Randy Thom: Why Is Sound Important?

The Steppenwolf Kontakt virtual instrument strives to deliver a persistent combination of simplicity and quality to those looking to expand their palette of virtual footstep options, or to place an affordable alternative in the hands of those already possessing the full version of Kontakt 6 (& up). This virtual instrument, despite its apparent simplicity, is no compromise when it comes to delivering audio quality. Every footstep was recorded in a quiet, professional foley stage with a high ceiling and zero reverberation. A Neumann TLM 103 was used for the close microphone, and a Schoeps CMIT 5U was used for the far microphone. The near & far microphones each have their own knob to control volume on the plugin’s GUI, so that the near or far microphones can be blended together to achieve the desired texture/distance. The preamplifier used was a NEVE 5211 with zero compression and a flat EQ graph for maximum flexibility. There are five instances of the instrument, where each instance is a surface (dirt, grass, wood, gravel, concrete). Each instance/surface contains one shoe per octave for seven shoes per instrument (multiple boots, sneakers, and a pair of woman’s heels). The same shoes are used in the same order across all surfaces! Each key within a given octave contains 8 round robins forming a perfect loop, so the user need only tap one key infinitely to have a complete walk cycle, or mix & match between the 11 other walk cycles within the octave!

For people working in game audio, the samples can also be reused as oneshots within WWISE or FMOD! They are already rigorously edited, so just drag and drop!