Krotos Audio

An experienced and innovative sound designer Ryan Hobler has worked extensively in commercials, movies, podcasts, art, and music. Ryan is one of the industry’s finest sound designers and his diverse showreel is a fantastic example of his range of abilities.

We seized the opportunity to peer inside Ryan’s creative mind and find out what makes him tick. In this interview Ryan joins Krotos Product Expert Alessandro Mastroianni from his home studio in New York.

Watch the full interview with Sound Designer, Ryan Hobler Read the Video Transcription [00:00:00.190] – Alessandro Mastroianni

Hi. My name is Alessandro Mastroianni. I’m a product expert at Krotos. And today I’m really excited because I have with us Ryan Hobler, who is a sound designer at Gramercy Park Studios. His work mostly involved working with commercials, but he is also a great songwriter. He has a fantastic series on Instagram and YouTube called And/Or. He works with podcasts. He’s a man of multiple talents. I’m really excited to have this chat with him. Thank you so much for being with us and having this chat with me.

[00:00:32.960] – Ryan Hobler

Thank you, Alessandro. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:35.100] – Alessandro Mastroianni

I’m really interested in your work with commercials because we didn’t have any guest that specialises in that sort of area of audio post. Do you want to talk a little bit about that kind of workflow?

[00:00:49.590] – Ryan Hobler

So, yeah, working in commercials is really interesting. When I was working at Genie Music Flavor Lab, we were working mainly in promos. They worked on a lot of Discovery, PBS, History Channel. It would be very straightforward. It would be like, oh, we’re just doing this promo for the next show that’s coming up. We’d work on it. And it would be like, maybe a day’s work. Then it would be out the door. Commercials. At the time, I worked for Grey Advertising ad agency in New York City, and they had an in house post production facility, I think that was called at the time, Tape Center when I started. Yeah, it had so many names. I went over there and it was such a culture shock because you could be working on… I had friends who were working on television shows and movies, and they’d be two, three months working on an entire television show series, like, at the time, probably 20 episodes of content. And I started off working on something for just as long, but it was a 30 second commercial. The primary challenge for me, especially as a young, thoroughly not ready engineer, was actually learning how to communicate and how to speak and listen to people as my clients for the first time.

[00:02:06.940] – Ryan Hobler

That’s still something that I just find to be the most exciting and exhilarating part of the job. What’s so interesting to me about working in the commercial space is you’re working on primarily. Like. All these small pieces of content, 15, 30 seconds. But there’s so much time and effort and such a large group of people working on that. That if you’re not on the same page with everybody. And if you don’t communicate. If you don’t speak and listen to what this thing that you’re creating is supposed to be. Then it can very easily go off the rail. So one of the first things that I learned was get to the heart of what do we want to convey here? What is the emotion? And I felt like my musical background kind of contributed to this kind of effort. You’re performing as a sound designer mixer with clients breathing down your neck and in the advertising world, everybody was breathing down your neck like, come on, we got to get this out. But you’re also shepherding their ideas that they’ve been working on for months before they walk through your door. What’s the emotion behind this?

[00:03:15.260] – Ryan Hobler

What’s your intent behind this? If I grab and snag and embody that in the sound, the music, the sound design or whatever, then it’s brilliant.

[00:03:39.970] – Alessandro Mastroianni

Let’s dig deeper a little bit into the workflow of working with ads. Do you want to tell us a little bit how you approach a project?

[00:03:49.980] – Ryan Hobler

Working in that kind of environment? You want to work as fast as you possibly can. You don’t want to think about too much, like, what you’re doing and how to do it. You want to just do it. If you’re making a genie coming out of a lamp sound, you don’t want to be thinking about how that’s being routed in ProTools. You want everything at your fingertips, like, as soon as possible. The template that I’ve created for our folks at Gramercy Park Studios is exhaustive. So there’s a bunch of stuff in there that just helps us execute as fast as possible just to stay in the creation energy, as opposed to everything inside of behind the scenes happening in ProTools. I don’t want to be thinking about any of that stuff while I’m crafting sound design and atmospheres and things like that. Along those same lines, like, using Krotos Reformer Pro is one of my favorites because I wind up using it because of the immediacy of how simple it is to use. Me also being a performer by nature. As a musician. A singer. I love being able to create sounds and just point that little dot in that XY graph in Reformer Pro on one of my And/Or videos.

[00:05:09.800] – Ryan Hobler

Actually. Most recently. I was sound designing this butterfly that comes into the screen. And it kind of flutters into the screen and then lands on this branch. And I end up using Reformer Pro for that. Sometimes when I watch these videos, when I’m sound designing something, I hear the sound, and I make the sound with my voice. I just go and that sounds like a little fluttery butterfly to me, but I wanted it to have a little bit of an edge, so I wound up just doing that and then opening up Reformer Pro and kind of going in between, I think the leaves and twigs library and, like a sizzle, like a burning library that comes with the Reformer Pro. It just works. I love the fact that you could work with layers and point it in between up to four sounds in Reformer Pro at the moment, and being able to do that is just wonderful. I love using Reformer Pro is my favorite. That’s, like me. I sing. I vocalize. I want to perform my music. I want to perform my sound as much as possible. I want it to come from me. There’s something for me personally as a musician, first and foremost, playing my synthesis here, you can’t see it, but playing a synth, like playing sounds through that, tweaking a synth that feels more natural and more alive to me than going into the effects and files and editing them little sounds like that.

[00:06:44.270] – Ryan Hobler

You could do that with Reformer Pro in like 2 seconds just going like that, as opposed to taking several, maybe eight layers of files and tweaking them to sound the way that you want them to sound.

[00:07:01.270] – Alessandro Mastroianni

Really cool. So since you mentioned And/Or, let’s talk a little bit about that. Such an interesting series. My favorite one is the Rubik’s Cube. And I love how actually, I don’t want to say it why don’t you talk a little bit about what it is and how you came up with the idea.

[00:07:20.070] – Ryan Hobler

And/Or came from a place of, I guess reconciliation. For me, I have these two sides. Like I have my musical side and my audio post sound design side. I kept these two things separate for such a long time. The more I did worked on music, the more I worked on commercials, the more I worked on films, podcasts, etc. The more I discovered that this is a ridiculous mindset to have. Like, why are these two things why am I treating these two halves as completely separate? It’s called And/Or because I do music and or sound design for various shorts. I started on Instagram because at the time Instagram evolved since then, but at the time Instagram, the limit was like 1 minute for a video. And I love the idea of doing something really short. I also wanted to do something where I could experiment and I experiment all the time. I’m always trying to push myself and try new things, even in an ad sense, where maybe I’m working on a very simple sound sonically simple sonic commercial where it’s just a voiceover and a music track. Even if I’m working on something like that, I’m still exploring various ways to maybe do some parallel impression on the music and really pump it up when it goes to this wide shot in the commercial with meaning and intent throughout.

