Spectrasonics Atmosphere VST 2 PC

12 Years producer and sonwriter for pop, dance and experimental music.

Very easy to use, simple interface and complex at the same time. The layout is clean and clutter free.

First off, ignore the the reviewer below. He or she has obviously never used Atmosphere, what a fool. How can you say that only 2 sounds are usable in a super synth like Atmoshpere, with all the great controls, filters, layering, adsr, etc. Atmosphere has the most beautiful lush sound available in a soft synth...period. The pads are fat and juicy, evolving and phasey. Amazing sound, no need to eq or apply fx.

Worth every penny and some. No regrets. Sound for sound and layer for layer this thing is a beast.

Ok, let me be the first lemon here. I make moddy synth-pop, chill-out and electronica and I don't find Atmosphere's sounds all that convincing. For a few reasons:

1. About 80% of all the sounds - cold metallic, belly, resonant drones. Now who need drones? Maybe I was born in the stone age, but I never heard a metallic drone on any kind of listenable record. I think no musician would ever use this kind of sound. Unless he wants to irritate the hell out of his listener and give him major earaches.

2. I bought this VST looking for pads. Yes, for simple straight pads. Background pads, gentle motion synths, atmospherics... like those you can hear on Roland JV/XV/Fantom, Korg 01W/Trinity/Triton synths, I haven't found them here. I mean realy good ones. Well if you look at the gear list used to create Atmosphere sounds you'll understand why. It all went wrong from the beginning. If a person uses analog/va instruments to create "atmospheres" than probably he/she doesn't quite understand the meaning of the word "atmosphere". Drone = (not) atmospheres. He also obviously doesn't understand the meaning of the word "dream". Belly, glassy, droney = (not) dreamy. It is very hard for me to associate ear-ripping, brain-shatterring sounds with dreams. With insomnia - yes. With nightmares - yes. With dreams - no.

Why do all the voice pads sound the same - like some cheap Proteus1 or Fairlight? Couldn't guys from Spectrasonics take some current Roland, Korg, Yamaha romplers' aahs, oohs and choirs to create something imaginative? I have quite a few of those synths and those blow the Atmosphere away like if it's a dust mite. In fact any of those synths with their few kilobytes of pad samples offer so much more in terms of "pads" then the whole 3+ Gb of Atmosphere.

Ok, i'm too harsh here. In fact Atmosphere has decent (but nowhere near excellent to be fair) voice pad sounds. I counted two.

3. The same goes for string/euro/flutey pads - they are harsh and annoying. No warm, fuzzy, thick and smooth ones.

4. There are some nice ambient, "intricate motion", "evolving moods" sounds, but most of them eventually have that stupid droney overtones popping up somewhere through "the motion". You have to apply a lot of filtering to get rid of those damned overtones, but in the same time you're giving up useful harmonics and make these sounds dull.

In general, I found about 10 good sounds, 20 decent ones in Atmosphere and not a single one really excellent, which would actually hold my attention for more then a few seconds. The rest (few hundreds) are just a waste of space, imho.

I would rate this plugin so much higher if its creators thought about how to make their sounds usable in all kinds of music, not only ambient droney ones. As I said, lack of smooth voice and strings pads is a major letdown, and all the atmo sounds are not convincing either and are much inferior to those in Kord and Roland sample-playback synths.

Ah, forget about it. It may be better than some of other software pad synths (like Morphology, Aletered States - I have those, won't even bothere writing review for them, in one word - about 3 useful sounds in each) For 300$ I'd rather recommend buying a Roland 2020, Korg N1 or Yamaha TG500 synths - they will offer you 100 times more useful and better sounding atospheric dreamy pads. Not to mention top of the line Triton/Fantom/Motifs with all the cards expansions. Or JP8080/Virus for a bit more $$$ if you're into analog pad sounds.

This VST focuses heavily on analog-like sounds, and it's not good. Maybe it's a matter of taste, but I find digital sounds more warm and atmospehric and then cold analog sounds. I wouldn't complain if it had half of analog half of digital sounds. But unfortunately the palette on this VST is very poor, the crucial categories are terribly lacking in content and sonic variety, and the abundance of harsh droney belly glassy overtones kills vast majority of sounds, many of them are way too harsh or overcomplicated to fit in the mix. There are some nice ambient sounds, few slightly interesting evolving sounds but that's about it. Another proof that software synths are still no match for hardware.

Been playing now for over 30 years, mostly guitar and bass. For the last ten years I've played the boards. I have the 1.2 version and it's on an HP PC with windows XP home. 2.5 gigs processer with 1 gig of ram with an AMD 64. I use a M-Audio 410 Firewire that plays thru KRK monitors.

This is so simple a child could use it. Installation was a breeze and to tell you the truth read the manual once and your on your way.

