Omnisphere 3

[bmanic]

I think the decision for hot gain staging was made very long ago with Spectrasonics Atmosphere so the filters could run hot. Since then they have kept it that way because backwards compatibility has always been important and the old UVI filters from Atmosphere still exist in the software

I think with the new Version 3 effects they just dropped in plugins that were looking for less hot inputs without any modifications. That's awesome for use the stand alone effects plugin but can cause issues with some of the presets

Yeah I think you are right.. and I do think it was ultimately the correct way to do it. In the end, it is within the users power to regulate the gain staging and most of the new effects have very clear input/output gain controls, so it's no biggie.

Do you happen to know at what point in the gain structure the A/B/C/D level controls on the bottom are? I assume it works like a mixer that feeds the 'Common' effect slot where everything is combined (except the AUX return, which is summed post all effects).

I'm not at the computer with Omnisphere installed right now so can't double check but my gut feeling is that the main A/B/C/D "mixer" levels are post slot effects, right?

[IvyBirds]

Do you happen to know at what point in the gain structure the A/B/C/D level controls on the bottom are? I assume it works like a mixer that feeds the 'Common' effect slot where everything is combined (except the AUX return, which is summed post all effects).

You have the overall level controls for each layer. This seems to be post everything like you suspected

There is also a level control called AMP that seems to be post oscillator but pre everything else on a per layer basis.

Spectrasonics doesn't really document what is going on with either other than it wants you to use AMP with the mod matrix

I have all 8 of those controls mapped to faders on a Launch Control XL which is extremely handy and is like using an analog mixer

[aMUSEd]

I've had this a few weeks now and still only up to 'E' in most of the banks. Keep making variants and exploring mutations.

Wonderful sounds - just a couple of annoyances

1) Hardly any seem to have aftertouch assigned by default, and neither are any setup for MPE

2) The different banks have many duplicate patches - however if I set ratings for one of the dupes in one bank it doesn't carry them over to the same patch in the other bank/s it is in which presumably means the dupes are actual different patches, not just the same patch but in 2 categories

[JasonSpatola]

Spectrasonics doesn't really document what is going on with either

Which is crazy cuz the manual is 1300 mfing pages

[IvyBirds]

Spectrasonics doesn't really document what is going on with either

Which is crazy cuz the manual is 1300 mfing pages

Totally agree, I have actually read most of the manual and it's amazing how much detail is missing despite being so long

[IvyBirds]

The different banks have many duplicate patches - however if I set ratings for one of the dupes in one bank it doesn't carry them over to the same patch in the other bank/s it is in which presumably means the dupes are actual different patches, not just the same patch but in 2 categories

The patches in the "Legacy Library" are duplicated in name only in the Version 3 libraries but are different. Legacy is the old Omnisphere 2 library, and many of those were "remastered" with new effects And other tweaks

If you are comparing other categories in the Version 3 libraries any duplicates are the same. Each category has a different database for the ratings in that category

This was a deliberate choice, and actually makes sense depending on your point of view. I have actually grown to appreciate it and see the logic behind it

For example the patch "Dolby's Guitaret" is included in the following areas of the library. Ambient Dreams, Electronic Underground, Experimental Organic, Retro Vibes, Scoring Electronic, and Warm Tones

There are lots of other similar examples but that one is one of the ones with the most categories

The library is way to large to organize it uniformly with simple rankings in any meaningful way. You will end up with hundreds if not thousands of patches that have the same rankings. So when you go to find them you now have to wade through 450 patches all ranked 5 stars, 350 ranked 4, etc

However they are then broken down into categories. Going back to the "Dolby's Guitaret" this gives you the opportunity to rank them with how they fit into each category. Maybe you think it would work really well as an Ambient patch so in the "Ambient Dreams" category you would rank it 5 stars, but then you think it really wouldn't work all that well as part of a film score so there you rank it 3 stars in "Electronic Scoring", and then you think it really doesn't sound all that retro compared to other patches so in the "Retro Vibes" category you rank it a 1 star. It's still a cool sounding patch, but it just doesn't fit in as well as other things in that category

Three months from now you have long forgotten what that patch sounds like along with hundreds more. You want to quickly find a cool Retro sounding patch to use in a track. So you launch the "Retro Vibes" section. Would you rather "Dolby's Guitaret" be rated at the very top of your list because you think it sounds good as an Ambient patch? Or would you rather focus on the patches that sound good as a "Retro Vibe"?

That is the logic that Spectrasonics used here and it makes logical sense they did it that way

There is probably no way they could have set the tagging system in such a large library that would make everyone happy, so many people might hate this way. I have grown to love it but as always YMMV

I find this especially useful to use with the new mutation feature. Because if I am going to use that I want to only experiment with what I think are the top sounding patches in each category and mutate those into something new, I don't want to waste time auditioning patches that don't really fit in

[Echoes in the Attic]

2) The different banks have many duplicate patches - however if I set ratings for one of the dupes in one bank it doesn't carry them over to the same patch in the other bank/s it is in which presumably means the dupes are actual different patches, not just the same patch but in 2 categories

How any developer could think this was a good idea is beyond me. And the fact that they also count them multiple times as if they are different presets - mind boggling.