[00:08:46.490] – Ryan Hobler

But that is limited. The And/Or series, it’s basically whatever I want it to be. I reach out to various visual artists, whether they be motion designers or animators or friends of mine who have way more visual sensibilities than myself, and I say, hey, you want to make a video together? And they say, sure, it’s just for fun. I don’t get paid for it. I’m not looking to get paid for it. And it’s just a creative flex just to be here’s a visual with nothing on it. And now let’s make something out of it. The Rubik’s Cube one. I saw that. I think I saw that on Instagram and I reached out to the animator and I was like, hey, can we work together? And there’s something beautiful about working one on one with someone again. And that’s been the case on pretty much all those videos. I think there’s been about oh, man, I can’t remember there’s 16 of them now. I had a little cheat screen up there, but there’s 16 of them and it’s just fun. I just go out and I look for exciting visual artists and I say, hey, let’s make a video together.

[00:10:11.420] – Ryan Hobler

It’s wonderful being able to make it from the ground up and have it just be what it is. But it’s all creation and it’s all experimentation. Whether it’s learning new tricks, using Reformer Pro or Igniter, or making whatever you want to make without any limitations.

[00:10:30.370] – Alessandro Mastroianni

There’s something very exciting and also very scary about having nothing at all to work with, having no production track to use as a reference, having no synch points, nothing. I find that very exciting. And as you say, you can be very experimental with it and very abstract even, because there is sort of like no real word counterpart that you need to respect in a way. So that’s cool.

[00:10:59.420] – Ryan Hobler

It’s my favorite thing to work on. Most of the And/Or videos are animated. I think some of my favorite ad work has been the animated stuff. Actually, one of the Applebee’s commercials I did was like this little elf and he climbs up this hill and he’s thinking about Applebee’s, but it was like a mini Pixar 15 second Pixar Movie it was so much fun to work on because there was nothing there was nothing there before, before there was something.

[00:11:27.730] – Alessandro Mastroianni

Audio post, music really getting all the audio industry under the biggest umbrella that you can think of, what you think is the future of the industry, and especially how do you see the role of the sound designer evolving?

[00:11:47.190] – Ryan Hobler

I’m going to look back upon my answer in like ten years and be like, what a fool I was. I didn’t know where anything was headed. I can guarantee you whatever I say right now will not be it. But I personally think that we’re headed I like the direction that you guys at Krotos seems to be headed in. But it seems like performance and kind of gesture based. The technology is so incredible what kids coming out of college can do and access today. They have all this technology at their fingertips. That wasn’t something that we had growing up, and it wasn’t as accessible, wasn’t as easy to pay for, to grab. It wasn’t something we get on an app on our phone or iPad or touchscreen, whatever. I imagine like that film Minority Report where Tom Cruise is just moving information all around on his virtual chalkboard. I would love to be able to manipulate audio in a way that’s more natural and based off of movement and voice actually physically interacting with the media. I feel like that’s where it’s headed. It’s got to be headed that way. It’s just going to get even better and more incredible.

[00:13:00.630] – Ryan Hobler

I’m really excited, to be honest.

[00:13:02.610] – Alessandro Mastroianni

I just want to say that it’s so cool that even an established sound designer like yourself still finds the time to do something like the And/Or series. There’s something very inspiring, because we all need to find some time to do some experimentation. And, yeah, if you’re younger, you can use that as a way to put your work out and find work. But even if you’re not young and even if you’re already established, it’s really inspiring what you’re doing with And/Or. I really loved it.

[00:13:38.820] – Ryan Hobler

Thank you. Yeah, I think it’s important. It’s key to keep on pushing. You always have to reach for something more. Like, you can’t just do the same thing over and over again. You got to explore. And I feel like if you’re not exploring, then you’re in a state of stasis, and you can’t become more than if you’re not exploring. You can’t become more if you don’t explore. That rhymes! But no. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[00:14:10.220] – Alessandro Mastroianni

All right. Thank you so much. I think we can close it here. And thank you so much for finding the time to do this. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

[00:14:18.950] – Ryan Hobler

Thank you. This is awesome.

In this interview, Ryan shares some insights into the fast-paced world of commercials, and the importance of creative freedom that you get from experimental art.

Ryan uses Krotos Everything Bundle in his workflow and he shares with us his reasons for including Krotos in his template. With a musical background, Ryan’s natural ability to perform sounds fits perfectly with the Krotos workflow.

Feeling inspired?

You can try out our Sound Design Design Bundle for free! Head over to www.krotosaudio.com/sound-design-bundles and start your trial today
Ryan Hobler, Sound Designer, Mixer, Musician Ryan Hobler’s Sound Design Work

We’ve selected a few of our favourites from Ryan’s showreel but we urge you to check them out for yourself. Visit his studio page at gramercyparkstudios.com/ryan-hobler his personal website at ryanhobler.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to his YouTube channel so you don’t miss Ryan’s awesome And/Or series!

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Add texture to character voices with Dehumaniser 2 & Reformer Pro

Paul Maunder over at Pro Tools Expert has put together this awesome video, demonstrating how you can use two plugins from the Sound Design Bundle, Reformer Pro & Dehumaniser 2 combined with two of our latest sound effects libraries, Penguin Grenade Arcs and Sparks, plus SoundMorph Matter Mayhem to create add excitement and texture to voice recordings, monster vocal sound effects and countless other voice sound effects for your projects.

Combining Krotos plugins with sound effects libraries

Paul combines Dehumaniser 2 with Reformer Pro and the Penguin Grenade Arcs & Sparks library to create some sci-fi inspired presets, before transforming himself into a rock giant with SoundMorph’s Matter Mayhem library.

“Reformer Pro is responsive to pitch and dynamics so it works extremely well with voices. The combination of Dehumaniser II and Reformer Pro makes for a very powerful voice processing system which is responsive to live inputs or existing recordings.

This performance-based approach means you can focus more on experimentation. It feels like a more organic workflow than manually editing sound effects.”