They say that God created the heavens and the earth and thats even questionable, but one thing is for sure Eric Persing did create the Atmosphere. And what an Atmosphere it is lush,warm,thick, and rich beyond discription. My God it blew my socks off. Theres nothing like it on the planet.

Lets put it this way if you went out and bought 30 synths you may get whats in Atmosphere. My only complaint, I wish it had more voice patches. It's never crashed and I dont think it ever will. I run it on Cubase SL3. It's simply the best.

I've been a guitar player for 20 years and have been into studio and synth work for around 15 years. I've done professional production/recording for clients' genres ranging from bluegrass to death metal. Some of my own personal side projects with synth usage have been published in UK-based post-production CD compilations in ambient/horror categories and are currently floating around in the UK area as well as in Japan.

This synth is very simple at first glance. At first impression one may think that this synth would sound simplistic and/or run-of-the mill. Think again. In spite of a seemingly reduced set of controls and functions, there is a lot of horse power under the hood of this thing. Most of the controls are packed with more variances that what may appear on the outside. Overall I would say that this synth is very well laid out and extremely functional.

Hands down this synth earns a 10 on sound quality. If you want depth and textures and tastefulness in presets than this synth is for you. There are definitely more presets here than you could get through in an evening. A couple of weeks would be more like it since you are likely to get so caught up in each preset that you'll start playing and writing right away. And wow do these presets sound good. Words to describe the presets: amazing, tasteful, useful, inspirational, varied, other-worldly, beautiful, addictive, mesmerizing, etc.. You just won't grasp the scope of this synth until you hear it. In the realms of pads, ambiences, and textures, this synth sounds far superior to anything else I've ever played or heard (hardware or software: Kurzweil, Korg, Roland, Nord, Virus, IK Multimedia, Steinberg, N.I., LinPLug, etc.).

Low CPU on my Toshiba 3.33Ghz P4 laptop with 1 GB of RAM. I can run 5 or 6 of these plug-ins at once within my host without even hitting 25% CPU usage. Considering the sounds I'm getting, that is monumental. And it has never crashed on me. Installation takes a whopping hour from 6 CD's due to all of the presets (it even says so when the installation begins) so be sure to bring your power supply along if you are using a laptop since CD/DVD drives drain your battery's juice quick. I started my install with a T-storm only about a 1/2 away -- I started to get a little antsy towards the end but it was worth it. This synth is a "must have" for film scoring or sound designing or ambient work. Without a doubt this is the best sounding synth I've ever heard in this genre.

I've been making music for 20 plus years. I make my living scoring music for film and television as well as doing soundtracks ( sound design and effects)and music libraries. I own a vast amount of hardware, softsynths and software plug ins. Mainly a pianist and synthesist.

I use Atmosphere in Sonar 4 Producer ( a great DAW ).

I use Atmosphere for a number of things, including; lush pads, surrealistic strings and choirs, thick synth brass, analogish bells and chimes and atmospherics. Mainly for filmscore.

Operating system is PC / 3000 AMD Athelon / 1 GB Ram

Echo soundcard / Event monitors and Yamaha Digital console

Extreemly easy to use. The interface is pretty straightforward..however, programing parameters and capabilities are a bit more limited then other analog modeling synths ( do to the fact that it mainly uses samples as its source ).

However, that said. The sounds on this beast are fantastic and exteemly useful and musical.

As stated above, its an incredible sounding synth. The only quamm I might have is that some of its more bread and butter analogish sounds are a bit thin for my tastes. One thing to be aware of, are that alot of the more pad type patches are very dense and create a large amount of harmonics. Therefore, when multitracking a number of Atmosphere tracks of this nature together you can easily loose the air in your recording. So tread lightly and use your ear.

Presets cover a large gammut of sounds. I find the need to tweak these patches a rare occasion.

Its very expressive as a playback unit, but lacks contoller features found in other modeling and softsynths that were created after Atmosphere.

You can pay thousands for hardware and other software synths, spend days, weeks...years!!!! programming all of them in multiples to create these types of patches...or..buy Atmosphere now and dig in immediatley. Worth the price tag many, many times over.

I heard it...I loved it..I got it.

Its an incredible tool for the synthesist. Whether amateur or pro, great results can be achieved with Atmosphere.

CPU usage can be moderate to slightly intensive ( depending on the patch ).

Crashes rarely compared to other softsynths with similar CPU applications.

Been playing classic rock-based music 17 years.

Use this in Cubasis

I use the Atmosphere for occasional effects in what I'm currently doing, mostly the pads.

I run a PIV system with 768mb main ram with an EMU card, Mackie board inputs for outside sound.

Very easy to use.

Do note, it takes awhile to install. Once installed, its trouble-free operation in my virtual studio.

