2008 NAMM Show: Spectrasonics previewed their brand new flagship virtual instrument Omnisphere, and kicked off what looks like it will be a massive hype campaign for a synth that’s not due until September.

Omnisphere combines a wide variety of hybrid realtime synthesis techniques, an epic library of ‘Psychoacoustic’ sounds, and many innovative features. The new instrument is the first to be based on Spectrasonics’ STEAM Engine, the company’s newly developed core technology. Omnisphere is set to be released September 15, 2008, the MSRP is $499; and €399.

It sounds fantastic, but what looks the most impressive is some of the underlying synth technology.

You can preview Omnisphere below.

“This is truly an Epic project,” said Eric Persing, Founder and Creative Director of Spectrasonics. “We have been working for many, many years sampling unique sounds, experimenting, specifying the synthesis features and building the STEAM Engine to run it all.”

“It’s been a very exciting process involving our team of software engineers, sound designers, musicians, and graphic artists from all over the world. Omnisphere is our new flagship synthesizer, and points the way to all our future virtual instruments.”

Omnisphere offers a host of hybrid synthesis and new control capabilities including Variable Waveshaping DSP synthesis, Granular synthesis, Timbre Shifting, FM synthesis, polyphonic Ring Modulation, high-resolution streaming Sample Playback, Harmonia, Dual Multimode Filter structure, Chaos Envelopes, an advanced Unison mode, and the Flex-Mod modulation routing system.

Among the many unique features this new multitimbral synth offers are its flexible arpeggiators with the innovative Groove Lock integration with Stylus RMX — allowing the arpeggiator’s pattern to instantly groove with the feel of the RMX drum loop; Live Mode for transitionless patch switching and layering, Stack Mode for powerful performance mapping; and integrated modulatable FX Racks.

Omnisphere is also the successor to Spectrasonics’ popular Atmosphere instrument, and contains enhanced versions of all the classic Atmosphere sounds. However, the brand new core library in Omnisphere is 10-times the size of Atmosphere and features thousands of completely new and different sounds. There will be an upgrade path for all Atmosphere customers, details to be announced in September.

Omnisphere is cross-platform compatible with Apple Macintosh OS X 10.4 and higher as a native Universal Binary and also with Microsoft Windows XP/Vista.

Audio Units, VST, and RTAS plug-in formats are supported for compatibility with all major host software.