Omnisphere - How's it working for you?

[ggalen]

Vicki,I just tried the link above and it did play for me.But it was just an early little idea, to show what Omnisphere can do quickly. I'm sure those who have Omnisphere have quite a few themselves now!It's very fast to get some great sounds. Now I am trying to concentrate on going beyond hittting a key or two over a drone. I think there will be lots of those out there soon. I keep telling myself: Melody! Creativity! Don't just hold down a key and stop there!

[mojobone]

Sept 19, 2008, 10:48pm, hummingbird wrote:Mazz, OmniVoices is very cool, ambient and sweet, yet kinda haunting too. Sort of Elvish in scope. OmniAmbient is eerie but has a sense of action too. Feels like it would be good for a war movie.I was playing tonight too, sketching something out to see what I could do. Had some fun. This is Omnisphere and Stylus. I called it "Deja Vu" because it's electronica with a bit of a retro feel. I think http://www.vikkiflawith.com/audio/VIKKI ... a_Vu.m3uPS - Glenn - I couldn't get your link to work Wow! Really cool! Not too many sounds in there I couldn't get, but I hafta admit, it'd take me hours with my patchwork of hardware and soft synths, samplers and effects to pull that off. I think I'm more impressed with the Stylus percussion sounds, I'd probably find a use for some of those more modern sounds, if I had more of 'em. Might be time to start scroungeing...

[mazz]

Given enough time, any of us could come up with cool, unique sounds on par with Omnisphere. The attractive thing about instruments like Omnisphere is that it helps composers in time constrained jobs such as film/TV to get great, evocative sounds pretty easily. The pitfall of an instrument like Omnisphere is that it's so easy to put one finger down and get cool sounds that one gets lulled in to complacency and winds up using the stock sounds. It didn't take me very long at all to mangle the Omnisphere and Stylus sounds beyond recognition with their powerful and easy to use editing and effects sections. There's really no excuse for not twiddling with these things, even just the attack time or the echo or filter. Even just using the mod wheel on patches that use it for cross fading means that you're playing the instrument, not just triggering it.Glenn's link to the article about the "one finger composers" taking over the world is right on mostly. I still have to believe that we all have the same 12 notes available to us and yet some still manage to rise above the sea of mediocrity and create incredible music with those 12 little notes. And they didn't get there and stay there by combining a bunch of stock loops and holding down one note for 3 minutes and letting the arpeggiator take all the credit. Blah, Blah, Blah, ........... Mazz

[hummingbird]

Sept 21, 2008, 1:55am, mojobone wrote:Sept 19, 2008, 10:48pm, hummingbird wrote:Mazz, OmniVoices is very cool, ambient and sweet, yet kinda haunting too. Sort of Elvish in scope. OmniAmbient is eerie but has a sense of action too. Feels like it would be good for a war movie.I was playing tonight too, sketching something out to see what I could do. Had some fun. This is Omnisphere and Stylus. I called it "Deja Vu" because it's electronica with a bit of a retro feel. I think http://www.vikkiflawith.com/audio/VIKKI ... a_Vu.m3uPS - Glenn - I couldn't get your link to work Wow! Really cool! Not too many sounds in there I couldn't get, but I hafta admit, it'd take me hours with my patchwork of hardware and soft synths, samplers and effects to pull that off. I think I'm more impressed with the Stylus percussion sounds, I'd probably find a use for some of those more modern sounds, if I had more of 'em. Might be time to start scroungeing...Mojobone - thanks for the listen. Deja Vu was created with Omnisphere only just to see what I could do, but it works great with Stylus too

[ggalen]

Mazz,I've worked on my chops and compositional ability for many years. Omnisphere amazes me, but it worries me as well.First, the bad news...You are right: it doesn't take long to flip a few settings to "mangle" a preset and come up with a new-sounding patch in Omnisphere. It doesn't take long...for anyone.If you just want a unique sound, others can do it with Omnisphere as well.You know, software tools like Omnisphere will keep coming, and achieving great sound will get easier and easier. More people will be able to satisfy producers...and prices paid for tracks will come down as more and more libraries appear and have to compete on price.It's like the stock photography market, and "crowd-sourcing" sites like iStockphoto.com. I really think this is going to begin for music, and any other digital artistic medium. Can't stop it.But there is hope... So...you have to sell something else that's more scarce: the ability to create evocative melody and structure, on time and on budget, and be a dream to work with. And you need to know a LOT of the people who need that sort of thing and have money to spend.You seem to be doing that. I think that's what's going to be left to make a good living.

