Discover the latest industry news and audio post production.
We are pleased to announce that our sound design competition has now concluded and we have chosen a winner from the entries.
November 23, 2021
We are pleased to announce that our sound design competition has now concluded and we have chosen a winner from the entries. The brief for this challenge was to design a scene inspired by nature using sounds gathered from common household sources.
Before we dive in we would like to start off by thanking all of our entries. It was such a great experience listening through all of your creations and seeing how you all interpreted the brief. There was some superb sound design on display across the board.
Our first runner up is Nicolas Titeux for his summer thunderstorm soundscape. We love the use of ripping paper as the thunderclap, and the accordion used to create the wind sounds.
Our second runner up is Gemma McAdam. This soundscape is also based off of a thunderstorm, but conveys a very different atmosphere. We love the use of distortion on the metallic sounds.
Congratulations to you both on being selected as runners up! Your prize is the Low Frequency Elements library from the 344 Audio store. We will contact you promptly with the details for your download.
Drum roll please...
Our competition winner is Vladimir Derevyanko for this stunning piece of work. The concept of this piece is "A magical forest inhabited by iron birds." Vladimir has completely nailed it with the sounds he has created, as you really feel like you are amongst an army of tiny mechanical birds when you are listening to this. Vladimir has clearly spent a lot of time thinking all of the different elements this piece through, and has been meticulous with his sound design.
Congratulations on being selected as the winner! Your prize comes in the form of 4 products from the 344 Audio store that add up a total of 10.2 GB of sounds. We will contact you promptly with the details for your download.
The products you have won are:
Alien Atmospheres
Supernatural Ghosts
Haunting Ambiences
Trailer Instruments Designed
Thanks again for everyone who took part and showed support for this competition. Its great to see the community is alive and staying creative during this challenging time. Stay safe!
This library contains an assortment of 30 ambient drone effects constructed from common household objects.
November 23, 2021
We are pleased to announce our latest sound effects library - Household Drones. This library contains an assortment of 30 ambient drone effects constructed from common household objects.
This library contains 30 drones that will take you through a variety of different moods and atmospheres, and will work well for both sound design and musical applications.
To create these drone effects, we captured sounds from common household sources such as kettles, shower, microwaves and even a turntable. We manipulated these raw recordings with a variety of pitch-shift, modulation and filter effects. These were then further processed through reverbs and delays. We made an effort to include as much variation as possible in the drones, with some having a more positive tonality, and others being more dark and foreboding.
The sounds contained in this library are perfect for adding instant atmosphere and texture, and can be used to enhance tension, suspense or mystery. Use them in combination with background effects to create abstract and expansive soundscapes.
This library would also be great for game audio designers, as the drones can be used to add layers to ambiences in-game and create more interesting effects.
You can find Household Drones and the rest of our libraries in our store! https://www.344sfx.com/
We are pleased to announce that we are launching a new sound design competition to engage and mobilise the community during this difficult time.
November 23, 2021
Attention Sound Designers, 344 Audio wants to help you stay creative and make the most of your time during this lockdown period. That's why we are pleased to announce that we are launching a new sound design competition to engage and mobilise the community during this difficult time. This contest is for anyone who is looking to sharpen their skills and embrace a new creative challenge.
The world is now on lockdown and people cannot leave their house. The government has called upon sound designers to create soundscapes to help people cope with life indoors.
Using sounds gathered from around the house, create a 60-second soundscape that evokes a natural environment, outdoor space, weather system or another element of nature.
Some basic ideas could be...
- Waterfall
- Underwater scene
- The sonic perspective of a raincloud
- Mystic forest
We are not looking for realism here, but rather sonic experiences that will engage the listener's imagination and provide a connection to nature. The more creative and unexpected the better. We want to hear you turn your iron into a 10,000-foot volcano, or transform a leaky tap into a raging storm!
The entry requirements for the competition are extremely simple.
1. Like/share this post & the 344 Audio Instagram and Facebook page.
2. Subscribe to our mailing list (This is where the winner will be announced)
3. Create your soundscape and submit your SoundCloud links to ellie@344audio.com with the subject line "344 Audio Sound Design Contest Entry - "Your Name"
The deadline for submissions is 18/04/2020. Please note, only one submission per applicant will be accepted, so please submit your strongest work if you do decide to create multiple soundscapes.
Your work will be assessed according to the following 4 criteria:
This is why we recommend including a short write-up to accompany your submission. This not only gives extra context for what we are hearing but gives you a chance to highlight what you think the strongest areas of your work are.
The winner will receive over 10GB of Sound Effects from the 344 Audio store, and a shout out on our blog!
