Omnisphere 2 saving patch - am I doing something wrong?

[LGK_Dude]

Hello,

I must be doing something wrong here. I'm browsing the Directory -> Spotlight EDM Patches, Category -> ARP + BPM -> BPM PADs and found a preset in there called "Supergate" that I modified. I want to save it next to the original supergate patch as its a variation, but when I go to save the patch there is no "EDM Patches" directory for me to save my patch. Perhaps they are doing this on purpose so you dont put user patches in with the factory patches? But this means that if in the future I only load the Spotlight EDM Patches, I can no longer view this new variation on the supergate!

In a similar way, I sometimes sound lock patches like the supergate, and try them on other patches, but if I save these new patches I dont see a way to give it the same tags as the original sound locked patch. For example, if I take that supergate and apply it to a real string patch like Adagio Transparent Strings Warm, when I save this new "supergate strings" patch, the keywords are for the old Adagio string patch and are no longer relevant - such as Genre = "traditional, Ballad, Film" etc which no longer make any sense at all. Of course I can try to add my own tags that make more sense, but ideally I would have the exact same tags as the original supergate patch, as again this is a variation.

Is there some way to import the tags from the original patch when saving soundlocked sounds? Or maybe just an easy way to copy / paste tags from one patch to another? I even tried opening a separate instance of omnisphere, load up the original patch and match the tags manually, but even when I set the type to be BPM Pads,etc, it doesn't show up in the "ARP + BPM" Category! How do I save this patch into the ARP + BPM Category?! There is no Category tag!

I must be doing something wrong. Anyone else running into these types of issues?

[noiseboyuk]

Whenever you save a new patch, or a new variation, it goes into the User folder - you can't save them into the main Spectrasonics library. When you save your patch, you select what category it goes into. If you save an Arp + BPM patch, it will show up in that category and searches - provided the library is set to All or User. There's sadly no way of copying / pasting tags, or batch renaming.

These highlight increasing problems for Omnisphere. I get why Spectrasonics want to create a walled garden and everything else is a free-for-all as an expedient solution to their issues, but it's becoming really hard to work with from an end user perspective. The situation has been compounded by changing all the categories in Omni 2. All the third party libraries and user presets that adhered to the original categories now don't turn up in the new searches. Frankly, it's a mess.

The most practical solution for this is for users to be given access to batch tagging tools, so we can at least align our existing extra patches with the Spectrasonics conventions. Prior to this, I'd love to see a rationalisation of the factory tagging, to simplify what is currently all over the place. We also need a more sophisticated way of working with libraries, where we can select groups of libraries. I'd urge anyone that feels the same way to contact their support and make the feature requests.

[LGK_Dude]

Thank you for your reply!! Bummer to hear that this tagging system is so un-user friendly right now. Hopefully they really take it seriously in an update as its a pretty frustrating experience right now.

BTW. I'm still confused by the whole "category" thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no "category" tag, and instead category folders. These you choose when you first save your patch when it asks for a location. So if you want a patch to show up in the BPM + ARP category you must save it in the BPM + ARP folder? However I do not SEE a BPM + ARP Folder. I have an ARP + Rhythm folder, which I believe is due to the fact that I have 3rd party Omnisphere patches that use this category? So I'm still confused.

edit: Turns out I have to create my own BPM + ARP folder in my user folder and then I can save it in this folder and it shows up in the BPM + ARP category. But again I run into the issue of not being able to easily assign the same tags as the original Supergate preset easily, but at least its now in the the same category!

I really hope the whole tagging / browsing system gets an overhaul. Right now its a complete MESS on my end (again probably due to third party stuff and free patches I've installed, Omnisphere 2 changing categories and tags, etc) and I'm confused just looking at all the options when browsing for patches. Perhaps part of this problem is due to my 3rd party libraries and my own presets I've made and saved not conforming to the old standard, but then they changed the standard and now ALL 3rd party stuff no longer fits anyway, which adds to the mess.

