Discover the latest industry news and audio post production.
Boom Library gets sound designer's engines fired up with it's dynamic engine recreator Turbine.
November 23, 2021
Company: Boom Library
Product: Turbine
Price: $219
Our Rating: 4.8/5
We were very excited for this product to come into 344 Audio HQ. The concept of real time audio simulation / advanced synthesis is becoming more commonplace in today's world of hexacore processors and affordable computing. Krotos Audio are another developer in this space with their Dehumaniser / Reformer products and it seems that Boom Library want to bring their tasteful sonic finesse to this ambitious niche market.
Turbine is an engine simulation plugin, which uses synthesis to generate complex tonal and noise based signals, which replicate those generated by most aircrafts. No audio samples are needed here, bringing the total hard drive space required down to 145MB. It runs on most DAW systems and includes AAX, VST and AU options. We will be conducting our review on a Windows 7 system with Pro Tools 12.
Installing the software is extremely simple, options for a full installation and a custom installation are offered. An iLok is required for activation. You will also notice that the plugin is provided in both Stereo and Quad formats, to help provide flexibility for Film and Game Sound Designers.
A very useful user manual is included, detailing some of the more cryptic parameters available. The tips and tricks section is a must read for all new users, as a basic understanding of how turbines works vs. how the software emulates this will assist in achieving a usable result. Boom have also created some very useful videos on their product page, which explain the interface and functionality.
To best evaluate the software from an unbiased perspective, we started tweaking parameters without reading the manual. The interface is just gorgeous. Like Boom's other products, the way it looks is as good as the way it sounds, if not better. The engine mockup moves according to the parameter settings adjusted by the user, for instant visual feedback. There are also multiple presets which emulate the sound of popular aircraft models.
The first instinct of any user will be to move the 'Thrust' slider from minimum to maximum and then become frustrated that it sounds unrealistic, but wait. The documentation explains how aircraft engines work and how thrust can be used to replicate them effectively. The perceived size of an engine comes from a gradual increase in thrust, which can take as long as 60 seconds or more. Once the thrust is slowly adjusted with automation over extended period, magic starts to happen.
You also have control over multiple parameters along the bottom of the screen, the first being 'SIM ON/OFF'. With the SIM OFF you have an instantly useable interior aircraft sound. With SIM ON the engine sound that you have created is placed into a virtual space, adding distance perception and movement, which we will get onto later.
To the right of that we have some sound shaping tools which are really well implemented and sound great (download the trial and get tweaking!). The 'Burn' parameter simulates the amount of fuel being sent to the engine's combustion chamber, and adds a pleasing kind of distortion to the overall sound. Extreme settings can be used for an engine which has caught fire! The 'Angle' parameter simulates the perspective of the engine from front to back, allowing you to mix between noise and tonal portions of the sound. Boom have took a combination of basic sound design concepts here and packaged them to create something really special.
The Simulation window has some more... cryptic parameters, which will require further reading of the manual to understand. It also includes a nifty radar interface, which more than makes up for any confusion. After enabling automation on the X, Y, and Z position of the aircraft, users can drag it around the interface to create interesting fly-bys and moves, this is a sound designer's dream combination of psycho-acoustics and cool audio tomfoolery.
The speed of the aircraft is displayed as 'Velocity', which acts as both a useful reference to match the speed of the simulation to the vehicles in your footage and to match the maximum speed of the vehicle you are simulating. Velocity is also a parameter that must be used modestly. There are four early reflection points marked A, B, C and D which can create virtual obstacles for the engine sound to reflect off of, offering a more realistic distance perception as the vehicle moves. There is also a 'Wind' parameter which helps control the amount of wind modulation that the listener will hear as the vehicle passes by.
The most important consideration here, is how the engines sound. To our ears, the simulation is astounding, but don't expect to get usable results without automation and some time spent learning the plugin. Further processing and layering with audio samples of real vehicles will really help sell the effect, especially on pass-bys. As well as creating engine simulations, you can build convincing noise based sound design for servos, EDM effects, and futuristic vehicles to name a few.
Turbine is exciting not just for its applications now, but for how the system could be built upon for future products from Boom. The question on most people's lips now will be, when is the land vehicle version coming? The same concept applied to cars could revolutionise the way we do post production sound, even if it has to include audio samples.
Real time audio simulation software carries the powerful advantage of being portable. A library which could reach the detail of Turbine would surely be at least 3GB in size, and drastically more time consuming to adjust if the desired recordings are not present. It sounds great when used correctly. It's wonderful to see technology catching up to the needs of sound designers everywhere.
Here are a couple of areas that could be improved in Turbine for future updates:
1. The velocity on the Simulation screen and the Thrust parameter could have a flip switch which enables a much more limited depth of movement, allowing users to stay within the ranges of realism when controlling the software with a mouse. Currently, the velocity must be carefully monitored while focusing on your mouse movements.