Less than 10 is crazy, compared to what's out there in the market.

I'm not a synth guy, I really got this because I've always loved Cretu's Enigma records, with that vast, atmospheric stuff going on.

This synth for what it costs captures sounds (1) I don't have the knowledge or ability to create, and (2) I wouldn't have the budget or storage space for all the gear Pershing and co. used to create these textures. This stuff sounds like a turtle-neck wearing European with Lennon glasses did nothing but holed up for six months to create nothing less than the most lush, decadent, expressive synth sounds known to man. This stuff's the bomb.

Again, caveat, my first love is simple 3-piece rawk music, in which I spend most of my time. Several years ago, just for kicks, I had some weak computer-based stuff that I used to compose Engima-esque tracks. Sounded good, but obviously demo-quality. Atmosphere sounds better than all the synth sounds I can remember hearing. Its unbeatable at its price, even several times its price, its still worth more.

Worth many times its price tag. Put on some hip-hop or trance beats with BFD drums, cue up Atmosphere, I'm getting great, lush stuff happening right before my eyes and ears. Stunning, really.

Does need lots of RAM, does use up CPU. Good idea, if layering multiple tracks and running lots of stuff to convert the MIDI triggered real-time sounds to audio tracks to keep things running.

This thing wows me every time I boot it up.

I have been involved in music for more than ten years, and I have mainly VA and soft synths. I use Atmosphere for my productions to get pro quality pad and ambient sounds.

Atmosphere has a user-friendly designed interface and it is really easy to to tweak and edit, combine the sounds. Installaiton is quite straight forward, and it takes about an hour or so to complete the installation.

It sounds amazing! I have used many synths and none of them can compete with Atmosphere when it comes to pad and ambient sounds. It's simply the best, if your aim is to get great pad sounds. It has 32-bit sound engine option as well, which makes the sound even perfect.

I recommend Atmosphere to whom who would like to get warm and high quality pad/ambient sounds. Indeed, it is one of the secret weapons of my studio. Mr. Persing made a great product again!

I have been using computers to record music for about 7 years. Atmosphere is a must have for lush, dreamy pad sounds. This VST is the king for pad sounds.I use it with Sonar 3PE. Sonar's VST adapter has no problems with Atmosphere. I have a fairly modest DAW, 1.3 Ghz P4, 640MB ram and Atmosphere does not bog down the CPU anymore than most other soft synths. I have used Atmosphere for about 8 months and have not been disappointed.

Atmosphere took almost an hour to install on my system. This is due to the 2.4 GB of samples that must be loaded to the computer from multiple CD's that come boxed with Atmosphere. Though it took a long time to install, it went very smoothly and I had no problems. There are a huge amount of presets and in my opinon almost all sound outstanding. I rarely adjust any of the parameters and so mostly use the preset sounds. The manual is informative. The GUI is very basic and easy to use.

For pad sounds, Atmosphere is the king and can not be touched. The quality of the patches is outstanding. This is a Pro quality VST instrument. The presets are great and many.

Atmosphere is well worth the price. This program has never crashed in my DAW.

Atmosphere 1.2 running on a P4 Win XP box with Cubase SX 2. Used in my home studio primarily for pop and new age recordings. Needs a LOT of RAM, but a fast P4 or G4/G5 can chew through this pretty easily.

Very easy to use, no problem installing. A few hiccups upgrading to version 1.2, but nothing serious. Works great with Cubase SX 2. Didn't look at the manual -- I'm not a manual person -- so I don't know if it's any good. The synth is extremely simple in architecture, so if you are at all familiar with synth structures, you'll find yourself using this in no time. Extremely easy to get great sound out of it since the presets are so good.

Sounds amazing, for this type of sound. I have tons of synths and I purchased this primarily for the pads, which this is the absolute king of. There is not another synth in my arsenal that creates better pads. There are a few really great patches that come close in such synths as Absynth 2 or even FM7, but on the whole, for pads, Atmosphere is really supreme at this point in time. Some of the warm pads are so good I was shocked, and the number and repetiveness of similar-sounding pads is okay in my book. That's what I bought this for. It's like hundreds of shades of one color, so you'll find something near perfect in its patch list. The ambient sounds and textures are also superb. It has a number of lead and bass sounds that might sound cool in a mix if I tweak them, but I didn't purchase it for leads or basses.

Easily worth the price for the sounds it creates. It is the go-to synth for pads and certain glass/bell textures in my collection now. While the synth architecture is simplistic, the patches are so polished it's astonishing. The number of useful patches is also very high. It seems pretty stable so far, but I can't say for the long run. Software can be so finicky. Spectrasonics recently announced an upgrade to Stylus, so maybe an upgrade to Atmosphere is in the works, too. I would buy it in an instant.