Review and Discussion of Spectrasonic's Atmosphere

[Tweak]

[flash=]Review and Discussion of Spectrasonic's Atmosphere



Get one: http://www.zzounds.com/a--3745/item--SPCATMOSPHERE


Excerpt:


First lets clear up some misconceptions about Atmosphere. It is not a soft sampler. It's a synth based on sample playback. Can you load samples? Nope. Can you export samples? Nope. It's a closed system, you cannot add or tweak anything at the sample level. Is it just a preset soft synth? Nope again! You can program up custom sounds and save edited presets to a directory in the computer. So what is it then?! Its a soft synth, based on some very excellent samples, that is fully programmable that lets you save as many custom patches as you want. It is much like adding a hardware synth to your rack, except you are in the software domain.

Read the rest:

http://tweakheadz.com/reviews/review_of_atmosphere.htm

[misterharrison]

Hey Tweak

Your review makes it sound like a must-have. One question. I'm having trouble getting my Mac online, so I was wondering if Atmosphere is OS X compatible out-of-the-box or do you have to download an update from their website?

Will

[misterharrison]

Ignore previous post - I'm now online.

[triniti]

ok I neeed to know what the main cause of pc joiner issues
I have tried to install this app so many times and it will get to like disk 4 and then stop and say unknown error
and then somtimes it will not even get past disk 1
these are new cds from the store not cracked or anything
So i dont know what is the cause of this

[Richylad]

Its an amazing piece of software,
Another problem though, I just got it the other day. I have it loaded up and its working fine in logic. One thing though I cant seem to be able to automate anything in logic from atmosphere. is this a problem or have I installed it wrong or is there another way that I automate?
Cheers

.

[Rekky]

Every Atmosphere paramater has a MIDI cc paramater attached to it, you should be able to automate it via MIDI cc messages. Works fine in Cubase, but I don't know about Logic.

[Travis Coats]

I am debating on getting this. I have Absynth4 and use it quite often, but I am not too good at sound modeling, and Absynth's library is sort of hard to work in to a song most of the time. It's preset/example patches are sometimes drawn out and can be the base of a song in themselves! I am looking for something with a large variety of pads(especially ambient and angelic sounding). Would I be wasting money on Atmospheres when I have Absynth? I really like the demos on the site but the trouble with demos is that they usually have too much other software in their and the true presets/sound library are hard to make out.

Also are there in Intel-Mac users out there running this, and if so, does it run well on the new line of Macs? I would be using it as a plug-in through Cubase4.

Thanks

[Rekky]

Well, Atmosphere has some very nice preset pads on it... but its sometimes frustrating because it isn't tweakable enough.. For example, most of the presets are drenched in Reverb and you can't take it off..

This means it can be limiting sometimes... if you can get your head round Absynth then it would be better.

I own Atmosphere and I use it sometimes, but I don't think I would buy it again.. considering that I got Fruity Loops XXL with a ton of synths, FX, sequencer, sampler and more (including Sytrus which is great for pads).. all for about the same price as Atmosphere - I think its overpriced, just my opinion though.

[exorciser]

Does anyone work with Atmosphere on Intel-based machine?

[exorciser]

I just bought Spectrasonics Atmosphere, opened the box and read User guide booklet. And *bang*! It says that Atmosphere does not support Intel-based Macs. I just thrown away $400 for the thing that doesn't work.

Well I hope not. Is there any solution? I don't wanna run it through Rossetta or standalone in Windows. I want to run it as plug-in in Logic Pro. Is it possible?

[Tweak]

I am sorry to inform you that it will not work very well, if at all.. Spectrasonics really needs to get on the ball if they want to keep a sellable product. I've read the same old worn promise on their website for a long time.

I love atmosphere, but being realistic to you all--if I were on even a G5 mac I would not buy atmosphere today knowing I will someday have to go intel and that Atmosphere may not be there for me, or may cost a high upgrade fee.

[exorciser]

So do you belive, that one day when they release a fix patch for Atmosphere, I will have to pay for it?

Ridiculous, I just hope that till fall there will be a FREE upgrade. If it won't bo so, it means that I just thrown money away.

I can wait for an upgrade since guys in the store where I purchased Atmosphere Nightmare Synth Module don't want to take it back.

[Tweak]

If they have to completely rewrite the code, you can bet they need to recover costs. Read their site and form your own view. i hate saying bad things about products I love, but mac users must be forewarned.

