Synths come and go, and I normally ignore product announcements. I can't afford them, and I've got enough synthesizers already.
 
But I just watched the introductory video for Blue II, and wow, it may be the closest you're going to get to Omnisphere for less than 200 bucks. It's got perhaps the most sophisticated X-Y modulation around, which is important if you like interesting complex sounds that don't come off as, well, boringly "synthy".
 
Anybody using this who can either confirm or moderate my initial oh-gosh impressions?
 
I've been holding out for Zebra 3 as my next synth addition (a cheap upgrade is promised for current Zebra users), but it's such a long way off.
 

I thought you already have Omnisphere - just curious why you would want to spend your money on  "the closest you're going to get to Omnisphere" ?
 
Bitflipper finally succumbing to GAS ? ;)

Yeh, I've got Omnisphere already. I like it enough to want two of them.
 
Now that you mention it, that does sound susp iciously like the telltale symptoms of GAS. OK, then. Never mind.

Omnisphere is my go to synth.
 
Blue II is now my 2nd runner up.
 
high quality base samples to use in the synth engine.  the x-y pad is just inspiring how you can get stuff that is out there but so usable.
 
the synth engine and programming, dials and settings are easy to understand and everything is laid out easy to find or figure out.  The ARP is easy to understand.
 
I am not a programmer - preset user mostly.  Blue II is fun to experiment and play with settings. 
 
Blue II is WAY WAY deeper than Omnisphere.  I like Blue II as a complement to Omnisphere.
 
Like Omnisphere you cannot load your own samples in Blue II. I don't really find that a problem, if I need to load a sample as a base for a sound I use Alchemy.
 
JRRShop with group coupon Blue II is $150.26  AudioDeluxe.com has Blue II for $151.99.  Probably a drop in price for black Friday / xmas sales.

Hmmmm Dave that one looks nice too. It just reinforces the concept to me why some virtual instruemnts are just so great and really can do stuff that no hardware synth can even think about.
 
Can you import your own wave files as oscillator sources into Blue II. I probably should download the manual to find out I guess.
 
Camel Alchemy is also a killer synth and has a very similar advanced XY situation as well. What is good about Alchemy is the specialist libraries that you can get for it which take it into some very interesting areas. But I agree Blue II looks very cool. I think all the Rob Papen stuff is very good.

bitflipper
 
Now that you mention it, that does sound susp iciously like the telltale symptoms of GAS. OK, then. Never mind.

I C what you did there....

Oh, Bit!!! why oh who did you link to that vid?  First RP thingy I don't think I'll be able to resist at some point but not now...
 
funny... no reference anywhere I could find on the size of the sample package/HD space needed... does it comes with... a gig of samples?  two?  4? and what are the raw samples of?
 
   

I did highlight this on release..... to tumbleweed.

It's a pad monster apparently. Also supposed to have top notch presets and over 2,400 to boot.

The demo is only 233 MB, but it's not the full product. Even if it's 10x that size it's still half the size of Omnisphere.
 
Demo restrictions are not very friendly: you can only use it for 30 minutes at a time, for a total of 30 days, after which noise bursts begin. You cannot save presets or load banks.