Write A Review | Read Harmony Central Reviews

If you would like to write a review, please see our product review guidelines.

Write A Review | Read Musician's Friend Reviews

Ease of Use:	6.7	Sounds/Sound Quality:	9.7
Overall Rating:	7

I have been playing music in some form for 30 years (piano, guitar, flute, clarinet) I've been making with synthesizers since 2004. I've been really fortunate enough to play quite a few of the hardware synths and pretty much all of the software synths that I have wanted to before I started buying up what I thought I would need. I'm using an iMac g5 3.0 ghz 4gigs of RAM, with Live 7 and Logic Studio. I have a Kurzweil k2661, Roland JD 800, Echo Audiofire, my main go to plugs are the moment are Spectrasonics RMX, Omnisphere, Alchemy, sylenth1 and Synplant. ... After the ease of Atmosphere, I did find the gui a bit daunting but after playing with it a bit it is rather easy for as much functionality it has. As always with software of this size there is bound to be a hang up here and there. I waited until I had a new system and some of the kinks were worked out before purchasing so I missed out on some of the cpu spiking and other issues that were happening with the first round of users thankfully. ... The sound quality is pretty impressive. There are a lot of presets that aren't usable for me but then I don't think that a synth can cover all ground either. I'm grateful we live in a day and age where software can do the things that it does because 20 years ago you'd have to have 8 hardware synths to do very little of what this one can. Re: the previous poster's observation that this is for sci fi geeks or whatever, I do think this is aimed at professional users and will be used a ton by people making film scores. ... absolutely worth the price. Honestly I would have paid the price to just have all the Atmosphere sounds with this new functionality forget all the new sounds even if I'm not going to use them all. My favorite aspect of this program is how I can morph and chop up the sounds to create some really amazing rhythms. I also have to give it pretty high marks for the groove lock with RMX that is the best thing about it for me. It doesn't crash on me and is very stable at this point, it doesn't seem to tax my system too profoundly but I'm not running 5 instances of it either. ...
I've been making music for a while and when I first heard of Spectrasonics I too jumped on the bandwagon thinking this synth was going to revolutionize music. I was so dead wrong. This synth is all hype. ... Actually I found the best feature of this synth was how easy it was to use. I thought the synth was very intuitive. Even if I didn't watch the tutorials on this synth I'm sure I would easily get it even if there is no manual. I would have gave this a 10 if there was a pdf manual to go along with this or a manual in html format. ... Yes, this synth sounds great!!! Guess what, that's because the samples are in either 24 bit or maybe even 32 bit. I'm guessing they're in 32 bit by the size of the sound samples. When you dither it down there is no difference between this synth and another synth like one from NI or a sample from Reason. ... I gave the sound quality and easy of use a 10 but the overall rating a 1, so I'm sure many are thinking what happened? Let me say that this synth is more overrated then Kimbo Slice, so save yourself the computer upgrades and the 40 gigs of memory and don't get this synth. So, where do I begin to explain how God awful this synth is? The patches take forever to upload even with a fast powerful computer, so plan to waste your time looking for one patch for your music. Most of the sounds are really unusable for most forms of music. You have gigs and gigs of the most unusable patches that were probably invented by some sound geeks that wanted to get the most unusual sounds just to impress their Sci-Fi fanatic friends. You can't take out the sounds you don't want, so your forced to waste gigs and gigs of space for sounds you will never use. However, this synth is not only the biggest memory hog, but it's a CPU killer as well. Since Spectrasonics advertised this synth as the only synth you will need I give it a 1. This synth may be great for making music for movies, experminental sounds, and maybe even ok for trance, but for most people who need sounds that aren't too textured this is awful. Having some textural sounds are good but when most of the sounds are like that it makes this synth almost unusable, for over 90% of the people. If Spectrasonics advertised this as a synth that makes atmospheric sounds I would have given it a better rating. 40 gigs is a lot of space to have a synth where you might use the sounds once on a album. That's what gets to me the most!!! I just want to thank the people at Harmony Central for their site, because everywhere you go you hear people talk about how great this synth is. I even posted a bad review on Musican's friend and they never posted it. Thank you HC for having the balls to post honest reviews. I hope this review will save a lot of people from wasting their money on this synth and the needless upgrades it requires to run it. ...
