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The Unfinished: Omnisphere 2 Colossus III released

Posted: Jan 05, 2018 8:00 am
by Guy Rowland

Omnisphere Colossus III is a collection of 400 patches for Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.

The third part of the Colossus series continues where the others left off, providing a wealth of sounds designed for atmospheric, Hollywood underscore and action music. Colossus III is particularly inspired by the work of Harry Gregson-Williams and James Newton Howard.

It is full of punch, subtlety, dynamism and depth. Driving basslines, dark percussion, creamy pads, delicate pianos, moving guitars, intricate soundscapes and moody textures all blend together to provide a powerful toolbox of cinematic sounds.

Colossus III expands upon the previous two instalments by adding more percussive and organic elements. New drum content includes dusty top lines, deep rhythms and even breakbeats. Plus, there are a wealth of acoustic and mallet sequences, as well as lighter, more ambient soundscapes.

Each patch is carefully programmed and features compelling options via the modwheel.

Tension, thrills, emotion, ambience… Colossus III delivers them all.

There is a also a Deluxe version of Colossus III that features 50 bonus patches that use the soundsources from the Bob Moog Tribute Library.

Omnisphere Colossus III is available for £59.99 +VAT. The Deluxe version is £64.99 +VAT – and you will need the Bob Moog Tribute Library to use the bonus patches.

Re: The Unfinished: Omnisphere 2 Colossus III released

Posted: Jan 05, 2018 2:49 pm
by Guy Rowland
Installed the deluxe version and had a first skip through. Yes it is more of the same (as the name indeed suggests), but this is pretty much a bottomless pit. The patches that lit me up the most this time (not been through every one of course) would be the Strings and Pads in the Organic category - quite gorgeous and hitting that sweet spot between the electronic and the real-sounding. Several of those I thought you could score a scene with literally nothing else.

If I have one - tiny - criticism, it feels that there may be a little less interesting variation baked into the modwheel than there used to be. Quite a lot of the patches seem to just be a LPF or reverb send routed to the mod. But there again, maybe this isn't always such a bad thing, forcing you to get your hands dirty to make a patch fit your purpose.

Re: The Unfinished: Omnisphere 2 Colossus III released

Posted: Jan 07, 2018 4:32 pm
by Quasar
Guy Rowland wrote: Jan 05, 2018 2:49 pm Installed the deluxe version and had a first skip through. Yes it is more of the same (as the name indeed suggests), but this is pretty much a bottomless pit. The patches that lit me up the most this time (not been through every one of course) would be the Strings and Pads in the Organic category - quite gorgeous and hitting that sweet spot between the electronic and the real-sounding. Several of those I thought you could score a scene with literally nothing else.

If I have one - tiny - criticism, it feels that there may be a little less interesting variation baked into the modwheel than there used to be. Quite a lot of the patches seem to just be a LPF or reverb send routed to the mod. But there again, maybe this isn't always such a bad thing, forcing you to get your hands dirty to make a patch fit your purpose.
Do you think the deluxe version of Colossus III is worth it? I guess this is another way of asking if the Bob Moog Tribute and its $100 price tag is a truly "game-changing" addition to O2.

I have Colossus I and think it's great. I had never heard of the Moog soundset until I saw one of Matt's Colossus III release posts. I've since looked at some of the YouTube stuff and get that there is a lot of content that does sound very good. But at some point all of those ARPS, hits, pads etc. start to sound same-ish, variants of the same sorts of sounds I already have and seem to exist in about a zillion "sound design" products. Hard to tell where & when it gets redundant...

Re: The Unfinished: Omnisphere 2 Colossus III released

Posted: Jan 07, 2018 4:39 pm
by Guy Rowland
The Moog Tribute library as game changing? Well no, I don't think it could really be called that. There are some very nice additions, mind - for me the thrill of owning some of Jarre's genuine AKS burbles was pretty huge, and other famous names contributed some fun, such as some Modular electronic drums from Hans Zimmer. But in general, its lots of good solid analogue stuff. There's 150 factory patches that make use of it, I seem to remember.

I like Omni as a host and an ecosystem, so I've hoovered up every factory bank.