$46.

$200 upgrades are enough for your existing customers to become sister site downloaders.

 

2025 Spectrasanta: Omni3, overhauled Trillian, OH Stylus RMX, OH Keyscape, and something with BobMoog's AI: that's some Xmas my brothers...

 

What I really hope they do is fill in the gaps for some of the missing legacy library samples... Golly, you could make killer ambient records using only the Byzantium samples outta Bizarre Guitar...

 

So hyped ♥️

 

I'm genuinely pissed and can't be excited about this.
Omnisphere 3 costs the same as Omnisphere 2 did. But upgrading from Omnisphere 2 to 3 costs $199.
Well, guess what, I bought Omnisphere 2 six weeks ago, and if I now want to have Omnisphere 3 I'd essentially be paying $700 for the same product that others are getting for $499. If a new Omnisphere 3 license was a $100 more expensive than 2, or if I had bought Omnisphere 2 many years ago it'd be a different story, but since they cost exactly the same I just feel like I got majorly fucked over. Fuck.

 

Damn. Would it be worth it to email them about this? I don’t know how Spectrasonics are to deal with or how they treat their customers, but I’d give it a try.

 

Welcome to working legit. For me, if I buy nice used gear at favorable prices; I can almost always sell it and break even, or close enough to it, rather easily. Most of the time, I will get out Autosampler and make a ton of samples before letting something go. Breaking even is never bad, but usually I can make a little bit of money on top and sometimes more than that.

When it comes to software, if it is a good product you can "get your money's worth" by using it; but other than that when you buy something you should consider that money gone . Even from "reputable developers", you will usually get screwed somehow. More like invariably, than usually; if you want to be more precise about it. But this one is pretty bad, like you said.

 

Legit user here. No dongle needed. One-time online activation and that's it.

Im thrilled about this release because it adds more than 20K new presets without increasing file size. I'll just have to look into how that's gonna play into upgrades because obviously the old library has to be replaced with the enhanced compressed version and I definitely need my favorites and tagging to migrate.

 

Just yesterday I saw someone selling Omnisphere 2 for 180 bucks near me. It makes sense now.

 

Yah, it is a long shot, but it's worth asking. Some companies honor free upgrades, even, if you buy a version shortly before a new one comes out. 6 weeks isn't a very long time, IMO.

 

Great news!

 

You are right about that. He just paid the same for 6 weeks of use as someone who has had it 6 years. Of course, why do you benefit by buying it 6 years later than someone else, and ending up with both versions cheaper than them? They used it more than you already? What's your angle there...

If they want to play the whole "2 separate products game" for $200 more with everyone else, I think depending on who gets the email, they will probably resist doing anything. Especially if the new update is "a brand new product" instead of a picture with a different number on it and some additional features and content.

 

Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3: flagship Synthesizer plugin gets a major feature and sound upgrade

October 15, 2025 Synth Anatomy Hardware, News, Synthesizers 1

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Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3: flagship Synthesizer plugin gets a major update with plenty of new sound design features, FX plugin, and more.

Synthesizer plugins are plentiful. Only a few stand out and perhaps even become industry standards. These certainly include Serum 2, u-he Zebra 2, and Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3 by former Roland sound designer Eric Persing.

For the latter, there’s big news. Spectrasonics announced Omnisphere 3 today, a significant upgrade of its flagship Synthesizer plugin with many new features and sounds.



Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3
Major updates/upgrades for Omnisphere are rare. As a reminder, Spectrasonics released Omnisphere 2 back in April 2015, 10 years ago. The moment I also decided to buy OMN1 and take advantage of the free upgrade/grace period from OMN1 to OMN2.

With Omnisphere 3, Spectrasonics presents the next evolution of its flagship Synthesizer plugin. It introduces plenty of new synthesis features, improvements, and sounds. Let’s start with the engine.

The synthesis forms have remained unchanged, but the internal shaping options have expanded. Omnisphere 3 introduces a fully upgraded filter section with 36 new filter types in seven distinct sonic colors. No details yet on which filters it will add.

Then you can spice up the filters with a new, authentic component-modeled filter saturation that offers warm analog coloration. Also, on the synthesis side, you can work with a new oscillator drift function that provides beloved vintage analog instability.



The wavetable engine now ships with a wide array of new sweepable wavetables perfect for futuristic and modern sound design. A novelty is the polyphonic dual frequency shifter, which can fully track the keyboard. Spectrasonics says it’s the world’s first.

Other new features on the synth engine side are a unique unison phase cater for lush sonic landscapes and new classic glide modes modeled after vintage analog synths. This includes (OBXA®/Moog®/Odyssey® portamento curves with auto-bend and CS80 glissando).

Quadzone Synthesis/Modulation
A big highlight of Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3 is the quadzone synthesis/modulation that offers three sections: notes, velocity, and fader. In the notes section, you can now split your four layers more deeply on your keyboard. For example, you can have a different sound on each key.



Velocity lets you trigger different sounds in your layers by playing at different velocity levels.