[exorciser]

Hi guys,

did anyone install Intel Mac wrapper?

I am very confused, I've read support forum on Spectrasonics site, but I can't get this thing working.

Once they are explaining how to use OSX CD Joiner, which is btw not working. When I insert DVD media, CD Joiner app is not able to detect DVD???

And once they are offering Intel Mac wrapper, which does not working either. I have problem executing .zip file

If anyone can help I would appreciate that.

Tnx

[exorciser]

Sorry for panic, I redownloaded Intel Mac wrapper.zip, reinstalled Atmosphere, installed latest update patch and setup AU Manager

But it's not working as tipical AU/Vst, but in a emulated mode. Weird

[_controlfreak]

Yep, it's a wrapper. I know Spectrasonics thinks they have good reasons for the delay, but really it's unacceptable.

[exorciser]

Well, at least it works now on my Intel-based Mac

I have had Spectrasonics Atmosphere for months now, collecting dust on shelf

[Goose11]

Atmosphere is just fantastic. I have installed Komplete 5 with all its softsynths, I have numerous softsynths that came with Sonar 7, and I have a Fantom X8. But nothing is as compelling or inspiring to me as Atmosphere. I can always find a sound that gets a track going and especially important to me is the interface. It seems intuitive and easy to use. I look at some of the NI stuff and I am overwhelmed by complexity which is cool if I realy knew what the heck I was doing. I am new to this world so right now it is a bit intimidating. Atmosphere seems simple and straight forward and inviting to me. The depth and quality of sounds in there is incredible.

[Rekky]

I've just installed Atmosphere and Trilogy on an Intel-Based Mac using the public beta wrapper at the spectrasonics website.. It works OK, but a little glitchy, and seems to use alot of CPU..

The biggest problem I have, is when I try to render Trilogy to an audio file, it always comes out distorted (running Logic 8 on an iMac)... This makes it unuseable.. Haven't tried Atmosphere yet, but will report..

Anyone know anything about this?

[Goose11]

One of the things I like best about using Atmosphere on a Windows PC is how it is not so processor intensive. I use it and do not even worry about bogging down the CPU even with many Atmosphere tracks. When running Absynth or Kontakt, then there is some CPU bogging. This may have more to do with my processor though. Dual core Athlon. I hope you will have as good of luck running Atmosphere as I do.

[anonymity]

spectrasonics really sucks for not making this universal by now.. what a shame.. everyone is used to working without their products now...

[crhymethinc]

You mention in your review that the ridiculous EULA is the fault of "software pirates". This is just plain ridiculous. The fault is greed and nothing more. I own Atmosphere and had to agree to their stupid stipulations as well. But it has little to nothing to do with pirating. This is more like Gibson saying that before you are allowed to buy a Les Paul you have to agree that no one else will ever play it. Or if you buy a car, no one else will be allowed to drive it. The worse part is that you don't even know what you'll be getting yourself into until after you shelled out about $500 bucks and install it on your system. I, for one, will allow anyone who uses my studio to record music to use whatever software is on the DAW. If I feel like creating samples based on sounds I create using Atmosphere and using them in other software or hardware synths, I will do so. Like it or not, Spectrasonics does not have the authority to back up their EULA. I do not condone piracy, but I will be danged if I will allow a manufacturer to specify how, when and under what conditions I use MY property. Once money exchanges hands, it is no longer theirs, it belongs to the buyer.

If software companies are going to start playing that game, then they should either be forced to print the entire EULA in readable print on the packaging or they should have to buy it back, at full price, if you decide you don't want to agree to their despotic conditions.

btw - I should note that I am using a Windows based PC (dual Xeons@3.4GHz, 8GB ram, Windows Vista ultimate x64), dual M-Audio Delta 1010 cards and 2 UAD-1 cards and have no problems whatsoever. A friend of mine bought a Mac-based Pro-Tools rig and spent about 5 times what I spend and my system blows his away, as far as electronic music composition goes. I also use Acid Pro 6, which records dvds in surround sound (try that on Pro-Tools). It's what you get for buying into the hype and shelling out big bucks for a name. I also use Korg Legacy Digital, Reaktor 5, Absynth 5, some vsti software I found on KVR audio (there are some really good plugins there), and am waiting for the copy of FM7 I just purchased from eBay.

[aww-de-oh]

That was worth signing up for?