Community spotlight on: the Pacific Northwest, a uniquely concentrated locus of game audio talent goings-on. Every month, Vancouver and Seattle both host up an in- to semi-formal gathering for like-minded designers and composers, usually alternating developer showcases and bar crawls. Lots of cities do these, but it seems like these ours are particularly … [Read more...]
Review : Generative 2 & Feedback 2
Siren Audio recently released version 2 of their critically acclaimed audio software tools, Feedback and Generative. Originally a part of the Lorelei Suite which they released back in 2011, these stand-alone applications are developed using Max/MSP and give the user a chance to create drones and evolving audio textures very easily. In this review, I will be using audio and … [Read more...]
Glitchmachines release Polygon
Polygon is a new sampler plugin designed to facilitate the creation of stunning composite sound effects. Co-developed by Ivo Ivanov and Thomas Hennebert, Polygon was conceived from the ground up with unconventional attributes and a fast, forward-thinking workflow. At the heart of Polygon, you will find 4 Sampler modules featuring a granular mode and various play and loop … [Read more...]
Tkapik from Inear Display
Inear Display have just released Tkapik, an amplitude controlled generative sampler. Add it to a track, then load a sound file and Tkapik will trigger the sample with random settings every time an amplitude peak is detected in the input signal. The sample can either be mixed with the input according to its amplitude envelope or completely replace the signal using the “solo” … [Read more...]
Review: S-Layer, The New Sampling Creature of Twisted Tools
After several fantastic effects, sequencers and sound manglers, the crazy minds at Twisted Tools have released a new sampler called S-Layer. It's basically a sampler for Reaktor focused on the interaction and control between sound layers, allowing you to rapidly create all kinds of sonic combinations. S-Layer allows to add up to eight layers of sound and manipulate the way … [Read more...]
Iris Review
I guess you already heard of Iris, the most recent creation of the masterminds at iZotope. A spectral processing tool created specially for dealing with recorded material, being able to extract, combine and process all kinds of sounds based on visual representations of frequency, amplitude and time. At this stage of the game, when we've clearly surpassed the limits of what we … [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...]