– Paul Maunder

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With Tommy Bradly of Esrever Audio

We talk with Sound Designer Tommy Bradly of Esrever Audio, who designed our latest library, Cinematic Whooshes and Transitions. He talks about his process, how he became a sound designer, and what makes this library so interesting.

Hi Tommy! Tell us a little bit about Starting Esrever Audio

I started my business at university. In my first year, I lived with TV production students who were in their final year and their final year projects were to make short films. I helped all of those out and like, by the end of my first year, I had a good enough portfolio to take it to people and start properly freelancing. I can’t say that I turned up to many lectures though…

How did your work on this library come about?

Discord! I had a look and saw a post looking for freelance sound designers. We briefly chatted about doing something, then I sent a proper email. I think we went through a few ideas and then eventually we settled on the idea for a Whoosh library.

In Cinematic Whooshes, you hear all of the layers with such clarity and definition, yet they also work together so cohesively – was that an intentional design choice?

It was. I find a lot of libraries can be so over the top and over-processed with distortion and compression. I came to Cinematic Whooshes from a musical perspective and aimed for a ‘cleaner’ sound, compared to other libraries.

Let’s talk plugins! What did you use when designing these whooshes for Weaponiser? DAW

I use Logic Pro X, and sometimes I use Adobe Audition for just external audio editing. Audition has a great frequency tool that you can look at and edit sounds by the frequency spectrum. It feels like using Photoshop for audio because you can just erase frequency spikes directly from the audio, it’s super helpful.

Sound Design Plugins

In terms of external plugins, I use Serum for synthesised layers and bass, and I used Waves Doppler for the doppler presets. I really enjoyed using Valhalla Shimmer, their granular reverb. It’s just a nice extra layer to add to the tension. It’s great for those nice “fake” reverbs for Whooshes. Those kinds of reverbs don’t necessarily try to replicate real spaces, so they help to give additional creative freedom. I don’t think I really like any distortion – Sometimes I use the logic built-in overdrive because I know how it sounds and how I can manipulate it to make it sound how I want, But I don’t use any amp designers or anything.

Sound design techniques for Cinematic Whooshes EQ

Mainly, I used a lot of extreme EQs for these sounds. When you abstractify sound so much, it is difficult to even explain what a Whoosh is, so you can drop all preconceptions of how you should EQ and just go by what sounds good.

Compression

Probably controversial, but I didn’t really use much compression for these whooshes. With whooshes, you are designing dynamic sounds, so you can sort of ignore compression in a way. I didn’t really use many overly ‘creative’ effects. I used the Waves Doppler, for some of the doppler specific whooshes in there, but for me, I think the main success comes from choosing the right base audio for the whoosh, and making sure the volume automation is right.

Pitch Automation

I used some pitch bending, dependent on which of the sounds I was working on, as the assets in cinematic whooshes are formulated into different categories – whooshes, swishes, risers and transitions. Pitch automation helps to control the tension of the whoosh depending on the speed of the curves.

How does Cinematic Whooshes differ to some of the other Whoosh libraries on the market?

Libraries like Native Instruments Rise & Hit are good, but in my opinion I think they lack customisation between layers. This is a great benefit of Weaponiser as you have free reign to do what you want because you have the four different categories that you can treat as individual layers.

It also ties into that idea of them not being overproduced and sounding really dynamic, not overdone with compression and saturation. A lot of whoosh libraries can be overproduced, but they offers very little useable source material for sound designers to work with, as every sound is already so over designed. I tried to take a step back from this and give designers something they can still customise and work with.

When sourcing base sounds, What do you look for?

I look for Interesting frequency spectrums – wind samples, leaves rustling etc. because when they’re in the context of a whoosh, it becomes decontextualized. You don’t really hear it as wind. So interesting frequencies and sounds define the sonic character.

A good example was some internal bus recordings: when they accelerate away from a bus stop, they have a natural pitch rise, so I’d use things like that.

Smooth bass frequencies

The other part of the design would be pure bass sounds. I did some simple sine-based synth patches in Serum, or I’d choose some of those interesting frequency spectrum sounds and just filter or EQ them all the way down with low pass, so you just have the bass frequencies with some interesting motion and movement.

From here, you can mix and match any of these sounds together. You’d can combine interesting top-end sounds where the bass doesn’t really add or mean much, then select the bass parts to complement them.

When capturing sounds in the field, what hardware do you use?

I use the Zoom H4n when I am out recording. I normally use the in-built capsules, which rotate so you can change the angle from 90 degrees up to 120 degrees, so you can get some nice stereo fields. In the studio, I use the Rode NT-1a large diaphragm condenser microphone, it is super-versatile and has a really low noise floor, I love it.

Do you feel like the microphone that you use has much of an impact on the end results?

For certain things, it definitely makes a difference. I did a cityscapes project recently, and it made a difference there because you have to consider things like noise floor, as well as how much detail your microphone picks up.

In terms of designed sounds, you could probably get away with your iPhone microphone, to be honest! The number of effects you can use brings the character out, plus the sources you’re capturing are often already noisy, so you don’t need a clear and focused signal, just some interesting spectral information.

Using reverb helps to smear the sound. Used subtly, it won’t really sound that different, as you’re just smoothing all of the rough edges out within the sound. For whooshes, you can use whatever you’ve got… it all comes down to how you apply it!

When you’re evaluating source material, are you using spectrum analysers, or are you simply trusting your ears?

I just use my ears for initial decisions, however, you do need to look at the consistency of a sound. If there is a large drop in volume, it makes the sound hard to work with if you are making long sounds, so I properly listen first, then put them into the DAW and I’d check out the frequencies in an analyser.

I’d probably do an early EQ too – the low frequencies from these recordings aren’t necessary as they’re on a separate layer. so I do like a 50-80Hz cut.

Any Final Thoughts to share on the Cinematic Whooshes Library?

I think why these whooshes sound so modern is because I had a music producer approach to it. I pictured them almost as much in a song as I did as being used by a sound designer.

This library is really modular – every layered sound can be used with each other and are ready out of the box or can be sculpted further with EQ and Compression from the sound designer who is using the library in their work. And this layering step is made even better with Weaponiser!

For More on Tommy Bradly:

Visit the Esrever Audio website

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Join the newsletter View More Tutorials and Articles Working in Sound Design for Commercials and Art. Ryan Hobler Shares His Insights. Sound Design Tutorial – Adding Texture To Voice Recordings Cinematic Whooshes – Behind the Library

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Save 50% on Sound Design Bundles & SFX

With the Autumn MEGA Sale, we’ve revamped our bundles range, adding brand new libraries to our collection for standalone use and with Weaponiser and Reformer Pro integration.

