What workhorse synth would you buy if you couldn't get Omnisphere?

[IvyBirds]

Is anyone really worried about HD Space in 2024?

Me when mobile. I got 2TB for the Macbook Air cos I like having everything right there, can't be doing with external drives. And that space fills up. I got everything Spectrasonics have done on there for 225gb which is actually not that horrendous. Pretty much the first thing that went on.

Sounds like you were not really worried about HD Space. When you have 2 TB of space the 60gb of space for Omnisphere is not all that significant even adding all the other products using 12% of your capacity is not that big of deal

[noiseboyuk]

Sounds like you were not really worried about HD Space. When you have 2 TB of space the 60gb of space for Omnisphere is not all that significant even adding all the other products using 12% of your capacity is not that big of deal

Ha - when East West's Hollywood Orchestra is 1TB on its own, 2TB doesn't go so far! But hey I'm not complaining, I've got a ton of great stuff on here (Even the main mic-only HO strings...)

Spectrasonics offer a lite install for Keyscape mobile use, but IMO they did it wrong. They just left off some of the bigger instruments. I'd like to have seen a version using only the thinned sample set that they offer in the plugin - it's just less detailed than the full fat version.

[Jac459]

.....



The very DNA of Omnisphere goes right back to the D50. You create layered patches which can either be 100% samples, 100% virtual waves or a blend of the two. It has a GIANT sample library which has samples of pretty much anything you can think of. Along with the giant sample library comes a powerful browser to help you make sense of it and find what you are looking for
.......

I think because that is the foundation and the DNA on how Omnisphere works if you don't want to work that way Omnisphere becomes frustrating

I don't often agree with you, but I concur with Guy, this is an excellent post.
I myself though I have been a Spectrasonics and Omnisphere user from Day 1 never thought of it this way, but yeah I think you are correct.
rsp

Haha, felt the same...
Excellent post Ivybirds !

[Jac459]

I think Jac459 should master Avenger and save $500 at this point.
I bought many instruments for fun but I use few for real.
His good list should keep him busy for a long time.

Agreed. In particular if by "master Avenger" you mean mastering also all the sound sources. I definitely don't.
I have maybe 15 extensions, and have tickets for 2 more I didn't chose yet...
So yeah... I would really be happy to benefit from Omnisphere legendary browser but certainly not from 500$.
Another point is that if I were to do it again, maybe I would have bought Omnisphere and saved a ton of money considering the number of soundwares I bought, some costing 300usd individually like World Suite 2 and that I may not have bought owning Omni...

But yeah... Redoing history I guess we would all do our purchase differently.

[wayford]

The OP went with Serum as a solution. It may be a great synth, but to me it's absolutely nothing like Omnisphere at all. But what is?

Truth be told, I got Serum for now, because it is a better investment. It can do quite a few things that Omnisphere can do and I can also sell skins or presets for it. I will recoup some part of its' price and will happily use it in my music.

It is not a solution to my original question, but it is going to be closer to it with V2, which will introduce a granular mode (if I remember correctly) and also add analog modelled components (as stated by Dave Gamble from DMG Audio). That might just make it a tiny bit closer to Omnisphere.

That's the only reason why I bought it. Free V2 upgrade.

I don't think anyone of my age thinks of buying any plugins at all. I buy them because I view them as investments that I can either use myself for music or sell them later. Not the best thing, but you have to do what you have to do. I'm still learning how to work in professional environments (I mean I'm not even 20 myself), so I am just figuring life out at the moment. And I need money...if someone needs a designer, please DM, quite inexpensive (sorry for the shameless plug).

Omnisphere is just not the best investment personally for me at the moment as I haven't made enough money from music as it itself costs. I will of course buy it whenever I feel music brings me enough revenue to justify spending such a whopping amount of money on it.

I guess that's just how it is. For me, Omnisphere will still be the best overall virtual synth due to the fact that it can do pretty much everything under the sun and every function it has is done to the best extent. Even the effects are so much better than the ones included with other synths. And the multi samples are frankly very cheap for what they offer. If could buy individual Kontakt libs for $40 (like a music box library from Soundiron) or have a bunch of already sampled stuff which I can tweak inside a synth environment all for 500 I would choose the latter.

My only complaint about Omnisphere will be the UI. But then again, it might be prof. deformation and also being 3x younger than most people using it.

[noiseboyuk]

If could buy individual Kontakt libs for $40 (like a music box library from Soundiron) or have a bunch of already sampled stuff which I can tweak inside a synth environment all for 500 I would choose the latter.

You won't ever need another Kalimba library, that's for sure.

