As a reminder, the next Sound Design Challenge will start on September 15th. See you then.

Head over to this post to review the finalists’ entries and cast your vote!

First off, let me get the least interesting bit of news out of the way. In the course of running these for nearly a year now, it’s become apparent to me that I can’t keep up the once a month schedule (at least, not the way I’d like to). This thing on top of regular work and other responsibilities associated with general life just aren’t working too well together. I don’t want to stop doing it either though, so we’re moving it to an every other month schedule starting with July’s upcoming challenge. So, the next challenge after July will take place in September. This will give me more time to dedicate to the development of each challenge; to make sure they’re interesting and worth your time.

Now for the more interesting news:

Because I’m going to be spreading them out, there’s no reason that I shouldn’t give people more time to participate. From now on, there will be a full three weeks for each challenge (goodbye 10 day time limit). More time, and fewer challenges means we can give more people the opportunity to participate. I feel that’s more important than anything else. The start time for each challenge will remain the same, the third Thursday of the month at 5 P.M. (US Eastern Standard Time)…although, it will only be on odd numbered months.

In addition to the work I’ve been doing on my site, I’ve picked up a few duties here on DesigningSound.org. Since this is a community event, and Designing Sound has a much larger community than my site does. I’m going to be moving the challenge over here, starting with this month’s challenge. Combine the new schedule with the Designing Sound, and it let’s me do something I know you’ll all be interested in….arrange for bigger prizes!

July’s Challenge is being sponsored by McDSP, and we’ll be giving away a license for their Futz Box plug-in to the winner. Big thanks go out to McDSP for sponsoring the upcoming challenge. I’m lining up some cool sponsors for upcoming challenges that I know you’ll be interested in as well, so start flexing those ear and brain muscles!

Keep an eye out here, on the 21st, for details about the next challenge!

See you then.

Charles Deenen has created this exclusive video for Designing Sound showing one way to fast sound effects designing with Soundminer and plugins. The software used is Soundminer 4.2 and Pro Tools 8. Plugins are Waves, McDSP, SoundToys and other stuff. Enjoy!

How do you design sounds in a fast way? Your stories are welcome!

Audiokinetic Inc. released today the latest version of Wwise (2009.3) introducing new features and enhancements, Audiokinetic also unveiled a new pricing structure that will allow customers to save up to 20% on purchase of the company’s product families.

New features and enhancements:

• McDSP effects: ML1 and FutzBox
• Peak meters on limiter effects
• Vorbis: major memory optimizations
• New & improved file packager
• Profiler data statistics

Audiokinetic and McDSP had announced a technological partnership a few months ago, and the ML1 and FutzBox plug-ins are the first results of this collaboration.

Audiokinetic also gave a sneak-peek of its roadmap for Wwise for 2010, and revealed that new features will include a convolution reverb.

“We’re pursuing our goal to see Wwise become a comprehensive platform for sound design, while answering our customers’ needs,” said Simon Ashby, VP Product Strategy, Audiokinetic. “Our users asked for more high-quality effects and a convolution reverb, so we’re delivering these, and more.”

In parallel, Audiokinetic revealed a new pricing structure based on a “buy more – pay less” approach. The pricing structure allows game developers to qualify for discounts if they purchase several products developed by Audiokinetic.

• Purchase of 2 products grants a 5% discount;
• Purchase of the Power Pack – the combination of Wwise, Wwise Motion, SoundSeed Impact, SoundSeed Air, the 2 McDSP effects and the upcoming convolution reverb – grants a 20% discount.

“Our products are powerful yet affordable, and this new pricing structure offers a great value for money,” said Geneviève Laberge, VP Sales, Audiokinetic. “For example, purchasing the Power Pack for 1 title on 2 platforms now costs $33K – that’s an economy of $8,250 compared to the individual price of these 6 valuable products.”

Details of the new features in Wwise 2009.3 and of the new pricing are available on Audiokinetic’s web site.