Hi,
I've lurked at your site searching for a good GM module and I've found OmniSynth and Omnisoundz. Which are the main differences? Comparisons with other GM modules?
I've noticed that an upgrade of OmniSynth to version 2 is planned. Any release date yet? Which enhancements?
Thank you.
Omnisynth/Omnisoundz
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- KVRian
- 1378 posts since 22 Jan, 2005 from Andorra
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- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
The difference between OmniSynth and OmniSoundz is mainly that OmniSynth is a sound module via its included SampleTank 2 LE sample playback plug-in and OmniSoundz is a multiformat library supporting Kontakt, HALion, EXS, Reason...
Differences between it and a standard GM module. Well, there are tradeoffs. A standard GM module may react more instantly with standard midi files and with Omni you may have to set things up (and some things like program change depend on the sampler player's capability for that). [In "Omni 2" (that's our project name) we're going to take advantage of some samplers' enhanced abilities to do more.] But, the main difference between Omni and your typical GM set is that Omni sounds more like the real instruments. Very often there are compromises in GM sets (usually to fit it into a small size) and often there are instruments that are faked perhaps because they are hard to find or because the people making it didn't think that instrument was important (such as a Koto for example).
SR likes all of the instruments and takes most of them seriously (I say "most" because we don't take bird tweets and phone rings all that seriously which is why we put Chamberlin sound fx in for those! Sgt Pepper Style!
). But, we put a REAL musical box in there (instead of just pitching up a vibe and layering it like a lot of sets do), there's a real Shaku, Koto, Shamisen, Accordion... pretty cool! But, there's also some very nice pianos, organs, strings, guitars, bass and drums. The brass and wind part honestly is more on the "average" side and not a highlight. This part will be improved with Omni 2.
I don't know if I ever explained this but the reason Omni was good is because SR had done some higher end piano, string, guitar, keyboard etc. libraries already so we had nice material to choose from. That's usually a lot better than when companies set out to do a GM set (most don't, they license because it is too expensive for such a variety to sample it all).
So, is Omni 1 worth getting? I think so. Especially for the money (we have it pretty cheap on www.esoundz.com ). It is a GM set around 300 megs in size and comes in very handy (also useful for finding sounds quick... I use it myself that way when I am writing something and I just want to get something down without thinking barely at ALL where to find something... I just KNOW it's there... like "Wait, let me see what a vibe sounds like on this or a CP70 or a..."
Omni 2 takes that a step further and puts in even better sounding instruments into those slots with more velocities and larger sizes (some tradeoffs there with CPU and RAM usage to consider though but for some it is worth it). However it will cost more. Not a ton more but it will be more. So, it might very well be that both will co-exist since some people want to spend less and a 350 meg set is just what they were looking for (we are also doing a 100 meg downloadable set coming soon, in Soundfont as well as other formats).
Since I am writing a book here about it I might as well tell you guys more about Omni 2. It will support more formats. It will support in fact the most we've ever supported in one product. So, here is the preliminary list (subject to change of course):
EXS24 (and maybe GarageBand)
HALion 3
SampleTank 2.X
Kontakt 2.X
Reason 3 (no program change though)
Mach 5
Project 5/Dimension/SFZ
DirectWave/FL Studio
GigaStudio
SoundFont 2.1
We might even support others as well. But, we wanted to make this one general purpose set that everyone can use natively (even if they use it more as a variety library than as a typical GM set).
In a way, this is sort of like Collosus but it fits on one DVD and is perhaps more balanced in terms of quality vs. size it takes up. In other words, you could still use it on an internal laptop drive!
Omni 2 is a killer meat & potatoes set. As for the sounds, some of them will be sounds that we did for NI's Bandstand but also a lot of sounds we did for it that didn't make it to the final product because they had it covered already in house. Then the rest will be a sort of Noah's Ark of SR specimens... a "best of" so to speak (although staying within the limits of GM). We're going to have a really nice upgrade deal for every previous Omni 1 owner (no cutoff date either, the upgrade will be the same for ALL previous Omni users).
One thing I am not sure of yet is if we're going to support GM2, GS or XG. That might up the cost a bit. So maybe we'll offer it two ways or maybe we will just keep it standard GM (which most SMFs are, as flawed as GM's list is). I'd be curious to hear opinions about that (now is your chance to convince us to do GM2... why?).
