Omnisphere 2 or no?

Hiya Al,
 
I haven't even demo'd Omnisphere but, from what I have heard and seen on YouTube it is one hell of a synth.
 
Personally, though, I prefer to have a lot of synths by different makers which it actually more expensive in the long run. I just prefer it that way.
 
What stuff do you do? I'm always interested to hear electronic stuff that isn't EDM.
 
 
cheers
 
andy

amiller
 
I would not call my music electronic.  My stuff is more like laid-back rock/fusion ... sorta.  I usually lay down a guitar rhythm part over a rock drum track and then record piano and string parts.  Next, I record some of the guitar lead parts.  At that point I'll look for sections that might benefit from a synth lead part, maybe in the bridge section(s) just to keep it interesting.  All the while, my bass player will stop in from time to time to lay down his bass parts.  Finally, I finish off the lead guitar parts and also listen for possible lead harmony parts and additional rhythm parts.

 
Ah, right, thanks for making that clearer, Al... Still, I like my prog too, so hopefully see you in the Song forum at some point
 
cheers
 
andy

And well worth trying out Cobalt, which is good for leads, and I have done some CS-80 stuff with it:-
 
http://www.lesliesanford.com/vst/plugins/
 
Oh, and it is free...

Yep, get SynthMaster with those Nori Ubukata soundbanks if you want a tiny footprint or Syntronik if you don’t mind filling your drive. Both are pretty, pretty good. And yorolpal is right about Arturia, should you want to get modeled emulations of the real stuff.

For starters, I would agree on SynthMaster with the Nori Ubukata 'Historical Synth Giants' sound sets.  Lots of sounds from Floyd, Genesis, Emerson, Jarre, etc.  For the money, you cannot beat that.  $99 for the synth and the expansions are $8 each right now.  http://www.synthmaster.com/synthmaster.aspx
 
Nori knows a little bit about sound design. 
 
A little bit of Nori's bio:

Nori was one of the first official sound designers for Yamaha DX series. Later on, he worked for Yamaha and Korg as sound designer and also as developing adviser. He was involved in almost all of DX,SY and TG series, VL-1 and VP1 of Yamaha , Korg's T-series, O1/W, Wavestation and Prophecy. He published several optional voice programs for DX and SY series, Korg M1 and Ensoniq VFX/SD. In 2005, he started designing presets for Arturia products, being an official in-house sound designer and demo music composer. At the beginning of 2012, he became a freelance sound designer and musician. He mainly plays theremin with CV driven analog synthesizers and has released 3 albums so far in Japan.

 
And then I would recommend IK Syntronik.  http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/syntronik/
 
They even have a free version with no limits, that comes with a small set of presets from each of the 17 instruments.  You can buy individual full instruments for $49 each, or get the whole bundle.  They sampled 38 vintage synths to come up with these sounds, and added their own filter models for an authentic vintage analog sound.  Sounds very good!

dubdisciple
If you are looking for ready to go presets used in pop music of several genres than can't miss with this. Omnisphere is all over top 40. 

amiller
I'm a guitar player, however, I like to add strong exciting synth leads here and there in my songs...a 70's kinda thing.  I do not like or want any EDM sounds...more of a rock/prog guy.  With that in mind, I'm not that happy with most of the "onboard" synth sounds that come with SONAR.  Two questions:
 
1)  Is Omnisphere 2 worth the $$$?
2)  Will it meet my needs?

 
Doesn't really strike me as a top 40 guy...

Wow, lots of great responses with lots of suggestions.  I really appreciate all of the input.
 
I already own Trillian and love that product.  That's why I'm looking at Omnisphere 2.
 
Having said that, will Omnisphere 2 easily do everything that Synthmaster does?  I like some of the "cinematic" abilities of Omnisphere 2, although I don't know how much I'll use ... maybe use them instead of SONAR's included Studio Instruments String Section.  Does Synthmaster include any of the cinematic sounds that are in Omnisphere 2?

amiller
 
Does Synthmaster include any of the cinematic sounds that are in Omnisphere 2?

SynthMaster does come ready to play with some excellent quality pads in the factory library of 1300 presets, that can be used in any type of music, including cinematic.  In addition to the leads, this is my favorite part of SM. 
 
I wouldn't say that cinematic was the KV331 sound designers primary goal, but SynthMaster can produce any kind of sound really.  And the new ZDF filters (zero-delay feedback) are very clean.
 
It can load full wave samples as well as standard oscillators, single cycle waves, and soon (v2.9) wavetables.
 
I recently made a patch using one layer with two environmental field recorded waves (rain and ocean waves), and the other layer using a virtual analog oscillator.  That kind of sound easily qualifies as ambient, atmospheric, and/or cinematic.  But that is more of a DIY project.
 
The SynthMaster Player version is only $9 this month and includes the full 1300 preset factory library.  No deep editing of patches with this version, but it is a cheap way to check out the sounds! It has 8 macro knobs and two x-y pads for performance, so it is playable.  Similar to the difference between Rapture Session, and Rapture Pro.  But same synth engine in both.  http://www.kv331audio.com/synthmasterplayer.aspx

I agree with the Synthmaster suggestion. The Nori banks have almost exact copies of synth sounds from YES, Return to Forever, King Crimson, etc.

Of course Omnisphere is a great synth, but it costs a lot and may not have exactly what you want.

triple

Is there an echo in here?  LOL... 

My advice pointing you to Synthmaster was based on your stated desire to create "exciting synth leads". Omnisphere can do that, but it's not its forte. Personally, my default for such tasks is Zebra, but that's more expensive. Plus you said "prog", and when I think "prog" I think classic synth leads by the likes of Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. Synthmaster does that stuff very well, as evidenced by Nori Ubukata's spot-on emulations.
 
But then later you switched gears and asked about pads. Had you led with that question, I'd have said "Omnisphere!!!". Pads are what Omnisphere was made for.
 
Well, technically it's what Omnisphere's predecessor, Atmosphere, was made for. But all of Atmosphere's great pads are still in there. Plus Omni's got some really sweet organic string pads, classic synth strings and choirs that are most definitely prog fodder.

True, that GForce M-Tron Pro is the best mellotron emulation I know.

My stuff really has less to do with prog.  I am into rock/prog but  "My stuff is more like laid-back rock/fusion ... sorta."  It's hard for me to put a label on it.  I like classic synth leads but also like the big synth pad sounds of Yes and the like.  But again, I wouldn't say that my music is prog.  Mu music is all guitar oriented instrumentals with string/piano/synth rhythms as well.

Unless a person is extremely particular about those old analog sounds in the Moog,Oberheim and Prophet 5s etc.. I tend to find emulations of those all over the place. They might not be exact. So close my ears can't tell in a mix.I don't think I've ever heard an emulation so bad I would reject it. That includes the sounds in my keyboards that are digital copies of analog sounds. Even Kontakt basic library has some decent keyboards in the rock section.
 
The Hammond B3 though, if you're trying to emulate that one there are some bad ones out there. Even so, putting an emulation under guitars at -3db I hate to say most won't be able to tell.
 
 
You guys have me curious about SM2.