well is if you use Omnisphere for absolutely everything you will get the same sonic signature with every sound that comes out of it.  This does not happen when you use an army of very different sounding synths. 
 
Maybe if you had nothing at all it could be a great investment for sure.  But even then for serious synthesists you will have to start adding others anyway for their distinct sound. 
 
 
 

abacab

Fleer
Yep, Omnisphere is an absolute must-buy but quite expensive, while SynthMaster will get you high quality at a crazily low price.

I never doubted that Omnisphere is as good as they say.  Everyone that has it seems to love it.  But the idea of paying $500 for software in one shot is what has held me up.  The last time I did that was for Photoshop almost 20 years ago.
 
But I have surely spent more than that collectively on other virtual instruments, and I now have many to choose from, and stack together like a synth rack to create unusual multi combinations.  My favorites synths right now are the SynthMasters, IK Syntronik, and iZotope Iris 2.  Next up I would really like to add a few u-he synths, including the Zebra! 
 
I will probably acquire Omnisphere someday, when the budget allows, because I certainly would like to try it out.
 
I really wish Spectrasonics would make the Omnisphere purchase available in a modular fashion, like selling the core synth with a basic factory sound collection, and then allowing the customer to expand it with the full presets by buying a bank at a time. 

I got mine on KVR for $180. Its Nfr, But Its Upgradeable. Spectrasonics Allows License Transfers With Permission.

abacab
 
...the idea of paying $500 for software in one shot is what has held me up.  The last time I did that was for Photoshop almost 20 years ago.
 

 
Well, there ya go. Are you not still using Photoshop 20 years later?
 
 

bitflipper
 
Well, there ya go. Are you not still using Photoshop 20 years later?
 

LOL!!!  Well, sort of... but it only installs and works correctly on WinXP. 
 
Which I still have running on a VirtualBox VM.
 
But that does raise the question of how many of our audio apps will still work on our computers in 15-20 years?  How long is our investment reasonably expected to last?  You can bring out a violin or piano that is over 100 years old, and it can still work.  But software?  Some proprietary file formats may not even be supported in 20 years by the modern OS of the time!

Jeff Evans

eph221
I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MEN! Omnisphere is in a class by itself.  The presets alone will give you any sound you could possibly want.  It's put together cleverly.  It's definitely worth the money, even if it's the only one you own.

 
Incorrect.  There are many sounds Omnisphere do not cover well or at all.  I have some other synths for example that produce sounds that Omnisphere could not even dream of doing too.  Once you have a battery of other virtual instruments then spending another $500 ($660 AU dollars BTW!!) just seems like less and less of a good idea.  Because between the battery of synths you may have you will more than likely have way more sounds and over a much larger range.  

I disagree with the original poster (eph221) as well, particularly in regards to presets. The presets do not give me any sound you could possibly want, at least IMO. Also, at a minimum, most people would want a sampler as well.
 

Jeff Evans
 
The other thing you have to watch as well is if you use Omnisphere for absolutely everything you will get the same sonic signature with every sound that comes out of it.  This does not happen when you use an army of very different sounding synths. 

 
I disagree with the idea that Omnisphere 2 has a sonic signature. O2 doesn't just have wave tables of a square wave, a sawtooth, a sine, etc. It has wave forms from OBX, Roland Jupiter, Moog, Sequential Circuits, and so on. Many old synths have a signature because of the oscillators and filers they used. O2 has a battery of oscillators and filters. If you program it yourself you can get OBX, Roland Jupiter, JP 8080, Moog, and a lot of other sounds besides. 
 
If a person doesn't like to program and just uses presets, then yes, they'll need a lot of synths.