Luftrum – Gemina for Omnisphere $79

>We’ve taken a look at, and enjoyed, a few Lutrum products in these pages over the last year, so it was with great enthusiasm that I took delivery of Gemina for Omnisphere 2, a pack of 400 patches taking a postapocalyptic and dystopian worldview as their starting point – doesn’t that sound like fun?

Once installation is complete, Gemina has its own folder in the User Directories browser menu, with relevant search tags and information for each patch on its broader sonics and relevant modulation information. It’s on the latter point where it’s clear that plenty of thought has gone into how usable these sounds should be, with excellent use of modulation wheel, velocity and aftertouch. Another example of attention to detail is how the patches are all well-balanced in terms of level – making patch auditioning and comparison an easy single-click process.

It would be impossible to do justice to all 400 of the sound patches here, but you’ll find pads, basses, sweeps, soundscapes, guitars, hits and effects (amongst others). Distortion, delay, reverb and other effects are integrated into each sound very effectively and means that each one is ready to use, requiring little further processing. It’s worth being patient when auditioning sounds though, as some are tempo-synced or evolve slowly to reveal very complex modulation and layering.