Fig. 1: Organize sounds quickly in Spectrasonics Omnisphere by sorting by star rating (a). Gather sounds into groups with the Project button (b).

Before starting any composition project, I like to round up my ensemble. In the case of electronic music, that''s usually a set of favorite patches. Two new features in Omnisphere ($479) make collecting favorites easy. First is the ability to sort by star ranking. Click to the right of a patch name to assign it from one to five stars. Then click the Sort menu button and select “Ratings” (see Fig. 1a). Your favorites shoot to the top.

You can also assign favorite sounds to Project groups. Click the Project menu button and type a name for your project (see Fig. 1b). When you find a patch you want to add to that project, click the Project menu button again and select the project name. Use the Category menu to browse your saved projects.