Hi from Spectrasonics!

[jamesbernard]

First of all loving Omnisphere 2 on my desktop.

With that said:
When can we expect an update to allow all of the many folks who use Muse Receptors to be able to install Omnisphere 2? Apparently Omnisphere 1 worked great in the past, and is on the list of compatible plugins.

We've been told the ball is in your court. You can see a thread about it right here on KVR in:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 5&t=437623

Any updates yet?

How is the best way for us Muse Receptor users to convince the powers that be at Spectrasonics that we really need to make this happen?

Thanks,
Dirk

I don't have any official answer on this, but I will forward your request along.

Cheers,
James

[analogaddict]

James,

Thanks a million!

[Dirk Diggler]

Awesome James, thanks for looking into it for us.
Dirk

[papajuice]

Well have we heard anything yet? I really want to use Omni 2 on my receptor

[jamesbernard]

In regards to Receptor and Omnisphere 2, I have been informed that we already provided Muse with all the info they need to "Receptorize" Omnisphere 2.

So, officially... the ball is in their court.

[jjj115]

...

[jamesbernard]

James, is there anything in the works this year for Stylus RMX, can't help but notice the RMX questions were unanswered in this topic lol. I remember reading an Eric Persing interview ages ago where he said "we haven't forgotten about rhythm" with regards to RMX. What's the ETA on a Stylus RMX upgrade/update?

C'mon now.. you should know better than to ask for any insider info.

If there is anything in the works for Stylus, you would find out when or if something was announced.

So, to answer your question..

I have no answer

[jjj115]

...

[jclosed]

Well - I can agree that Stylus RMX is in for an update by now. At the other hand - even without an update it is still an very usable piece of software. As I also own ReCycle! I was able to make an lot of my own library extensions, but it would be nice if people could use another way to import their samples/loops into Stylus RMX. That would be one of the biggest improvements.

[Dirk Diggler]

Thanks for the info James, not really great news, but something at least.
So we are juggling 2 balls in 2 courts now.
Hopefully some resolution will happen.
Thanks,
Dirk

[LFO8]

Hi James,

Thanks again for taking the time to come in here and check on our issues and/or needs. I hope Spectrasonics will consider opening up it's own forum on here like other plugin developers?

Anyway, I wanted to place this quote here from another Omnisphere thread, which voiced the issues a lot of us are having with the preset browser as it is now:

I mean Omnisphere blows every other synth out of the water. I think people are just being picky. There's nothing wrong with the search browser, since when has a browser being too detailed been a negative??
How many presets are there? If you simplified them into categories of just leads and basses etc that would be madness.

Well now...

The problem(s) for me are far deeper than being "too detailed", though that is an issue. I've explained where I'm coming from on a few different threads now, but I guess it makes sense to do so here where it belongs. Here's a list of the traumas:

1. The new tags break compatibility with existing 3rd party libraries

Most of the best 3rd party libraries tried to follow the Spectrasonics conventions. If you were careful about what you bought and what you installed, it was possible to at least get the basics consistent, so when you searched ALL you'd be searching in the same places in the same way. Now all that is broken, sometimes for no apparent reason - ARP + Rhythm is renamed ARP + BPM, so now I have two categories that do the same thing. I can apply an AND when searching, but it's a messy additional step.

Actually this problem has got even worse since 2.1, and the new easy way to import libraries. You are now stuck with whatever naming convention the library gives, however bonkers. I used to batch rename PluginGuru's stuff, which all has the terrible convention of prefixing the patch name itself with a category. This doesn't fit with anything else and makes no sense, so I used Advanced Renamer in Windows to get them into a format that fits with everything else. Now this is no longer possible, so the only solution for me is simply to avoid PluginGuru.

2. There's a fundamental confusion as to what categories are.

This was true in Omni 1, but it's been exacerbated in 2. You have nouns - Synth Bass, Textures Playable etc - alongside adjectvies - Distortion, Synth Pluck. So if you are looking for a distorted texture, you have an immediate conflict - do you look in Distortion or Textures? These conflicts are now pretty rampant at this most basic level. Retro land is again a description - you can have retro synth leads or organs.

I'm very happy with a distortion attribute, but it should be a type, not a category. The categories should be plain and simple broad dividers, and it should be clear where to start looking for the vast majority of sounds.

3. There are huge errors and omissions

One of the big selling points in the Omni 2 library was the EDM category. Want some lead synths? Great, just choose Lead Synth in the Spotlight EDM library. Oh, hold on, that's disappointing, there are only 15 - and they're not all that great either. Guess Omni can't do EDM synth leads then.

Well of course it can, and there are some real gems in the library. You just can't find them because none of the best are not tagged with Lead Synth, about as basic and useful a tag as one could hope for. If you select Synth Mono, you will find hundreds of other lead synth patches (some with the words lead synth even in the patch name or description). Seth Norman's are fantastic, for example.

Then there are Diego Stocco's new patches, which are excellent. You might not know that though, because they don't have any types or moods assigned at all.

4. Yes, it's over-complicated

Let's take one example - BPM plucked. Why does this exist? Mostly because there is a confusion over categories - we have Synth Plucked as a category. Plucked should be a type, which might apply to an ARP, a Synth Poly or an Organ. If this logic were applied consistently, the number of types would be reduced massively. And why is that a big deal? Because you can find stuff much quicker on the first hit.

Then there are too many similar tags. Take the moods (which are a terrific new attribute btw) - we have Ominous, Eerie, Nervous and Disturbing. These are very fine distinctions. There might be a case for a couple of them. It's a very long list that goes off the browser, so again it's more time spent looking in multiple areas. If there were 1/3rd or 1/2 less, all clearly and uniquely defined, you'd see the most appropriate one and go for it.

----

All this is made worse by the fact we don't have the tools to try to correct any of it. If we had a tool to batch tag or rename, we could fix the third party inconsistencies, but we don't.

Compared to Omni 1, I do find it far clunkier, messier and slower to work with. In all other ways, Omni 2 is absolutely gem, the greatest soft synth on this here planet, I'd argue. The breadth, diversity and quality, the speed with which you can edit and modify. The browser and tags at the moment are the only things spoiling the party. IMO it's such a deep problem that there needs to be a fundamental rethink, greatly simplifying the core library and eliminating all those contradictions, errors and omissions. Also I think Spectrasonics has to lend a hand to the third party situation, and give us some tools to get them into line with their own conventions.

[jamesbernard]

I am familiar with the thread this came from originally, and have forwarded it on to our dev team.

No promises on anything being adopted/changed though.

[LFO8]

Cheers James. Appreciate all communications.

[noiseboyuk]

It is a shame that there's been very little improvement to the tagging problems in the first 6 months. Not even the Lead Synth issue I mentioned in that post has been addressed. I understood that the tagging was an ongoing process, almost a full time job... there has been one patch update, but I've not noticed anything resolved. I also confess I'd hoped that Spectrasonics would have engaged a little more with us on this issue, there hasn't really been anything above "we note your comments".

Everything else still stands, good and bad. It's still a wonderful, remarkable synth, my goto for most synth duties. I only get excised about things that are worth it... Spectrasonics standards are so high that I notice this uncharacteristic issue all the more.

[EvilDragon]

Interesting thing to note - Spectrasonics prt_omn.index files are human readable XML file format, which you can open in a text editor and batch edit at will. So this is how you can edit the tags however you want. Sure, it's a huge job, but you can do it.