Review: Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo by MIDIssonance

When I first heard original patches from sound designer MIDIssonance I was immediately impressed and intrigued. The sounds from MIDIssonance are unlike anything I have yet heard across the landscape of Omnisphere patches. There is a deeply crafted ambience and texture to his sound design that is unique, creative, and dripping with unusual beauty. A single soundset can include everything from gorgeous pads to trailer booms, braams, and risers, and somehow, they all belong in the same soundset. MIDIssonance is a next-level sound designer.

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Review: Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo by MIDIssonance

This feature is the fourth in our series of behind the scenes chats with our favorite sound designers and sample library developers. In this installment, we are going to checkout Vin from MIDIssonance, a wonderfully creative sound designer working with two of my favorite soft synths: Spectrasonics Omnisphere and U-he’s Zebra 2.

Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo sells for €34.95 & Free w/Bundle from MIDIssonance

Thoughts

The soft synth sound design landscape is filled with great sounds and great sound designers, but there is something uniquely wonderful about the work of MIDIssonance. The care and craftsmanship that goes into a MIDIssonance patch is apparent. His patches drip with ambient vibe and lush beauty, but they can range across the spectrum from dark and sinister to ethereally hopeful. We wanted to find out more about what makes this stellar sound designer tick, so we asked some questions to find out more about how Vin of MIDIssonance became something of a sound design savant.

When asked about the focus of his sound design, we learned that MIDIssonance is most interested in cinematic sound design – creating sounds that are “instantly inspiring, versatile, and that fit in a mix without much effort.” In my view, mission accomplished. This describes how I felt playing through MIDIssonance’s latest soundsets, Omnisphere Signalo and Omnisphere Mondo. The sounds are gorgeous and wonderful all on their own, but there is an attention to fine details that allow these sounds to blend right in with those from other collections and libraries. Turns out, Vin does the hard work before putting the sounds out into the world for mass consumption. He invests his time not only in the creation of these sounds, but also tests them extensively in tracks to ensure his goal of making these sounds fit into the context of a mix is accomplished.

It’s always interesting to me to find out how accomplished people began in their specific endeavor. As it turns out, Vin has been working on custom projects for more than 10 years. During that time, he posted a small batch of Omnisphere 1.5 patches on the VI-Control forum which eventually became his free Omnisphere XLV soundset. The response was very positive, and he began to receive many inquiries about releasing a commercial soundset. This led to the creation of MIDIssonance’s first commercial soundset, Omnisphere Symmetry. Once that was also well-received, he decided this was a path to pursue.

So why Omnisphere? We wanted to know why he has focused so much of his sound design time on this particular soft synth. Vin says, “I think Eric Persing and his team at Spectrasonics created the most powerful and flexible synth with Omnisphere. Even though its sample import is limited compared to NI Kontakt, you can do so much even with just a single sample. Omnisphere’s soundsource library is very voluminous, but I love sampling and creating patches with my own custom soundsources. It’s a perfect hybrid of synthesis and sampled sounds and it sounds fantastic.” So those beautiful sounds you hear in MIDIssonance’s work are not just the result of manipulating the fantastic soundsources found within Omnisphere, they are also powered off his own custom soundsources. So far, Vin has only created one non-Omnisphere soundset, Zebra Ultramarine, but he says more sounds for Zebra 2 will be coming. And as a teaser, he even mentioned that some Kontakt libraries are being planned. Color me excited!

Lastly, we wanted to find out how MIDIssonance’s sound design work plays into his own composing work and where his primary composing focus currently is. “I really love doing both. Being a working composer really helps when working on custom sound design projects for other composers. My primary composing focus currently is trailer music and library music. Trailer music, in particular, often blurs the line between music and sound design and also allows for really creative sound design, so I enjoy working on such projects.” That composing passion really shows in his work.

There just aren’t enough superlatives to go around when talking about MIDIssonance’s soundsets. To give you a little taste of what to expect, here’s a brief overview of what you can expect to find in his latest Omnisphere releases, Omnisphere Mondo and Omnisphere Signalo.

Omnisphere Mondo
As the most comprehensive collection of sounds by MIDIssonance yet, Omnisphere Mondo includes ARP+BPM, Hybrid Organic, Impacts & Hits, Keyboards Pads + Strings, Synth Bass, Synth Mono, Synth Poly, Textures, and Transition Effects patches, Omnisphere Mondo is a tour de force of great sound design. The highlights for me are:
• The many ARP+BPM patches which are based on unusual and even unexpected movements
• An awesome collection of Impacts & Hits with braams, booms, hits, and metallics
• Gorgeous and ethereal Pads + Strings that are dripping with beauty
• The stunning dark and ethereal Textures which are perfect for many ambient moods and underscores, many of which are inspired by the work of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
• The great collection of Transitions Effects, featuring many tempo-synced risers and drops
To say Omnisphere Mondo is unique and beautiful would be a gross understatement of how good this collection of sounds is.

Omnisphere Signalo
Omnisphere Signalo is available exclusively as a free addition to the MIDIssonance Omnisphere and Everything bundles. The influences for this soundset were Cliff Martinez’s work on “Solaris” and “Drive”, and the late, great Jóhann Jóhannsson’s excellent and mysterious score for “Arrival.” With sounds in the ARP+BPM, Hybrid Organic, Keyboards, Pads + Strings, Synth Mono, Synth Poly, and Textures categories, these sounds are magical. My favorites here are:
• The unusual rhythms and modular arps found in the ARP+BPM patches
• The Hybrid Organics are simply gorgeous. So much care and attention to detail has went into the programming of these patches. There are electric guitars that evolve as you hold the keys, perfect patches for slow melodies, beautiful reverses, and more.
• The Pads + Strings ooze ethereal beauty and feature bright, warm, and even modular patches.
• The Textures are just stellar. So many of them are based on the mood and feel found in Jóhann Jóhannsson’s excellent original score for the movie “Arrival.” These would fit right into a mysterious movie that leads to either wonder or horror. I’ll say it again – these are freaking stellar!

Again, there are just not enough superlatives to throw at Vin’s work for Omnisphere. These are carefully crafted sounds that have the potential to take your track to the next level. I can’t recommend his work highly enough and I’m looking forward to seeing where this excellent sound designer goes next!

Facts

Omnisphere Mondo includes 100 new soundsources, 220 cinematic patches, and 25 multis for Omnisphere 2.6. Omnisphere Signalo features 20 custom soundsources and 100 cinematic patches for Omnisphere 2.6. Both soundsets are available from MIDIssonance’s website.

Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo sells for €34.95 & Free w/Bundle from MIDIssonance

Demos of Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo by MIDIssonance

Omnisphere Mondo

Omnisphere Signalo

Videos of Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo by MIDIssonance

Contributor Raborn Johnson reviews Omnisphere Mondo & Omnisphere Signalo by MIDIssonance
“When I first heard original patches from sound designer MIDIssonance I was immediately impressed and intrigued. The sounds from MIDIssonance are unlike anything I have yet heard across the landscape of Omnisphere patches. There is a deeply crafted ambience and texture to his sound design that is unique, creative, and dripping with unusual beauty. A single soundset can include everything from gorgeous pads to trailer booms, braams, and risers, and somehow, they all belong in the same soundset. MIDIssonance is a next-level sound designer.”