We’ve also got five brand new libraries (below) available to purchase individually, including sounds that can’t be found anywhere else!

Tell me more about the UPDATED products?

We have updated our two best-selling bundles with exciting and powerful new libraries:

Krotos Everything Bundle 3

All of our plugins: Reformer Pro, Weaponiser Fully Loaded, Dehumaniser 2, Igniter Full Tank, Concept 2, Simple Monsters, Simple Concept

All of the awesome Krotos libraries from Krotos Everything Bundle 2, plus three brand new exclusive libraries, exclusive to Krotos, with Weaponiser & Reformer Pro integration. Totalling up to over $300 worth of new libraries:

Cinematic Whooshes

Ultimate Footsteps

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Krotos Everything Bundle 3
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Learn More Add to cart Ultimate Bundle 3

All of our plugins: Reformer Pro, Weaponiser Fully Loaded, Dehumaniser 2, Igniter Full Tank, Concept 2, Simple Monsters, Simple Concept

All of the libraries from the previous Ultimate Bundle PLUS Eight new libraries – three Krotos-exclusive libraries plus five additional libraries from some of the biggest sound design companies in the industry, integrated with our plugins for a truly effortless, exciting workflow. Totalling up to over $1,000 worth of sound libraries:

Cinematic Whooshes & Transitions

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Everyday Foley

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Penguin Grenade Arcs and Sparks

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Learn More Add to cart So, what am I saving with a bundle?

With a bundle purchase, you’re already saving 30% compared to if you bought every plugin and every SFX library separately. Here’s the really good part…on top of that 30%, you save an additional 50% during the sale.

Example: Upgrading from Ultimate Bundle to Ultimate Bundle 3

• You get an additional $1,200 worth of libraries
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That’s the equivalent of 65% off buying everything separately!! With a Bundle, you will get the best the best bang for your buck, with the most complete and versatile way to incorporate Krotos into your workflow.

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With Tyler Gillis of Aftertouch Audio

Gunshot SFX are fun to create, and can be made very simple with the right sounds and the right workflow.

Aftertouch Audio posted a new video this week, demonstrating how you can use Soundminer with Weaponiser to quickly and efficiently create powerful gunshot SFX.

In the video, Tyler uses gunshot libraries from his website, which he has been recording with support from his following. You can monitor how is progress is going on his YouTube channel and Discord!

Tyler uses these sounds with an interesting Soundminer workflow, then drops the files into Weaponiser – pre-sliced, organised and ready to go.

He then uses Weaponiser’s in-built Saturation and Limiter plugins as well as its powerful synth engine to design and mix a FAL assault rifle from start to finish, all within Weaponiser itself…and all within 10 minutes!

Watch the video below & start your stopwatch… Video Transcription

Hi everyone. My name is Tyler, and this is Aftertouch Audio. Today we’re going to be going ahead and taking a look at how to create very quick weapon sounds using Weaponiser. And guess what? I only have ten minutes.

All of the sounds that I’m using in this video here are actually from my own collection that I have available on aftertouchaudio.com. So if you’d like to go ahead and have any of these weapons sounds for yourself, just go ahead and check out my website, at aftertouchaudio.com. Let me just quickly break down what I have going on here. I have an instance of Weaponiser opened up and if you close out of this you’ll see that I have it split off into four different tracks which is the mech, the shot, the LFE and the tail. On each of these tracks I’ve loaded up a plugin with Pro Q three which is just doing nothing, and a plugin called K Clip which is also doing nothing.

Under my master channel, I also have two plugins and that is Gulfoss Live. And then I have also ISL 2, and this is basically my true peak limiter and have it set to -2.9. So other than that it’s a very clean slate. I am working with absolutely no samples here. So we will just go ahead and very quickly design as fast as we can a gun sound that we can pass for realistic and again, a ten-minute timer. So let’s start now.

Okay, so to start off, I have the FAL loaded up and the FAL is what I’m going to be actually redesigning here. So let’s go ahead and start with the mech layer. So I’m going to go ahead and use our mech microphone mixes and Sound Miner has got this really cool feature here where, if you can see in here I have all these regions selected. So you can adjust how much you select via these sliders, and then once you’re happy with your selection, you can then take this little knob here and drag it over and into your session, and then it will actually cut each sample out for you.

It’s really nice. Now it doesn’t get it perfect which is why you have to go ahead and adjust a few things. So let’s go zoom right in. And what I’m going to do is I’m actually going to go ahead and have the start point of them all start at around the same time. And to do that I’m actually going to take the body layer here and I’m going to take the body and just have it start right there, right where the transient is.

So that way I can kind of see if anything’s out of sync. So let’s go to the next one and you can see that that one’s way off. There will be one in here that’s extremely off, but we’ll see.

Okay, so now that we got all the mech lined up, let’s move on to the shot. So the shot layer, we’re going to do the exact same thing. Because the settings are dialled out and looking for transients, we can just drag this in. And now we’re going to do the exact same thing. But what I’m going to do is I’ll actually mute the onset layer so I can just see the shot in this little window here and then I can do the exact same thing.

I can just zoom right in and we can go ahead and make our distinction on how this is going to go.

Okay, so now that we got all that done, let’s move on to the tail and we’ll quickly go through that. Let’s grab the tail design and we will drag a tail in.

Okay, so we got to get pretty good sound going so far. And guess what? It was only six minutes going. So let’s go ahead and start to use some of the inbuilt plugins here. What I normally do is on the output, I load in a limiter and I will load in a limiter on the Mech and I will throw in a Saturation plug-in.

Now in order for me to actually mute these because I have been individual outputs, I have to go ahead and just solo out the Mech and I will go ahead and turn this here to be always on top so I don’t have to keep reloading this.

Okay, now that we have this always on top, I can now just hear the Mech. So let’s boost up some drive, and make it a little more aggressive. That works for me. Let’s go into the body layer and we’re going to do something quite similar. So let us solo out the body and we’re going to throw in a limiter on that, and we’ll throw in a Saturation plugin on here.

So let’s go ahead and boost this up.

Okay, so now we’ve got the body. Now let’s talk about the thump. Now I can load in an LFE sample, or you can go ahead and actually create one using the synth engine down here. And I think I’m just going to go ahead and create one. But the cool part about this year is that I actually again, solo out the shot layer.

