Spectrasonics Vi's

[Kolstad]

For some time I thought Omnisphere wasn't for me. Coming from guitar into the Vi world, but after a long period of lurking, I needed a workhorse synth, that could do a little bit of everything, so I took the plunge as everyone else seemed to like it. Yes yes yes yes, what a joy to play! Yes yes yes yes, what diversity of sounds!

Then I looked into Stylus RMX Expanded. I've missed a go-to Vi for pop drums, and after the experience with Omnisphere, and careful research, I took the plunge into Stylus. Another yes yes yes yes, useful beats off the rack, and so ez to operate (like Omnisphere).

Next up for me will be Trilian. I must admit the new artists videos sold me, but Spectrasonics products are just great Vi's for musicians. I've come to love their stuff, and there's so much depth and tweakability in those Vi's, that I'll be busy for years!

These things works.

[allends]

I've had Omnisphere since it was released but only now did I get around to Stylus RMX and Trilian. I agree these are great tools!! Something like ezDrummer or Superior Drummer is also handy plus the basics & more from Soundsonline.com. I would be interested to know if others would agree that this is their idea of the essentials.

Happy Music-Making,
Allen

[eeoo]

Would I have trouble with the Spectrasonics stuff trying to run it on an i-mac with 4 gigs of ram? eo.

[mazz]

Would I have trouble with the Spectrasonics stuff trying to run it on an i-mac with 4 gigs of ram? eo.

How the instruments would run would partly depend on what processor you have. On a G5, it will bog down pretty quickly with 8 tracks of Stylus, and one instance of Omnisphere will make it stutter if you have a complex patch and play lots of notes. I would imagine it would be the same with Trillian. If you have an Intel processor, things will run smoother, depending on the processor speed. The RAM will limit how many other VIs you could load, but you can adjust some settings regarding RAM usage and direct from disk, etc. Some of the sounds in Omnisphere are so huge sounding, that you really only need that one sound and maybe a drum and bass and you have a piece. It really eats up a ton of sonic real estate if that's what you want. Of course, it's a deep synth, so going under the hood and thinning things out, etc., is always an option and in fact, I recommend it because so many of the Omnisphere factory patches are very distinctive and you'll be hearing them all over the place. Customizing the sounds to your taste is actually implied in the term "synthesizer", but it seems not that many people actually do synthesizing on their own these days, hence the plethora of factory sounds heard all over the place.

Spectrasonics' founder Eric Persing is a studio musician and synth programmer so he has tons of real world experience and his instruments and their ease of use and playability reflect that. Trillian is an awesome bass instrument with an amazing depth of detail in the sampling and programming of the sounds. Omnisphere is a pretty amazing instrument that covers a lot of ground stylistically and is really a must have for production music composers and folks in film scoring and game music. Stylus is so much more than just a loop player and the ability to link up grooves with Omnisphere and to import REX files really makes it a huge resource for almost endless variations in sounds.

As I mentioned before, a composer would be doing themselves a real favor by studying these instruments and learning to use them to their full potential above and beyond the (admittedly excellent and addictive) factory sounds. They truly are incredible instruments, developed by folks that actually use them in real world situations and have tons of experience in the studio and live performance.

Can you tell I love these instruments?

Mazz

[kclements]

I love Spectrasonics instruments. A lot of people on other boards said they wouldn't be good for my style of music, but I use them all the time. I have all three and just starting to scratch the surface of what they can do.

[matto]

Would I have trouble with the Spectrasonics stuff trying to run it on an i-mac with 4 gigs of ram? eo.

eo, Stylus should rune fine, it's not particularly demanding due to the fact that it uses an older engine, and the less complex nature of drum sounds/loops.

Omnisphere needs a fast modern CPU (at least Quad Core IMHO) for its more complex patches, although there are also many more simple patches that take relatively little CPU. RAM wise you should be fine.

I don't have Trillian; it uses the same engine as Omni and I would expect it to use less CPU on average due to the less complex nature of your average bass sound, but possibly more RAM because of the very deep sampling of the newest basses. Of course the part of the library ported from Trilogy will be much less demanding as far as RAM.

Spectrasonics instruments are fantastic and probably my most used tools overall, with the possible exception of Kontakt.

[mazz]

Just to add a little note: You can load Trillian sounds into Omnisphere, they show up in the Omnisphere browser now (of course you have to have Trillian installed!). Trillian has some amp modeling, etc. that is unique to it and those don't come across when you load the sounds into Omnishpere, but since Trillian has gobs of synth bass sounds that can actually be used for pads and leads as well, it gives tons more options just in the raw sound department, not to mention the cool sounds you can make by slowing down the attack of a fretless bass, for instance.

Just another love note to Spectrasonics!

[eeoo]

Thanks for the info fellas. Right now Stylus and Trillian would be most useful for me, definitely on my lust-list. Must...buy...more...........gear.................eo.

[Kolstad]

Would I have trouble with the Spectrasonics stuff trying to run it on an i-mac with 4 gigs of ram? eo.

I run Omnisphere on an Intel dual core, 3ghz, with 4gigs of ram. Have no issues at all. It's true you can max out if you load very complex multis, but in my experience so far, you would rarely use those, as the textures are so thick even on single patches.

Stylus is very light on my cpu, so I could run 24 tracks w/effects without problems. I just freeze the tracks in Live, if they get too heavy.

From what I've heard, Trillian is a little more of a cpu hog, but I guess that depends again on how many multi patches you'd run.

If you work like me, with a combination of software and real instruments, I doubt you'd have any major issues on your setup. We still need good mixes

Spectrasonics products are ez as a breeze to install and get going with, too. No hassle, great sounds, useful out of the box, totally integrated with each other.. what more can any musician possibly want?

I really liked the old Roland stuff too, but with this, Eric Persing has really outdone himself!

[Kolstad]

I've has Omnisphere since it was released but only now did I get around to Stylus RMX and Trilian. I agree these are great tools!! Something like ezDrummer or Superior Drummer is also handy plus the basics & more from Soundsonline.com. I would be interested to know if others would agree that this is their idea of the essentials.

Happy Music-Making,
Allen

I think so. There's so much good software out now, different markets and so many different ways to work, that it's really hard to pinpoint actual "essentials", but these products certainly can do a LOT of stuff for you. And the music won't be turned down because of the sounds & samples, for sure. East West and Native Instruments are also companies with go-to products for many, and then there would be a lot of smaller companies with great single products as well.