But totally. The trove is huge, but the more quality stuff is in there the better. I'd like to see some third party sample libraries do some expansions. Obviously there's a bazillion devs out there releasing stuff, but I mean some of the bigger names that have this amazing libraries of acoustic samples. I've always loved the thought of someone like ProjectSAM doing Omni expansions - there's nothing to stop any dev doing that right now. A Rolls-Royce version would be to officially partner and have those brilliant front pages that the Sonic Extension series has.

[igorius]

Serum is totally a great decision. You can get so many great sounds for it for little money. Like right now you can get the Ultimate Serum Bundle with 1317 Serum presets for €3,55 at Glitchedtones. And they're not bad.
Originally you were looking for sample-based instruments. The best option in terms of quantity of sounds that I can think of would be IK Multimedia SampleTank 4 Max V2 which is sometimes (and currently) on sale for 69$. The best price for it so far was 49$ in March at Black Octopus. It has over 18,000 instruments and 600GB of samples, including all types of instruments as well as all the sampled synthesizers from Syntronik 2.

[Jac459]

..... and also being 3x younger than most people using it.

What ???? f**k you my dear friend .
Just kidding.... Nice that you are already asking yourself these questions. At your age, I was not paying my softwares...
(but not 3 times !!!!!!, average is more 2 times I think. Or 2.3 lol).

[LFO8]

The OP went with Serum as a solution. It may be a great synth, but to me it's absolutely nothing like Omnisphere at all. But what is?

Truth be told, I got Serum for now, because it is a better investment. It can do quite a few things that Omnisphere can do and I can also sell skins or presets for it. I will recoup some part of its' price and will happily use it in my music.

It is not a solution to my original question, but it is going to be closer to it with V2, which will introduce a granular mode (if I remember correctly) and also add analog modelled components (as stated by Dave Gamble from DMG Audio). That might just make it a tiny bit closer to Omnisphere.

That's the only reason why I bought it. Free V2 upgrade.

I don't think anyone of my age thinks of buying any plugins at all. I buy them because I view them as investments that I can either use myself for music or sell them later. Not the best thing, but you have to do what you have to do. I'm still learning how to work in professional environments (I mean I'm not even 20 myself), so I am just figuring life out at the moment. And I need money...if someone needs a designer, please DM, quite inexpensive (sorry for the shameless plug).

Omnisphere is just not the best investment personally for me at the moment as I haven't made enough money from music as it itself costs. I will of course buy it whenever I feel music brings me enough revenue to justify spending such a whopping amount of money on it.

I guess that's just how it is. For me, Omnisphere will still be the best overall virtual synth due to the fact that it can do pretty much everything under the sun and every function it has is done to the best extent. Even the effects are so much better than the ones included with other synths. And the multi samples are frankly very cheap for what they offer. If could buy individual Kontakt libs for $40 (like a music box library from Soundiron) or have a bunch of already sampled stuff which I can tweak inside a synth environment all for 500 I would choose the latter.

My only complaint about Omnisphere will be the UI. But then again, it might be prof. deformation and also being 3x younger than most people using it.

Vey genuine post Wayford. Thanks for sharing. Hope you find a good place/gig as a designer.

FYI; the avarage age of people using Omnisphere is certainly not 60 as you implied!

[egbert101]

But Serum and Omnisphere are wildly different synthesizers for different purposes. Serum is your standard EDM synth, and now there are plenty of wavetable alternatives since its release. Omnisphere is your bread and butter rompler that is for soundtrack, cinematic, TV commercials, etc, but to be honest there are fewer alternatives. Both are aimed at commercial music rather than anything actually interesting. In other words, you're going to use presets, you're not actually going to be creative.

Now I've offended all the shills.

[carrieres]

In other words, you're going to use presets, you're not actually going to be creative.

You can be very creative with Omnisphere because there is a lot of presets bank on the market
Some sounddesigner are very creative and Omnisphere is their favorite synth

[egbert101]

In other words, you're going to use presets, you're not actually going to be creative.

You can be very creative with Omnisphere because there is a lot of presets bank on the market
Some sounddesigner are very creative and Omnisphere is their favorite synth

No buying and selling presets isn't being creative, but it is a business model.

[carrieres]

In other words, you're going to use presets, you're not actually going to be creative.

You can be very creative with Omnisphere because there is a lot of presets bank on the market
Some sounddesigner are very creative and Omnisphere is their favorite synth

No buying and selling presets isn't being creative, but it is a business model.

selling songs make you a business man not an artist

[egbert101]

selling songs make you a business man not an artist

Oh now you're shifting the goal posts to songs and not presets.

[carrieres]

selling songs make you a business man not an artist

Oh now you're shifting the goal posts to songs and not presets.

I wanted to post something fun but your post is one the most stupid I have ever read here
You shifted the goal thread by trying to offend, so what can we do ?
Be offended, no way ?
On my ignore list