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Whooshes and Impacts 2, the extensive new library from SoundBits, offers a fresh aesthetic to creative Sound Design.
November 23, 2021
Company: SoundBits
Product: Whooshes and Impacts 2 (+ Elements)
Price: €48 for Standard, €39 for Elements
Our Rating: 4.5/5
We were sent both the Standard and Elements version for review. When browsing through the various whooshes and impacts, the extensive Metadata gives users a great description of each effect. The breakdown into High Frequency, Mid Frequency and Low Frequency sections in the Elements version provides a useful and quick way to tracklay a heavily designed scene. The sounds are provided in 24Bit 96kHz and over 600 sounds are included with the Standard version with a further 450 available in the Elements pack.
The sounds here really took us by surprise, in a good way. They have a signature sound that separates them from other comparable libraries, SoundBits did a great job of combining unexpected elements, making the whooshes and impacts useful in a variety of genres. The fact that they offered variations on some effects was a nice touch. These effects are very nicely mastered, with the impacts having a wide and powerful cinematic sound, and the whooshes providing everything from a subtle breeze of LFE to full blown Sci-Fi pass bys.
When track laying our project, these whooshes and impacts really took it to the next level. We accented vehicle pass-bys and used the Low Frequency whoosh layers to sweeten slow motion shots. There is a clear, natural quality to the effects in the mix, which leaves more scope for EQ and compression. Other similar libraries process the sounds too heavily, which makes them great initially, but creates a struggle in the mix to make them fit.
This library is a no frills, straight up useful creative tool. Don't expect flashy artwork or overly processed sounds. Do expect content that you will use in almost every project, building blocks for great Sound Design moments. We would definitely advise purchasing both the Standard and Elements versions, as when the content is broken down, it takes on a new lease of life. It may not be the only Whoosh and Impact library you'll ever need, but for SoundBits it probably won't be the last that they release, and we would continue using their products in a heartbeat.
It may be useful in the future to separate the whooshes and impacts folders by genre or content, so it is a faster process to find the right sounds for the right scenario. There was a missed opportunity with the branding too, this library deserves more unique artwork, which could help show the quality of the content better. There is also a distinct lack of reverb here that initially disappointed me, especially on impacts. But when it came to using the library in a project, I appreciated the flexibility.
For only €48/€39 you get 2 creative tools that are unique enough to make a scene shine, yet subtle enough not to be painfully obvious in a mix. We would happily use the same effect in multiple projects with the Elements version, as you can combine the different layers to make new content. Buy both, and you wont be sorry, especially because until March 31st you will get an exclusive discount of 35% on all 'whoosh related products' at the SoundBits website with the code: 344AUDIO-SOUNDBITS as well as a generous free mini pack below.
We found a nice selection of sounds created by The Epic Website (headed by Stunt Actor and Martial Artist Tony Jaa).
November 23, 2021
Company: The Epic Website
Product: Epic Soundpack Combo
Our Rating 4.4/5
Price: $38
Upon opening we found a nice selection of sounds created by The Epic Website (headed by Stunt Actor and Martial Artist Tony Jaa).
4 Sound Packs are included from EPIC's current and previous releases, the first two covering Punches, Kicks, Grabs, Swooshes and Bone Breaks, the latter two including various Gunshots, Ricochets, Bullet Impacts, Explosions and much more. There are over 800 effects included and they are provided in a variety of formats, from 16 Bit, 44.1 kHz to 16 Bit, 48 kHz WAV format.
If you want to spot your fights, shootouts and epic scenes, this library will get you really close to that Hollywood sound. You should definitely still add additional layers and design to sweeten the mix as well as combining the various elements for larger hits and effects.
The sounds on offer cover a wide spectrum for a great price, varying in quality from decent to brilliant from Soundpack I to IV. You have a lot of scope for creativity and enough variations to cover extended scenes.
The fact that Face Punches, Body Punches and Kicks are separated leaves a lot of flexibility, and the Swooshes are a vital addition to the fighting effects.
The Gunshot, Hit and Ricochet effects sit in a scene really well, and with some reverb and EQ, you could have complete design layers at your fingertips ready for mixing.