So just solo the shot. You can now just see the shot and I want an LFE that kind of resembles the shot. So let’s go ahead and turn this on. So let’s go ahead and have the duration be something much shorter and We’ll take the amplitude down.

Let’s go ahead and have it do something like this. What does it sound like? Let’s just hear that.

I should also go ahead and solo the LP so I can hear it.

Okay, that works for me. Let’s turn down the gain a bit. Cool. So we got the mech and we got the shot. And now let’s work on the tail.

For the tail, I personally like more tail in my guns. I don’t necessarily like it to be as natural. I like a bigger tail. So let’s go ahead and throw on a limiter on the tail and we’ll throw some saturation on it as well. Really get that tail singing.

Not that much. Bring it down a bit. But let’s go ahead and bring the tail up. Cool. Okay, so now let’s go ahead and focus on the timing of the gun.

So we’re going to have the onset be at the very start. Then we’re going to get the tail out of there and the thump out of there. So let’s go ahead and focus on the body. The body can happen just after the mech itself right there. Thump layer can happen right there.

And then the tail layer can happen just a little bit after that.

Very nice sounding! So I want a little less thump so let’s bring the thump down a bit. Cool. Now it’s time to dial in the burst mode.

So when you’re doing rapid fire in Weaponizer, you have a couple of options. And the options would be you have to fire rate it over here and you have the burst mode here. And then you have this little I. If you have the I engaged, it will play the same sample repeated. So doesn’t sound very good.

You loaded in five samples. Let’s utilize those. So let’s go ahead and change that there from an eye to cycle round robin. And now you get a lot more realistic because you’re actually rotating the samples that you’re hearing rather than just hearing the exact same one over and over and over again. So let’s bring up the fire rate.

But what we can actually do is because we have burst shots in here, let’s hear what it sounds like.

Okay, that sounds really good. Now let’s add, a little bit more variation to this. So we’re going to go to the onset and we’re going to adjust the volume. And you can do that via the actual level slider, but you can also adjust how it plays back within a range. So if I go ahead and just grab on this little knob, I can actually extend the range to play it from anywhere between here and here.

So I’ll add a little bit of level variation to the Mech so it’s not as present. And I will do the exact same thing with the shot. That way it’s not as present. I’ll bring it down to the smidge. That way it plays within this range.

The thump will do the same thing, except it’ll just go from there and down the tail. I’m going to do something a little bit different with I’m going to change it from knob to envelope. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to have it fade out in a particular way and I’m going to have it fade out something like this. That way it’s not as in your face. Okay, so we have that.

We have that. And then I can also adjust the speed. I don’t like to do that with the mech as much, but I can do that with a shot. Just a little bit, just a tad.

Okay, that sounds really good. For 45 seconds left. What we can then do is come in here and I can take some low end out of the mech, and I Record Arm.

And then for the shot, take some low end out of this. And then the tail, we can also do the exact same thing.

Cool. That cleans up the low-end a bunch. And then for the Mac, I just want a little bit more high-end.

My sample rate changed halfway through the session, so let’s just quickly fix that by going into my project, set up and changing it from 192 to 96 again. Okay, let’s have a quick look at what we ended up creating.

I think that sounds pretty good for about ten minutes of work. Keep in mind, I just barely scratched the surface as to what you can do with Weaponiser. You do have access to four banks per actual group. So you can have up to 20 samples in your mech layer, you can have up to 20 samples in your body layer, 20 samples in your LFE layer, and 20 samples in your tail layer. You can get absolutely crazy with what you can do here.

The real-time effects are good. I just use saturation and limiter. But they do have access to things like EQ, compressors, ring modulation, flangers, transient shapers, and noise gates. Each one of the banks also comes with its own synth layer and all that jazz. Anyways, I hope you guys did enjoy that video.

If you did, consider leaving a like and subscribe and also join our discord. We have a bunch of people over there, and we talk sound design all day. So anyways, enjoy. Check out Weaponiser. Thank you, Krotos team for making them and go make some noise!

Try this gunshot SFX workflow for yourself!

Soundminer is a great tool for sound design and when used creatively with Weaponiser, your speed and workflow will increase dramatically when designing Gunshot sound effects, whooshes, impacts and countless other sounds. With this workflow, you will designing powerful, punch sound effects with speed, quality and precision.

Aftertouch Audio Uses Krotos Software

Tyler Gillis is a Sound Designer, Field Recordist & YouTuber working in audio post-production. Tyler has created some of the most informative and exciting videos for sound design on his YouTube channel, so make sure you check it out! Visit The Aftertouch Audio Website

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Reformer Pro is a unique ‘sound design instrument’, that transforms pre-recorded audio files into performable sound... €404.67 Buy Now

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Our monthly free sounds offer you a wide range of sound categories from Foley, combat sounds, impacts, animal sounds, to transitions and more!

Join the newsletter View More Tutorials and Articles Working in Sound Design for Commercials and Art. Ryan Hobler Shares His Insights. Sound Design Tutorial – Adding Texture To Voice Recordings Cinematic Whooshes – Behind the Library

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Sound Designing Trailer Assets

Did you know…

Trailer composers do not actually compose music or sync sounds to the trailer? Instead, they create all of the trailer sound effects beforehand & send them to the ad agency who will then cut them to the trailers:

“We rarely sync the sounds to the picture ourselves. 99% of the time you create the assets either as part of a library or due to a creative brief.

An editor then cuts to those assets, so the footage isn’t even a help! By the time a trailer is at this point, it’s out of your hands.” – Joshua Fielstra

So, with no visuals to work from, how do you get started designing libraries of sound effects, impacts, whooshes, transitions as well as sweeteners and musical assets?

Krotos power user and Sound Design Bundle Owner Joshua Fielstra told us five of the most important things he does in his trailer compositions. Joshua has used these tips in the creation of trailer music & assets for Deadpool, The Maze Runner, and Suicide Squad – no doubt they’ll be useful for your work!

Five tips for creating trailer sound effects 1. Start with an abstract concept

What would a semi-tractor trailer wreck in a gymnasium sound like? What would robot servos restrained by tight rubber bands sound like when they eventually broke? I’ve found that’s how I get unique sounds – not by doing something that’s within a particular category, but by being inspired by something maybe no one has heard before. Then there is a unique component to the SFX that stands out and increases its likelihood of being used.
2. Split design, levelling/conformity, and mastering sessions

These are very different tasks, all of which require fresh ears, so be sure to split them into completely separate sittings, ideally separated by a few days. Designing impactful SFX inevitably involves playing the same thing repeatedly – a lot.

