Omnisphere, I hear it's great

It's the best kind of tension...

Omnisphere is worth the wait!  It is jaw-dropping in what it does, and has some absolutely beautiful patches right out of the box.  On top of that it is easy to tweak.

20% of the sounds in Omnisphere are wonderful. The other 80% sound like the first 15%.

I've got a Kurzweil, too. And a Yamaha and a Hammond and a real piano and two guitars, none of which took this long to install. Come to think of it, they all still work  - even now, while my computer's busy. It is still possible to make music without a computer! Think I'll do some of that while waiting for disk 4 to complete.

Man, how big is this synth?? It took me less time to install Komplete so you must have picked up something very cool my friend. I know nothing about it so I'd best do some research. ENJOY THE TOY! Er.. tool.

Just my personal opinion...... but if you can't find at least a tinge of musical inspiration from ANY factory patch in Omnisphere...... well, you may just be musically challenged. I laughed at the "percentage" statement above.

To each their own.

ENJOY

  It's worth it!

Somehow it sounds bigger than other synths. Link it with Trilian, which is more than just a bass synth, and huge becomes even bigger. Ginormous. Monstrous. Jolly large.

(Rubbing eyes) Sh!t, is it morning already? I need some coffee...soon as I get through the "Celestial Textures"...

Maybe I do have a slow DVD. It's fast enough to watch a movie, anyway. That's the only benchmark I've ever done. At any rate, it's done now - at least until I install it on my laptop. That should be fun.

I have now applied Omnisphere to two existing songs. In both cases, they called for long evolving ethereal pads, so finding something suitable among the Omni presets wasn't difficult.

My take on Omnisphere presets is they are akin to the pictures on frozen TV dinner boxes, the ones labeled "suggested serving". Rather than saying "this patch might sound pretty good drenched in reverb", they just drench it in reverb for you. In case you're too dense to figure that out on your own, I guess.

Critics who say Omni patches are hard to fit into mixes have a point. Many are designed to sound good solo, but are too complex or overly effected to easily find a niche for them in a song. But a little tonal carving should be all you need. 

This puts a whole new spin on the term "subtractive synthesis"!

bitflipper

I have now applied Omnisphere to two existing songs. In both cases, they called for long evolving ethereal pads, so finding something suitable among the Omni presets wasn't difficult.

My take on Omnisphere presets is they are akin to the pictures on frozen TV dinner boxes, the ones labeled "suggested serving". Rather than saying "this patch might sound pretty good drenched in reverb", they just drench it in reverb for you. In case you're too dense to figure that out on your own, I guess.

Critics who say Omni patches are hard to fit into mixes have a point. Many are designed to sound good solo, but are too complex or overly effected to easily find a niche for them in a song. But a little tonal carving should be all you need. 

bitflipper--Omnisphere is what it is; for what it is designed for, it is a beast in more than one dimension.  I learned not to try to use it for (or force it into) traditional rock and pop types of music; I do not use it with jazz (but do use Trillian's acoustic bass there); there are so many other synths that do those genres great.  Omni does find a place in the more ethereal side of progressive rock--think Rick Wakeman styled textures.   I am probably sure you saw the videos with Jordan Rudess of Dream Theatre that are on the Spectrasonics site while you were researching it, but if you haven't you should see how he adapts it for his progressive metal style.   And it shines in new agey, special effects, and film type textures.  


    You are correct in that it uses a lot of reverb, but for me that is part of its grand design, its unique ethos.  It shines as THE stand alone instrument with nothing else in the mix for a while, or to have it as the ominous textured base that other instruments weave in and out, and solo over and around.  


    It does have such a huge library of sounds that it takes weeks to comb through.  I just love the boys choirs and the highly reverbed glorious guitar patch.  

    Once you get to know it and its personality, you can tweak it down a notch or two, dial this knob back, add more or less coloration, decay, delay, etc.. and just have fun with it.  It is my grand escape from reality synth.  



    

Dave you have got to be careful with some of these immense sounding instruments. Firstly you don't even need Omnispehere to get the immense sound. Camel Audio Alchemy can do it, so can Wusikstation etc. All these are capable of producing huge, massive and complex deep textures.

