Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538144
80 M PS E . O R G Origins & Vision "Our goal in the development of a sound effects library was to produce something that would push the format forward." –SIMON ASHBY Inspiration and Differentiation What inspired the development of Strata, and how does it differ from other sound libraries currently on the market? Simon Ashby: In the company's very first business plan in the early 2000s, Audiokinetic had the desire to develop both Wwise and audio content, specifically adapted for interactive audio. The development of Wwise, a runtime sound engine used with game engines to produce interactive soundscapes for interactive media, proved to be quite a challenge and the whole company had to be dedicated to its development for almost two decades before we could return to the audio content concept. That said, our goal in the development of a sound effects library was to produce something that would push the format forward, by exposing much more control over the audio material, something that never existed before with traditional libraries. