Discover the latest industry news and audio post production.
A collaboration of efforts from both Soundbits and Monte Sound, Artificial Intelligence contains 2800 synthetically processed vocalisations of Sci-Fi inspired dialogue that can be used to piece together voices for robots and computers.
November 23, 2021
Company: Soundbits and Monte Sound
Product: Artificial intelligence
Price: $60
Our Rating: 4.6/5
On opening our copy of Artificial Intelligence, we were presented with the promotional images, as well as a PDF list of all the sounds within the pack, each sound metadata tagged and categorised appropriately. Furthermore, the product contains a “Sounds” folder which holds six subfolders, each containing a unique voice with the recordings split into 6 categories, these are: Numbers and Letters, Phrases, Single-Words-Adverbs-Adjectives, Single-Words-Nouns, Single-Words-Prepositions and finally Single-Words-Verbs. When downloading the pack from the Soundbits website, they offer the choice of having 24bit 96kHz WAV or 16bit 44.1kHz WAV audio files for greater flexibility, the license agreement also being available in the downloads section.
Our first impressions of this sample library were very positive, the recordings were of a very high quality, and the frequency content of each voice is balanced well. What is particularly impressive is that the sounds are all ready to be placed into a project without much need for post processing. The phrases category allows the user to instantly place dialogue into a scene without going through the effort of recording and processing their own synthetic voices for their characters. Furthermore, the sheer number of different words recorded would allow the user to create their own lines of dialogue just by piecing together individual nouns, adjectives, prepositions, numbers and verbs.
Regarding how successful the sounds are at achieving synthetic voices, we think SoundBits and Monte Sound have done very well in establishing that the dialogue is coming from an artificial source. Even though some of the nuances of human speech are still perceived in the recordings, the post processing has been successful in giving them a robotic feel, with the speech patterns adding somewhat of a personality to each voice. This also matches with the current trend in films, which is to have Sci-Fi sounds more grounded in reality.
The performances from each 'character' included sound great. We especially liked the Anne Droid character, a perfect blend of a neutral accent and 'at your service' attitude. With multiple male and female voices here, you certainly won't be stuck for choice when building your phrases and scenes.
Another way to get more use out of this library, is to use it as a word builder. Simply load the WAV files into your sampler of choice, and play up and down the keyboard to create sentences and form scripts for your Sci-Fi voice talent. We have also been informed that additional mini packs may soon be available with extra words, to further add to the flexibility.
While the library has a huge amount of dialogue options, the amount of flexibility given towards processing the voices could be better. Some of the voices are heavily processed and adding more to them could cause problems, unless it is just for worldizing purposes. However, we don’t think that this is that big of an issue, as all the voices sound good and perfectly usable as-is. To be fair to the creators, offering an unprocessed alternative would have likely created a plethora of files.
Overall, we think that Artificial Intelligence is a very solid voices library, the price of $60 is justified by the number of sounds given at your disposal and the sheer number of dialogue combinations you can make here. Check out the product in the link below and listen to the demo!
Sonic World’s latest sound library ‘Meow’ is a collection of 157 feline vocalisations recorded with a group of 8 cats, each with unique personalities. Yarron Katz (no pun intended) from Sonic Worlds has put together a collection of recordings taken from cats he has rescued or adopted. Be it a hiss, a purr or a screech, this pack includes all of those and more.
November 23, 2021
Company: Sonic Worlds
Product: Meow
Price: $59
Our Rating: 4.4/5
On opening our review copy of Meow, we were given a set of folders named after each cat, as well as a PDF of both the manual and license agreement. Each folder contains a different number of audio files, however most of the files contain more than one sound, these are denoted with a number to indicate how many sounds are in each file. All audio files within this pack are 24Bit 96kHz WAV. The artwork for this release is very nice, and gives you an impression of what's to come.
When listening to the samples, they are of a very high quality and for the most part, clean and isolated. The nuances of the cat’s vocalisations are captured very well and the softer, more intimate sounds like purring and mewling are captured with a great degree of detail. Yarron’s determination to obtain some of these sounds really shows as he’s managed to capture different moods of some of the cats, ranging from ferocious screeches to soft gentle cries and even playful yelps.
In terms of frequency balance, no sounds are too harsh in the higher frequencies, or too strong in the lower frequencies, this allows for more flexible EQ processing, leading to better localisation for film or games, many of the sounds could be placed into a soundtrack as is with very little post processing needed, if any at all.
So why a cat library you ask? Well, these pesky little creatures can often be difficult to capture, unlike dogs they are notoriously difficult to train. Most recordings are usually dependant on how well behaved (or not) the cat is, and even then you probably have to own the cat to accumulate enough content.
