Besides Omnisphere, recommendations for any VI's....

[Topo]

....that have beautiful soothing pads and tones that would fit into moody, new age'y, meditation type tunes?

[Prime Mover]

Absynth. Or go old school with MTron Pro.

Lots of pads are created with simple analog synths and then run through lots of delay and/or reverb. The Korg Monopoly from the Korg Legacy Collection is my weapon of choice.

But Absynth first.

[midilance]

Another member of the Korg Legacy family is the Wavestation. If this doesn't work for your purpose, nothing will.

[Prime Mover]

Actually, I've never used it. I bought KLC for the analog stuff, figured my sampler VIs were probably superior to either of the romplers on there. What are the advantages to the M1 and Wavestation over Kontakt and its ilk?

[kgdrum]

If you have any of the popular soft-synths like Reaktor,Absynth,Alchemy,Kontakt etc.... You might want to check out Simon Stockhausen's brilliant pads.
IMO he is simply the best person out there for alternative sounds, patches and pads.

http://patchpool.de/

[bdr]

If you have Kontakt check out some of Simon Stockhausen's sounds...awesome programmer. Absynth is fantastic also.

[Gravity Jim]

More echoes from me. Absynth, Wavestation, both awesome choices. Also awesome: Sonicouture's Geosonics. Pads made out of recordings of nature sounds. Unreal, nothing like it.

[Babz]

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/pro ... intro.html

[BKK-OZ]

Izotope's Iris, anything from Linplug.

[mattsearles]

Seems to me that the FM8 would be an obvious choice... I mean just think Brain Eno and the DX7, right?

[philbrown]

I did an album similar to that.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/philbrown12
Mostly Omnisphere, Alchemy and my modular synth.
Some of Korg's legacy stuff could work as well, depending on what you want.
Arturia's CS-80 also could work (think Blade Runner).

[daniel.sneed]

I wouldn't part from Alchemy. It's involved in quite all my actual projects.

I do own, Absynth and Iris, but get little use of them now.

IMHO, Alchemy exhibits as much power for pad-like jobs than for main instrument playing. Large, affordable and much inspiring thematic libraries.
Unvaluable power under the hood to build patches from your own sounds.
As you may expect, a little learning curve, but, IMOE, much easier than Absynth, though.

BTW, Absybnth sounds may be what you've already heard in so many films and videos. So I was looking for something a little different.
Looking for a single word to describe Alchemy? Character!

As a side effect, in my own setup, Iris and Absynth are CPU hogs, where Alchemy tends to be significantly lighter.

Of course, YMMV...

[labman]

Also awesome: Sonicouture's Geosonics. Pads made out of recordings of nature sounds. Unreal, nothing like it.

Geosonics is indeed a whole lotta fun isn't it Jim?

[philbrown]

I wouldn't part from Alchemy. It's involved in quite all my actual projects.

I do own, Absynth and Iris, but get little use of them now.

IMHO, Alchemy exhibits as much power for pad-like jobs than for main instrument playing. Large, affordable and much inspiring thematic libraries.
Unvaluable power under the hood to build your patches from your own sounds.
As you may expect, a little learning curve, but, IMOE, much easier than Absynth, though.

BTW, Absybnth sounds may be what you've already heard in so many films and videos. So I was looking for something a little different.
Looking for a single word to describe Alchemy? Character!

As a side effect, in my own setup, Iris and Absynth are CPU hogs, where Alchemy tends to be significantly lighter.

Of course, YMMV...

Agree with all your comments, Daniel!

[daniel.sneed]

Glad to share, Phil!
This board is such a good place to be and share experiences.
One more time: Many kudos to James Steel and board moderators!