But the problem is they can sometimes only sound good on their own and only when you hold down one note too! But then everyone else who has that same machine can make the same sound. Zero out of ten for originality.

(eg Listen to Brian Eno's On Land or Ambient 4 album. Listen to how complex the end resultant textures are in those tracks. But individually each sound was very simple. It is the combination that is original and very complex. There is not an instrument on the planet that is as complex as Ambient 4 tracks! I think I read somwehere there were up to 23 musicians playing live on some of those, is that cool or what)

In WusikStation there are often 6 layers per note but a great 6 channel mixer where you can quickly take out or alter the mix of the 6 parts. This is where I find you can do a lot to customise the patches to your own sound. In Camel Alchemy it is the remix pads where you can add in or take out parts of the sound easily.

Even with your Kurzweil you could eaasily make a final sound to match Ominspehere, it would just take longer (and quite a lot of tracks) that is all. But you would have a lot of control over the individual elements though! IMO it is better to make an ambient texture for example with 10 simple sounds combined rather than use a preset that has 10 textures in it! It is going to be much more original and no one else will have the exact combination of sounds anywhere.

But having said all that I am sure Ominsphere is fantatsic. After all it has been programmed by a great sound designer. Get the reverbs off as well. Anyone can drench a sound in reverb. Pull them right back and really hear what is actually left behind. I think the trick is to learn how to edit the patches to really suit the music you are making at the time. And if it means taking 75% of the layers out then do so.

What I do like about instruments like Ominspehere and the like is the inspiration you can get from just browsing the patches. The trick is to create the music you are hearing in your head when you do get ideas and take out the original patch that inspired you in the first place after you have constructed the music and listen to what is left behind.

Dave can I ask one thing. One of my synths has got a great library of very deep complex layered ambient patches. First preset has got the works in it. Hold down one note and sit back and revel in the sound! There might be 35 sounds in the preset.

But all the presets after that eg all 35 of them have just one sound in it or one element only from the first preset. So you could rebuild the final result if you wanted to but now you have huge control on what sounds are in and what they are doing. Except that now each individual element from the first complete preset is now playable over a 10 octave range increasing the possibilities from the first preset a billion times! Does Omnispehere offer the same thing? Now that I have got it, I would not want to go back. That to me is essential.

Also are some of the soundscapes rhythmical like they are in Alchemy. Not loops as such although they call them loops but they are more like just amazing rhythmical soundscapes in nature. Locked to tempo of the DAW session of course. These are very inspiring. Does Omnispehere offer the same type of rhythmical material too? Or more to the point have you come across any material like that yet. You might next week or the week after!

In case you didn't know:
http://www.spectrasonics.net/video/videos.php?InstrumentID=1&VideoTypeID=7/

All,

"...(channeling J. Cousteau)...An' zen one of ze members of ze pod that 'ad gathered 'round ze mothair dolphin gently grasped him by 'is leetle 
 
Bitty Flipper and guided heem to 'ze surface for 'is first breath of Omnisphere..."

Sorry.

Yes Bit, I knew you and Jeff had Kurz's and the point is that OS easily does all the things that the Kurz's make hard.

The interface is well thought out and gets very useable very quickly. There are little "+" signs in a circle thingies all over the interface...click once and you get to the relevant screen; click again and you're back on the Edit screen, etc.
If you wanna change the ADSR, you drag on a big visual graphic plot...you can draw shapes or use curves, what ever, just remember to save/rename any sounds you create.

The Fx rack is simplicity itself. To me they sound pretty much equivalent to the KDFX in my K2600, only a d--m sight easier to learn/use.

The manual is a click away and is clear, concise, and easy to use, and is well indexed, as opposed to the Kurz.  Don't any body get me started on Kurzweil manuals.

I love my K2600, and the K2vx that preceded it, and will always have one , but Omnisphere is, to me, one of those products that punches way above it's weight.

I agree with John A. in that one of the  problems with OS is that many, patches suggest a song or a project.

Cecelius 2: Yes to the Boy's Choirs and Glorious Guitar(s).

Jeff: The rythym patches sync automatically to the Project Tempo...I think by default.

Omnisphere and Kurzweils are both examples of life today...too many choices.