Cats can be a nice and often overlooked background/foreground effect in soundscapes, and we're happy that Sonic Worlds took the time to provide the sound of these Katz.
An issue we had with small parts of this library was with the presence of room reflections in some of the sounds, this really decreases the level of versatility and usability for those in particular, as they may seem out of place within a soundtrack, or sounding inaccurate to the room. This can easily remedied with some light transient shaping or De-reverb from Izotope RX.
Work can be done to clean up a lot of the reflections, however it would be ideal to have every sound in the library be as clean as possible, as this can greatly improve the versatility of the product. That being said, the cats can be placed in the background of the scene well with some of this distance perception.
This unusual but interesting pack is a welcome addition to anyone’s collection of libraries, many of the sounds are at a very high quality and are flexible to work with. The price isn't the best value for such a specific library, but the extent to which it is captured (and the painstaking process with the animals) makes it seem well justified. With our exclusive discount code below you can receive 10% off the current sale price until 10th August!
If you’d like to hear every sound within the library, please check out Yarron’s YouTube video below:
Get an extra 10% off the sale price, use discount code: 344audio
When working in the creative industries, it's important to find out what inspires you. Be it a song, a word, a video, or even an image, inspiration is as boundless as art, you can find it anywhere, even when you're least expecting it. This week, we are going to explain how we created a soundscape that was inspired simply by the image above.
November 23, 2021
When thinking about the deepest depths of the ocean, you may only picture a dark and desolate landscape devoid of sunlight and life. While you may be correct about the sunlight, the darkness holds an assortment of unimaginable creatures, living in a world that is as equally fascinating as Outer-Space. In this environment, many small creatures use a form of light emission called 'bioluminescence', where a chemical reaction in their bodies allow them to emit light, such as with the Jellyfish above.
The soundscape began with the idea of representing the contrast between the bioluminescent creatures and their pitch black surroundings. For the ocean, we decided to use a droning pad sound created through the use of sampling, looping and tuning so that any note played could be sustained for as long as desired. For the entire duration of the track, only 3 notes were held with this specific sound, however only the lowest note is heard always, the second note an octave above and the third note two octaves above were automated so that their levels would modulate over time, independent of each other.
This gives the soundscape an almost ethereal and otherworldly feel, with brighter textures flowing in and out like slow waves. Keeping the lowest note audible persistently may cause the listener to perceive a small, constant pressure in their ears, as if they were underwater. This sound was bandpass filtered quite heavily with an EQ to eliminate any frequency content past the high-mids, we wanted the pad to represent the lower end of the frequency spectrum so we cut out higher frequencies to make room for other sounds.
For the bioluminescent creatures, we wanted to use sounds that would occupy the higher end of the frequency spectrum, this was achieved by pitch-bending several shimmering chime samples. This, combined with convolution reverb created a nebulous and somewhat wispy sound effect, we believed this represented an entity floating in a vast open space, which fit perfectly for the small creatures. These sounds were panned to give the effect of the creatures having different positions within the stereo space of the listener.
To increase the level of immersion within this piece, some semblance of realism had to be present. This was done with the inclusion of bubbling sounds, to give the effect of creatures swimming near the listener, these samples were processed with an EQ to remove higher frequencies, and the lower frequencies on the samples were given a lower amount of stereo separation, as humans naturally are less able to perceive the direction of lower frequencies coming from a source. Convolution reverb and a delay was used to extend the length of the sound's tails, this also added to the underwater effect.
Finally, we wanted to create a sound that was both semi-realistic and artificial, so we recreated the haunting sound of a whale song. This sound was very simple to create as it only required a sine wave and an envelope, a long attack into a note which then uses legato to slide into another note. This, combined with a significant amount of convolution reverb resulted in a close approximation of the sound of a whale communicating, and when fit into the soundscape added an indescribable kind of uneasiness.
To conclude, we wanted to show how a simple image could give enough inspiration to put together a completely original soundscape based on its connotations as well as ideas related closely to it.
Take a listen to the soundscape below, we hope you enjoy!
If you enjoyed this article please check out our ultimate guide to audio post- production: https://www.344audio.com/post/the-ultimate-guide-to-audio-post-production-sound-design
Earlier this month, SampleTraxx released a sound pack called WOOSH. A collection of 116 high energy sound effects that can be used for cinematic transitions, impacts, movements and of course, whooshes.
November 23, 2021
Company: SampleTraxx
Product: WOOSH
Price: €29
Our Rating: 4.5/5
When opening the review copy, it contained two main folders. One containing documentation, such as the licensing agreement PDF, sound list and the stunning cover images for the pack. Another containing all of the Kontakt instruments, resources and samples to work with.
