Jump to content

I'm officially fed up with Omnisphere


lewey

Recommended Posts

  • Members

While I don't regret I used it for my project, I don't think I'll ever want to go through what I've gone through (and still going) again.

 

Every single freaking patch is random. Everything is random. If you look in the modulation matrix, you'll see almost each patch has several parameters that randomly change at once, so you never get the same sound twice.

 

I do appreciate some randomness as long as it keeps the sound more or less the same and without artefacts, but unfortunately that's not the case with Omnisphere. It's almost impossible to get a good clean take on any sound if it's more than just a few notes. There's just too much variation.

 

The worst part is that even basses have that. What's worth that recording a song with it and finding bass holes every now and then.

 

I made a mistake of not dumping every part right away to audio. Since my project is 99% omnisphere and I worked with it as VST throughout, I spent 90% of my time re-recording 100s of times takes because the randomness screwed up the song. Choked notes, missing bass, drastically different sound tones, just plain weirdness happens all the time.

 

I should have dumped everything to wav right away. That was a pricey mistake that costed me so much time.

 

The worst part was, I didn't realize how random these sounds are and how ALL of them are random until I started fine-tuning my mixes. There was always something wrong, little things here and there... and each time you think it's the last one and don't give it much thought. And it never ends.

 

Right now I'm dumping everything to audio files which should have done in the beginning, and it's not easy, it takes me 30-40 takes to get a simple 10-20 note progression right without any artefacts, and I'm sick of dealing with it. I hate it.

 

I hate the {censored}ty programing quality too. It's obvious the spectrasonics guys went for quantity rather then quality. I don't think they spent more than a minute or two per sound. Each sound consists of 95% garbage frequencies. Maybe I'm not experiences enough (not maybe, it's true) but each sound requires HEAVY EQing to get it sound remotely clean. So much garbage in these sounds. Every one of them has so much resonance and boom everywhere. It's so much easier to work with, say, Nexus, z3ta, Zebra or Cakewalk products... those sound clean and nice right away...

 

I hate it. I do realize it allowed me to write great songs I'm very happy with, but it was a real nightmare to work with.

 

I don't see myself using it again in the future, maybe for a sound or two... but definitely not as a primary sound source.

 

Not again. Hell no.

 

:facepalm:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Just now I had to rerecord a e-guitar part. There's two random parameters, sample start and tone. I fiddled with them fixing them to one position and then trying to find the right sound... didn't get anywhere close. There might be something else going on with the sound that you can't change... I'm not a programming expert by any means, so I have no ways of finding that out. The part is about 20 seconds long and consists of 4 chorts and 3 two-note transitions. The sound changes from acoustic guitar to e-guitar, to jazz guitar, to some abstract nonsense, to 120 variations of guitar, note by note. It's in no way musical. But 50% of the time it sounds like overcompressed e-guitar/spanish guitar and that the sound I wanted to be played in the part. Unfortunately only a few notes at a time played like that (with significant amplitude variations)...

 

Took me about 140 takes (files are numbered, last one was 143). Eventually I had to cut each audio file into separate one-note (or one-chord) parts that sounded most similar and glue everything back together so that it sounds like one sound was played rather than a collection of different sounding ones. That was the only way to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I passed on Omnisphere because of its' popularity and randomness as you stated.

 

I find solace in the balance of Iris. Never before have I been so content with an instrument that feeds wonder, discovery, and job satisfaction in a single tool. I really hope they come up with a patch that gives samples better consistency in the upper pitch ranges. I'm still working on a custom piano sound and the lower pitches are right where I want them. The upper pitches are still totally off the path of realism but I'm still working. :thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

So, you are complaining that your programming fu is weak? I find Omnisphere to be pretty simple to strip down to a basic waveform. Any remaining randomness is baked into the sample, and at that point it is either suitable for you or it isn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

A little randomness is what brings synthetic sound alive. Most synths use modulation to sweep filters etc using LFOs. If you are shooting for static sound i suggest you use straight samples. They will always sound exactly the same every time around. Sterile and lifeless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

A little randomness is what brings synthetic sound alive. Most synths use modulation to sweep filters etc using LFOs. If you are shooting for static sound i suggest you use straight samples. They will always sound exactly the same every time around. Sterile and lifeless.

 

 

There's a difference between a little randomness, which I embrace and complete total wackiness of sound. If a guitar starts sounding like a rhode and then changes to saw pad... you know that's not good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

So, you are complaining that your programming fu is weak? I find Omnisphere to be pretty simple to strip down to a basic waveform. Any remaining randomness is baked into the sample, and at that point it is either suitable for you or it isn't.

 

 

I can do that too. But then it sounds like {censored}. The problem is to keep the sound sound like it's supposed to with all that programming and effects, but stay more or less in line within sweet spot, not bounce all over the place in tone, amplitude and modulation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

beauty is in the ear of the beholder. It literally takes a minute to spot the random mod source in the matrix and mute it. Name me the patch that gives you problems and i can help you fix it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Funny that I really don't hear the randomness you are talking about. :idk:

 

Of course, I mostly use it for pads / spacey effects / etc. where randomness usually isn't a bother and in fact is a plus. I don't use it for basslines or leads... I have hardware for that. :thu:

 

The crappiest thing about Omnisphere is that some patches do have annoying resonance / high artifacts that do have to be tamed... I do think lewey's right that a lot of the presets were not "fine tuned" for playability. But meh, no synth is perfect... I can tweak a preset if I want to. :idk:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Wow! Are we using the same program? Is the version 1 only? I have had it since it emerged, got the version 2 upgrade, and am still in love with it. It paid for itself the 1st day I used it. Its a completely indispensable tool in my studio, and I find its ease of use, its huge pallet, and fidelity remarkable.

I admit, I'm dense at times, but I still don't know exactly what you mean when you say "random". Younger people use that term to express something unexpected or non-relating, analog synthesists use that term to denote a pattern of voltages usually generated by a noise source. I DO know that no matter what I was experimenting with if I wasn't getting close to my objective after a 5-10 times, I would rethink my process, and certainly not 144 times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...