Adventures with Omnisphere

[Guy Rowland]

Thought I'd start a "how do you like to work with Omnisphere" thread.

I had a bit of aimless downtime today. Found a patch based round a South American guitar. Added an Arp, delay and some Innerspace to make a pad layer. Then I sound-locked the Arp and FX, Sound Matched my current selection and started browsing through other similar patches.

You can't do that kind of thing with any other synth, can you?

What I love about Omni is it is SO fast to find a sound you're looking for. The tag browser on its own - you want a playable soundscape that evokes "longing", there you go in 5 seconds flat with a dozen or two to choose from. But then being able to use stuff like Sound Lock and Sound Match just takes if off somewhere else again, equally good to find variations or wild inspiration.

And that's just one trick of bazillions. Curious to know how you folks use it? Do you browse the 60gb of soundsources or hundreds of wavetables and start from scratch? Do you find starting-point patches? Any fun tips or tricks?

[JohannesR]

Big fan of Omnisphere!

I like to start from scratch with a sound source and go from there.

One trick I particularly like is to trick Omnisphere into 4 round robins with user audio. Just put four samples on the timeline with the exact same spacing between start and end point, and modulate sample start with “4-step”.

I also like to make “menus” by stacking 8 patches in an Omnisphere module with different the key zones. Then you can for instance your 8 favorite low hit samples laid out on the keyboard, going into my favorite effects.

For me “movement” is key, so I make sure EVERY knob I can touch does something to the sound (modwheel, aftertouch, pitchbend, and a couple of more custom CCs).

Another cool trick for movement is to modulate “timbre”. This only works with sound sources with multiple keys samples.

The add-on packs are worth the price for the two extra FX alone. I also love that Keyscape and Trillian integrates so nicely.

I could go on and on. Omnisphere is fabulous; if someone doesn’t like it, I suspect they don’t know what they’re doing

[JohannesR]

Oh, the arpeggiator is best in class too! Such a complete and mature synth. The guys at Spectrasonics have been at it for so long, and it shows!

[Guy Rowland]

Some clever tricks there Johannes! I've only rarely used user audio but had some good success when I have. Don't know why I don't do it more... the factory library is so vast I do like roaming around for hidden gems.

[Lawrence]

Typical of me, I find a preset I like, modify it slightly and I’m done. I’m 85% writer and 15% producer.

[GR Baumann]

Wrote that 2012 on KVR:

Example, search for BASSY DOWNBEAT ARP put it to slot one, set Omnisphere to LIVE mode. Now use the same Patch and put it into Slot 2-5. On Slot one leave as is, but on slot 2,3,4,5 use the Orb, switch off inertia, so the orb will not move but stay in your chosen position, search for the special overtones or whatever you fancy, repeat for 3,4,5, in different positions, then play all in conjunction. Bingo, you never heard it THAT way before.

"World-famous" Daniel James liked that.

Of course this is just a starting point, take per slot versions volume, pan, mod-wheel etc. automation into account from within live mode, and it opens up a world of possibilities from within a single patch alone.

[GR Baumann]

I am hooked since it was called the Atmosphere Dream Synth back in 2002. My main Logic preset consists of one track Omnisphere and a -0,1 limiter on the stereo bus, this is always my starting point, the pool of inspiration is endless.

I too make extensive use of the recent FLOW feature, a game changer for me, and I do have an ever growing Flow Folder as a musical scratchpad, collecting ideas and happy coincidences.

[Guy Rowland]

Typical of me, I find a preset I like, modify it slightly and I’m done.

TBH that's me a great deal of the time too, and absolutely no shame in it. One of the great things about Omni is how musician-centric it is. If I want a pad that evokes longing, I'm there in 5 seconds. But also if you want to start experimenting or trying variations then it's best-in-class for that too.

Georg, the one mode I've never properly explored is Live mode. Some cool tricks there.

[JohannesR]

I too make extensive use of the recent FLOW feature, a game changer for me, and I do have an ever growing Flow Folder as a musical scratchpad, collecting ideas and happy coincidences.

Yeah, the flow feature is so great when noodling around, and you want to save stuff for later.

Hardware synth integration is a really nice workflow enhancer too, but unfortunately NRPN midi messages are broken since Cubase 13 (works well in Cubase 12) - at least for my Sub37.

Truth is, I could very well get around with only Cubase, Omnisphere and Kontakt for all my professional work. But I have a gazillion soft synths and software anyways, haha.

[Ashermusic]

Typical of me, I find a preset I like, modify it slightly and I’m done. I’m 85% writer and 15% producer.

Plus 1.

[Jaap]

Based on my amount of soundsets for Omnisphere, not hard to guess I am loving Omnisphere.

The amount of things you can do with it are amazing. A nice thing I like to use is to use the bias modulation option to sort of keysplit the keyboard or blend certain keyranges into eachother within a single preset.
With a bit of trickery you can even layout a sort of "multisample" preset with 4 samples (one per oscillator).

[Guy Rowland]

A nice thing I like to use is to use the bias modulation option to sort of keysplit the keyboard or blend certain keyranges into eachother within a single preset.

Ah yes, I almost forget that the bias is there, IIRC that came with the D50 sounds. Very handy, avoids getting involved in multis.

[JohannesR]

A nice thing I like to use is to use the bias modulation option to sort of keysplit the keyboard or blend certain keyranges into eachother within a single preset.
With a bit of trickery you can even layout a sort of "multisample" preset with 4 samples (one per oscillator).

Nice one!!