Depending on some of the above the release of this should be in the first Quarter of this year. But, we're not announcing it officially until we have a better idea of release date. I can only tell you that we are most of the way there. You might as well get Omni 1 though because the price of the upgrade is will be no more than the difference in price (making your Omni 1 essentially free if you were wanting to get Omni 2 anyway).
Differences between it and a standard GM module. Well, there are tradeoffs. A standard GM module may react more instantly with standard midi files and with Omni you may have to set things up (and some things like program change depend on the sampler player's capability for that). [In "Omni 2" (that's our project name) we're going to take advantage of some samplers' enhanced abilities to do more.] But, the main difference between Omni and your typical GM set is that Omni sounds more like the real instruments. Very often there are compromises in GM sets (usually to fit it into a small size) and often there are instruments that are faked perhaps because they are hard to find or because the people making it didn't think that instrument was important (such as a Koto for example).
SR likes all of the instruments and takes most of them seriously (I say "most" because we don't take bird tweets and phone rings all that seriously which is why we put Chamberlin sound fx in for those! Sgt Pepper Style!
). But, we put a REAL musical box in there (instead of just pitching up a vibe and layering it like a lot of sets do), there's a real Shaku, Koto, Shamisen, Accordion... pretty cool! But, there's also some very nice pianos, organs, strings, guitars, bass and drums. The brass and wind part honestly is more on the "average" side and not a highlight. This part will be improved with Omni 2. I don't know if I ever explained this but the reason Omni was good is because SR had done some higher end piano, string, guitar, keyboard etc. libraries already so we had nice material to choose from. That's usually a lot better than when companies set out to do a GM set (most don't, they license because it is too expensive for such a variety to sample it all).
So, is Omni 1 worth getting? I think so. Especially for the money (we have it pretty cheap on www.esoundz.com ). It is a GM set around 300 megs in size and comes in very handy (also useful for finding sounds quick... I use it myself that way when I am writing something and I just want to get something down without thinking barely at ALL where to find something... I just KNOW it's there... like "Wait, let me see what a vibe sounds like on this or a CP70 or a..."
Omni 2 takes that a step further and puts in even better sounding instruments into those slots with more velocities and larger sizes (some tradeoffs there with CPU and RAM usage to consider though but for some it is worth it). However it will cost more. Not a ton more but it will be more. So, it might very well be that both will co-exist since some people want to spend less and a 350 meg set is just what they were looking for (we are also doing a 100 meg downloadable set coming soon, in Soundfont as well as other formats).
Since I am writing a book here about it I might as well tell you guys more about Omni 2. It will support more formats. It will support in fact the most we've ever supported in one product. So, here is the preliminary list (subject to change of course):
EXS24 (and maybe GarageBand)
HALion 3
SampleTank 2.X
Kontakt 2.X
Reason 3 (no program change though)
Mach 5
Project 5/Dimension/SFZ
DirectWave/FL Studio
GigaStudio
SoundFont 2.1
We might even support others as well. But, we wanted to make this one general purpose set that everyone can use natively (even if they use it more as a variety library than as a typical GM set).
In a way, this is sort of like Collosus but it fits on one DVD and is perhaps more balanced in terms of quality vs. size it takes up. In other words, you could still use it on an internal laptop drive!
Omni 2 is a killer meat & potatoes set. As for the sounds, some of them will be sounds that we did for NI's Bandstand but also a lot of sounds we did for it that didn't make it to the final product because they had it covered already in house. Then the rest will be a sort of Noah's Ark of SR specimens... a "best of" so to speak (although staying within the limits of GM). We're going to have a really nice upgrade deal for every previous Omni 1 owner (no cutoff date either, the upgrade will be the same for ALL previous Omni users).
One thing I am not sure of yet is if we're going to support GM2, GS or XG. That might up the cost a bit. So maybe we'll offer it two ways or maybe we will just keep it standard GM (which most SMFs are, as flawed as GM's list is). I'd be curious to hear opinions about that (now is your chance to convince us to do GM2... why?).
Depending on some of the above the release of this should be in the first Quarter of this year. But, we're not announcing it officially until we have a better idea of release date. I can only tell you that we are most of the way there. You might as well get Omni 1 though because the price of the upgrade is will be no more than the difference in price (making your Omni 1 essentially free if you were wanting to get Omni 2 anyway).
