I have been an extremely happy user of atmosphere for years,
so when I heard omnisphere was coming, I waited very anxiously for many many months.
I even pre-ordered it in the shop a few months ago, so I was sure to receive it as soon as it was being released.
I received my copy about a week ago,
I didn't have much time yet to completely dive into it cause I was working 10 nights in the last 12 days,
but I will post a comprehensive review of this synth in here very soon.
let me just say this (before returning to omnisphere bliss as long as it's quiet here at work) :
I've been absolutely BLOWN away by it.
and I gotta say it's been a long time since something in synth-country has really blown me away
(interested me ? sure. impressed me ? sometimes. blown away ? last time was when I heard the eventide H8000fw, but with the pricetag that thing is, that's only more than normal. and I guess the more synths one has been through, the more easily one starts feeling jaded)
my main point of criticism on atmosphere has always been this :
it's more an "adjust presets to your likings"-synth than a real programmers-synth.
sure, you had your normal parameters like with most synths, but your basic starting material (preset patches) were always so finished you barely ever made your own very much.
you just never really had the feeling that you were doing any better than what was already there.
it was more of a musician's tool than a sound designers wet dream.
which was great for me cause I'm originally classically trained, so atmosphere was a superb tool for anything ambient, film music,...
but it still kind of left you with a taste for more.
it felt like a basic sampler with extremely good samples as starting material.
omnisphere fulfills all my dreams for a musician's synth (and way way way beyond atmosphere when it comes to user friendliness and live use)
and is a wet dream for anyone who is
seriously interested in sound design.
if anyone over here disses this synth as a preset-machine only, they sure haven't checked it out properly, or their view on sound design is very very limited to say the least.
the things these guys have done to make some of these sounds...
like recording someone using a bow playing a spinning bike wheel.
or recording basic electric guitar loops, then slowing them down, reversing them and putting them through old 8-bit samplers, and afterwards multitracking these to create complex textures (and the result sounds completely unlike a guitar allright).
or record a burning piano (modwheel adds extra burning sounds), in all honesty, it's a sound I'll probably never use, but you gotta love the idea behind it.
or using real drums as acoustic oscillators, by using a 2$ fan to fan the drumhead, and then record the sound from inside the drum.
or...
I could give tons of examples.
these guys have just been very very VERY creative in their sound design.
I guess one can expect Eric Persing to be great at sound design (he's been the guy behind many many world famous sounds), but his team have really outdone themselves now, plus they must have had tons of fun doing this.
before I write a review, I wanna be ready with all their tutorial video's, and have read the reference guide at least once.
if I haven't posted anything by tuesday or wednesday, send me a PM to remind me.
oh, and those free video's on the website ?
they're absolutely c**p. they don't show anything at all.
it's the tutorial video's that really show what this synth can do, but as far as I know, they're only available for registered users.
ok, off again to omnisphere heaven...