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Plug-Ins and Standalone tools for all of you mixing and sound design needs
Experience true horror with SwishSwoosh’s Kontakt Instrument – AMBER
The cinematic tension software instrument from SwishSwoosh. Take control of your soundscapes and bring your horror scenes to life with AMBER’s powerful and customizable features.
3 mic perspectives give full coverage on an antique typewriter in good working condition. The typewriter had a loose front plate and we clacked, hit and dropped it for a wide range of cool typewritery sounds. The Kontakt instrument presets requires the full version of NI Kontakt 4.2.3 or later.
Motion Texures is a broad library with a narrow purpose: to draw sonic lines and create gently moving sonic textures.
The concept is that consistent sound of friction will translate well to visual design elements that have CG and text movement on screen.
We recorded the friction sounds of dozens of small to medium sized props in constant motion. Major categories include metal, plastic, cloth, wood and skin. Some of the most interesting sounds came from the props that had small cavities such as the spray can lid and the water bottle. The constant changing of the cavity state relative to the mics creates strange vocal sounds.
Once the sounds were recorded we employed a proprietary smoothing process as a second pass to the sounds and provided them in addition to the original textures. These smoothed out sounds still have the organic quality of the original recordings, but with far fewer transient events. The end result are sounds that feel straighter than the more circular sounding original textures.
Inside of the Kontakt instruments we stacked layers and effects to create a broad base of deep and interesting textures. Many of the Kontakt presets mangle the sounds far beyond recognition of the original recordings.
The Burroughs Protectograph that we acquired was manufactured around the turn of the 20th century and had a single unique function – to stamp and emboss checks for banks. The Burroughs corporation has been around since 1886, and was an early force in the adding machine, check stamper and typewriter industries. This Protectograph version had an electric mechanism that would move large printheads down through a ribbon and would stamp a check hard and repeatedly for as long as the print key was held down. Our machine was acquired in perfect working condition.
Its keys have a short through but a satisfying clack, and the punch mechanism is a huge whir stamp sound than can cycle if the punch button is held down. We rolled with the case both on and off, which revealed very different sounds from the main electric mechanisms.
We ran the whole session with three perspectives miked up – front by the keys, in the back by the punch and a wide perspective perfect for bgfx placement. The front and back mics were Schoeps CMC6.MK4 and the wide mic was an AT 4050 in omni about 5 feet away. Listen to the straight examples give a clear accounting of the type of sounds we got from this machine, and the bent examples show what can really be done with those sounds and the Kontakt instrument.
TEXTROBOT is a NI Kontakt instrument designed to help you in the sound design of UI sounds and to produce retriggered samples for VFX text animations.
All 165 sounds are easily accessible using a MIDI master keyboard from the first octave. You can choose a category to load a set of samples and play it manually, or in the retriggered way (if active) by holding down the note. The full version of NI Kontakt is required to use this library.
• Click (10 samples): very tight, clicky sounds for UI interface usage or small text VFX
• Bleeps (16 samples): it contains bleeping sounds, tones, and alerts for telemetrics and sci-fisound design
• Big Size (16 samples): a collection of low frequency sounds for big title animation
• Percussive (22 samples): organic and processed percussive sounds like shakers, maracas, and woods for multimedia apps or menu sound design
• Fun (30 samples): a collection of funny sounds for cartoonish motion graphics
• Digital (20 samples): glitches and lo-fi sounds for experimental videos
• Keys (28 samples): keyboards, typewriters, and mouse sounds
• Mechanical (23 samples): switches, clangs, squeaks, and metal impact sounds for mechanic motion graphics
KING OF STRINGS is the first Octobass sample library for Ni Kontakt.
Featuring the sampling of the unique custom made “Bohr-Moneta” Octobass.
There are only 4 octobasses in the world, this instrument is the perfect way to add the power of a rare bass instrument to your music compositions, giving an organic flavor without sacrificing the natural rough sound of a string instrument.
NOTE: KING OF STRINGS is an instrument for Ni Kontakt, it requires full version of Kontakt 5.8 or highter versions
With A Sound Effect, Asbjoern has created a web site where our international community can browse, learn, and share the vast fruits of our labors. Together we are accelerating the very real potential power of sound design as a recognized art form.
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