I have been working with synthesizers since 1980. I have had many of the greats and some of the runners up. I started out with a PolySix, DX7, MiniMoog, Yamaha CP-35 and I have owned about 40 keyboards since. I have always been impressed with Spectrsonics products - their sample libraries are excellent and I love Stylus RMX. I really feel in love with Omnisphere before it was available due to the clever marketing strategy of the 7 videos. Eric Persing is a likeable guy and obviously has a vast knowledge and respects for other synths that have come before. He know he stands on the shoulders of giants and he wants to make them proud. I had my synth on order a few months before it was available. I am using ProTools 7.4 with a QSC power amp and NS-10 monitors. I recently sold all of my keyboards (except the Kurxweil PC88 and K2000) and bought virtual ones. I Own Stylus RMX, Strike, Reason 4, Kontakt 3, SampleTank, Structure Free and Xpand. ... THE INTERFACE The interface looks a little like Stylus RMX at first glance but it is MUCH deeper. not INTUITIVE. INSTALLATION The installation takes the better part of a day - 30 - 45 minutes per disk - 6 disks, online registration and then the downloading of the tutorials (this is an imaginary step because there aren't any as of this review). OVERVIEW Every major type of synthesis is available with the 40 gigs of sample - wavetable, granular, FM, ring modulation, unlimited mod options and complete automation of everything as far as I can tell. The preset sounds are incredible (no surprise here) MANUAL A printed manual would be nice - especially when you hit the $500.00 mark for a peice of software (albeit an incredible one) - that "saving trees" thing is bull**** - it's saving money for them and that's all. The manual is available in a drop-down menu and it kind of sucks - it should have been available as a PDF file so you can see all of the contents at once on the side and flip pages if you want instead of having to go back to a previous page to see content main groups and then clicking for subgroups. I have had so many synths over the years and I feel a strong affection for this one already, but I am really disappointed that there is not a CD Rom tutorial like there is with RMX. The advertisements claimed there would be and that was a big selling point with me. I contacted them last weekend about it and I was told that there would be online tutorials instead. I was assured that they were being posted at we spoke. Here it is Tuesday and no tutorials. I am looking forward to digging in and really understanding this synth, right now I am frustrated like a newlywed who has not made it to the hotel room with his beautiful wife who is wearing sweats, a parka and a ski mask! ... This is not a "meat and potatoes" synth. This is a really cool "smart bomb" to add to your arsenal. If you are looking for the usual suspects, pick up a copy of Kontakt 3. The problem with the presets is that they are great. I am afraid they will show up on every pop songs and every movie for the next year or two (just like the Dx-7 and the D-50 did when they came out). The good news is that it is infinitely programmable and flexible and you will be able to spend a lot of time with this one (and I pity the fool who does not). ... I am running PT 7.4 on a Macbook Pro dual 2.16. with Tiger. I opened Omnisphere with Stylus, Kontakt (which is buggy) Strike, and Reason 4. and it ran well - I did have some buggy stuff going on yesterday when I was trying to close PT. I also notice occasional buzzing sounds from Omnisphere. I probably need to run it by itself and record the audio, or maybe I just need to cofig my system better. I think that virtual synths are the way to go, and though my experience with them is limited, I feel that Omnisphere is a home run - well worth the money I paid. Especially considering how much I have spent on hardware based synths in the past - over $3000.00! I judge a new keyboard like this. A good keyboard will inspire you to create songs, a great one will also inspire you to create sounds as well. I am excited about making my own patches and beefing up my mixes with this synth. Wish List? A hard copy manual and a CD-rom tutorial. ...