So the creative process can be enhanced with multiple hardware controllers that control the same Omnisphere parameter.

Different hardware synths will have different 'profiles' to control the same function in Omnisphere.

If the hardware doesn't have granular synthesis, it won't have controls for that function.

As a result, not all hardware synths can control all software functions.

Instead of designing hardware controls to be generically linked to a parameter, physical hardware controls do the same task, regardless of which engine is being controlled.

The Omnisphere user interface treats every hardware control as an integral part of the user interface in the same basic way that the hardware synth does. Omnisphere takes this concept and runs with it. We all know that every hardware synth has a unique way of using its hardware features (knobs, buttons, sliders, mod wheels, X-Y pads, etc.) to control its internal parameters.

As I re-watched the videos from Spectrasonics and third party reviewers, I gradually started to understand that this integration was an entirely new paradigm that linked the software synth's (Omnisphere) engine to the underlying method of parameter control designed into the hardware synth's engine.

But there is definitely more to the story when you look closer. My initial impression watching the videos was that the supported hardware synths acted like a very specifically mapped virtual instrument controller. When I first saw the hardware integration with Omnisphere 2.5, I was curious.

Omnisphere 2.5 to try free