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1378 posts since 22 Jan, 2005 from Andorra
I'm really impressed for this long response to my question. You have answered nearly all my doubts about those sound modules.
I'm searching a good sound module to create some jazzy tracks. Aside from good piano, bass and drums, I'll pay attention on sax, trumpet and trombone ones.
I've heard the sounds on the webpage, I like them a lot.
I own VSampler, which available format will it loads correctly? I know it loads SF2 without errors but I don't have experience with other formats available in OmniSoundz.
I'm searching a good sound module to create some jazzy tracks. Aside from good piano, bass and drums, I'll pay attention on sax, trumpet and trombone ones.
I've heard the sounds on the webpage, I like them a lot.
I own VSampler, which available format will it loads correctly? I know it loads SF2 without errors but I don't have experience with other formats available in OmniSoundz.
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- KVRer
- 12 posts since 28 Feb, 2003 from Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Hey Squidz!
I didn't realize that OmniSoundz is available in EXS format.
Those of us on Apple GarageBand 2 have long bemoaned the fact that there is NO General MIDI sound set for GarageBand 2. Not from Apple, not from any other publisher.
I have heard that EXS soundfiles can be converted to work natively in GarageBand.
Trust me, bundle up OmniSoundz EXS for GarageBand and start marketing it as the one and only General MIDI package for GarageBand. You'll sell a lot of them.
The one extra step you ought to take is to figure out how to make it work under these circumstances:
If you drag a Standard MIDI File into an empty GarageBand project, it automatically opens up all the tracks and assigns GarageBand sounds to each track. But it does a crappy job because GarageBand has no accordian, sitar, baritone sax, etc. So it puts up a bunch of bogus instrument sounds assigned to tracks by default.
Ask Apple how to patch into this so that when somebody has your package installed, they can drag a Standard MIDI File into the program and it will assign OmniSoundz patches to the tracks when there are no appropriate Apple sounds.
I didn't realize that OmniSoundz is available in EXS format.
Those of us on Apple GarageBand 2 have long bemoaned the fact that there is NO General MIDI sound set for GarageBand 2. Not from Apple, not from any other publisher.
I have heard that EXS soundfiles can be converted to work natively in GarageBand.
Trust me, bundle up OmniSoundz EXS for GarageBand and start marketing it as the one and only General MIDI package for GarageBand. You'll sell a lot of them.
The one extra step you ought to take is to figure out how to make it work under these circumstances:
If you drag a Standard MIDI File into an empty GarageBand project, it automatically opens up all the tracks and assigns GarageBand sounds to each track. But it does a crappy job because GarageBand has no accordian, sitar, baritone sax, etc. So it puts up a bunch of bogus instrument sounds assigned to tracks by default.
Ask Apple how to patch into this so that when somebody has your package installed, they can drag a Standard MIDI File into the program and it will assign OmniSoundz patches to the tracks when there are no appropriate Apple sounds.
Wheat Williams
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Ich spreche Deutsch
Aprendo español
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Ich spreche Deutsch
Aprendo español
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- KVRist
- 89 posts since 23 Feb, 2004
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- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
Well... maybe. Sonic Station 1 was the same data as Sonic Refills volume 1-5 but in multiple formats. There's been some talk about maybe doing a Sonic Station Gold where you have basically the material of all 20 volumes in multiple formats. I have to say, Sonic Refill Gold Edition Vol 1-20 bundle is possibly one of our hottest sellers and this is surpising since it is a $499 refill (MSRP anyway). Although I guess the fact that it would otherwise cost around $1,200 to buy all 20 volumes individually makes it very appealing.Spyda KB wrote:Any plans for a Sonic Station 2?
- KB
A Sonic Station Gold group buy might be interesting though. Then it'd be even cheaper. Any thoughts?
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- KVRist
- 89 posts since 23 Feb, 2004
[quote="Squids"
A Sonic Station Gold group buy might be interesting though. Then it'd be even cheaper. Any thoughts?[/quote]
I would personally go for it since I use, with Kontakt, at least in almost every track I create. If it can improve and add to the first edition I couldn't see why I would not get it.
- KB
A Sonic Station Gold group buy might be interesting though. Then it'd be even cheaper. Any thoughts?[/quote]
I would personally go for it since I use, with Kontakt, at least in almost every track I create. If it can improve and add to the first edition I couldn't see why I would not get it.
