"BURBANK, CALIF -- SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 -- Spectrasonics today announced the winners of their worldwide "OMG-1 Contest." Over 400 entries for the contest were submitted from 68 different countries, with a very wide diversity of musical styles. The goal for each contestant was to use the sounds from the Bob Moog Tribute Library in a creative and inspiring way. The company reports that the Contest and the Library have been able to raise record-breaking funds for the Bob Moog Foundation to support their innovative projects.Eric Persing, Spectrasonics Creative Director and Founder, said, "With the hundreds of creative entries from around the world, the OMG-1 Contest was an incredible success! The overall quality of all the entries was so much higher than we expected, it was extremely difficult to choose the winners."
The Grand Prize of Persing's custom-built OMG-1 synthesizer has been awarded to Torley Wong of Washington State [matrix edit: Torley's been featured here on MATRIXSYNTH a number of times] , who submitted an entire album's worth of music--15 pieces, over one-hour in total--exclusively using the "Bob Moog Tribute Library" in Spectrasonics' Omnisphere software synthesizer for the tonal elements of his album. The one-of-a-kind OMG-1 synthesizer will be presented as the Grand Prize to Mr. Wong in a special event at the 'Moogfest' in Asheville, North Carolina in October 2011.
In fact, so many great pieces of music were submitted in the contest that three other major winners were announced as well, winning prizes generously donated by hardware synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music:
* "Outstanding Achievement Award" David Soltany (Strasbourg, France)
* "Next Generation Award" Eric Oberthaler (Berkeley, California)
* "Most Original Composition" Waen Shepherd (London, UK)
Fifteen additional contestants were recognized with "Creative Excellence Awards" and have their music featured on the Spectrasonics website.
View the complete contest-winners list and listen to their music: [LINK]
The OMG-1 Synthesizer
The grand prize in the contest, the OMG-1 hardware synthesizer, was designed by Persing as a live performance instrument and is not a commercial product. It integrates the worlds of analog synthesis with a Moog Little Phatty®, and software synthesis with Omnisphere software synthesizer and the Omni TR™ iPad app--all in a hand-crafted curly maple cabinet containing Apple iPads and a MacMini.
The Bob Moog Tribute Library - Still Available for all Omnisphere Users!
Produced by Eric Persing, the Bob Moog Tribute library features over 700 stunning new sounds for Spectrasonics' Omnisphere Power Synth. The Soundsources in the library were developed using highly creative processing techniques--often with exotic gear. The sounds in the library were created by more than 40 of the world's top synth artists, remixers and sound designers, including Hans Zimmer, Vince Clarke, Jean Michel Jarre, The Crystal Method, Bernie Worrell, Larry Fast, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jan Hammer, Richard Devine, Danny Elfman and many more. Although the OMG-1 Contest has ended, Spectrasonics' Bob Moog Tribute Library will continue to be sold as a $100 downloadable library for Omnisphere, and 100% of the proceeds will continue to be donated to the Bob Moog Foundation.
Check out the Bob Moog Tribute Library
About Spectrasonics
Founded in 1994, Spectrasonics is a leading innovator of world-class, award-winning virtual instrument software plug-ins, used by the top recording artists, producers, remixers and film composers on the planet. Key Spectrasonics products include its flagship synthesizer Omnisphere®, the Trilian® Total Bass Module, and the popular Stylus RMX® Realtime Groove Module. For more information visit http://www.spectrasonics.net
About the Bob Moog Foundation
The Bob Moog Foundation honors the legacy of synthesizer pioneer Dr. Bob Moog through its mission of igniting the innovative and creative spirit through the intersection of music, science and history. Its projects include Dr. Bob's Sound School, which brings electronic musical instruments into the schools to teach children science through music, the Archive Preservation Initiative, an effort to preserve and protect the inventor's extensive and historic archive and the future Moogseum, an innovative educational, historic, and cultural facility that will bring Bob Moog's spirit alive to ignite innovation and creativity in children and adults. It will be located in Asheville, NC in the years ahead, pending necessary funding. The Bob Moog Foundation is an independent, donor-driven 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is not formally affiliated with Moog Music, Inc."
