Sound effects libraries are the essential toolkit of every sound designer: they are convenient and practical. Furthermore, in a time where deadlines seem to get shorter and shorter, why would one bother to hike their way into field recording when we have all the tools we need within a click from our reach? As with every overindulgence, relying on sound effects libraries for too … [Read more...]
Beyond the Mouse and Keyboard – The Role of Touch and Motion in Sound Design
This is a guest article written by Justin Spasevski, a freelance sound designer and mixer based in Sydney, who is currently editing and mixing "The Celebrity Apprentice Australia". You can view his credits and portfolio on his website Braided Audio. When looking into the creative aspects of sound design, I’ve always found it interesting how certain workflows can … [Read more...]
Designing GuitarMonics for Kontakt
Guest Contribution by Rodney Gates Greetings! Welcome, and thanks for checking out this (TL;DR) article on the creation of the virtual instrument sample library, GuitarMonics, designed for Native Instruments’ Kontakt software. It was a long road from concept to completion, and I thought it might be a good idea to discuss some of the processes and discoveries I learned along … [Read more...]
Designing Musical Sounds
Guest Contribution by Brendan Hogan Making music from a single household item is hardly an original idea at this point, but if you’re a sound designer or an electronic musician and you haven’t taken a shot at it, I would highly recommend the exercise. I’m a huge fan of limitations. Not only will the challenge of making an entire piece with one “non-musical” item push you … [Read more...]
The Cinematic Toy Piano
Guest Contribution by Ali Lacey When someone mentions a Toy Piano, the last things you would think are 50Hz Booms, sub drops, eerie textures, bows and big percussive hits. But have you ever actually pondered the cinematic qualities a toy piano might have? After obsessing about owning a toy piano, I found a vintage 1950’s mini grand piano on Ebay for £20. I had plans to … [Read more...]
The Crowd-Choir Project, by Soniccouture
Soniccouture has started an interesting crowd-source project called CrowdChoir. We are going to build a unique sampler instrument - a choir / vocal ensemble made with hundreds of voices from all around the world. We need a a minimum of 500 notes to layer in the instrument, so please help us if you can. Everybody that sends us a recorded note will receive the CrowdChoir … [Read more...]
Design Toolbox #2 – Kontakt
For this second post of the Design Toolbox series, I thought it would be nice to explore a sampler and it's application in sound design. Kontakt has been around for a long time and is widely used by musicians, and lately amongst more sound designers too. I haven't used it since version 2 (years ago), and my MIDI editing skills in Pro Tools are not the best. I thought it would … [Read more...]