We can get really comfortable with a sound not because it’s “good,” but merely because we’ve played it 100 times. I’ve been astonished at how weak something sounded when I come back to it a few days later. Sometimes it’s even been the exact opposite – an SFX I was hawing over needlessly is actually fine as it is, it just needs a little mastering dust!

Deadlines can sometimes make this difficult, which is where planning and scheduled breaks can be your best friend.

3. Build a library of re-usable SFX components

Sweeteners, subs, and noise are all recurring components in many stylized SFX that can be re-used and altered to suit the task at hand. They aren’t the defining characteristic of the SFX, they’re merely a supporting element, so there’s not much point in reinventing the wheel!

With a shortlist of go-to SFX in place, you can spend your time focusing on the more unique aspects of your sounds. No one is likely to say “Hey! That asteroid impact has the same 200ms sub bass sweetener that you used in the glass window blowout!” so re-use the components you worked so hard to design, and save yourself heaps of time.

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Join the newsletter 4. It is almost impossible to over-design trailer SFX

When making impactful trailer SFX – things like hits, blasts, breaks, etc – there is rarely such a thing as “too much.” If you think it’s too much, you may just be monitoring too high. Take a look at some of the most recent modern trailers – sometimes a single SFX is powerful enough to carry an entire 5-7 second sequence. So don’t worry about something sounding too much!

5. Save time wherever you can by using macros

If you find yourself doing the same process in your DAW 100 times, that’s a prime candidate for a keystroke macro. This is where you can assign a single button to do a process for you automatically.

Reaper is a fantastic DAW for this kind of thing, but if your DAW doesn’t support macros or scripting, there are 3rd party programs that can bundle keystrokes/mouse movements. This can increase your productivity massively because you’re using less time and energy to accomplish the same task.

Time to try these tips yourself!

With these tips and tricks in your arsenal, you will be on your way to creating libraries full of incredible assets to be used in trailers in no time, and by using Krotos plugins in your workflow, you will save hours of time when compared to typical drag and drop layering in your DAW, just like Josh.

About Joshua Fielstra

Joshua Fiesltra is a sound designer working in the exciting world of trailers. Joshua has created music and sound effects that have been used in trailers for Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan, Deadpool and many other projects.

Visit Joshua’s website
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Igniter Full Tank

Driven Creativity In Sound Igniter Full Tank combines the Igniter plugin with an unparalleled 65GB vehicle sound library... €1,024.59 Buy Now

Sound Design Bundle 2

The Sound Design Bundle 2 combines our four flagship products with three huge sound effects libraries – bundled... €2,162.34 Buy Now

Reformer Pro

Reformer Pro is a unique ‘sound design instrument’, that transforms pre-recorded audio files into performable sound... €404.67 Buy Now

Weaponiser Basic

Your Secret Sound Design Weapon Weaponiser is an inspiring audio layering solution that allows you to design,... €220.17 View More Tutorials and Articles Working in Sound Design for Commercials and Art. Ryan Hobler Shares His Insights. Sound Design Tutorial – Adding Texture To Voice Recordings Cinematic Whooshes – Behind the Library

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Creating Space Sound Effects for Immersive Exhibitions

Robin Newman is a Sound Designer and Associate Lecturer in at the University of Derby. He recently created the sound effects for the Tetrastar Spaceport immersive space exhibition. Read on to hear how Robin used the Sound Design Bundle 2 to help him to create the space sound effects for this exhibition, which is now open at the National Space Centre in Leicester, UK.

From Robin Newman:

The Tetra Spaceport was one of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on. Visitors enter the experience as space tourists for a relaxing Earth orbital cruise, but needless to say, things take a turn.

I worked on the sound design, mixing and some implementation, as some of the rooms are running in a real-time engine in Unity.

The experience has different zones with multiple speaker layouts, both surround layouts and point source speakers, so we got to play around with loads of fun stuff.

Space Sound Effects with Sound Design Bundle 2

The sound design involves a lot of futuristic stuff as you’d expect, but we’re also trying to make a realistic world. A lot of the elements that provided the most immersion were from the brand sounds – things like adverts in the departure lounge, or notification sounds for the AI assistant who is your companion throughout the adventure.
Weaponiser

Weaponiser was used for UI sounds, notifications and alerts, and honestly, it was fantastic. We wanted the Tetrastar Travel Company to feel real, so we basically did a marketing branding exercise on an imaginary company to find the sounds for the brand.

UI sound design

UI sounds seem simple, but they’re actually quite complex. Weaponiser allowed for really fast experimentation thanks to the onset, body, thump and tail layers. Those sections can really be used for anything, not just weapons.

In this case, thump was the tonal beep of the sound and onset was the initial transient/click of someone pressing the button. Weaponiser is a really adaptable and open platform which lets you swap and change ideas quickly.

Working with pitched/tonal assets

For frequently-heard UI sounds, subtle variation is important. You can vary the pitch, but if you overdo it, it can start to sound out of key with itself. However, if you vary the non-tonal sounds, then you get subtle variation without messing up the tonal feel of the sound.

You can easily shift the timings in Weaponiser. Swapping sounds in and out becomes much quicker than in the DAW, so I ended up using Weaponiser in all sorts of situations, whether designing cool explosions or the spaceships movement.

You can spend forever searching libraries of sounds, but you’ll always need to layer stuff, so being able to throw five of any sound type – metal, explosions, creaks, gas pressure releases – into a layer in Weaponiser and simply click the fire button a bunch saved me loads of time.

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Join the newsletter Dehumaniser 2

In the exhibit, players receive communications through an intercom that talks to them in each room. So to make it sound more distant, we added interference and other effects with Dehumaniser 2.

Speed

It was by far the quickest way of doing multiple effects. I could get the same results by daisy-chaining ten plugins, but to be able to split signals and run sounds in parallel is amazing.

To do all that in the DAW manually is just so time-consuming – duplicating tracks and routing etc. I love just reaching for Dehumaniser 2 playing with it and knowing it’ll come out great.

Subtlety

Obviously the flagship for Dehumaniser 2 is to make crazy monster sounds, and it’s so great at that, but also it can do really subtle sounds like slight robotic effects and speaker simulations.

Igniter

Igniter is the sound of every engine in the experience.

