Omnisphere 2 - FX Drag and Drop is here (new 2.2g update)

[Guy Rowland]

Good news, Omnisphere users - 2.2 is here, containing the following new features and bug fixes:

• Bypass all effects by pressing the LED below FX button
• Move effects within effects rack by dragging
• Phase invert button on sublayer mixer in Soundsource Zoom
• Latch mode: terminate all notes when host transport is stopped
• Improved Browser performance
• Improved Patch-loading time on Windows
• Fixes crash when bouncing/freezing large amount of compressed audio files
• Changing effect type was not clearing out the effect's mod matrix slots
• Fixes bug where Ultrachorus effect could generate excessively-loud volumes
• Fixes bug where Chorus Echo effect delay time could be wrong after changing host sample rate
• Fixes bug in Toxic Smasher effect where it could produce an unwanted "chirp" sound at end of notes
• After dropping a MIDI groove into Arpeggiator, some groove indicators were not being displayed

Just had an initial play and what a fantastic update it appears to be. The browser sluggishness - certainly on Windows - has gone completely, it feels more or less instant now, and that's including a huge amount of 3rd party content. The effect is really quite tranformative. Patch loading also seems snappier, but it's a more subtle improvement.

To bypass all effects, you click the little radio button under the FX button, which switches to RED. In bypass mode, the effects themselves get meshed out. To drag and drop, you hold the rack edges rather than the plugin itself - not much else to say about it other than a) it works and b) Hallelujah!



The bug fixes - especially that Ultrachorus bust smash - are also very timely.

Based just on just a quick once-over, I'd call this an essential update, doubly so for Windows users. Many thanks to Spectrasonics.

[tack]

Thanks for the PSA about this Guy. I applied the update and, wow, the patch browser is much better!

[Guy Rowland]

Ain't it though!

It even helps my longstanding (and embarrassingly well known) issues with the tag system. When every single click is a thought process and takes a while to take effect, the confusing and inconsistent nature of the current arrangement becomes far more irritating. Since the responsiveness is now almost instant however, if Omni leads you down a blind alley, its a breeze to just try another option. Not ideal still of course, but surprising how much difference it makes.

I love updates like this - its all about core workflow, bug-squishing and performance. Fell a little bit back in love with Spectrasonics yesterday.

[Guy Rowland]

A minor update 2.2g from 2.2e is out. Sadly I've discovered that some of my patches aren't playing correctly in 2.2e (fine in 2.1), but doubly sadly they're still not in 2.2g.

[tack]

It's odd to me that they folded 2.2e and 2.2g together in the release notes. These were two separate releases and should have separate sections in the release notes. Now it's not really clear to me what changed from 2.2e to 2.2g.

I think I should know better than to ask, but have you let OmnisphereSpectrasonics know about regression with those patches?

[gyoll]

Thank god for FX dragging and thanks Guy for the info blasts!

[Ashermusic]

I have not updated to Omni 2 yet. Tempted, but I have a lot of other choices of synths that $249 would buy or be close to buying. Is it really a wise choice?

[Guy Rowland]

I think I should know better than to ask, but have you let Omnisphere know about regression with those patches?

Am I that notorious? Gawd I am, aren't I?

The answer of course is yes - they suggested I tried 2.2g, I hadn't realised there'd been another release, and was hoping it would fix my glitches - alas. As you say, there's no distinct changelog for it and they haven't publicised it at all, which means it must be only a minor tweak.

Jay - I'd actually say hold fire at this point. There is so much brilliance in Omni 2, it should be a no brainier and the speed is so much improved now too. But now I'm finding the sonics inconsistent, on top of all the tagging problems I relentlessly drone on about, it feels like is worth waiting til things stabilise a little more.

[Ashermusic]

Thanks Guy, that is very helpful.

[Guy Rowland]

Here's Spectrasonics' reply to the sonic change in Omni 2.2:

Thank you again for contacting us about this, and for sending along the patch and audio example. We inadvertently introduced a bug in v2.0 that caused Unison to behave improperly in some circumstances. We fixed the bug in v2.2. The bug fix was essential, because we have many patches build in v1.x that are relying on the correct behavior. Customers that built patches with v2.0 and v2.1 may have encountered this bug in a very few patches that utilize Unison in a very particular way. After upgrading to v2.2, those patches will sound properly. Users may have built a few patches in v2.0 or v2.1 where they prefer the "buggy" unison sound - while but the bug had to be fixed so the v1.x patches sounded properly, if a user wants to try to adjust one of these rare patches in v2.2 to approximate the sound they had in v2.1, they can try adjusting the Start slider on the Osc page, or the Spread slider on the Unison page. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes – please let me know if you’d like further assistance!

..so looks like I created my version of the crucial patch in 2.1, which was itself buggy. Fortunately I rendered that out. Do wonder how many other patches I have that had the buggy sound I liked, and indeed 3rd party patches...