[aMUSEd]

The different banks have many duplicate patches - however if I set ratings for one of the dupes in one bank it doesn't carry them over to the same patch in the other bank/s it is in which presumably means the dupes are actual different patches, not just the same patch but in 2 categories

The patches in the "Legacy Library" are duplicated in name only in the Version 3 libraries but are different. Legacy is the old Omnisphere 2 library, and many of those were "remastered" with new effects And other tweaks

If you are comparing other categories in the Version 3 libraries any duplicates are the same. Each category has a different database for the ratings in that category

This was a deliberate choice, and actually makes sense depending on your point of view. I have actually grown to appreciate it and see the logic behind it

For example the patch "Dolby's Guitaret" is included in the following areas of the library. Ambient Dreams, Electronic Underground, Experimental Organic, Retro Vibes, Scoring Electronic, and Warm Tones

There are lots of other similar examples but that one is one of the ones with the most categories

The library is way to large to organize it uniformly with simple rankings in any meaningful way. You will end up with hundreds if not thousands of patches that have the same rankings. So when you go to find them you now have to wade through 450 patches all ranked 5 stars, 350 ranked 4, etc

However they are then broken down into categories. Going back to the "Dolby's Guitaret" this gives you the opportunity to rank them with how they fit into each category. Maybe you think it would work really well as an Ambient patch so in the "Ambient Dreams" category you would rank it 5 stars, but then you think it really wouldn't work all that well as part of a film score so there you rank it 3 stars in "Electronic Scoring", and then you think it really doesn't sound all that retro compared to other patches so in the "Retro Vibes" category you rank it a 1 star. It's still a cool sounding patch, but it just doesn't fit in as well as other things in that category

Three months from now you have long forgotten what that patch sounds like along with hundreds more. You want to quickly find a cool Retro sounding patch to use in a track. So you launch the "Retro Vibes" section. Would you rather "Dolby's Guitaret" be rated at the very top of your list because you think it sounds good as an Ambient patch? Or would you rather focus on the patches that sound good as a "Retro Vibe"?

That is the logic that Spectrasonics used here and it makes logical sense they did it that way

There is probably no way they could have set the tagging system in such a large library that would make everyone happy, so many people might hate this way. I have grown to love it but as always YMMV

I find this especially useful to use with the new mutation feature. Because if I am going to use that I want to only experiment with what I think are the top sounding patches in each category and mutate those into something new, I don't want to waste time auditioning patches that don't really fit in

I would prefer to be able to rate a patch and know I like it no matter where it is, having 5 or more different copies of the same patch undermines the hours of work it takes to just go through and rate one category - only to find your rating has been lost as soon as you load the exact same patch in another. Also I do not care what categories they put things in - most of them are not that helpful anyway given Spectrasonics habitually make up such subjective categories - tagging is enough for me if it is accurate and then you can have the same patch given multiple tags

[Echoes in the Attic]

So then what if you use the “All” category and rate there? Aren’t the duplicates removed there?

[aMUSEd]

So then what if you use the “All” category and rate there? Aren’t the duplicates removed there?

That's confusing because when I do that I see only one of each preset

[JasonSpatola]

How do y'all know what'll work with any given future project or mood?

I guess rating patches is for people who really have their lives together.

[Echoes in the Attic]

So then what if you use the “All” category and rate there? Aren’t the duplicates removed there?

That's confusing because when I do that I see only one of each preset

I just tested the one mentioned above that is in several different libraries (Dolby's guitaret). Found it in "All Omnisphere", set a rating of 4. Then I went and found it in Ambient Dreams library, and it preserved the 4 stars there. Then I went and found it in Electronic Underground and it did not have a rating!

So this is even more nonsensical that it would keep it in one category and not another.

[BBFG#]

Maybe a different perception in that it seems better that way. That is, I may see a patch as a four star pad but only a two star lead and a no star bass. In that way it makes perfect sense to me.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Maybe a different perception in that it seems better that way. That is, I may see a patch as a four star pad but only a two star lead and a no star bass. In that way it makes perfect sense to me.

But they aren't divided up that way. They are separate by themes like "Ambient Dreams" and "Retro Vibes". Pads or leas are just tags within those. So you can't rate it as just a pad or just a lead.

And what good is tagging something in the All view to see it randomly be in just one library? None of it makes sense.

[BBFG#]

Maybe a different perception in that it seems better that way. That is, I may see a patch as a four star pad but only a two star lead and a no star bass. In that way it makes perfect sense to me.

But they aren't divided up that way. They are separate by themes like "Ambient Dreams" and "Retro Vibes". Pads or leas are just tags within those. So you can't rate it as just a pad or just a lead.

And what good is tagging something in the All view to see it randomly be in just one library? None of it makes sense.

Well, something for them to work on to be sure. I've never found their tagging system worth using anyway.