Omnisphere may be a rompler but that’s only part of the story.
It has a powerful synth engine.
True, but the main point holds- it’s not intuitive to program and there’s too many freaking presets lol
I just downloaded ‘Xpand’ some days ago, and IMHO it’s quite useful as a basic rompler.
Especially when it comes to simple pads, all the basic sounds in a not to sofisticated but useable quality.
Of course you woulnd’t want to play that piano, or the “natural” strings, …
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Hi Jeff
I started using Xpand about 2 months ago and it is slowly replacing some of my Arturia sounds. It loads much quicker and uses a lot less RAM. It doesn’t excite me sound-wise but is good for pads, as you said. I love ProteusVX as a have-it-all toolbox of sound. The EMU libraries sound great. Another simple, but great sounding toolbox is surprisingly the M-Audio Key Rig.
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Yes for me xpand is also a winner. Decent sounds, quick loading and small footprint. Only thing is that there are to little Synth parameters to modify. The interface isn’t user-friendly.
With emu i always have the problem that the library is badly loaded.
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Really ?
I find the beauty of Omnisphere is that it has layers of programming which can be very accessible but get much deeper if required.
It certainly isn’t Diva (to which I’m addicted for reasons I can only describe as ‘emotional’) 
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Adrian
Which would you prefer of the 2? I have wanted Omnisphere for sometime, but am interested in Diva and don’t want to break the bank on both.
Regards
Corky
PS…sorry for being off subject
Back on topic:
This is my lightweight rig for small venues. Easy to haul, quick to setup and breakdown,
It is composed of M-Audio 88 key, EMU X-Board 49 key, Crate KBA 60 amp, Fender Strat, Focusrite 18i8 audio interface, and laptop.
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The question maybe better phrased as ‘which one should I get first?’.
They are wildly different beasts with some crossover areas. Neither can do what the other does.
With Omnisphere I can do way more than with Diva - and produce tones that I can definitely work with. It’s a far deeper synth engine, but…
…if I was shipwrecked on a desert island with a solar panel and a laptop, and I wanted something to move the soul when I played it, I think it would be Diva. It does way less than Omnisphere, but what it does is speak to me like no other software synth I own.
If I made one specific type of music that needed that Diva thing, it would be Diva all the way, rather than trying to get that essential tone from Omnisphere. If I needed to have a massive pallette of sounds to work with and a deep synth engine that could get into unique spaces, it would be Omnisphere.
I had Omnisphere first, and would probably still go that way if it was one or the other. Diva would be the luxury and Omnisphere would be the essential, but only because I don’t dedicate myself entirely to that analog ambition. I’ve spouted off way more than is useful, probably - but it’s only because you ask a TOUGH QUESTION! 
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Thanx for your answer. Sorry to be so tough on you, lol! Perhaps breaking the bank on this may not be so bad ! I have been back and forth on Omnisphere, but what I’ve heard of Diva, it seems to lure me in. Thank you for “spouting off” because I needed that helpful input.
Kindest Regards
Corky
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I may have given the impression that I don’t like Omnishpere and in fact I love it. It does sound amazing. I’m just starting to react to that whole way of doing things. I’m probably getting to be a curmudgeon but I’m really returning to the old days of simple things that do essentially one sound. And mostly that’s emulations of classic hardware I know inside out from Ye Olde Days lol I don’t have Diva; need to look at that. I have much that same reaction to the new Repro-1. That thing KILLS.
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I am very familiar with that term…unfortunately.
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You can download a demo of Diva and check it out.
(maybe we should continue on the other thread and keep the rig thread clean haha!)
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Diva is a fabulous plugin! The only negative is that it’s a bit CPU-hungry. One of those plugins I sadly can’t use for songs where I have lots of other stuff running.
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This is my main rig but in a way there’s not much to see here as the HX3 Organ Module and UR22 interface are all hidden inside the XK3 which is used as the master controller. The Organ is output to the Leslie and all other sounds go to the Bose L1 (two of them) via the UR22 from Cantabile. The XK3 send its midi out to Cantabile which then splits the organ and other sounds to their own outputs.
I’m using Lounge Lizard for Rhodes/Wurly, GD-6 for guitar (plus a couple of acoustic guitar vsts) as well as Scarbee Pianet and Best Service Bandoneon/Accordions for some gigs. My idea is to mostly incorporate these instruments with the Hammond rather than simply using them as individual sounds, though I can use the drawbars to control all of this. The nanoKontrol is a bit ugly but allows me to control the Cantabile instrument levels quickly. All the presets are called up using the XK3 black/white preset keys. I’m still experimenting but the control Cantabile gives me is amazing. For piano gigs I take my Doepfer keyboard, a second UR22 (to save taking the other stuff apart) and the Surface Pro. Ivory 2 is my main piano, plus the Lounge Lizard etc…
In theory I shouldn’t need to even see the Surface Pro, simply control everything from the organ setup but I’m not sure I’m brave enough to try that on a gig!
Paul
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Now the Surface Pro is on the right Place …
Fantastic Skills in combination with Cantabile …Love it!!
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I thought about buying surface pro, too… but as I can see in your picture you have the chords and the x32 mixer window on the screen. But how do you know which Preset/State/Song is going on at the moment?
My dream setup would be:
The drummer controls the backing track on a seperate computer.
When the last note of a song has been played, cantabile automatically loads the next preset. (next song)
Then the drummer starts the song. A LivePrompter kind of application starts scrolling the text.
And cantabile only shows the song name and state at the top of the screen. (so that the other part of the screen can be used to show the chords)
Normaly only Cantabile is visible …
X32 Mixer Software is working in the background and also the Dmx Software for lighteffects …but only at home to test it as hobby …no Gig’s
…Surface Pro 4 is a Perfect Player in my team…
But for vst I think it is not the best solution… Some vst’s need to much power (example Avenger) that the Surface is mutating into a heater…
So i think it is better to use a Rack PC with Touchscreen Monitor …
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Just picked up an M-Audio Oxygen 88, factory refirb from a dealer. Basically new in box for six hundred odd bucks. Couldn’t leave it as I’ve been hunting for a weighted key unit for a year or so.
I plugged it into a Steinway plugin and Cantabile and no issues.
As a kid I learnt and practised for for years on old uprights and this feels like that to me!!
So far I really like it.
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