Is it just me or do most of omnisphere's stock preset just suck???
I've been going through as many presets as I can rating them with 5 Star (Good for Use) and 1 Star (Complete Shit).

I'm averaging 1 good preset against 50-60 total crap ones...
I'm even finding a lot of the presets from 3rd party sound designers are bunk too...
Maybe I just don't want to have 1000 presets of cave sounds with reverbs and echos on them... and 500 kalimbas patches....

You think that as a semi-rompler it would have fairly usable stock sounds...

An I'm not talking about Trillin, Trilogy, keyscape or the hardware library. There's some usable stuff in there.

 

Yes there is way too much reverb and delays on them. i spend more time disabling them than actually working. I still like it. especially trillian

 

Trillian has some great stuff in there. I find myself using Omnisphere for mostly Bass and and polysynths....

 

Omnisphere at it's core is a designers sampling synth. The presets are a representation of what can be done while also being a useful starting point. If you want point & click layering, then maybe something like Nexus 3 or the Korg LegacyCell is what you are looking for. Union, Pigments, Serum, Iris & Hive are good alternatives for wavetable based synths.

Just a thought...

 

I thought it was just me at first.
But i agree with @chacebl that there is a lot to be uncovered.
I have been disappointed to find some that I tried to uncover only to find the raw sampled sound wasn't what i wanted, but there is plenty to find.
I've planned to change some that i chose to use but never got around to it..

I also realize that at times I try to uncover an acoustic instrument and .. if I want a clean piano sound, there are better options.

 

It's all, as always, about personal taste I guess
I've taken a lot of them and changed them to my personal taste in my projects.
What's the use of complaining anyway?

 

Well, Omni's so widespread anyway that w/ that particular plugin I'd be sure to have the FX/EQ plugins nearby as well, not to mention the consideration of layering the sounds w/in a DAW.

If I could manage to even DL Omnisphere, haha.

But from what I recall from Omnisphere 1, there was a lot of useable stuff in there IMHO. OFC, depends on usecase. Which for me perhaps would have been something like adding a bit of atmosphere to drum-centric (IDM/DnB/whatever) stuff. So it seemed to be a good fit, and w/ no surprise considering that before Omnisphere it was called "Atmosphere."

One negative thing I can say, though, is that Omni can send one into analysis paralysis, just infinitely browsing presets. If one doesn't like Omnisphere, they could for example use a synth with a small selection of presets that they could to an extent become decently familiar with. And then just modify them. Korg Wavestation plugin comes to mind.

Or if you want more massive selections of presets, supposedly u-he Hive 2 (Virus type stuff) and SonicProjects OP-X PRO-II (analog in general and especially Oberheim) each have 2500 presets. As you may well know. Not the most attractive UIs/UXs tho, IMHO.

 

Last edited: Nov 27, 2020

Its not really a preset rompler or synthesizer.. if thats what you are looking for id say go with refx nexus.. you actually gotta use your talent to make patches in omisphere.. honestly I love being able to mix samples with synthesis

 

Nexus3... Absolutely sucks. I never upgraded from NEX2 because nothing was really added.

I just wanted to reiterate.

I did not say I do not like Omnisphere. It's absolutely fantastic. I use in almost every track I make.
I'm just saying there are a lot of bloatware and useless shit presets…

Especially considering you can not delete or visibly hide them from the preset view.
This way I am capable of organizing a library of sounds I would actully use in my productions.
Do we understand the difference?

U-he Dive Allow you to visible hide all the shit you know you will never use...

@quadcore64 I agree that it a great tool for sound designer. I never just plug in play presets. I almost always make adjustments of the the presets to fit my track. I also like to use the sound sources to create my own presets from previous presets.

Let me give a good example. Rob Papen Predator or FM8 come with endless presets.. but how many of them are usable off the top?
Not to many.. For me..

Cheers, Mates.
OSP

 

Presets need to cover everyone's taste. Everyone's taste is different. Patches that Omnisphere owner #1 hates maybe the same patches that Omnisphere owner #2 *loves*.

Also - there is a lot of content (see point above), therefore there will accordingly be a lot of content that doesn't work you. That's why rating and favourites exist - to help you weed out stuff you don't like.

Yes, it would be better for you if this instrument was personally voiced for you directly to your tastes, and only included stuff you liked. This is what happens when you fill a synth with *your own* presets (assuming you are any good at voicing instruments), because you will only make sounds you like, and there it no weeding through stuff that's not useful for your music.

