Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124770
52 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2019 of assets (2,734 of them) from an impressive range of weapons were recorded for use by the plug-in. There are also 186 weapon pre-sets from accomplished sound designers Bryan Celano, Jim Stout and George Vlad. Together with the Battle Bundle, which contains an additional 5,854 high-quality combat sounds, Weaponiser Fully Loaded is a powerhouse of a plug-in for creating every type of weapon sound, no matter the genre or where it takes place. Like Igniter, Weaponiser has four sound generators. They're called Onset, Body, Thump and Tail — the different components that make up a fired shot. Each generator has four sound banks and each bank allows for five samples. In this way, a different sound can be selected each time the weapon is fired, allowing you to vary each shot — since no two shots are exactly the same (see Figure 2). You can also change the playback speed and level of each bank as well as its amplitude envelope and, since you never know where your scene will take place, there is an extensive library of impulse recordings for different reverb profiles, like parking garages, offices and hallways. Weaponiser includes a wide range of weapons, such as pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles and in the case of automatic weapons, both bursts and single shots. Multiple takes of each weapon were made with 12 different microphone distances and positions such as front, side and rear locations. Weaponiser also allows you to shift around the timing of each generator visually in a timeline so that the Onset, Body, Thump and Tail won't happen at the same time. This is important when designing complex weapon sounds. For example, you might want to hear a click before a gun is fired, or a sci-fi weapon that needs to be charged before releasing its energy. For further variation, you can also randomize the start times of each component every time the weapon is fired. For those looking to create sci-fi weapons, Weaponiser comes with a library of sci-fi sounds and sweeteners that you can use and modify to create laser guns or pulsing energy blasts. In addition, each of the four engines (or sound generators) has a unique built-in synth specifically designed for it with four distinct voices. The synths allow for even more creative possibilities and harmonic effects, with a range of waveforms and the ability to manipulate the pitch, FM and amplitude envelopes (as well as the depth). You can also add AM synthesis for even more tones and modulations. In Weaponiser, each engine has four slots for effects like equalization, saturation or sci-fi effects like flangers and ring modulators, and dynamics controls like compressors and limiters. There is also a master bus with four slots, which allows you to add effects to all the engines at once. DEHUMANISER 2 Dehumaniser 2 is a vocal-processing tool that can be used to create a range of vocal effects for your production's monsters, demons, robots and more. It uses live or pre-recorded input, so you can use it live in the studio as you record your voice or process audio that was recorded previously during a shoot (see Figure 3). If you're pressed for time, or just want to see what is possible, you can browse through the pre-sets that come with the plug-in. Or you can design your own creature sounds by patching together modules in a nodal-based system. There are 10 essential modules and over 100 pre-sets. Proprietary effects, such as scrubbing convolution and spectral shifting, deliver remarkable results. Dehumaniser has been used in large-scale productions such as Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and The Jungle Book (2016), as well as games like Far Cry 4 (2014). Krotos Audio's Dehumaniser 2 includes such pre- sets as Harmonic Vocoder, Humanoid Robot, Flanged Human and Broken Mars Transmission, to name just a few. There are also 133 high-quality animal recordings, such as tigers, leopards, pigs, parrots and more. TECH TIPS Figure 4: In Reformer Pro, you can load in four sound libraries and trigger their output with other sounds, either live or pre-recorded. You can use the X/Y pad to blend between the sounds. CONTINUED ON PAGE 57