2. A Standalone version of the software with a built in recorder (similar to Reaktor) would allow Sound Designers (ironically travelling on aeroplanes) to start tweaking with their laptop on the go without starting a DAW session.
3. The parameters located on the lower portion of the screen would also benefit from a flip switch which allows the user to push the encoders further in either direction for advanced sound design.
An amazing user interface combined with unparalleled sonic quality allows experienced sound designers to build their own aircraft sounds for video game and film projects. The price is very reasonable considering sound effects libraries in this space can be quite expensive.
SKYES Audio bring a colossal 13GB of droning material to your productions with Aberrant Drones.
November 23, 2021
Company: SKYES Audio
Product: Aberrant Drones
Price: $59.99
Our Rating: 4.1/5
SKYES Audio have delivered a neatly packaged drone library at 24Bit 96kHz, organised into a single folder with an index PDF file for the metadata. We have to say, the metadata makes or breaks a drone library, and the descriptions are well implemented and organised. SKYES have used emotions / movement to describe each file, for example:
'Drone, Sci-Fi, Abstract, Cacophonous, Anxiety'.
Each of the 79 files vary in length substantially from 34 seconds to 14 minutes in duration. With a total of almost 7 hours of content, this library will be fun for all you drone lovers. The artwork is quite basic and minimal, and demonstrates the left-field vibes well.
The sounds in this library are fairly simple and effective - many sound like the result of detuned sine waves at different frequencies, they feel cold and unnerving for the most part. SKYES have kept the palette small, and sculpted these sounds through beat frequencies and modulation, which often descends into further processing as the track progresses. This allows you to lay an atmospheric bed under scenes effectively and quickly.
Aberrant Drones shares the aesthetic of modern Sci-Fi - films like Interstellar, Alien: Covenant and The Martian would play nicely with it. Everything from 'glowing', 'hollow' pulses as you enter the alien's lair, to 'turmoil' as the space shuttle loses power.
Aberrant Drones would have largely benefited from more consistency, where each drone is the same length so that the editor can tracklay them with ease, around 3-5 minutes would suffice.
While the drones are useful for a modern, edgy Sci-Fi sound, we feel that SKYES Audio should have experimented with more sound sources, and provided multiple folders reflecting this. Although you will always know when to reach for this library during sound editing, it may not be as flexible as you would expect at this price point.
If you have a modern sci-fi, psychological thriller or horror project, Aberrant Drones will find it's place there, and will likely cover scenes without the need for music.
Veteran Sound Effects company SoundBits team up with Glitchedtones to offer up a delightful treasure trove of rummaging performances.
November 23, 2021
Company: SoundBits & Glitchedtones
Product: Rummage
Price: $42
Our Rating: 4.6/5
Searching through our virtual download package, we found sounds separated into 2 folders, one for SoundBits and for Glitchedtones, containing their respective contributions. The cover art for the library is quite striking, and reminds us of the video game Mirror's Edge. Although suggesting much less dexterity and more of an exploratory use of the limbs.
Included are 733 files, providing the sound of curiosity, explored through interacting with multiple items. The library totals at a staggering 3.86 GB, and is provided in 24Bit 96kHz WAV for all of you pitch-exploring sound wizards.
The sounds range in length quite drastically, but most offer enough rummage to suit your scene. The variety of items is quite splendid, they have everything from midnight fridge rummaging, polystyrene Christmas gift unpacking. all the way through to wardrobe tinkering. Some sounds are provided in stereo, for those widescreen moments, where others are conveniently provided in mono for foley effects cues.
We have found many a situation where rummaging sounds are missing on a project, especially if the Foley Artist covers it but you want to add some extra spice, so the price makes this product a worthwhile investment. Finding enough props to replicate the sounds on screen can be quite time consuming, so it is really convenient to have this package.
Both company's folders offer up a fairly similar sound, with SoundBits rummages feeling more methodical in places and Glitchedtones being more sporadic with an 'unrehearsed' vibe, so you definitely get the best of both worlds. The overall tone is 'boxy', some natural mid-range exists here, and the sporadic nature of the theme means that the aesthetic captured should blend into scenes well. However, it sounds like some EQ has been used to tame rogue frequencies. Some noise is present on particular recordings, but nothing that will reduce the usefulness for most situations.
The library serves it's purpose rather well, but there are some small presentation issues. Minor spelling mistakes - 'refridgerator' are something we have never seen from SoundBits before. This may seem like nitpicking, but if you search for a refrigerator, it needs to be spelt correctly. This is corrected in the metadata thankfully. On our system, Windows Explorer is displaying incomplete words in the title, and contributing artist for each effect.
The expectation when auditioning the effects was that they would have a rough and raw quality, the performance is definitely there, but the tonal quality of the sounds is rather clean.
The separation of the sounds into two libraries for each vendor makes the user prejudge the sounds based on who created them - they should have been a single cohesive library.
