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Great, Great, Great, Great Granddaughter of the Roland Yacht.
Update 8th March 2022 – we now have packages that ‘plug into’ Omnisphere called Sonic Extensions. Given that Omni descends from the Roland XV lineage these are recognisable as software versions of the cards that used to augment that hardware with new samples and new patches. This is obviously a better plan for Spectrasonics than making a version 3 – the packs are tightly targeted to specific musical goals, the sort that their audience of busy film designers need solved right away. For instance the nylon guitar one is all nylon guitar all day, with a simplified interface that gets to ‘that sound’ quickly. For me it’s a ticket to Yawnland Central. As is the E.D.M. Clichés pack.
I would more likely use the ‘experimental funny noise’ or the ‘old broken stuff’ cards – so I paid for these. Straight away there’s a conceptual problem. When making ‘experimental funny noises’ I probably want to experiment. Sounds fair. But the simplified interface addresses certain tactics. One of these is a pulsing volume level – wub wub wub etc. I really can’t see where I would ever do that – the guy that designed the sounds obviously thinks it’s cool as ice but … meh. No. Over and over again I reach ‘behind’ this interface for the normal one. It’s very easy to switch back and forward but still not a fan.
This and the ‘old broken stuff’ card come with two effects each. ‘Old Broken Stuff’ has an effect that adds old noises into your mix, and the other makes everything all wobbly. This is perfect for instantly making something C20th and therefore just about every damn film made in the C21st. I am immediately looking for ways to thwart the intention of this system – find the holes, screw with it – but generally it’s not interested in playing.
Summing it up – some professional people really need these cards to do their job, and they are going to love this update. If you are a musician that uses Omnisphere as a general sound tool you are not going to get bang for your buck. I am going to take one toilet roll off until 3.0. says hi.
And now the old review.
The alpha and omega of Swords & Sandals. Mr. Persing, who programmed many of the sounds that made the D50 and offspring, back with what can only be described as the far flung spawn of it – the D50 begat the JD800 begat the JV1080 begat the XV5080 (Yacht) begat the Fantom (Granddaughter of Yacht) and from its faux rack-ness to its sample layer-ness this is ANOTHER YACHT, pure and simple.
Compare it with Alchemy which, as all you Logic owners have just discovered, is a Russian doll, with the out-most doll being the 8 part XY pad that you slide your mouse about. Inside that it has odd kinds of synthesis, and four parts to it; samples are important but it is just as happy making its own synthetic twinkly-burbles. Alchemy sample sets have complex, post modernist names like Zuxlit – Greenland and lots of glitching.
Spectrasonics has a different audience which have worked their way through every Roland device and had a board meeting about each upgrade. Like MS Windows, the idea is to add features but make sure that backwards woosh sound that the client likes is still there – and it is. Omni has a lot of those ‘identity sounds’ in place. It has all of the previous Atmosphere in place. It has that sample you liked from Symphony of Voices. It has J8 samples. No one in the jingles department is going to have a flucky.
The synthesis section is also familiar and simple. Waveforms from warehouses of old machinery are provided – you can bend them about a la JP8080 – run them through familiar filters. Things like granules are extra sauce on the basic synthesis; it’s ‘do the simple thing’ then ‘tweak it’. So nothing like hand drawing frequency graphs or any of that.
The most interesting part of Omni are the effects. Innerspace is a convolution effect that imposes the sonic qualities of one sound on another, such as piano tones on a voice. There is a Quad Resonator that does metals and tubes. Thriftshop Speaker actually offers many speaker types, some are very curious. These are all means by which sounds can be moved from their natural source to a surreal place.
There are weird sources in there, mostly Diego’s odd hand built instruments. I’m not that excited about these as programmed – they are either raucous or innocuous and I will have to see about making my own versions before judging. But I’m just as likely to add my own samples – or am I? Because Omni is again like a Fantom in that multi-samples aren’t really supported (Alchemy does support multi samples). They say it’s not a sampler, it’s a synthesiser – but I reckon Omni 3 might have changes there. No, I’m most likely to treat this like my older yachts, as a closed map where I can practice economy.
Hardware Synth Integration
An update adds hardware integration, which is interesting on multiple levels. I have a Roland System 8 which I connect to Omnisphere. If I choose a patch based on the hardware I get a similar but not exact version of the hardware sound, and the controls all do very similar but not exact adjustments. The software acts as if internal to the keyboard, although I must remember to save the patches on the computer. The experience is that the two are joined, with most of the benefits of hardware and software available at the same time. When your keyboard is more (ahem) ‘legendary’ the advantage is even greater. It’s very clever, and again requires little explanation or set-up.
If I pick a patch which is beyond the System 8, I can still adjust some aspects of it with the hardware controls, at least enough for performance. But there is a point where you will have to mouse around to select a sample for example. I really like this idea. I like how it transcends the whole ‘which is better’ about hardware and software.
Let’s sum it up. For all the promotion, Omnisphere 2 is a familiar thing. It is capable of strangeness but that is not its primary goal. It doesn’t have a particular voice. If Alchemy is a thousand little glowing lights (as it seems to me) then this is bread and butter from an artisan bread shop. You could make a full song on it, more likely a 30 second advert, which is what the Roland yachts are all about. If you wanted the opposite spirit then a MS20 might do that.