- KB
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- KVRer
- 8 posts since 25 Feb, 2004 from PA
I just wanted to say how cool it is of Squids to reply with such detail all the time. Very few, if any, companies would do the same. I'm a very proud endorser of both Sonic Reality and Ik Multimedia products. Not just for the quality of their products but for stuff like this. It's appreciated Squids 
It's never too late to become who you were meant to be.
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- Tunesmith
- 2889 posts since 12 Mar, 2002 from Toronto
Lately i've been using Omnisynth to work on ringtones. It's nice to have a GM set in the computer that doesn't have as much latency as Nokia Audio Suite does. It's nice to have a GM set in the computer period!
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- KVRAF
- 3476 posts since 9 Apr, 2003 from NE Ohio, USA
bump ... (but not before Tron2)
Doug
Doug
Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad - Spock, in "I, Mudd"
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
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- KVRist
- 51 posts since 31 Jul, 2006
I have omnisounds running within Sampletank 2XL and I'm very happy with the quality of the sounds. Yes, you know exactly where to go quickly for bread and butter type sounds!
When mentioning Omni 2, does this mean Omnisynth 2, Omnisounds 2 or both?
The Garageband library (including Apple Jampacks) miss quite a number of 'essential' bread and butter instruments including nice solo and muted trumpets, accordions just to name a couple of items! By creating an Omnisounds 2 for Garageband (hopefully with Logic being able to directly access these sounds as GB sounds) that would be an awesome way of getting high quality version of these missing bread and butter sounds into Logic and GB? (Apple are you listening???????).
I'm also very impressed with the quality of service provided by esoundz and IK Multimedia!. Keep up the great work guys and gals!!!!
When mentioning Omni 2, does this mean Omnisynth 2, Omnisounds 2 or both?
The Garageband library (including Apple Jampacks) miss quite a number of 'essential' bread and butter instruments including nice solo and muted trumpets, accordions just to name a couple of items! By creating an Omnisounds 2 for Garageband (hopefully with Logic being able to directly access these sounds as GB sounds) that would be an awesome way of getting high quality version of these missing bread and butter sounds into Logic and GB? (Apple are you listening???????).
I'm also very impressed with the quality of service provided by esoundz and IK Multimedia!
. Keep up the great work guys and gals!!!!Imac 3.4ghz/16gb ram/M Audio C600/PT11/Logic Pro X/Reason 7/Final Cut Pro X/Stacks of 3rd party plug ins.
MIDITEK MUSIC PRODUCTION, RECORDING & TUITION- Recording, production & mixing backing tracks, demos, albums & jingles.
MIDITEK MUSIC PRODUCTION, RECORDING & TUITION- Recording, production & mixing backing tracks, demos, albums & jingles.
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- Sonic Reality Head Chef
- 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida
Thanks. So far we're intending to make an OmniSoundz 2. Not sure about an "OmniSynth 2" at this point however OmniSoundz 2 is intended to be made in a wide variety of formats. So far these are the ones we have in mind:
SampleTank 2
EXS24 & GB
DirectWave (FL Studio)
SFZ (Dimension & Project 5)
Kontakt 2
Reason
HALion
As you can see some of these formats we don't normally support (at least yet) so this is a nice way to get those users a little taste of this and that from SR... it's fast and easy to get the "meat & potatoes" and sometimes those acoustic instruments in particular are unfortunately missing in people's set ups.
Not that many people know this but we did a lot of the factory sounds for NI's Bandstand (also for Project 5 and Dimension, Kontakt, SampleTank, Reason 3 and even the old EXS!). But, these sounds in Omni 2 are as good or better. We should have it out before the end of the year in various forms. We'll do single format versions as well as a multi (and singles will come out as they are ready).
SampleTank 2
EXS24 & GB
DirectWave (FL Studio)
SFZ (Dimension & Project 5)
Kontakt 2
Reason
HALion
As you can see some of these formats we don't normally support (at least yet) so this is a nice way to get those users a little taste of this and that from SR... it's fast and easy to get the "meat & potatoes" and sometimes those acoustic instruments in particular are unfortunately missing in people's set ups.
Not that many people know this but we did a lot of the factory sounds for NI's Bandstand (also for Project 5 and Dimension, Kontakt, SampleTank, Reason 3 and even the old EXS!). But, these sounds in Omni 2 are as good or better. We should have it out before the end of the year in various forms. We'll do single format versions as well as a multi (and singles will come out as they are ready).