When you need rummaging sounds (most projects at some point!) you will find yourself having to layer unnatural combinations of recordings, or gathering many props to execute the cue. Rummage will create a convenient way to fill those needs extremely fast. The current 30% off makes this deal extra sweet, purchase at the link below.
SampleTraxx is gaining a wonderful reputation in the Sound/Music community of late, with their collection of crossover products, which fuse epic (often aggressive) audio fragments with musical timbres. TORSION builds on this infamous style with it’s high tech, cinematic edge.
November 23, 2021
Company: SampleTraxx
Product: TORSION
Price: €79
Our Rating: 4.8/5
We created a demo track to show what TORSION can bring to your sound and music projects (all elements are TORSION except for some of the percussive sounds):
The files are placed neatly into 2 folders: one for Kontakt patches and one for WAV samples. The WAV folder contains 12 sections including vocals, braams, risers and more.
Over 300 samples are included, which is exceptionally valuable when paired with the included 86 Kontakt Instruments, extending it’s scope dramatically. 24 Bit 96 kHz sound effects allow for further processing with reduced artefacts.
As always, the presentation and branding from SampleTraxx is spectacular. The Forge engine is used to house the Kontakt Instruments, it looks and feels like a futuristic military control centre, very nice. This adds numerous functions for audio experimentation, including but not limited to: arpeggiator, polyphonic sequencer, rhythmic gater, unison, resonant delay and dual engine reverb. We used this extensively on our demo track.
The name is suitably fitting to the aesthetic of all included sound assets. Twisted and mangled, a Sound Designer can expect to tinker with these on supernatural and experimental projects. Composers can expect to add flavour to otherwise stale and mundane arrangements. When we compose music, we love to add some distorted/atonal elements, especially to orchestral pieces.
The balance of frequencies and dynamics with SampleTraxx products usually leans towards the ‘processed’ side, with well implemented EQ and compression. Some users may prefer dry sounds, but it’s highly unlikely you would want to use these without processing them first anyway.
Torsion has a tone of instant satisfaction. Images are transformed by it’s presence, especially when they themselves have ample movement and an erratic nature. Even when producing the most head splitting transformative sounds, SampleTraxx manage to keep them from hurting the listener.
Compared to some of the other products in the over-saturated 'Cinematic Elements' market, TORSION has finesse. SampleTraxx are not trend followers, they are trend setters - which is why their sounds have been used by Hollywood movies, all the way through to indie films.
Not only does SampleTraxx deliver on content, they also deliver on price. We definitely advise the use of Kontakt to get the full experience with TORSION.
One way to improve the product is to add more content, but we're just being greedy. This could be in the form of an 'elements' folder which contains the building blocks for some of the audio assets.
Flip your audience on their heads with TORSION. Bring movement to exciting images and perk up some ears. Go buy it now at a reduced price, and be sure to listen to the free mini pack available below.
Buy TORSION now with a discount
Sound Ex Machina have released their latest library Scratches, offering bone-chilling audio elements which many a Sound Designer will want to experiment with.
November 23, 2021
Company: Sound Ex Machina
Product: Scratches
Price: $59
Our Rating: 4.8/5
The library is organised by into 10 material folders (concrete, glass, marble etc.) and was recorded close miked in an acoustically treated environment. There is also a thank you note included which brings the users closer to the brand, a nice touch. The audio files are delivered in 24 Bit 96 kHz WAV and have Soundminer Metadata. Everything looks well structured and user friendly, the artwork represents the content well. There are more than enough audio assets to get your teeth stuck into, with 700+ files totalling over 2GB.
The theme of this library lends itself mainly to the interaction of materials, and so has lots of scope for effects which are often missing from general effects libraries. Most Sound Designers have a need for these sounds - creating Stingers in Horror Films, Sci-Fi Films and more. Of course there is also a more straight forward use which is using them for accenting Foley and Spot Effects in your projects.
The Sound Effects have a balanced frequency response, which feels like it has had some corrective EQ, the highs are subdued and clean, and the lows aren't as overbearing as you would expect from certain objects, which makes the product more instantly usable. The close miked sound really allows the user to 'dig deep' with Sound Design. Some of our personal favourites are from the 'Metal' folder!
The opportunities here are massive for those of you who like to play with source material. Many of the recordings have a definite 'musical' quality, that lends itself well to abstract audio elements and creature vocal shrieks. For those who just need some interaction sounds, Scratches will be a great accent to doors, switches, vehicle foley, machinery and even gore sounds. We can see a lot of this being used in a dystopian environment such as the Fallout series.
Scratches is the perfect library to trigger those nasty Misophonia responses, when you need Sound Effects to convey downright terror.
It is very hard to fault considering the price and the variety of files available. The only thing we can say is that some files have a slightly thinner sound, likely due to the huge array of tools used to create friction. By no means does this reduce it's usability and we will certainly be using this on future projects!
