Posts Tagged ‘Spectrasonics’

Spectrasonics Omnisphere Review

Spectrasonics Omnisphere Review

Whether you are a hip-hop/RnB producer, or if you produce music for television/films, then Spectrasonics Omnisphere is defiantly a virtual synthesizer you want to look in to.  It has been described by people as the “ultimate synth” and the only synth you will need.  With its library that is around 50GB in size, it is defiantly a contender for the best synth ever.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere runs on Spectrasonics STEAM engine (like Trilian).  This engine has been built from the ground up specifically for Omnisphere and Trilian.  The browser in STEAM, which allows you to browse all of your patches and instruments, is the best that I have seen on any virtual instrument.  Omnisphere has 14 different categories,  which each have a sub category inside of them.  On top of that, it also displays all of the authors so you can browse by author, as well as letting you browse by genre (such as film, or ambient).  This is all possible because of the STEAM engine that is used.  Another feature that is in STEAM is that it gives you a lot of information about the synth you are using and tells you what that sound is good for.

Like I mentioned, Omnisphere comes with a 50GB library.  This is the biggest virtual instrument that I know of.  And not only that, the sound quality is top quality.  Everything from pads and arpeggiators, to the piano sounds are clear, full and well mixed.  There is literally every synth sound that you could want from a synth VST.  As well as the synths you would expect from this, it also comes with a load of sound effects.  I can guarantee that if you get Omnisphere, it will be your most used virtual synth, if not your only used virtual synth.

On board Spectrasonics Omnisphere, is all of the main knobs and buttons you would expect from a synthesizer such as Oscillators, filters, modulation, LFO’s and envelopes.  You can play around with all of these to create the sound that you need.  Like Trilian, you can add preset effects that have already been created to add things like delay to the synth, or some distortion.  There are all sorts of preset effects that can be added to change the synth sound significantly.

Although the price may but you off buying it, Spectrasonics Omnisphere is worth it as it will be the only synth VST you’ll need to buy for a long time.  It has amazing sound quality and amazing effects that can fine tune to get the sound you need.  It can be used for use in film, or used to create radio music.  It literally is the ultimate synth VST.

Overall Score: 10/10

Spectrasonics Trilian Review

Spectrasonics Trilian Review

Spectrasonics Trilian is a bass virtual instrument consisting of literally hundreds of bass sounds and samples.  It has every kind of bass sample you can think of from electric bass, acoustic bass and synth bass in its massive 35GB library.  Is it the ultimate bass VST and the only bass VST you will need?  Find out below.

First of all, Spectrasonics Trilian works on a STEAM based system.  This has been developed specifically for Spectrasonics’ virtual instruments such as Trilian and Omnisphere.  STEAM actually works pretty well and allows you to easily find the bass samples by browsing through folders, or by using the search function to find the specific sound you want.  The STEAM system also gives you the option to preview a sample before you load it, which comes in useful if the sample is big in size and takes ages to load.

Its impossible to test the sound quality of every single sound and sample as there are too many to remember.  However, from what samples I have used, the quality of them is brilliant and there isn’t one that I wouldn’t consider using myself.  In my opinion the acoustic bass section isn’t as good as the electric bass.  Although, the acoustic bass library is still good enough to use in your recordings, especially after you have added effects etc. There are better acoustic basses out there such as Vir2 instruments BaSiS.  The electric bass library is what makes Trilian stand out and it is hard to tell the difference between this VST and the real thing.  The synth library isn’t the biggest, but like all of Trilian the synth bass still has an amazing sound quality.  Again though, I wouldn’t buy Trilian for just the synth sounds.

Spectrasonics Trilian has a lot of different effects on-board its STEAM based system.  You have a main effects page where you can alter the filter effects, as well as the feedback and mix.  Under the edit section, you can go more in depth on changing the preset sound to your liking by modifying basic synth options such as the LFOS and envelopes.

There are also a lot of different preset effects that can be added.  These are effects such as making the bass have a “wah-wah” effect or adding delay to the bass.  Then on top of that, the preset effects can be modified.  Spectrasonics really goes in depth on letting you get the perfect sound needed.

Spectrasonics Trilian is defiantly a must have bass virtual instrument for all music creators and producers.  The amount of sample’s included is astronomical, and every single one is of quality sound.  Then you have the option to use a massive amount of different effects to modify the sound to your liking.  All of this happens in Spectrasonics STEAM based system, which is powerful and easy to use.  This is defiantly a VST you have got to own.

Overall Score: 8/10