Omnisphere?

elser · Post by **elser** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:10 pm

Hey Techno Geeks, just wondering, for those who have bought Omnisphere and have had a little time to work it into their system howz it working? Is it a CPU hog, what's your system, is it worth it? I'm using a G5 dual 2.5 with 3 GB of RAM on OSX 10.4.11.I wonder how useful it is as well, I get the feeling the sounds are so huge they would dominate any mix. Or can you really pick em apart and use partial patches and so forth?Thanks, Elser

regulator · Post by **regulator** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:22 am

yes, yes, yes, yes and yes?just buy it if you think you want it!

mazz · Post by **mazz** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:18 am

It is a CPU hog. Many of the patches rely on effects which is actually a good thing because you can go under the hood easily and change, add, or remove effects. If you're familiar at all with Atmosphere, the editing is fairly similar. You can turn off one of the layers, edit the filters, envelopes, etc. It's pretty easy and intuitive if you've had any synth experience at all.On my Dual 2.7 G5, depending on the patch, I can play 2 or 3 at a time before the audio starts breaking up. There is a way to limit the patch browser to return only high, medium, low CPU usage or all. I'm working on a film score right now that screams out for Omnisphere and I find I'm doing things like playing a very few notes and manipulating the mod wheel, filter cutoff and effects parameters to alter the sound in real time. It's really great for that. Like you said, the sounds are complex so a little goes a long way. Sure they could dominate the mix if you let them, but like any instrument, you have to learn to use it tastefully.A complex patch with a busy arpeggiator and lots of effects will make things snap crackle and pop pretty quickly on my machine, particularly if I have Stylus playing 2 or 3 loops at the same time. I run at 256 samples buffer most of the time, I'm sure if I changed that to a larger setting, things would settle down.Another nice thing about Omnisphere is the multi mode which is pretty much just like the multi mode in Stylus. I've been using it more to have a palette available to me than to stack sounds. I use the sounds for different themes so this way I can have them loaded up ready for use. You can have up to 8 instruments loaded at a time. Of course, this eats up RAM as well, there's no free lunch!! I have been bouncing my tracks to audio as I go so I can have more VIs loaded up and ready. I'm sure with an 8 core things would be much smoother but so far it's working out, just a slight work flow adjustment.Worth the investment, even on your machine, IMO.Mazz

davewalton · Post by **davewalton** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:44 am

Oct 13, 2008, 6:18am, mazz wrote: I run at 256 samples buffer most of the time, I'm sure if I changed that to a larger setting, things would settle down.Not only that... you'd play "in the pocket" like me. I can see Omnisphere, like Stylus and EWQL, being one of my best investments. It's amazing actually... warm dreamy sounds on one end of the spectrum and wickedly nasty sounds on the other end of the spectrum. It covers so much territory that there's probably not much it can't or won't do.To me, opening one instance of Omnisphere with 2 or 3 sub-instances (or whatever you call them) isn't any worse than having to open multiple instances of Atmosphere. It does tax my CPU like no other instrument. Well worth it though.

elser · Post by **elser** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:28 am

Thanks guys. I love Atmosphere but now I'm using a Macbook Pro when I travel and a G5 at home and you can't share the projects between the 2 computers with Atmosphere in it's current state. You have to use a 'wrapper' for Atmosphere to work on the Intel Mac and it's pretty clunky anyways. Sounds to me Dave that what your saying is you can play several parts with one instance of Omnisphere? I guess it's multitimbral?

davewalton · Post by **davewalton** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:34 am

Oct 13, 2008, 7:28am, fretnoise wrote:Thanks guys. I love Atmosphere but now I'm using a Macbook Pro when I travel and a G5 at home and you can't share the projects between the 2 computers with Atmosphere in it's current state. You have to use a 'wrapper' for Atmosphere to work on the Intel Mac and it's pretty clunky anyways. Sounds to me Dave that what your saying is you can play several parts with one instance of Omnisphere? I guess it's multitimbral?They ported that technology from Stylus... one instance of Stylus has eight slots or channels where you can open and play eight different patches. Same with Omnisphere. I didn't realize that at first and had three instances of Omnisphere open and almost burned out the North American power grid.

elser · Post by **elser** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:46 am

Oct 13, 2008, 7:34am, davewalton wrote:Oct 13, 2008, 7:28am, fretnoise wrote:Thanks guys. I love Atmosphere but now I'm using a Macbook Pro when I travel and a G5 at home and you can't share the projects between the 2 computers with Atmosphere in it's current state. You have to use a 'wrapper' for Atmosphere to work on the Intel Mac and it's pretty clunky anyways. Sounds to me Dave that what your saying is you can play several parts with one instance of Omnisphere? I guess it's multitimbral?They ported that technology from Stylus... one instance of Stylus has eight slots or channels where you can open and play eight different patches. Same with Omnisphere. I didn't realize that at first and had three instances of Omnisphere open and almost burned out the North American power grid. Aah, got it thanks. It's funny 2 years ago when I got my G5 used I couldn't imagine taxing it very heavily but now between Stylus, BFD2, Amplitube and now probably Omnisphere, it's starting to feel like a runt.

mazz · Post by **mazz** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:54 am

I would suggest running Omnisphere on your Macbook Pro and just sync up the transports in Logic on both machines. That would take the strain off the G5 and Omnisphere should run very nicely on the Macbook Pro!Cheers!!

davewalton · Post by **davewalton** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:03 am

Personally, I don't think the power requirements for Omnisphere can be overestimated...

elser · Post by **elser** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:26 am

Oct 13, 2008, 7:54am, mazz wrote:I would suggest running Omnisphere on your Macbook Pro and just sync up the transports in Logic on both machines. That would take the strain off the G5 and Omnisphere should run very nicely on the Macbook Pro!Cheers!!Ya I've been planning to do that anyways, but having been cursed with a natural predisposition towards laziness I haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe when there's nuthin on tv someday I'll try that

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