2 runners up will receive our Low Frequency Elements Sound Effect library and a shout out on our blog!
We hope that you enjoy this competition, and we look forward to listening to your submissions.
To help you stay productive during this period, we have put together a list of deals for sound designers and audio professionals.
November 23, 2021
With the ongoing pandemic placing many countries into a soft-lockdown, It's looking like we will all be spending a lot more time at home over the coming weeks and months. To help you stay productive during this period, we have put together a list of deals for sound designers and audio professionals.
Avid have announced they will be offering temporary licenses to help customers during this difficult period. "To support users who find themselves caught at home without a Pro Tools, Media Composer or Sibelius license as a result of COVID-19, late last night Avid announced that they will be offering free 90-day licenses to help you keep going."
For further information, you can check out the official response to Covid-19 on the company website.
Waves are currently offering huge deals on plugin bundles on their online store. These include product ranges such as the Gold and Diamond bundles, as well as other well-known product lines such as CLA, API and Abbey Road Collections. Many products are offering discounts of over 80 percent so now is the perfect opportunity to pick these up if they have been on your wish-list for a while.
GET WAVES AUDIO PLUGIN BUNDLES
Krotos Audio is offering customers a voucher worth $99 to redeem on their online store. This covers the cost of one of their libraries or can be put towards one of the larger bundles. In addition to this, Krotos are also running a sale across our range with 30% off all software and 20% off bundles and upgrades.
Independent sound effects company A Sound Effect has put together an Audio Community Power Pack to support professionals across the industry.
The Power Pack consists of:
20 free sound effects, courtesy of Kaibrary / Kai Paquin.
GET THE AUDIO COMMUNITY POWER PACK
Last but not least, until March 30th 2020, all purchases of our Audio Post Template Ultimate Bundle will include our sound effects library 'Data Processing'. This brings your total savings to £135!
APT Ultimate Bundle includes:
GET THE 344 AUDIO POST PRODUCTION TEMPLATE ULTIMATE BUNDLE
We hope you find these deals to be useful. Best of luck during these uncertain times and stay safe!
With his latest offering Metamorphosis, Mattia gives us a huge selection of beautifully crafted sounds that blur the lines between synthetic and organic.
November 23, 2021
Company: Mattia Cellotto
Product: Metamorphosis
Price: $204
Our Rating: 4.8/5
Sound Designer Mattia Cellotto has built up a strong reputation for producing stunning sound effects libraries. Now with his latest offering Metamorphosis, Mattia gives us a huge selection of beautifully crafted sounds that blur the lines between synthetic and organic.
Weighing in at 10.6gb and containing a total of 342 files, Metamorphosis covers a diverse range of sonic material. You will find forceful impacts, detailed textures, and a wide selection of whooshes, bass drops, pass-bys, and many other sounds. The library is split up into 3 folders - Hybrid, Recorded and Synthesized. In general, the quality of the audio is pristine throughout this library, and you can really hear the detail and precision in each sound.
The Hybrid Section was created by manipulating the Recorded and Synthesized sounds and contains an assortment of impacts, pass-bys, whooshes risers and other abstract effects.
The sounds themselves are heavily stylized and have a larger-than-life feel to them. Everything is brimming with atmosphere and will easily give your projects a real sense of cinematic enhancement. The percussion sounds are especially strong and will be extremely effective in both sound design and musical applications.
The recorded sounds are further categorised into Brass instruments, Fireworks, Pass-Bys, Percussion, and Pyrotechnic sounds. The source audio has been enhanced to achieve a hyper-realistic aesthetic, whilst retaining the natural and grounded feel of an organic sound.
There are some really unique and useful sounds in here. Most notably, the brass instruments folder which contains some incredible drones and throbbing bass tones that are guaranteed to get the room shaking. The entire Recorded Section was captured at 384KHz with microphones capable of recording up to 200KHz along with conventional mics. The high sample rates make these sounds especially useful for pitching, stretching and general redesign.
All of the sounds in the synthesized section were created using the wavetable synth Serum. There is a fantastic selection of sounds covered, from bass tones, drones, impacts, rumbles, and textures. Mattia has done a great job of making the sound feel like they belong alongside the other elements of the library, which is easier said than done when using a digital synth. The synthesized sounds in this library would be extremely effective for use in trailer sound design, and certain areas of electronic music production.
In conclusion, Metamorphosis contains a vast array of incredibly high-quality and unique sounds, and would make a fine addition to any sound designers toolkit. The percussion and pyro effects are a particular standout from this library. We can see ourselves using this library to add cinematic enhancement with the percussion and hybrid sounds and to use the recorded sounds as a starting point for creating our own effects.