[mazz]

Glenn,There will always be producers looking for inexpensive, quick fixes for their musical needs. There are numerous reasons for this and sometimes it's out of the producer's control, sometimes they or the client just can't afford custom music. The "stock houses" fill that need well.Then there are producers that realize the value of custom music and how it supports their artistic statement. For them, there's just no going with a "one size fits all" approach. These same people usually also value relationships and see the value in being able to establish a working relationship with a composer. They are typically aware that they need to pay the composer and are willing to do so. That kind of long term relationship goes way beyond melody, harmony or sound. Those are the kind of clients I want to work with, a few of those can make a career.Superficially, tools like Omnisphere make it easy to create atmospheres and ambiences. I can teach anyone to play a drone on the piano but does that make them instantly a composer or improviser? I think you know the answer. Anyone can hold down a key on Omnisphere but does that make them a composer? Once you go below the surface, you will find out if there's any "there" there.We're in the age of "mediocrity worship" but deep down people can tell the comPOSERS from the real COMPOSERS. Whether they care or not is out of our control. We can only strive to keep improving our craft and our professional relationships. One day at a time.Cheers!!!Mazz

[ggalen]

Mazz,Thanks for the encouragement. Sounds like we are in agreement. Those of us with real musical ability just have to find the people who value it, and need it.I started my career as a software engineer in 1985 with a masters level degree in computer science and cognitive psychology. It was wide open: computers were new, and LOTS of software needed to be written, in all fields.Since then, programming tools made things easier and easier, and it went from being something "computer scientists" do, to being something that teenagers can do.But back then, as soon as there was a great need for talented programmers, software companies found a market making tools that would allow less-talented programmers to do things that previously only gifted programmers could do. Witness Visual Basic in 1992 or so.This happened in the graphic design field as well. New versions of Photoshop and Fireworks allow you to get effects with the click of a button that only gifted digital artists could figure out how to do 10 years ago.Same thing with web design and programming.The money is only there when workers are relatively scarce. Once every kid can do it, it no longer pays much.I see something a bit similar happening in DAWs, plugin effects chains, and virtual instruments: software companies are helping the less gifted achieve a sonic result.This will only continue.You have to sell something that cannot be automated.

[hummingbird]

I would certainly like to think I am a composer, and not just somebody who holds down a key for effects. I think it's possible to use the new tools to create interesting sonic textures and innovative soundart but still be the one who is building a composition from the ground up, working with melody & counterpoint to create a something that has expression and meaning.

[ggalen]

Vicki,From what I've read and heard from you on Taxi, you certainly seem like a composer to me. That would seem to be your heart. I bet you'd be bored if you weren't creating something from within yourself.I can relate.I gave my career history because I've been financially affected by "computer automation tools" already. So I think about this a lot.

[flyingtadpole]

Glen, that's an interesting parallel with the computing. Let's pursue one step further... My "other" career started about 15 years before yours. In the early eighties I was rewriting big multivariate statistical stuff to run on a microcomputer--you'd know it, things like the UCLA medical and psych programs though not those specifically--because I needed them for application in what I was actually doing and no longer being academic/government, had no super mainframe computer to draw Snoopy calendars on anymore. For a while (10-15 years) I had a professional advantage because of that programming skill. Now of course, those sorts of things can be routinely done at the press of a button in inexpensive software on cheap computers. And is. I haven't programmed anything since about 1990... But...I knew what I was doing and when to press the right button. The current users just press the button indiscriminately. I'm still in business. They come and go. Reason? For most clients and most mundane tasks, doing Frankenfurter light switch approaches doesn't matter. For important and critical tasks, clients still need someone who knows what, how and when. Its not stretching the analogy too far to suggest that this is what's happening under Mazz's music scenario. For a lot of uses, indiscriminate pushing of the button, or even computer controlled algorithm music, may do, (though a local restaurant which actually uses this sort of stuff to avoid PRO fees I don't eat at because my brain turns to mush to match the food), and that's a market where I believe we're already defeated. But did we want to go there anyway?But there will continue be the many situations that actually need a spark, not a damp patch, because they need an edge over the ordinary. Hopefully that's where we can fill. Again, it means we've got to be way ahead of the press-a-button-any-button school. I think it can be done. Taxi helps with the standard we need to reach. But we're not going to get rich and it's not an easy process.