How to use Phase Plant for sound design - a sound design video workshop by Minh Ho

Kilohearts' Phase Plant is a wildly creative tool for sound design - and here are Senior Sound Designer Minh Ho's 5 first videos in a brand new 8-part sound design workshop utilizing Phase Plant (among other tools) to create custom whooshes, risers, hits and drones.

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Sound design workshop by Minh Ho

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Watch Minh Ho’s workshop videos • Get Phase Plant • Hear Joel Berg’s wild Phase Plant audio examples

Part 1 – Intro

On the importance of movement in sound design, and the balance between noise and tonality:

Topics and playing times:
00:00 Intro • 00:11 Sound design = movement • 01:23 ‘Building blocks’ • 02:56 Tonality vs noise • 03:50 Case study: Sekiro • 06:05 Closing words

Part 2 – Sampling: risers

How to create risers in a sampler from static pads and drones, and ways to accentuate the building in energy with effects and modulations:

Topics and playing times:
00:00 Intro • 00:21 Loading and playing samples • 01:22 Volume envelope • 02:19 Pitch curve LFO • 03:22 Distortion and filter modulation • 04:53 Printing to audio • 05:30 Unison • 06:30 Sampler unison quirk • 07:47 Modulate everything! • 09:50 Downwards pitch-shifting • 10:41 Loop length modulation • 11:57 LFO rate modulation

Part 3 – Sampling: whooshes

How to create whooshes and pass-bys using a sampler, and how to leverage FM, RM and AM to create new tones and articulations:

Topics and playing times:
00:00 Initializing • 00:10 Volume envelope • 00:37 Pitch envelope • 01:25 Synchronized LFOs • 03:27 ‘Comfort’ reverb • 04:41 Less static sample • 06:27 Filter movement • 07:11 Swapping samples • 07:44 Bipolar pitch curve • 08:13 Some variations • 08:34 Frequency Modulation • 10:51 FM: tuning the modulator • 16:02 FM: enharmonic • 17:35 Ring Modulation • 18:56 RM: using the sideband • 20:20 Sidebands to tremolo • 20:55 Amplitude Modulation • 22:01 LFO rate modulation • 24:36 Punchier pitch curve

Part 4 – Sampling: impacts

How to create puncy hits and impacts, and how to fine-tune the transient using a combination of pitch and volume curves, filtering and distortion:

Topics and playing times:
00:00 Initializing the patch • 00:24 Volume envelope • 00:54 Pitch envelope • 02:42 Adding distortion • 03:18 Swapping samples • 03:51 Adding FM • 04:51 A word on randomization • 06:37 FM envelope • 08:20 Adding RM • 09:05 OTT or noTT • 10:12 Swapping samples • 10:38 A word on layering • 11:29 Tweaking • 12:55 Shaping the transient with filters • 13:30 Increasingly adding distortion/center>

Part 5 – Granulation

On the power of granular sampling to completely transform the tone and texture of a sound:

Topics and playing times:
00:00 Intro • 00:28 Typical granular pad • 02:54 Granular riser • 04:42 What Padshop can teach us • 05:58 Granulation = ring mod (kind of) • 07:35 Granular whooshes • 10:56 Adding pitch modulation • 12:09 More stuff Padshop can teach us • 12:21 Granulation = flanging (kind of) • 13:57 Fat granular hits in Padshop • 15:16 Applying to Phase Plant • 16:06 Playing with the playback position • 17:15 Swapping samples • 19:13 Whoosh from a hit • 23:24 Grain spawn rate • 28:16 Free rate risers

Get Phase Plant here:

If you’re feeling inspired, you can get Kilohearts’ complete Phase Plant below:

Kilohearts Phase Plant

199,00 $

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BONUS: Want to hear what Phase Plant is capable of? Check out these wild examples by Joel Blanco Berg. Click to jump straight to your chosen sound:

Motorcycle • Jungle • Snow • Rain and thunder • Propeller Plane • Propeller Plane • Goo • Lawn mower • Drum kit • Drill

Motorcycle:

Sport motorcycle simulation in #phaseplant. This one was A LOT harder to create than the previous one 😅. Enjoy! #sounddesign 🏍🏍🏍 pic.twitter.com/EpjAkpLIru
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) March 10, 2022

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Jungle:

I tried to synthesize a dense jungle/forest ambience without listening to any reference samples. So its basically just a bunch of made up animal & insect noises #phaseplant #sounddesign pic.twitter.com/jAuaTYgc4x
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) June 22, 2022

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Snow:

Crunchy snow foley in #phaseplant. Each note/key creates a fragment of snow being crunched. So you essentially shape/perform each step by "walking" on the keyboard with your hands #sounddesign pic.twitter.com/f6fwRVyVVh
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) May 17, 2022

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Rain and thunder:

Rain & thunder/rumble synthesized in #phaseplant I had to render it in multiple passes to get enough waterdrops/splashes #sounddesign pic.twitter.com/4rP9w8tsMm
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) June 1, 2022

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Propeller plane:

Biplane / small propeller plane flyby from a distance #phaseplant #sounddesign. Its basically just the propeller noise pic.twitter.com/s9N9oZB3zS
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) May 27, 2022

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Goo & gunk:

Liquids/goo/gunk 🫠🫠 with variable viscosity in #phaseplant #sounddesign its a wip! pic.twitter.com/irtUWO5hha
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) May 22, 2022

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Lawn mower:

Time for another engine! An old Lawn mower starting up, taking it for a spin, then shutting down. Synthesized with #phaseplant only. #sounddesign pic.twitter.com/HxEwij1DJH
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) May 12, 2022

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Drumkit:

Drum kit 🥁 synthesized with #phaseplant without using any samples! It is a WIP, so it only has a bass drum, hi-hat, snare, cowbell, drumsticks and a pretty crappy crash cymbal so far #sounddesign @kilohearts pic.twitter.com/6LDTGVe5SJ
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) April 13, 2022

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Electric drill:

My most annoying patch so far? An electric drill drilling in concrete😑 #sounddesign #phaseplant pic.twitter.com/Zgc9EvU5LW
— Joel Blanco Berg (@lydoel) March 27, 2022

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How to use Phase Plant for sound design – a sound design video workshop by Minh Ho