Spectrasonics announce new update for Omnisphere and Trilian

Leading virtual instrument developer Spectrasonics have announced a brand new free update for the multi-award winning Omnisphere and Trilian at this year´s Frankfurt Musikmesse.

Version 1.3 offers new performance features including real-time performance sync capabilities allowing all three Spectrasonics instruments to be used together in some unique ways, Groove Lock Envelopes, new sounds, videos and more.

The new version 1.3 updates offer innovative real-time performance sync capabilities, which allow all three of Spectrasonics virtual instruments to be used together in some unique ways. The new ‘Latch’ and ‘Trigger’ modes are ideal for Electronic Music performers since they allow remarkable real-time creation of complex, multi-layered performances with full synchronization between multiple Omnisphere, Trilian and Stylus RMX parts without the need for traditional sequencing techniques. New performance and live remixing techniques are now possible, since any incoming MIDI data to these instruments can now be quantized in real-time – making it very easy to experiment, jam and improvise with any other clocked sources without losing any synchronization.

“We are excited to be able to continue the development of these powerful synths and offer new features and sounds to our users which really take these instruments to a whole new level,” notes Eric Persing, Founder of Spectrasonics. “We’ve always thought that electronic music should be fun and these new performance features are really a blast to play, jam and build up ideas quickly. We can’t wait to see how our customers use these new features in creative ways.”

Spectrasonics has also taken its innovative Groove Lock™ technology further in v1.3 and applied it to the powerful multi-stage envelopes in the STEAM engine. This advancement allows all of the envelopes in Omnisphere and Trilian to be ‘Groove Locked’ from external sources and will automatically create rhythmic envelope patterns simply by dragging standard MIDI files from Stylus RMX and dropping them on the Envelope displays – dramatically reducing the time it takes to create rhythmic envelopes.

As in many past updates, Spectrasonics is including new patches from their renowned sound design team that use and show off the new features of version1.3. A new concept this time is that the team is also including a special new ´VIP´ Omnisphere Library they´ve created for users who own both Omnisphere and Trilian. The ´VIP´ library utilizes the core libraries of both instruments together with Omnisphere´s advanced synthesis to create powerful new sounds.

Specifically for Trilian users, the sound design team has created new “produced” multis for the electric and acoustic basses in the 1.3 update which are designed for instantly cutting through heavier rock and pop mixes.

Many other additional features, fixes and enhancements are included in version 1.3 as well, including a new ‘Sustain-2’ mode which allows even more realistic Rock-style Bass playing in Trilian and also offers expanded performance capabilities in Omnisphere. Two new user-requested Browser features, ‘Search Lock’ and ‘Search Clear’ allow in-depth browsing and make workflow simpler and faster.

In addition to all the new software features and sounds, updated versions of the Omnisphere and Trilian reference manuals are included in the free download, as well as new tutorial videos for Omnisphere and Trilian demonstrating how to make the best use of the new capabilities.

Spectrasonics also announced that their free iPhone App “Omni Live” – which turns the iPhone into a wireless remote control for Omnisphere’s “Live Mode” page – will now be cross-platform compatible with Windows and OSX versions of Omnisphere v1.3.

The Omnisphere and Trilian version 1.3 updates will be released on April 20th as free downloads for all registered users.

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Regina Spektor Goes ‘Far’ with Spectrasonics

Grammy-winning Producer and Spectrasonics user David Kahne recently teamed up with Regina Spektor on tracks for her new album “Far,” where he used Spectrasonics software instruments. As a producer and engineer David has worked with a wide range of artists including Fishbone, Paul McCartney, Sublime, The Strokes, Sugar Ray, The Bangles, Kelly Clarkson, Taking Back Sunday, Tony Bennett and Stevie Nicks.

On the new “Far” release by Regina Spektor, Kahne produced several of the album tracks including ‘Human of the Year’ and ‘One More Time With Feeling‘ using both Trilogy and Omnisphere.

David explains, “I really like the Spectrasonics instruments. I used Trilogy on ‘One More Time With Feeling.’ That’s the acoustic bass, not only for the bass part, but also for the high register chords in the humming sections. It’s very pretty up there, and easy to create a rhythm with the attack being that strong and clear. The eerie pad at the beginning of that song is from Omnisphere. I don’t remember the name of the patch I started with, but I remember tweaking the dual filters to get that effect. The beeping sound in the first verse is also Omnisphere.”

Click here to view the complete news story on the Spectrasonics website

New Terminator film scored with Omnisphere!

In the long-awaited fourth installment of the sci-fi series Terminator, composer Danny Elfman weighs in with a gripping film score that features Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere virtual instrument on many of the music cues.

Danny Elfman told Spectrasonics, “I would have to say that discovering Omnisphere this last year has been one of my greatest pleasures. When I began Terminator Salvation I knew I was going to do a lot of synth work and so I began with a bank of their sounds and a slew of my own variations that I thought I could use, and use them I did. On almost every cue.

I can’t say enough good things about Omnisphere,” continued Elfman. “I love doing my own synth editing, but I’m no programming genius and I have very little patience for new plug-ins that require steep leaning curves to start really ‘working’ the patches I like. Omnisphere was really easy and intuitive. And for each file in DP, I’d make all the edits and variations on my sounds as was required, and having them attached to that file for later use made my life easier.”

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