# First Hardware Synth to Use With Omnisphere?



## Andrew0568 (Dec 31, 2019)

What would you recommend for a first hardware synth, specifically to use with Omnisphere's hardware integration?


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## wst3 (Dec 31, 2019)

The Roland SE-02 is my first - and I am a little embarrassed to admit I didn't realize it was supported when I bought it, I got it as a small form factor, cool sounding synth I could have within arm's reach. With Omni it is a very cool control surface as well.

I would not say they are audibly identical, but they are really really close, and combining them can be fun too.

I happen to have a Korg MS-20, and I've compared some patches on it with the Omni emulation, and that is pretty close too. I'm considering adding the Korg MS-20i controller one of these days, I think it would be fun.


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## Giscard Rasquin (Dec 31, 2019)

Just ordered a Roland System-8 as a first synth.
Seems to be a really capable synth, besides the Jupiter and Juno emulations and the guys from Spectrasonics say it’s a very good controller for Omnisphere in this video:




Was looking at the Novation Summit as well but it’s almost twice as expensive and probably a bit overkill for a first synth


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## givemenoughrope (Dec 31, 2019)

I still don’t understand this ‘control software with the hardware version’ thing. Why would this be a desired feature? I must be missing something but it seems analogous to getting a violinist to play through an audio to midi converter of some kind to trigger a virtual violin.


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## wst3 (Jan 1, 2020)

not missing anything at all - that's a pretty good analogy in fact, except that synthesizer emulations are (generally) a little further along than most acoustic instruments.

I used to joke that I'd love to be able to replace my bass player's bass with one of the early Scarbee basses. He is a fantastic bass player, but Scarbee's bass just plain sounded better.

The think with the hardware controlling a software version of itself - for me - is that I like the control, and while their emulations probably won't fool real synth aficionados, they sound great in their own right. And now you have the familiar control on top of that? I like it.


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## j_kranz (Jan 1, 2020)

I don’t really view it as emulation at all, since it works with any Omni patch... its just more like an auto-mapped midi control feature, which can be useful if you prefer to twist a real knob instead of a mouse.


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## bill5 (Jan 3, 2020)

j_kranz said:


> I don’t really view it as emulation at all, since it works with any Omni patch... its just more like an auto-mapped midi control feature, which can be useful if you prefer to twist a real knob instead of a mouse.


Then why not just get a MIDI controller? I admit I don't get this either, not that it matters or I'm saying that makes it wrong or bad in any way. I guess I'd rather go all "ITB" or "OTB."


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## chimuelo (Jan 3, 2020)

bill5 said:


> Then why not just get a MIDI controller? I admit I don't get this either, not that it matters or I'm saying that makes it wrong or bad in any way. I guess I'd rather go all "ITB" or "OTB."



I use a pair of SE-02’s and my Physis K4 is better than the infant sized knobs on the SE-02s.
Omnisphere hardware emulation might be cool on a bigger synth, but the small Boutiques benefit is to stick them away somewhere and automate them from a preferred controller.

I stash mine under a USB 3 Hub/Monitor Stand under the pedals.
A Behringer CAT Emu will take the SE-02’s place in 2020.
Somebody FINALLY released multi wave Oscillators instead of these 2 Oscillator knock offs.
Im sure Spectrasonics will add a Hardware Emulation thang for the CAT.
Thats a Fat Bastard.

Didnt Hans A. who made the Malmsjo and VGP Samples have hardware controller presets years back?
Worked really good on my Kurzweil.
I’d rather see more controls like that to assist programming Velocity than little knobs and such.

Arent we spoiled though.
Anytime I feel like complaining I just remember my disk loaded hardware and it makes me grateful.

Happy New Year


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## j_kranz (Jan 3, 2020)

bill5 said:


> Then why not just get a MIDI controller? I admit I don't get this either, not that it matters or I'm saying that makes it wrong or bad in any way. I guess I'd rather go all "ITB" or "OTB."



You certainly could (for the record I use it with my MIDI controller more than with an actual synth since they aren't right in front of me at all times)... but, I guess the novelty is that the hardware synth literally has knobs already labelled ADSR, Filter Cutoff, Osc Shape, etc... and all of these automatically jump to the equivalent parameter in Omnisphere. To my knowledge Omnisphere is not NKS compatible, so it's kinda like having a deeper functionality if your controller already has a bunch of knobs labelled with synth parameters. I can certainly see it not appealing to everyone, but if your controller is already a hardware synth (which may be the case more for electronic music producers than media composers), it's a nice feature.


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