Tl;DR; If you like using presets, then over time, bit by bit, go though the next category and mark the terrible-to-you sounds, the sounds you don't like, the sounds you do like, and the ones you love (I suggest using the star rating system). By just doing one category at a time to limit the time doing this so it doesn't become too tedious, and over time, you eventually work through the entire library, and discover the great patches along the way, and now have a ratings map of at a glance which sounds to ignore, and which sounds to head for, when you're looking for a patch.

Omnisphere doesn't suck, but it can't read your brain. If you spend a little time and effort using the tools (instead of making this thing sucks for not being able to read my mind and know what I like forum posts!), you'll find they become much more useful.

You might even start to think - actually, it's pretty damn good...

 

Omnisphere is overrated, I don't get the hype in 2020 considering the amount of rich hardware and software available to us since Spectratonics launched it almost a decade back now. Delete/hide all the stock presets and make your own or focus on only 2/3 soundbanks made by top sound designers, and then yeah maybe there is a small chance it could prove useful in your workflow. Like someone said above it's not a synth, just a sampler like Kontakt on steroids. Too many knobs on too many different pages, too much menu diving, the patch saving method is really weird too, and it relies to a great deal on FX, I find its sound pretty boring overall.

 

if you focus on plugin guru, plughugger, luftrum and the unfinished presets, you will find a multitude of great sounds. adjusting the reverbs and delays to suit your taste is easy. but, i'm guessing that you are into trap or something like that. i've never heard a 3rd party preset pack that was designed for that kind of music that sounded good. omnisphere is not well-suited to that kind of music. but for cinematic or progressive rock or many flavors of pop, it is unparalleled.

 

@realitybytez Thanks for the response.
Plughugger and plugin Guru got some good stuff.
I actually produce Electro Funk, funky house & Top 40 Pop.
I try to stay away from mainstream trap music. Personally I think Rap died in the early 2000's

 

Persing is stuck in the late 80s/early 90s where reverb was king.

 

I love Omni and find it totally inspiring but the irony is, most of the time when I build a song around an Omni patch I remove omni from the song, so I'm making songs with Omnisphere that don't have omni in them at the end.

 

Your right!

I love Omnisphere. I've already said that in previous posts.

It's just bloated with lots of garbage presets you can't physically delete or hide.
I understand that one mans garbage is another mans treasure...

If you can delete them or hide them then you are left with one the ones you know your going to use...

If you noticed my picture in the first post.. I am rating them them.. over months... most 1 Star... But not all of them..
Keyscape, Trillian, Trilogy and Hardware library have killer stuff in there.

Spectrasonics need to come up with a better approach to preset management.
This way find what you need faster without the hassle of tagging everything.

All the 5 star presets I save as individual patches in there own favorites folder. This way I find what I need quickly... Without going into any Spectrasonics folders....

U-diva Does a a great job of this... you don't want to see it.. Then click the Junk button.. The preset is not deleted but it is hidden. from view in the preset browser.

Why would anyone want ruin there creative flow spending hours rummaging through stuff they wont use??
It blows my mind.

LOL

OSP.

 

Because most people who love Omnisphere are 12-year olds using mostly presets and making generic trash music (except a few experience sound designers who know what they're doing).

 

And yet you still "disliked" my post...

Firstly, you don't do it during your creative flow times, you do it in down time, *so* your creative flow times are better facilitated.

Yes, it's a pain adapting the world to your personal tastes, but what are the options, realistically?

- Complain that you have to wade through stuff you don't like
- Use the facilities the tools give you to adapt them to your needs and let you access the stuff you like easily so you can become productive
- Don't use any presets and create all your sounds from scratch (remember, sound design is not really good for "creative flow" either, unless it's really quick and simple

What else can you do? Expect Spectrasonics to remove any sounds you personally don't like?

Seems to me you're already doing the things I suggest, you just wish you didn't have to. I also wish I didn't have to wash the dishes or sleep, but it is what it is...

 

I download new preset packs here once in a while. Just so that brain gets something new to listen to and be inspired by. Maybe 49 of the 50 suck but that one makes up for the rest if it lets me create something different. With your "go to presets" your music will keep sounding the same. Be it next month or next year. Therefore I use and tweak the odd ones to give my traditional/analog drums, base, (acoustic)guitar, (electric) piano, horns, organ orientated music a little flavor. So keep them coming and look at the positive side: you (probably) didn't pay for what you've been using so be thankful for all that is shared. Have a nice and noisy weekend.

 

Wow! An actual producer here! What Top 40 tracks did you work on?

Uh, no you don't!