Designing the engine

I started off trying to synthesise the engine, but the problem was we needed have a reference for what a futuristic engine sounds like. Electric car engines sound really weird because the engine is all sound design – there’s no actual combustion happening, it’s almost like a haunted car passing by.

So I wanted to still keep it feeling like an engine, even for a spaceship. We haven’t got electric spaceships yet, as far as I know!

Layering sounds

With Igniter, I could layer engine sounds with futuristic sounds that I’d created in the Novation Summit synth. That synth has got so much crazy modulation that you can get these really amazing engine sounds…but they’re also very static.

So being able to combine them with one shots, effects and the engine rev macro, and just control it all with a wheel is just great.

Additional sounds

When the spaceship lands, It’s a bumpy ride with lots of changes in direction; so all of movement has to be in there sonically.

Things like moving seats, have to be reinforce with sound effects to make them feel truly immersive, otherwise would people feel their seats moving without hearing anything, it would just feel weird. So Igniter was amazing for that.

Reformer Pro

I used Reformer Pro, which is perfect for sounds where the shape and timing is right, but the sound itself isn’t.

Mapping one sound onto another

With Reformer Pro you can add other, better sounds in, and Reformer will map it to the timing, It’s really cool.

I used Reformer Pro recently for another project for the National Space Centre, where they had a really specific heartbeat in an animation. I had it done in a few minutes with Reformer Pro because I could just do it with a microphone as opposed to having to go frame by frame and put a heartbeat on each one.

Saving time & being creative

All of the Krotos tools I’ve used have been massive time savers, and they’ve made the process more creative as well. The fact that you can experiment quickly means that you actually do experiment, rather than just “getting it done”.

Having fun!

Experimenting means having fun. To track and lay out all of these sound effects and just copy and paste, copy and paste is not very fun nor inspiring. Using Reformer Pro, a tool that’s designed to get you from a blank canvas to a finished sound design, is much cooler and much more fun!

We asked Robin his favourite things about Krotos Software 1. Simple, straightforward user interfaces

For how much depth there is to Weaponiser and Igniter, their UI’s are really simple.

2. They’re easy to learn

If something’s going to come along and try and revolutionise stuff for me, make it so I can understand it!

I have tried a fair few tools that claim to make things quicker that would have taken me longer to learn. Krotos plugins are really easy to understand and start working with straight away.

3. You achieve instant results

Reformer is such a cool tool and it works. The crazy thing is how well it works with very little tweaking.

4. Combining the tools makes for unique sound design workflows

Reformer Pro & Dehumaniser is a winning combination. For dialogue fun; All you have to do is take the original dialogue, make it trigger a the roars and grunts in Reformer Pro, make them run in parallel, put Dehumaniser 2 on everything and then you’re away!

Thanks to Robin Newman for taking the time to share his process!

Learn more about the Tetrastar exhibit and other exhibitions at the National Space Centre website, and Follow Robin on Instagram.

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Igniter Full Tank

Driven Creativity In Sound Igniter Full Tank combines the Igniter plugin with an unparalleled 65GB vehicle sound library... €1,024.59 Buy Now

Sound Design Bundle 2

The Sound Design Bundle 2 combines our four flagship products with three huge sound effects libraries – bundled... €2,162.34 Buy Now

Reformer Pro

Reformer Pro is a unique ‘sound design instrument’, that transforms pre-recorded audio files into performable sound... €404.67 Buy Now

Weaponiser Basic

Your Secret Sound Design Weapon Weaponiser is an inspiring audio layering solution that allows you to design,... €220.17 View More Working in Sound Design for Commercials and Art. Ryan Hobler Shares His Insights. Sound Design Tutorial – Adding Texture To Voice Recordings Cinematic Whooshes – Behind the Library

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Sound Recordist George Vlad is a passionate sound designer and composer based in London, UK. He creates sound worlds for video games and records field recordings as Mindful Audio where he travels all around the world capturing incredible sounds.

We got the chance to interview George about the work he does, including recording sounds for our Weaponiser plugin.

Hey George! How did you start working in sound?

My first contact with was when I started producing electronic music around15 years ago. After discovering Digital Audio Workstations (DAW), I realised I didn’t need a huge studio or expensive mixing board to do what I loved most.

However, I soon noticed that I spent more time working on sound effect chains than actually composing music! so this led me to focus on sound design

I still compose music, but it took a back seat to my work as a sound designer from then on.

What’s your favourite piece of studio equipment?

Although it’s not strictly studio kit, I love my Sennheiser Double Mid-Side rig (an MKH 30 and two MKH 8040s in a Cinela Pianissimo blimp).

It is incredibly versatile and allows me to record both in the studio and in the field. The 3-channel recordings can be decoded to mono, stereo, quad and 5.1. But most importantly, it sounds fantastic, reaching way into the higher frequency range. It also works well in temperature and humidity extremes, which is a huge bonus for my field recordings!

What’s your favourite sound and why?

That’s a difficult one! I love creature calls that are difficult to record.

Last year I was lucky enough to record a Crocodile bellowing on a trip to Senegal, and it’s probably my favourite recording yet. It starts off like a sort of engine and then just unleashes – its beautiful! The environmental reflections convey its sheer size and power:

George Vlad · On the lake’s edge at Djoudj What would be your dream sound library to record?

I’d like to do ambience libraries of similar niche environments all over the world. For example, Cloud Forests, Deltas, Oases etc. Not too easy to put into practice because of the inherent costs, but I’m slowly getting there!

What led to the creation of Mindful Audio?

About 5 years ago I started to record a lot more audio for my daily work as a sound designer. I amassed a good collection of sounds and started sharing them with fellow sound professionals. This is when it dawned on me that I could package these recordings as libraries and sell them for commercial use.

What projects have you been working on recently?

In terms of game audio, I just finished working on an update for side-scrolling shooter Door Kickers Action Squad, which was a lot of fun because I got to use Weaponiser. I’ve also been working on Wordscapes, a mobile word game that gets more than a million daily players. At Mindful Audio, I’m working on a couple of updates for existing libraries and I have a few new ones in various stages. I also plan to release a series of vlogs about my field recording trips as soon as I get some of the studio work done. They’ll soon be up on my Youtube channel.

You designed some presets for Weaponiser. Can you take us through the process of how you chose, recorded and edited the sounds?

