Review: Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe is a name you might not be familiar with in the world of sound design, but if that’s the case, go remedy that right now. Tom’s work is original and useful, and his continually growing catalog is full of inspiring patches across a vast spectrum of soft synths and plugins. Tom’s latest offerings, Atomos for Omnisphere and Automaton for U-he Zebra, are great examples of his exceptional work.
Jump to the Videos of Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe,
Jump to the Demos of Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe
Review: Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe
This feature is the third in our series of behind the scenes chats with our favorite sound designers and sample library developers. In this installment, we’re hanging out with Tom Wolfe, a sound designer who leaped on to my own radar only a year ago.
Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra sells for £19.99/each from Tom Wolfe
Thoughts
I first became aware of Tom Wolfe via his Omnisphere soundset, Fractal. I’m always on the prowl for new soft synth soundsets and I happened to see Fractal on sale one weekend. After listening to the demos, it didn’t take long for me to decide to pull the trigger. After diving into Omnisphere Fractal for myself, I was so impressed that I decided to reach out to Tom just to offer him kudos and let him know how much I appreciated his work. This is not something I’ve ever done before, which should speak to just how impressed I was.
Atomos for Omnisphere
Since that initial conversation, I’ve had the privilege of jumping into the world to Tom Wolfe even more. Unlike some sound designers who only focus on a small number of soft synths, Tom has a wide catalog of sound design magic – from synth soundsets for soft synths like Omnisphere, Zebra, and Pigments, to Reaktor presets, and even effects presets for plugins from developers like Eventide, Soundtoys, and Valhalla. To say that Tom is a prolific sound designer would be an understatement.
We talked a bit with Tom to unpack the man behind the sounds and find out more about the experiences that led to his love for sound design. Tom spent years programming synths for his own compositional work, but after an operation left him unable to drive for several weeks, he decided to create his first commercial soundset, Halcyon for Omnisphere, at the beginning of 2018. After the heart-warming welcome he received through sharing this first soundset within online communities via Facebook, he knew he had to continue. “My interest in sound design has always been to create something a bit different, to use it to think outside the box. This was always part of my compositional process – when writing, I’d just sit down with a synth and play around with it until I found an idea that I could build upon and turn in to a full piece. For me, music and sound design have always been inextricably interwoven.” This statement perfectly encapsulates Tom’s most recent Omnisphere soundset: Omnisphere Atomos. Inspired by Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score for Chernobyl, Omnisphere Atomos is the perfect combination of musical and sound design – maybe best described as “musical sound design.” Omnisphere Atomos is one of the most original Omnisphere libraries I have had the pleasure of diving into. With a dark, dystopian feel, the pads are lush with a tinge of distortion, the soundscapes are deep and evocative, and the ARP + BPM patches are pulsing with metallic melancholy. Omnisphere Atomos could easily be the heart of a feature film score set in either a dismal sci-fi epic or a reflective and moody drama. It’s distinctive, yet flexible.
While Tom has explored sound design possibilities throughout many soft synths and plugins, his main focus thus far has been on Omnisphere and the U-he line of synthesizers.
Tom elaborates, “I’ve been using Omnisphere for a long time now, and it’s just so powerful. I’m a huge fan of granular synthesis and using it to repurpose samples into something completely new. This makes for completely unique sounds, unlike anything else. Omnisphere is by far the best tool I’ve come across to do this (and I own a lot of granular synths!), and of course the audio library is so huge. The audio quality of U-he software is just so incredible, it blows other companies out the water. Zebra is an absolute powerhouse, with such a huge range of sonic possibilities.”
Tom’s most recent release, Automaton for U-he Zebra, showcases just how incredible U-he’s powerhouse Zebra synth is. Zebra is unparalleled when it comes to clean, clear, digital, and beautiful soft synthesis. Inspired by scores such as Tron: Legacy and Mr. Robot, in Automaton for Zebra Tom has created beautiful ambient pads, creatively excellent leads, gritty, thick, and pulsing basses, useful keys, and a collection of digital arps that will prove useful in multiple applications.
Automaton for Zebra 2
Not one to limit himself, Tom is exploring many additional sound design possibilities via Arturia’s exceptional Pigments soft synth, among others. Tom continues, “I also use Arturia Pigments a lot, which is great for creating ambient patches, and it’s so intuitive. It has this unique sound quality to it, as well, which just works so well for certain sounds. With the new granular engine in Pigments, it doesn’t match up to the quality of Omnisphere’s, but it allows for some very interesting possibilities, and can create some pretty unique sounds. On top of this, I’m always looking to expand my pallet. I’ve recently been using bx_oberhausen and Kilohearts Phase Plant a lot, so there’ll be patches coming for these in the near future! I also currently have patches available for Logic Pro X Alchemy, Massive X and Reaktor. Massive X is a synth that I really enjoy working with, so I’ll be creating more patches for that at some point as well.”
As composers, we all go through seasons of change in which our sources of inspiration evolve.
Tom describes his recent inspiration as “mostly I’ve been playing about with my analog synths, creating loops, and then repurposing these into something unique. These experiments then become the foundation that I build my tracks on. I’m the kind of composer who finds inspiration from a sound, rather than a melody or chord progression, which definitely informs my style of music. In terms of my creative process, I usually find myself inspired by something I hear, whether it’s a composer’s style or a piece of music, a score for a film, that kind of thing. I then use this as inspiration. I never try to copy or imitate another sound, I just draw inspiration and then create what my own version of that sound would be. For instance, there’s a whole host of synthwave-style sound banks out there. When I created my Dystopia sound bank for Omnisphere, I wanted to create that style of sound, but with my own unique twist. Instead of trying to copy sounds from these tracks I was listening to, I took the ideas and then broke them up. Running synth sounds through the granular engine, adding some grit to the sounds, giving them an unusual character. I don’t ever want to be copying and reproducing work, but instead adding something new to the vastly expanding world of sound banks.” I think many of us (myself included!) can identify with how Tom finds his inspiration for composing within the world of sound design.
I have found Tom Wolfe’s work to be original, but just as importantly, useful. There are so many good and original sounds out there, but it can often be hard to fit these sounds into a track. For working composer’s, it’s often the useful sounds that are the most important ones. These are the sounds that not only inspire the creative juices to flow, but also avoid the interruption of the creative process; that is, you don’t have to perpetually tweak them to make them work. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention just how good Tom’s price-points are. Normally, you will find Tom’s soundsets priced at £19.99 – a very fair price for 100 original patches. I would encourage you to check out Tom’s work and dive into his creative world. I’ll be continuing to keep my eyes peeled for more soft synth goodness from Tom!
Facts
Atomos for Omnisphere is a collection of 100 original patches for Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 inspired by Hildur Guðnadóttir’s “Chernobyl” score. Automaton for Zebra is a collection of 100 original presets for U-he Zebra 2 inspired by scores such as Mr. Robot and Tron: Legacy. Both are available from Tom Wolfe’s website for £19.99/each.
Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra sells for £19.99/each from Tom Wolfe
Demos of Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe
Videos of Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe
Contributor Raborn Johnson reviews Atomos for Omnisphere & Automaton for Zebra by Tom Wolfe
“Tom Wolfe is a name you might not be familiar with in the world of sound design, but if that’s the case, go remedy that right now. Tom’s work is original and useful, and his continually growing catalog is full of inspiring patches across a vast spectrum of soft synths and plugins. Tom’s latest offerings, Atomos for Omnisphere and Automaton for U-he Zebra, are great examples of his exceptional work.”
