generally speaking the price considered a good deal is the price it is, if waiting for a deal be sure not to hold your breath . . . generally speaking
 
well worth the price of entry

Omnisphere.  $500.  No trial version?
 

abacab
Omnisphere.  $500.  No trial version?

Oi! Omnisphere will have to wait until I REALLY need it... I haven't actually tried it ever (TIRED to install a trial ONCE if I remember correctly, mayyybe... don't even remember. It was like 5 years ago. Or maybe not. ) In fact I've never *heard* Omnishpere (edit- I'm sure I HAVE, but I can't say I explicitly know how it sounds or what's in it). Time to do some YouTube searching!

davdud101

abacab
Omnisphere.  $500.  No trial version?

Oi! Omnisphere will have to wait until I REALLY need it... I haven't actually tried it ever (TIRED to install a trial ONCE if I remember correctly, mayyybe... don't even remember. It was like 5 years ago. Or maybe not. ) In fact I've never *heard* Omnishpere (edit- I'm sure I HAVE, but I can't say I explicitly know how it sounds or what's in it). Time to do some YouTube searching!

Frankly, it sounds amazing and is probably in most tracks you hear on TV/Radio. I'll admit it hurt to buy in the first time, but the upgrades have been very reasonable and I have yet to hear every preset as of yet, and I've had it for years.
 
Dan
 

I gather from watching the YouTube demos, that Omnisphere can make some amazing sounds.  Everyone that has it seems to like it a lot.
 
But is it something that you should really start out with for building a sound collection, or after you have the basics covered?

abacab
Here's an interesting article from SOS back in 2011. "Steinberg Halion Sonic"
http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/steinberg-halion-sonic
 
It seems that the predecessor of Halion was Steinberg's Hypersonic, developed by Wizoo (AIR Music Technology started as Wizoo Sound Design).  However, by the time it came out, it was already clear that Hypersonic 2 was likely to be the final version, as Wizoo had been taken over by Steinberg's rivals Avid. Much of the original Hypersonic content would soon reappear as the free Xpand! plug‑in bundled with Pro Tools, but that was the end as far as Cubase and other VST or AU‑format hosts were concerned.

The current versions of HALion 6 and HALion Sonic 3 are Yamaha based.
If you like the Yamaha Motif and Montage workstations, you'll like HALion Sonic.
 
HALion 6 certainly isn't cheap... but it includes a very broad range of good "meat-and-potato" sounds.
With the various synth engines... and advanced sample-playback (with custom scripting and GUIs), it's an instrument that can cover almost any scenario.
 
Many folks have wanted a virtual instrument that offers sounds/features of a top-tier hardware workstation.
H6 is like having Kontakt and Omnisphere (both surpassing hardware counterparts) rolled into a single virtual instrument.

Jim Roseberry

abacab
Here's an interesting article from SOS back in 2011. "Steinberg Halion Sonic"
http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/steinberg-halion-sonic
 
It seems that the predecessor of Halion was Steinberg's Hypersonic, developed by Wizoo (AIR Music Technology started as Wizoo Sound Design).  However, by the time it came out, it was already clear that Hypersonic 2 was likely to be the final version, as Wizoo had been taken over by Steinberg's rivals Avid. Much of the original Hypersonic content would soon reappear as the free Xpand! plug‑in bundled with Pro Tools, but that was the end as far as Cubase and other VST or AU‑format hosts were concerned.

The current versions of HALion 6 and HALion Sonic 3 are Yamaha based.
If you like the Yamaha Motif and Montage workstations, you'll like HALion Sonic.
 
HALion 6 certainly isn't cheap... but it includes a very broad range of good "meat-and-potato" sounds.
With the various synth engines... and advanced sample-playback (with custom scripting and GUIs), it's an instrument that can cover almost any scenario.
 
Many folks have wanted a virtual instrument that offers sounds/features of a top-tier hardware workstation.
H6 is like having Kontakt and Omnisphere (both surpassing hardware counterparts) rolled into a single virtual instrument.

Now that's a very good argument for getting Halion 6 ($350) as the starting point for a top-tier sound library.  Especially considering that Kontakt and Omnisphere would run about $900 for both.  And depending on what you want to do, you would probably need to buy a few additional Kontakt libaries to get all of your sounds.
 
It's also good to hear that Halion is Yamaha based now.  That's a great lineage.  I only linked the legacy article about the origins of the original Halion, because I was amused to hear that the old Wizoo/Steinberg/Avid technology had trickled down to the AIR Xpand! plugin. 

davdud101
...In fact I've never *heard* Omnishpere (edit- I'm sure I HAVE, but I can't say I explicitly know how it sounds or what's in it).

Only if you've watched a movie or turned on the TV in the last 5 years. I recognize factory patches in TV shows all the time. 
 
A compelling case can be made that Omnisphere is, if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest synthesizers of all time, software or hardware. So you'd reasonably think that Omnisphere should be able to do anything and everything. But the truth is, it is most definitely not the "all-in-one" solution the OP was asking for. Despite its amazing flexibility, it is still a sample-based synthesizer, not a sampler.

abacab
I gather from watching the YouTube demos, that Omnisphere can make some amazing sounds.  Everyone that has it seems to like it a lot.
 
But is it something that you should really start out with for building a sound collection, or after you have the basics covered?

When Jim (Roseberry) built my DAW a few years back, he installed Omnisphere and Komplete 8. it was a couple of years before I felt like I needed to add to that because I was missing something, and the first things I added were organic instruments, like orchestral instruments, drums and specialty wind instruments.
 
Halion sounds nice too, but I don't have any experience with it, and I don't know how well supported it is as far as sound libraries goes.
 
Regards,
Dan

I am also considering UVi's Falcon or Arturia Collection V in which order should I buy both of these?Is Falcon considered an all around synth package? like Omnisphere (which I own).  I think it is fabulous.