All audio files within the Samples folder are 24 Bit 96kHz WAV, however all of the audio files within the IR samples folder in resources are 24 Bit 48kHz WAV.
What is immediately noticeable when listening to the sound effects in this pack, is that each sound has a strong yet tame balance of power and punch. The lower frequencies are balanced to be at their most effective without overpowering the mid and high frequencies, this also means that there is less EQ work that needs to be done in order to fit the sounds into a soundscape coherently.
Another thing we noticed is that most of the sounds are processed in a way that makes them easy to place into a soundtrack with little to no added processing needed. This is very useful when working with more time-sensitive projects as they allow for more time to be spent on other more complicated sounds.
This pack includes 5 Kontakt instruments and an additional INIT instrument that allows for the real time editing and manipulation of the samples in the pack, these instruments utilise SampleTraxx's Photosynthesis engine. The INIT instrument allows for the manipulation of the user's own samples.
One small issue we had with this sound library was that their heavy processing limits the users capability to use the WOOShes for situations where you need a closer sound. We mostly used it to accentuate punchs and gunshots in an effects heavy film, and it blended there perfectly, adding some stereo width to sometimes more bland mono hits. This was clearly intentional from Sampletraxx, to ensure that the sounds are 'production ready'. Take a look at the FREE mini pack below, and we're sure it will wet your appetite.
We've been using WOOSH heavily on a feature film project to accentuate transitions, fight scenes, car effects and more. We are very happy with this product and we'd recommend it to anyone who works on films, trailers or composes epic music.
Check out SampleTraxx's new bundles page with various special offers
Detunized are a German company who have been developing compact sound libraries and Ableton Live Packs since 2009. Their Urban Crows bring the gritty, haunting and wonderful sounds of these birds into your projects.
November 23, 2021
Company: Detunized
Product: Urban Crows
Price: $38 (HD Version)
Our Rating: 4.5/5
On opening the review copy, we were greeted with a rather simple and neat folder hierarchy, containing metadata, licence agreements and a greeting PDF with details on where to get support for the product - always a nice touch. Also placed here are the 24 Bit 96 kHz Mid/Side recordings, which were captured at varying times of day with multiple weather conditions, offering a sense of ambience in the side channel, and a more direct sound in the mid. All sounds are also extensively metadata tagged. The files vary in length from around 1 minute to 4 minutes, enough to cover most scenes with interesting crow calls and weather effects.
One thing that drew us to Urban Crows was it's gritty and natural, homemade sound. When placing one of the files in a scene, you'll instantly notice it adds character, with the surrounding ambience captured in the M/S recordings combined with a plethora of unique and downright weird crow calls.
This unpolished sound lends itself well to placement in urban environments or bleak futuristic wastelands. We have used this library in so many projects that it has become our go to for adding dimension and fullness to otherwise plain and neutral shots, or scenes with a sinister and near future vibe. We assumed that Detunized were UK based as the sounds here felt very British in tone and colour - that is a good thing though as it means they are interchangeable and you can't pinpoint the source!
The ambience captured brings some natural noise floor to your backgrounds track, but when mixed at a reasonable level and brought in line with an M/S plugin, you have a lot of control over the focus of the effects. Everything from cleaner center crows, to rumbling, dirty residential hums in the sides.
Overall, the sound feels well captured, more so in the performances of the crows than the overall tonal and technical aspects. In many of the files, the crows are huge groups unlike we've ever heard before, replying to each other in a distressing almost zombie-like fashion. Detunized have spent the time to record snapshots of a mysterious and iconic common bird, making uncommon vocalisations.
It is hard to fault a library that finds itself landing in so many of our projects. One thing that is a clear word of caution is the higher noise floor (ambient noise) that these files have compared to more clean ambience libraries. This can be toned down to an extent, but then you lose the stereo field. A quick high pass filter cleans up much of the rumble (we like the dirt though, so choose to let it sit in the mix for EXT scenes).
The price is rather nice, considering Urban Crows used quality equipment, provides unprocessed recordings and has sounds that are difficult to find anywhere else, useful in lots of projects. It also runs at 1 hr 30 minutes in total. If you are on the fence, a lower priced mini version ($22) is available with less files and a 48 kHz sample rate. There is also a huge sale for Detunized libraries at the moment (linked below). We cannot put a price on a library that adds extra sonic spice to otherwise dull surroundings though - and neither should you!
Caws aplenty, files lengthy, bit rate twenty............four. Go buy it!
