Omni²
Omnichord for Ableton Live
Omni brings the sound of the Suzuki Omnichord to Ableton Live. The Omnichord is like an electronic autoharp, letting you produce electronic-sounding strummed arpeggios using a touch plate. Originally released in 1981, the Omnichord’s cheap but charming sound and hands-on character have made it a favourite of artists like Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, David Bowie, Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois, Gorillaz and Mark Mothersbaugh. The Live rack instruments in Omni strive to recreate the Omnichord in Ableton Live with more modern flexibility and without the high current prices.
Freshly Updated for Live 11
Omni² is an updated version of my original Omnichord plugin pack, which I released for Live 9 in 2018. The new pack features the same sounds with new Live racks rebuilt for Ableton Live 11. The brand new Macro Variations feature makes the racks much more flexible without relying on memorising specific keyranges. Just use the Macro variations list to choose Strum type, keys, scales and chord types and which sounds to use. Additionally, the classic Omnichord OM-36 strings and organ sounds have been resampled less background noise than the original pack. Brand new diatonic, chord-type and DAW-synced racks have been created to take the Omnichord sound even further.
Features
The original Omnichord was a versatile instrument. The touch plates strums, called SonicStrings, are the most recognisable sound, but the Omnichord also produces organ-like chords, percussion loops and auto-bass sounds. These features are recreated and expanded in Omni with the following Ableton Racks:
- The Omni Strum rack lets you play any chords on your MIDI keyboard and it’ll arpeggiate them as though played on an Omnichord. This lets you play chord types and voicings not possible with the original hardware instruments.
- Triads and Sevenths racks trigger diatonic chord strums using single keys. Just set the key and scale of the rack to match your song and all chord strums will be in key. All strums will be triggered in identical inversions to the original Omnichord and higher and lower octaves change the range of strum.
- Synced racks have the strum speed synced to DAW tempo. Useful for when you want strums or arpeggios to be perfectly in tempo with your track.
- Organ patches recreate the Omnichord chord buttons. These can be triggered as Triad or Seventh chords using a single keys in the same voicings as on the original instrument. Alternatively, the main Organ rack lets you play the organ sound like any other keyboard instruments letting you play your own chords.
- Drum Loops and Bass Loops let you play the drum and auto-bass rhythm loops. These are Simpler racks synced to DAW-tempo.
- The MIDI Effect Rack devices feature the arpeggiator and chord devices without any sounds loaded. Place these MIDI racks before any synth, sample or instrument to get the Omnichord strumming style with sounds of your choices.
Omnichord Demos
Arp, organ and drum sounds are Omni racks in Ableton Live 11.
- Adventure 00:00
- Spaced Out 00:00
Requirements
To use the Omni patches you will need a copy of Ableton Live 11. These devices will not work on older versions of Ableton Live.
The Omni devices work with all Editions of Ableton Live 11, including Lite, Intro and Standard.
Free Update
If you bought the original version of Omni, you are entitled to upgrade to this new, updated version for free. If you don't have a customer account already, create one using the email address you used to purchase the original Omni pack.
Once you have an account, you can download the updated Omni² pack from the Downloads section of your user account. If you have any issues, just get in touch with your original order details.
Artwork by Andreia Calhau
