Recording - September 2015 - 63

And speaking of browsing...
Arpeggiator patterns are only one of many attributes that can
now be locked via the new Sound Lock feature as you use the
greatly expanded Patch Browser. Essentially you can try out specific aspects of a Patch that you really like, e.g. its filter settings
or Soundsources, as you flip between other Patches, inserting
the locked attributes in the Patch you select (non-destructively, of
course). When you find a combination that works, just save it!
The enhanced browsing window and new Mini-Browser now
give the user more handy tools to better organize and search
through the extensive Patch list-pretty important if you're trying
to quickly find something appropriate for your song from among
12,000 options! A new feature called Sound Match will allow
you to search for and locate any sounds that bear a resemblance to your current Patch; it does this by checking various
aspects of every Patch in the library and looking for overlaps.
Spectrasonics has expanded the Genre search options; you can
also search by Mood or Oscillator type. As a bonus,
Omnisphere has also added Boolean search options and a fast
preview/progressive load to allow for faster browsing.
Since a good browser requires a good user interface, this too
has been enhanced. Users of the original version of Omnisphere
will note that version 2 has a new interface design, adding
space on the left side of the window for a Mini-Browser. The leftside window is also used for tweaking the details of a specific
selected modulation that's currently active within a Patch.

we were constantly finding new things that made
us sit back and say, "Wow." With the arrival of
Omnisphere 2, we feel a weird combination of
relief (the previous features and user interface
elements are largely familiar and don't need
relearning), excitement (as entirely new vistas of
programming open before us), and anguish
(sorry, but it really does feel like we're starting all
over again!). We used to call Omnisphere a
"desert island synth"; version 2 is now more like
an "International Space Station synth".
It would be unfair to say there are no virtual instruments out there that compete with Omnisphere, but
in our experience, most of them only compete with it
in certain areas where it excels. You can find a handful of virtual instruments out there that can do everything Omnisphere can do, between them... but we'd
love to hear about any single virtual instrument that
can do all of this, and do it as well.
Omnisphere is and always has been a truly remarkable instrument-simultaneously approachable, deep, exhiliratingly comprehensive, and achingly beautiful. Whether you plan to go live
on a desert island, spend a year in orbit, or simply provide your
studio with a virtual synthesis suite that will be very hard to outgrow, it should be at the very top of your list.
Allen Goodman (goodman@recordingmag.com) is a recording musician and radio show host living in Denver, CO.

New in the rack
The FX section has received some new additions as well-25 of
them, to be specific, bringing the total number to a whopping 58.
New effects include amp simulations, various stomp boxes, analog
phaser, flanger, and chorus, among others. Allen's personal favorite
is named Toxic Smasher; it's a hybrid of the waveshaper and filter
types. Mike has a fondness for Innerspace, a sort of convolution
effect that allows a Patch to be overlain with timbral characteristics
of, say, coins in a pipe or the sound of hair being brushed.
Besides the addition of new effects, the FX Page itself has also
received some substantial tweaks. Each Patch can now have up
to 16 FX units, and every unit can have every parameter modulated from within the Patch's modulation matrix. There's also a
new Aux FX rack for each patch, complete with sends that can
be pre or post fader depending on the effect you desire.
Final thoughts
We were still working our way through learning the original
Omnisphere when version 2 came out. Even with frequent use,
RECORDING September 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2015