Rating: **** 4/5 Stars
Waverunner, which is the result of a collaboration between Reverb Machine, MIDIhead and ILIO, aims to replicate the sound of classic analogue synths from the ’80s and ’90s to provide Omnisphere 2 users with a strong selection of pads, leads, basses, plucks and tempo‑sync’ed cinematic arps that lend themselves to sequencing. Please note that Omnisphere version 2.8 or higher is required to use this pack.
The designers suggest that the sounds could slot into lo‑fi, synthwave, retrowave, downtempo, chillwave, vaporwave, dream pop, synth pop, darkwave, future electro and cyberpunk genres, and having heard them I would not disagree. What you get in the pack is divided up into 16 tempo‑sync’ed arpeggio sounds, nine bell‑style patches, 15 pads, 12 basses, eight monosynth sounds, 45 polysynths, 12 short‑duration synth sounds and two transition effects. Additional parameters are assigned to the mod wheel, allowing for useful performance variations such as filtering. Registered users benefit from access to free updates when they become available, which may include new patches. Installation is straightforward, the simplest way being to unzip the library files and then drag them into the Omnisphere GUI. This gives you the option to import the library.
...in the case of Waverunner, most of the patches had me stopping to play with them for a while, which is always a good sign.
I’ve tried a number of patch libraries where only a couple of sounds stand out as being particularly useful, but in the case of Waverunner, most of the patches had me stopping to play with them for a while, which is always a good sign. Many of the pad and synth bell patches have a gentle, organic quality to them and one found its way immediately into a piece of music I had been working on. As the Omnisphere core library and sound engine delivers analogue‑like smoothness, the patches offered here convey a real sense of analogue warmth, and this carries over to the basses, which run from rounded and fat to raspy attitude, all with a true sense of depth. The various polysynth patches provide a cross‑section of the sounds you might expect to find on a good hardware polysynth, but again most are designed to be immediately usable rather than simply to sound flashy.
The arpeggios provide a great starting point if you’re running short on ideas, and in most cases the designers have avoided the temptation to make them too busy‑sounding. If you prefer to set up your own arpeggios, then most of the short sound section patches can be pressed into service as sequenced elements. If you feel you are missing a library of well‑rounded synth sounds and you already own Omnisphere 2, then there’s a lot to like here.
$39
$39