The Explosions are also nice and all of the sounds are mixed in a way that feels natural without too much baked in reverb.
When placing the effects against picture, you will find that you are adding production value with each glass smash or bullet whiz, which will have action movie fans on the edge of their seats.
One small criticism is the lack of quality control in the earlier libraries. They were released a while back and this reflects in the way that they sound. Some may be less useful, but by no means are they unusable.
The library is clearly aimed more at Frugal Filmmakers rather than professional Sound Designers, having no metadata tags and a variety of sample rates at 16 Bit, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Epic got most of the sounds just right.
For the low price of $38 you get a lot more value than what various professional developers offer in their products, but with a much more 'earthly' and instantly usable quality, giving your epic scene that level of production value it deserves.
Today we have the pleasure of reviewing a recent library from newcomer Fox Audio, an ambitious product to launch their brand into the sample library universe.
November 23, 2021
Company: Fox Audio
Product: Space Racer Pass-bys
Our Rating: 4/5
Price: £15
We were very eager to open this one up and have a tinker into it's hyper-drive sound engine. The 'Pod Racer' being heavily featured in the libraries sound list gave us flashbacks of a classic film scene that everyone should know about. The presentation of this library gets a 5* from us, great graphics and 'film trailer' style voice overs give the product high production value - and it sounds great.
Upon opening, it was clear that the files were named appropriately and accurately. Unfortunately we also discovered that the majority of sounds were in fact 'Pod Racer' and only a minority were based on other would be vehicles of the future. While this is not a problem as these sounds can be used universally, it does leave the Sound Editor feeling like there is limited scope before even auditioning sounds. The sounds are delivered in 96 kHz 24 Bit and have metadata.
You are probably wondering, which scenarios will this library work for?
It works exactly as described, any Sci-Fi scene with vehicle chases, pod races, Wipeout style speeders and the like will benefit from this extra colour in their design pallet. The Sound's are beefy and complex, not quite as processed and huge as libraries that cost 10 times more, but the rawness often works better when tracklaying - offering a wider flexibility to users.
When tested against the classic Pod Racer scene from Star Wars, these sounds hold up, which is a massive achievement. The variety of sounds on offer with light, medium, heavy and Turbodrive pass-bys really do make the workflow much easier. I also like that some sounds use a more complex stereo movement which offers a bit of variety over simple L to R passes. The price is pretty impressive for the content on offer, this library could either be a great layer to your current arsenal or stand on its own to get you past a tight spot on a fast deadline.
One of the reasons we couldn't award this library a higher rating was due to some really obvious omissions. We know that it is priced extremely well and it does say 'Pass-bys' in the title, but engine idle, startup and shutdown sounds would have been the icing on the cake, even if it was priced 20-30% higher. Fox Audio assure us that these are coming in a future product, soon you'll have a more complete toolkit to build your Sci-Fi scene, engines and all. The other slight issue for us was the fact that the editing wasn't as perfect as we'd have hoped for. Most sounds are edited and mixed beautifully, but a couple fell short where their panning felt unnatural combined with their modulation, or there were missing fades that irked slightly on some layers.
If you need pass by sounds for a design heavy Sci-Fi film, game or commercial, these sounds will fill that void, and sound great while doing it. The theme was matched excellently and any gaps will be filled with a new product coming soon, keep an eye out for Fox Audio!
RFX Room Tones, the latest Sound Library from the experienced Ville Sorsa, offers a useful variety of room tone effects to Freelance Sound Designers and Post Production Houses.
November 23, 2021
Company: Ville Sorsa
Product: RFX Room Tones
Our Rating: 4.5/5
Price: £38
Upon opening we were glad to see a nicely organised, well named and simplistic file structure. We also liked the amount of content on offer, each file is in stereo WAV format at 5 minutes long and has metadata which means you have more than enough content for atmosphere tracklay. The files were named accurately and had the feel of a much more expensive library. A small gripe was that when the package was unzipped, I would have liked to see a parent folder with the name of the library.
