What's new in version 11?

Version 11 replaces both OMB Originals and OMB Essentials.

Changes compared with OMB Essentials:

Live window:

Select from three device types to operate the actions: the computer keyboard, a MIDI keyboard controller or a touch screen. After selecting the option in menu Preferences>Live Control the layout of the Live Window will change accordingly. If you have a separate MIDI Keyboard controller then you can specify a channel for the actions to separate them from the melody and chords. When using a single keyboard both for controlling the actions and for chords/melody, you can specify a trigger (MIDI key, control change or patch) to switch the keyboard between actions control usage and chords/melody usage.

Option "Touch sensitive variations" is available in menu Preferences>Live Control. When active Main A thru D is chosen depending on the velocity of the chord keys. Only in combination with chord regognition method "Full Fingered".

Variety/Humanizer functions: Random Velocity, Random Pitch and Random Bass Instruments. Each adjustable on a scale from 0 to 10.

Chord recognition method "Freeform" is selectable both in menu Preference>Live Control and thru a function in the Live window. In freeform any combination of 3 or 4 keys will be used to play the accompaniment. All bass notes will be played with the root note, defined by the lowest key.

With recording on, all performances will be stored in memory without user interaction until OMB exits. When you select menu File/Save Recording, you will be presented with a list of the sequences you played from which you can choose to save MIDI files.

Tap Tempo. Set the tempo by tapping the beats with this function in the Live Window.

Keyboard-split/bass-channel. In a multivoice definition channels 2 thru 4 can be assigned to a bass/split instrument. In menu Preferences>Live Control either a bass channel or a keyboard split can be defined. Notes coming thru MIDI In on the specified channel or key-range will be played on the bass/split channel. There are new functions to define the chord and melody split. Press the key after activating the function. Use the function twice to deactivate the melody split.

Presets can be used to start a MIDI or karaoke file. The new function Barloop will repeat the current bar in a MIDI file, playing only bass and drums. The functions for (drums/bass/other/accomp) volume control, transposition, tempo and pause/restart also effect the midifile playing. Karaoke lyrics will be displayed in big font in the lyrics view.

In menu Preferences/LiveControl you can specify functions (and now also multivoices) to be triggered by 3 adjacent notes (e.g. c5 c#5 d5) in the chord area. Thus allowing to use the keyboard both for playing chords/melody and triggering functions at the same time. Assuming that playing 3 adjacent keys simultaniously in a chord is not likely, neither intended nor by accident.

When assigning a MIDI message to a key (right click on the key), you can define separate data for key/mouse down and key/mouse up.

Separate functions for playing a Fill and then switch to the corresponding Main or playing a Fill and then stay in the previous Main.

Multivoice editor is now similar to the one in OMB Originals.


Sequencer:

There are now 6 windows available each presenting a different view on the MIDI file.

The Main/Recorder view shows an overview of the 16 channels with control knobs for each channel. For convenience a virtual midi keyboard is added that can be operated with the mouse or computer keyboard, it also shows the played notes while playing a sequence.

The Arranger view shows the styles, variations, chords and multiovoices defined in the sequence. Here is were you edit your style arrangements.

The Eventlist view shows all the details like notes, controllers, patches.

The Piano Roll is a well known format for viewing notes.

The Staff view has unique features that (unlike other DAW's and sequencers) make a standard MIDI file really readable in staff notation. You can select a channel or show all channels in parallel. The clarity of the view comes from the unique way that sustained notes are handled when new notes start. You can print the MIDI file in staff.

The Karaoke view lets you add karaoke lyrics to the MIDI file that can be played both in the Karaoke window, the Live window and all other MIDI karaoke players.

New edit functions in the sequencer are:

Process Bar Triggers is a function to synchronize a MIDI file to the bars and beats. If a MIDI file was recorded in your own tempo without listening to a metronome or prerecorded track, then you can't use it to add accompaniment or print it in staff. To solve this problem you can add tepporary notes at the start of each bar and then let OMB fix it. Tempos will be included so that the result sounds exactly as the original.

The humanizer will add variety to the sequence in bass patches and note-pitch/velocity/start/length.

The tweak function will spare you a lot of time when converting MIDI files made for one specific synth to another synth. Not only does it edit a lot of data at once for one MIDI file, once you got the settings right you can do all MIDI files in batch.


Style editor

All the variations and tracks are now
conveniently arranged. Select a variation and then a track and all the MIDI data and style parameters are shown.

The Style Wizard function will create a style from a MIDI file completely automated. You can change things to your wishes before (at least remove the melody track in the MIDI file), after (in the style editor) or during (by changing the presented parameters) the Style Wizard operation. But if you accept the defaults you will have a style ready to be played.

Changes compared with OMB Originals:

OMB has been rewritten from scratch and is available both for Windows and OSX. So it's not just that some features are added, it is a complete different product.

Many of the new features listed above are also new compared to OMB Originals version 10, but OMB Originals also includes features that are not included in version 11. This is because these features were considered to be redundant, not needed or to difficult to use. However some may disagree and therefor OMB Originals version 10 stays available as a separate product.