Omnisphere 2: huge performance improvement for some Windows users

[Guy Rowland]

This snuck out without much fanfare, but it's a big deal if you've been having sluggish performance in Windows. Update 2.8.6c finally fixes the mult-year issue.

Spectrasonics isolated the problem for the first time a couple of months ago, they'd not been able to repro until then but they finally got themselves a misbehaving rig which enabled them to work on fix. I tested some betas for them as a sufferer, and now it's out for all. There's an old thread on KVR of those who have had the problem, and so far everyone is ecstatic - it's a night and day difference.

Spectrasonics did tell me that they were working on further improvements, but maybe the release version actualy rolls them in too because it's so good.

Ironically I've just switched to a new rig so I can't really test any more, but performance is absolutely on a par with the silicon Mac, maybe even better.

Here's the full changelog:

Adds support for VST2 to VST3 replacement
Fixes issue on macOS where the instrument repeatedly asked the user to authorize
Fixes issue in Chorus Echo effect where tempo changes could create clicking artifacts
Fixes issue where the plugin could crash when sent long SysEx MIDI messages
Fixes issue where Multi load actions could fail when using MIDI events to load Multis into multiple plugin instances at once
Fixes issue where the Unison & Harmonia phase controls disappeared when GUI collapsed
Fixes issue where the VST2 or AAX plugins could crash when a DAW is loading the saved plugin state with the GUI closed
Fixes VST2 crash that could occur when plugin was placed within sub- folders that contained a space character
Fixes issue where the plugin could receive corrupted host automation values from Logic Pro when modifying automation assignments in the plugin
VST3 only: Fixes bug where MIDI clips generated by the Arpeggiator's MIDI Capture feature played back at half speed in the Host.
Windows only: Fixes GUI performance issues

Update available on the website and in-app via their slick updater system.

[Pablo Crespo]

This is golden, I have been using omni less and less in recent time due to a lag of 2 seconds when changing presets. This seems to have fixed that!

Thanks Guy for being on top of it, I gave up years ago with support

[Linos]

Thank you for the heads up Guy.

[Guy Rowland]

This is golden, I have been using omni less and less in recent time due to a lag of 2 seconds when changing presets. This seems to have fixed that!

Thanks Guy for being on top of it, I gave up years ago with support

Glad it's had a happy outcome!

Lots of people had said they'd got nowhere with support. Maybe I got lucky, but I was determined to get to the bottom of it. It was so obvious how it should work from my macbook. It took a long time to go through all the usual checks, I made several demo videos for them and to give them their credit they totally believed it was a problem but they couldn't repro (lots of Windows users have never had an issue). Then one day they got back to me and said "OH WE HAVE THE PROBLEM!" They said they got one rig with the issue and that was it - the moment they could repro they could figure out what was causing it.

So I do have sympathy with them, you can't fix what you can't find and there never was a way anyone found to force the problem - you either had it or you didn't. Unless someone physically brought their machine into their office and said FIX IT!!! it was impossible.

[GR Baumann]

Fascinating, never heard about that before, well done Guy! How long did this go on?

[Guy Rowland]

Fascinating, never heard about that before, well done Guy! How long did this go on?

The KVR thread is from 2020, but I'm sure I had it quite a bit before then. It was so slippery, for me it always seemed a bit better after an update but would then rapidly get worse again. My guess is about 5 or 6 years all-in.

[GR Baumann]

ops... Boy am I glad to have turned my back on Microsoft and Steinberg after Windows Vista.