Working on Weaponiser was a lot of fun. It was clear that the realistic firearms category was covered, so I decided to create a few crazy weapons using recordings of hits, impacts, ice, water, fire etc. from my own collection. Since time was short I didn’t get to record as much as I wanted, but my back catalogue saved me as usual!

What do you like most about Krotos Audio software?

I love how innovative it is. It isn’t just another compressor or synth emulation. It takes existing workflows and packages them into neat software that just works. I love how much room for experimentation it allows and how fast I can get the results I want.

How do you see audio technology evolving in the future?

If the current trends are any indication, audio technology is going to move towards software as a service and not as a product anymore. Fast and regular updates will become common, with user feedback being taken much more seriously than before.

What’s the greatest sound design-related tip or piece of advice you’ve ever learned?

The final product is more important than anything else. A wholesome approach to sound design is preferable to a smug attitude towards the other components of a media product.

To put this into practice, I recently started to learn photography, videography and game design. It’s not always relevant to my work, but I feel like it makes me better at my job and it also offers a welcome break from focusing on audio!

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Cutting Sound Effects for Cartoons and Animation

Creating sound effects for cartoons is a Sound Designer’s playground – we get to create entire sound worlds from scratch with no real-world reference, and because of this, the rule book goes out of the window…YAY!

Cartoon and animation sound design is full of crazy, over the top noises. These sounds enhance the zaniness and fun of the whole show, because animation and cartoons don’t need to be grounded in reality.

Speaking of fun, we had a little re-design fun ourselves, designing sound effects for cartoons in a scene from the animation B.O.T & The Beasties.

Take a look at the video below, then see how we approached the sounds used within the re-design using the Ultimate Bundle. Krotos bundles are full toolkits for creating exciting sound designs that are both fun and performative.

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Join the newsletter Top Tips for Creating Sound Effects for Cartoons

Read the tips below on how to design sound effects for animation and try them in your own work!

1. Take the time to properly absorb the animation

This may seem obvious, but we can often be so excited to get stuck into the creation process, that very little observation and planning is done, leading to issues later on.

Take the time to properly absorb the animation you are designing to, and thank yourself later.

2. While watching, make lots of notes

Be sure to make physical or mental notes of what you see:

• Gestures
• Speed
• Direction
• Movement
• Unique elements of a character/scene
• Emotional reactions

…you’ll need these later!

3. Focus on emotion wherever you can

Sound Design legend Walter Murch suggests that emotion is 51% of the entire story, so make sure you consider that in your sound designs.

(image source)

Animations and cartoons exaggerate emotions and expressions in order for us to perceive them, as we do not read emotions as easily on non-human faces.

Make sure you reflect this in your sounds, to make the audience’s experience more engaging.

(See our exclusive video interview with Walter Murch here!)

4. Start thinking creatively, before you even open your DAW

Will you be designing sounds just for footsteps and arm movements?

Is there more subtle movements happening? Nose twitches, eyebrow raises…

…shifty eyes?

Considering these elements will really help you to establish the narrative you are portraying through sound, so do this as early as you can! Often before you even open your DAW to start creating.

5. Re-create the gestures in the animation

Like emotion, gesture is incredibly important in animation, and the great thing about using Reformer Pro for something like this is that it is performable.

Try mimicking any gestures you see on screen with props, your mouth or with Reformer Pro, and record them into your DAW as a ‘scratch take’. You can then design to these gestures more accurately.

Sure, you may sound a little silly, but you would not believe the difference it makes to how your design takes shape… Just ask Ben Jacquier:

By vocalising sounds in this way, you are referencing each sound you intend to design internally, basing your creative decisions on how to bring this sound to life.

This works similarly to how we sing to ourselves to remember certain things. Plus, the human voice is a powerful and expressive instrument, and you may come up with some great sounds that you could not otherwise!

But if your still too microphone-shy, Reformer Pro also works with MIDI or with continuous mode, both of which can achieve awesome sound gestures.

6. Consider your sound choices

Once you have plotted our the shape of the design and have decided which elements you will cut sound to, now it is time to think about sound choices (all that planning you did earlier on is about to pay off!)

Sound choice is subjective, and you can be as wild or as realistic as you like, so it’s time to have fun!

Want some inspiration?

Watch this awesome video, where Star Wars Sound Designer Ben Burtt and others discuss the iconic sound effects magic of Treg Brown, who added real-world sounds to animations for Warner Brothers for the first time.

Whether you go full Loony Tunes, or something entirely less whacky is your call, but these choices will be shaped entirely by your interpretation of the animation. You are a sound designer after all, so remember to have fun and consider the narrative!

Applying these tips to our cartoon re-design

In our B.O.T & The Beasties video, we went for a middle ground, with both playful and realistic assets used within the design.

Our reasons were based around our considerations of the animation, which we have detailed below:

• Neutral, softer colours
• Soft-textured animation style looks almost material and fabric/papery
• Limited and un-exaggerated motion
• Softer, slower pace
• Funny narrative with some clumsiness and humour

Given the aesthetic of this animation, we didn’t want to throw too many Treg Brown-style sounds into the mix, as we didn’t feel that it would match the style of the animation.

We opted for a more minimalist approach, with muted, softened impacts and motions that brought enough character to the animations without over saturating the design with sounds – after all, with only a couple of characters and a limited number of scenes, we could easily over-do it!

The resulting design was carefully considered to match the style of the animation, with enough sounds to propel the narrative forwards and to match the style that the creators of B.O.T & the Beasties intended.

Credit due to Tim Vine, who is the original Sound Designer on B.O.T & The Beasties.

We Hope you Enjoyed this Tutorial! Until Next Time… Sign up to the Krotos newsletter and get free sound effects to your inbox every month!

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Reformer Pro

€404.67

Weaponiser Fully Loaded

€638.37 New

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For a Free Library Every Month, Fill in the Form Below: Free Water Sound Effects 2022 – Volume VII

This month’s free water SFX volume contains a range of free water sound effects for you to download and add to your collection. Download over 30 water recordings – featuring washes, bubbles, splashes and more.

Use these royalty-free sound effects within your projects – great for Foley, spells, magic and character design. These sounds are recorded at 192khz in pristine detail and are from bodies of water in a range of sizes, from the largest splashes to the smallest motions

To start your collection of free sound effects, sign up for our newsletter and receive new interviews, educational tutorial content, and more alongside your monthly sound collection.

Already a member? Your work is done – you have already been receiving our sounds each month automatically!

Sound Categories

Water

• Hydrophone
• Splashing
• Bubbles
• Dropping
• Pouring

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