Unison

In vintage analog polyphonic synthesizers, Unison was used to trigger all of the voices cards of the synthesizer at the same time for a rich, detuned, monophonic sound. Omnisphere takes Unison to the next level by offering polyphonic Unison, with numerous enhancements and controls. Just a few or many Unison voices can be added, so each note played will trigger several voices—each with different detuning, spread, and octave.

POWER SWITCH

This turns the UNISON effect on and off to quickly A/B your changes.

MIX

This parameter controls the blend of the UNISON voices with the primary voice.

The MIX parameter is modulatable.

Range 0.000 to 1.000

GAIN

This pull-down menu lets you adjust the output gain of the combined audio signal from this page.

GAIN is modulatable.

Range -24 to +10

DEPTH

The DEPTH slider controls the amount of UNISON voices added. Increasing the setting of this slider increases the number of UNISON voices. The more UNISON voices used, the richer the sound, but the higher the demand on the CPU.

The maximum number of UNISON voices is 8.

DEPTH is modulatable.

SPREAD

UNISON voices can be panned across the stereo image. SPREAD controls the extent of the stereo imaging. When the slider is at minimum setting, all UNISON voices are in the center of the stereo image. When set to maximum value, the UNISON voices are panned across the stereo field.

OCTAVE

The OCTAVE menu specifies at which octave the UNISON notes will sound—up to two octaves above or below the main Oscillator. This is not a traditional transpose control, as it only moves the UNISON voices up or down—the pitch of the Oscillator will remain the same.

DETUNE

This determines to what degree the UNISON notes will be detuned from the original Oscillator. This setting does not affect the pitch of the original Oscillator, just the UNISON voices.

DETUNE is modulatable.

FINE/COARSE RANGE

These mode switches determine the RANGE of the DETUNE slider. If FINE is selected, the DETUNE slider will only detune the UNISON voices as much as a half-step (99 cents) up or down. This works for classic UNISON and “SuperSaw” types of sounds.

When COARSE is selected, the range of the DETUNE slider is increased to a fifth or an octave above the note, depending on how many Unison voices are added with the DEPTH slider. When the DETUNE slider is moved manually or modulated while in COARSE mode with a note held down, the UNISON voices will gradually glide to the final chord – a great trick for producing the classic “THX” logo effect.

UNISON ANALOG

The UNISON ANALOG control allows inconsistencies to be introduced into the pitch and phase of the unison voices, making Omnisphere behave more like a vintage analog synth. When the ANALOG control is set to 40% or lower, it destabilizes the phase of the unison voices . After 40% it will also destabilize the pitch.

SCATTER

Scatter randomizes the phase (Synth Mode) or Sample Start time (Sample Mode) of each of the Unison voices, eliminating the phasing artifacts that can occur (particularly when using samples) when multiple voices with identical phase are triggered.

Scatter excels when used in Sample Mode, because it allows you to have several versions of the same sample playing at the same time, but each one starts at a different point. This allows new kinds of sounds to be created by using Unison on Soundsources that were previously not possible.

DRIFT

DRIFT simulates the pitch movement that occurs naturally in analog synthesizers. The DRIFT slider controls how much the pitch of the UNISON voices will drift from the main Oscillator. When DRIFT is introduced, detuning happens over time as you hold notes.