Omni²

Omni is a digital Ableton Live device that faithfully captures the sound and character of the Suzuki Omnichord, an electronic autoharp first introduced in 1981. This is a software instrument for Ableton Live, not a physical Omnichord.

Best known for its distinctive strummed arpeggios played via a touch plate, the Omnichord has been used by artists like Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, David Bowie, Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois, Gorillaz, and Mark Mothersbaugh. Its simple yet expressive sound and hands-on playability have made it a favourite for decades.

Omni recreates the Omnichord within Ableton Live, keeping the charm of the original while adding more flexibility and functionality. It offers a way to explore the instrument’s unique tones without the high prices and rarity of the original hardware.

Omni² is a big step up from the original Omni plugin pack I released for Live 9 back in 2018. One of the main reasons I wanted to create a new version was to take full advantage of Ableton Live 11’s Macro Variations, making it much easier to use. In the original version, you had to memorize specific key ranges to trigger different arpeggio types—now, you can switch between strum types, keys, scales, chord types, and sounds instantly with Macro Variations.

I also felt that the original Omni samples were a little too noisy, so I went back and resampled the classic Omnichord OM-36 strings and organ sounds with less background noise for a cleaner, more polished sound. On top of that, I’ve added brand-new diatonic, chord-type, and DAW-synced racks to make the Omnichord even more flexible in a modern setup.

The original Omnichord was a versatile instrument, known not only for its SonicStrings touch plates strums but also for producing organ-like chords, percussion loops, and auto-bass sounds. Omni expands upon these features with a series of Ableton Racks designed to recreate and enhance the Omnichord experience:

• 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.