My favorite, however, is the new fader functionality, which allows you to move between zones with a MIDI fader or modulation. You can blend smoothly between four patches with a MIDI control.

Alternatively, you can map an envelope or polyphonic aftertouch to blend between them. I’m pretty sure this will result in amazing new, expressive patches. And yes, a long-awaited feature is now on board. Omnisphere 3 now supports full MPE.

New Multi-FXs & Plugin
One of Omnisphere 2’s strengths, for me, is the multi-FX section, which features many very inspiring processors, including some unique to the plugin. The developers have continued this in Omnisphere 3.

Version 3 introduces 35 new effects processors, including new reverbs (Solar Shimmer, Inversions…), delays (magnetic echo…), dynamic processors, saturations, EQs, and many unique creative ones. This gives you nearly 100 effects processors.



In addition to this vast plethora of new algorithms, you can now use them standalone. Spectrasonics is adding a dedicated Omnisphere 3 FX plugin to the package. So you have two plugins in one—excellent decision, since the multi-FX section contains many algorithmic gems.

Expanded Hardware Integration
In August 2018, Spectrasonics released Omnisphere 2.5 with hardware integration, enabling many hardware synths to serve as Omnisphere MIDI controllers. Seven years later, they continue this hands-on functionality.

The new generation hardware integration works with every major brand of synthesizers and MIDI controllers. Spectrasonics promises that it ships with over 300 new hardware profiles, including the new Moog Messenger.

New Sounds & Patch Mutations
One reason so many people use Omnisphere 2 is its extensive, high-quality sound library, with over 14000+ sounds. There will be more. Omnisphere 3 features a new extended factory collection with 18 new libraries of thousands of new sounds, giving you a total of freaking 41.405 sounds.

Among others, you can find libraries such as electronic production, analog vibes, scoring organic, experimental organic, and more. On top of that, all of the original classic Omnisphere patches have been carefully remastered and refreshed with the latest v3 features and effects.



With their new lossless optimization technology, the Omnisphere 3 sound library actually takes no more hard drive space than Omnisphere 2.

If the sounds aren’t enough for you, but you don’t want to buy third-party libraries, there is now a clever built-in helper for new ones. Omnisphere 3 features a patch mutation function with which you can instantly create new sounds or just variations at the click of a button.

Alongside these new sounds, you can also dive into new deep-sampled sound sources from Pedro Eustache and other players, including Blown Ostrich Egg, Tonal Sand, Nyckelharpa, Lyre Harp, Celestaphone, Magic Wand Metallophones, and more. That’s enough fodder for third-party sound designer content for the following years.

Other Features
Even though the interface has been adopted from OMN 2 but refined, it also includes some new features. It ships with new adaptive global controls that let you quickly customize a patch’s overall sound without diving too deep into the engine.

It has controls for tone, ambience, filter, envelopes, vibrato, and unison. These smart controls automatically analyze the patch, so they always work with musical results…no matter what patch you select. So, more than just mapped macros.



It also comes with a redesigned full browser with a new directory tree interface and sub-categories.

Other features and improvements:

• new “Hide” feature – don’t show sounds you don’t need
• new Library images for better presentation
• simplified Tagging System with Keywords and Moods
• full backwards compatibility with all previous versions!

Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3 First Impression
This came as a complete surprise. It wasn’t on my radar, nor was it on many others. After 10 years, you’d expect a new version to be in the pipeline. Omnisphere 2 is an industry standard, and I’m sure Omnisphere 3 will be the same.

The new features are exciting add-ons that give the plugin even more of its own. Especially the MPE support and the morphing between sounds in layers will bring out many expressive sounds.

A $199 upgrade is a lot of money, but after 10 years of free updates and a ton of new features, I find it very fair. Others charge $99 every two years. This will undoubtedly be a must-buy for many.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3 will be available on October 21st, 2025, for $499/399€. You can upgrade for $199 from Omnisphere 2 or $249 from Atmosphere.

More information here: Spectrasonics

 

Right on. As you stated, I didn't even know this was in production! Although I can't wait to try it out. Now... if only....Stylux...RMX... 2.....

If only.

Cheers! Thanks for the update!

 

i been using omnisphere since 2011.. but i never showed it to anyone. it is an amazing plugin... and trillian too

 

Wonder whether they've implemented some 3rd party library authentication feature, that's been the great thing about Omnisphere 1 & 2, gaining these amazing preset packs from Luftrum etc from the sister site. If they haven't, I may just buy Omnisphere, finally!

 

I will crack their bs on 21st…

That’s complete bullshit…
$200 “upgrade” for loyal customers, just for a slightly updated GUI and a compressed library?

 

It's not just an updated GUI and compressed library? You can find the information on their website what's new..

e.g. 18 new factory libraries / 35 new effects (effect section available as standalone) / 36 new filter types / Full MPE support / new browser
just to name a few things

 

Omnisphere is the only soft synth with a $500 price tag.

Spectrasonics must be doing something very special here but I fail to see what exactly.