Is it up to me to clean this up, or should I wait for an update? Dont really know how to proceed from here. What have you done noiseboyuk? Thanks again for your great reply! I'm going to submit a feature request to Spectrasonics - do you mind PM'ing me with a basic outline as what to address, as you seem to have a better grasp on what specifically should be fixed, where I'm just frustrated by the experience and dont really know how to fix it, haha!

[LGK_Dude]

on a related issue, I like to use the "projects" check box to quickly keep track of sounds I think will work on a specific project / genre of music. However, I also prefer to browse my sounds by category as frankly there are two many options for type, especially if you are browsing all categories as none of the types get filtered out. Its really overwhelming!!

Unfortunately though, it seems I cannot browse by both project AND category at the same time. Which sucks as most of the sounds I tag in projects end up having 3+ types assigned to them, which makes my type list unmanageable. Where as each sound can only have one category, and thus the list is much more manageable, as well as the fact that the "types" get filtered down as you choose a category.

Is it possible to instead of having category / project be an "either or" to actually choose the project, THEN the category of sound, then the type, etc?

Thanks again,
Jonathan

[noiseboyuk]

I don't know about projects really - I honestly never use them.

As for cleaning up... I don't know. I had all these grand plans of going through libraries one at a time, but the problem is kinda overwhelming. We lack the tools to effectively deal with the mess. You're right about categories being stored in folders, so that important step is best handled in the OS.

But here's the thing. I really rather dislike the new categories. There's a real motivational problem in spending an awful lot of boring time and effort making everything you have slightly worse. Of course, it's a for a greater good - some kind of organisation and cohesion meaning you can find your way around in a hurry again - but in my case it's been quite paralysing.

I suppose I'm waiting for a proper response from Spectrasonics about it all, some kind of road map that would give me the confidence to do my own legwork. Where are they going with this? Is it...

A) they realised they made a mistake and will rationalise and simplify their own core library

or

B) they feel that the work is imperfect but the best way forward is to tweak and refine

Further, is it the case that...

C) they realise there is a major issue with the integration of third party libraries and will help users by developing tools to manage this

or

D) they are only interested in maintaining the walled garden of their own content, and leave 3rd party stuff as an unmanageable free for all

or

E) They will revert to a lot of earlier conventions to keep the third party libraries better integrated.

Those answers are critical to what I can and can't do next. If there's even a glimmer of hope that they'll do another full scale reassessment of those categories and types to simplify, then I won't touch anything else, otherwise it'll all be wasted effort. Although it will be more short term upheaval, it's by far the best option as I think they're on a road in entirely the wrong direction.

Further, if I knew we'd get some help with batch tagging, I'd also wait as it will make any job of re-organising third party stuff much much easier.

You see the paralysis.

So as of now I've done nothing, Searching isn't the simple and effective pleasure it was, now it's a fuzzy process of trying several different things and hoping something works. Other new tools like soundmatch help, but it's only a partial solution. As I've mentioned before, even the core library is internally inconsistent, so even restricting the searches just to that is arguably a worse experience than searching in v1 was with third party.

Someone asked on another forum if I'd upgrade again if I knew then what I know now. It surprised me that it did take me a few seconds of thought rather than it being a no brainier - yes I would. The other improvements in v2 do more than compensate for this mess. I suppose it's a bit like the parent thing... I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. I remain continually surprised that we're in the position, that the company went down such a blind alley. I'd love nothing more than to hear "ok, we hear you, bear with us while we make it right".

But each passing day makes it more difficult. Omni 2 libraries are coming out, and if standards are to change again then all THESE will be wrong in the future. Then there's the new library import feature which exacerbates the problem - you can't even batch rename in thr OS any more, so developers like PluginGuru will really REALLY mess up your browser, and there's nothing you can do except simply not buy from them. Trouble is - it's not always obvious when you buy if the developer is even attempting to follow any kind of standard, or are just merrily doing their own thing.

In short - grrrrrr.

[Ben H]

Yeah, I haven't bothered to reorganize any of my patches for the same reason.
I fear there will be an update which will just break them again.

Waiting for Spectra to decide what they are going to do about it first. :/