Omnisphere and/vs Komplete?

holonology

Interested in this question over the last months. Omni has a reputation all of its own, namely through the quality of the synth and its reputation for providing great quality sounds out of the box.

It has that huge halo factor around it too, which always makes it both attractive, and also hard to judge from the outside with that steep price tag and no demo.

I guess this leads me to 2 connected questions.

1. If you have Komplete, is there a reason to own Omnisphere, and what does it bring to the table that Komplete does not in your experience? If NKS and Komplete provides production ready sounds, does Omni make sense if it also does the same, or is it more of a nice to have?
2. And if staying within the NKS ecosystem is preferred, would any additional synths/Kontakt libraries bring Komplete into a similar ballpark as Omnisphere stock content? Clearly, there would always be unique differences of course, but does Komplete miss out on specific aspects of the Omnisphere library that others make? I'm wondering if adding some 3rd party libraries might be as good an option as Omnipshere for those who prefer NKS.

Just interested to hear from others if you either have both and have an opinion on both, or if you're on the fence about Omnisphere and prefer the NKS ecosystem.

PoorFellow

There are a number of 'synth' solutions that appear as attractive and to me 'Omnisphere' is certainly one. On top of that then 'Omnisphere' got , quote : "Ground-breaking Hardware Synth Integration allows hands-on control of Omnisphere" and more ,ref. : Spectrasonics - Omnisphere 2.8 - Features .

But the thing is , at least to me , then most of this is about 'interfaces' and what you prefer and about you and your preferred workflow. Also , and this is most important, I think is that no matter what you got then you are also limited by your own imagination (negative sense) or often only limited by your own imagination (positive sense). Meaning that what you can get out of say all the content of Komplete 14 Collectors Edition to great extend only depends on your own imagination and ability to truly combine the use of all the apps and plugins and what that will give you !

Some might says that e.g. 'Omnisphere' or Arturia's Pigments (or go back to the now retired Absynth) or whatever can do stuff than that other (pick something) they compare with can not do ! But hey ! I have a hardware synthesizer that I combined with a Granular modular soft synth and made that make sounds I have never heard before. And neither anything Spectrasonics nor Native Instruments can do exactly that (Make that exact sound). My point ? My point is that since the combinations when it comes to sound is almost endless and you can always find something else to sample and a new way to combine that sample with something then you can always make something unique and say that that other thing can not do that !

So to me the question is more like , what do you want to work with or what do you prefer to work with and also how much money do you have and how much money do you want to spend ? If you have the money then why not buy both the Komplete 14 CE and the 'Omnisphere' ? (and get it all 😎🤣😎)

I surely want the 'Omnisphere' in my collection to play with but there are so much other that I would like to have to play with too.

Vocalpoint

i own both. Plus Pigments.

All three are different. All three can easily standalone or complement each other.

But if the question is - is it possible to replicate Omnisphere with Komplete - I would say you could comfortably close but Omnisphere is legend for a reason.

Where Omnisphere really jumps ahead of everyone out there is with the depth of control and superb three party preset support.

Once you get Omni going with a few banks from someone like Tom Wolfe - you can instantly appreciate the cost and the feeling that you might be driving the finest synth VST there is.

Glad I have them all (plus I cannot forget the superb pairing of Diva and Zebra from u-He)

VP

holonology

So to me the question is more like , what do you want to work with or what do you prefer to work with and also how much money do you have and how much money do you want to spend ? If you have the money then why not buy both the Komplete 14 CE and the 'Omnisphere' ? (and get it all 😎🤣😎)

Heheh, I know what you mean @PoorFellow. In terms of workflow, I do like Maschine for new ideas, and I augment ideas that I bounce to audio. I do really like how NKS feels like a self-contained ecosystem, but I do use 3rd party vsts both in Maschine (sometimes) and in Ableton (often.)

I'm on K14U at the moment, and I don't see myself upgrading that now until 15. One idea I had was Omni in 2024, and potentially K15 if the first discounts on that are landing in 2025. I have some nice 3rd party Kontakt libs (Slate & Ash, Luftrum) and really that triggered me to ask - do I actually not really need Omni with all that on board?

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/147027#Comment_147027

do I actually not really need Omni with all that on board?

As far as I am concerned then no ! you do not really need Omnisphere , but once you have it then maybe you will ask yourself how you ever did without it ! 😉😁 Do kids really need candy ? When Vocalpoint in the above again reminds me of my previous interest in Diva and Zebra from u-He then the first thing I did were to visit the U-He site again to see what I were missing ! And besides K14CE I also have a number of great synths including the Arturia's Pigments so do I really need Omnisphere ? NO ! But I still want Omnisphere.

Vocalpoint

@holonology

"I'm on K14U at the moment, and I don't see myself upgrading that now until 15. One idea I had was Omni in 2024, and potentially K15 if the first discounts on that are landing in 2025. I have some nice 3rd party Kontakt libs (Slate & Ash, Luftrum) and really that triggered me to ask - do I actually not really need Omni with all that on board?"

I say you have a ton of great stuff there (especially the Slate & Ash - wish I could pull the trigger but the wallet squeeze is heavy :))

If it was me - I would run with this layout and make every attempt to exhaust it before thinking Omni.

VP

holonology

Noted folks, thanks ofr your take. Holding off it is. The S&A stuff is amazing really and if it's punching into a similar zone alongside Komplete, then that's good enough for me :D