Bare in mind that most people are not going to get excited about a room tone library, but you should. I was sceptical at first, but upon listening, I found each sound to have no extraneous noises or clicks unless stated. This means you are getting the pure noise floor of the room, which is what this is all about. The sounds have an element of rawness, but are still clean in the right way. They are balanced with each other, when editing with them side by side in tracklay, you'll notice there are no frequencies standing out and minimal level difference.
No audible spectral processing has taken place and care was obviously taken when picking the locations to record. These sounds are especially useful when the client wants 'silence' within a scene. Usually when the dialogue track sounds too dry and you need that extra magic that fills the gap. I also think it could be useful for dialogue editing, certain sections can be very time consuming to generate 'fill' and often, a similar room tone from RFX will save you lots of time. The sounds here are perfect for designing Sci-Fi ambiences and the like, as they're so clean and well recorded. At 96kHz there will be minimal quality loss when pitch shifting.
For the library, I would have liked to see both a mono and stereo option, but can see why this didn't make sense given the file size. I also would like to have seen external ambiences with the same vibe (no extraneous noises), but it would be more difficult to achieve consistency and reduce extraneous sounds; maybe in RFX 2: External Tones?
The price doesn't seem expensive once you open the library, but also doesn't feel like exceptional value, it is priced according to its worth. It is arguably more of a utility tool than a creative library, which is why I think it had to be priced at this point. Anything that can add to the perceived value in future products would be great.
For a good price you get a tool that does it's job extremely well, it has had care put into it and is demonstrating demand with high sales rates. It's pretty much a must have tool for all Sound Designers who need to tracklay atmosphere effects.
Zero Dawn, the latest sample library from David J St Hill at Audio Verge provides Composers and Sound Designers with a variety of Cinematic Loops both Rhythmical and Tonal
November 23, 2021
Company: Audio Verge
Product: Zero Dawn
Our Rating: 4.2/5
Price: £19.99
When initially opening the files, it was nice to see the wide range of formats available. Kontakt, WAV and Apple Loops are provided, giving users a lot of sound editing capabilities. For the review I used the loops within Kontakt (the full version is required). This library has beautiful graphics and a user friendly interface which doesn't clutter you with options, allowing inspiration to roam free. The backdrop is nice but I would have liked to see nicer looking knobs for twiddling and maybe another page for further loop mangling, however the low price point reflects this. I would have also liked to see tuned patches and velocity sensitivity. A further addition to speed up the workflow could have been to sort patches keyboard mapping by their frequency content, having low elements on one side and high on the other would have worked great.
Now for the most important part, how does it sound? Each loop and element has a level of quality that will please composers old and new. They are mastered in a way that sounds great out of the box but also leaves room for additional processing. A blend of truly modern audio assets, some offering unheard sonic textures and others offering bread and butter elements used to inspire and begin score cues. There are a nice blend of pulses, percussion, arps, drones and pads which cover a lot of ground for a low price point. I particuarly like the warm and fuzzy sounds of the atmospheres which have vocal layers, bringing that widescreen sound to your cues. The percussive patches give a gritty and dark glitchy texture to your 8 bar loops. I like that the atmospheric pads and arps have been mixed rather brightly, allowing the user to control the clairty via a mod wheel filter, which adds further variety and movement to the patches. The sounds here are most suited to Sci-Fi, Horror, Action and Drama cues, offering basic tweakability within the Kontakt engine. I like to pitch certain sounds by a couple of octaves to discover new ways to use them; adding distortion can range from a subtle crunch to walls of noise.
Loop libraries have a bad reputation for encouraging laziness but I don't think this library promotes that. It is clearly an inspiration tool and should be treated as such. Cues can be started and enhanced within minutes and I would encourage users to process the sounds to find new sonic ground like I did in the demo track. The price point makes this library a steal for all Composers, especially those who want that Cinematic sound without the huge price point. The quality of sound far outweighs the small gripes I had with the workflow. You also get Audio Verges great customer service and support included.
Inspire a new cue today and visit Audio Verge to purchase Zero Dawn with our 20% off code: zero344
