Spectrasonics Omnisphere

[iTwang]

Hi,

I'm thinking about buying Omnisphere but have read some reports here on some problems with both PT 7.4.2 and PT 8, especially when using it on a "slower" Mac Intel. Anyone with some input on this? I'm on an iMac Core 2
Duo, 2.4 Ghz, 4 GB RAM..... and I have not updated to PT 8 yet but will probably do it soon.

[remute]

I've found the RTAS version of Omnisphere to be waaay more RAM intensive that the AU/VST version. I've found myself avoiding using it, the "Out of memory" errors and slow GUI just kill my desire to make music.
All versions take around 5-7 seconds for the GUI to open.
This is on a Mac Pro 8*2.8ghz, 10gig of RAM, latest Omnisphere version.
May be worth checking out Camel Audio's Alchemy, I've heard good things about that and there's an RTAS version coming soon.

[iTwang]

remute,

many thx for your input! I'm thinking along the same lines actually. I'll check out your
suggestion!

[bukman]

I am running a similar spec mac to Remute (though I only have 6g of ram compared to his 10g) and find Omni works great.

Its an awesome synth.

Sure first time you open it in a session it takes a few seconds to load but after that its fine and I have no GUI issues. I actually run it often down to 64 samples of buffer when tracking with the rarest of error messages occasionally popping up about running out of cpu power.

For the money you get 40 plus Gig of core sounds to use as they are or combine, tweak and mangle them to your hearts desire. Good value in my opinion especially when you see what the synth engine also offers on top of the sounds for tweaking.

It is worth every cent imo.

Cheers

[iTwang]

Hi Bukman,

Yout input is much appreciated, are you on PT 8 already or?

[GlennO]

Originally Posted by remute

I've found the RTAS version of Omnisphere to be waaay more RAM intensive that the AU/VST version.

fyi, there's no difference in the memory usage among the various formats for Omnisphere. See the "memory issues" FAQ at support.spectrasonics.net for tips on how to reduce the likelihood of encountering an "out of memory" error.

Glenn
Spectrasonics

[iTwang]

Originally Posted by GlennO

fyi, there's no difference in the memory usage among the various formats for Omnisphere. See the "memory issues" FAQ at support.spectrasonics.net for tips on how to reduce the likelihood of encountering an "out of memory" error.

Glenn
Spectrasonics

Glenn,

Thx for taking the time to join us here. I am a little unsure how to proceed since some PT users have reported having problems with Omnisphere and on far more powerful Macs that I intend to use it with - iMac Core 2 Duo, 2.4 Ghz, 4 MB RAM. I did read the FAQ at the Spectrasonic site but I'm none the wiser, really.

From Spectrasonic's site:

Will Omnisphere's streaming benefit from a faster hard drive?
Fast drives are a smart way to go of course. There's a chapter in the Reference Guide devoted to optimizing Performance with Omnisphere.

I've tried Omnisphere but that was on a Mac Quad with 7/8 GB of memory and if you recommend that you use just one core, I'm unsure how that will affect PT and especially after upgrading to PT 8. Again, anyone with thoughts on this, feel free to chime in and again thx to everyone for helping out here on the DUC when needed, it is much appreciated!

[remute]

Originally Posted by bukman

I am running a similar spec mac to Remute (though I only have 6g of ram compared to his 10g) and find Omni works great.

Its an awesome synth.

Sure first time you open it in a session it takes a few seconds to load but after that its fine and I have no GUI issues. I actually run it often down to 64 samples of buffer when tracking with the rarest of error messages occasionally popping up about running out of cpu power.

For the money you get 40 plus Gig of core sounds to use as they are or combine, tweak and mangle them to your hearts desire. Good value in my opinion especially when you see what the synth engine also offers on top of the sounds for tweaking.

It is worth every cent imo.

Cheers

How many instantiations are you able to work with - I find that I can get just 1 Omni with 4 parts going before I run out of memory.

[bukman]

To be honest I am not running sessions with anywhere near your number of instances based on the fact I am doing a lot of guitars, vox and other instruments tracks.

At most I have 2 instances running but with most of the parts used up.

I guess a heavy synth user would need to assess the performance more carefully than myself.

Cheers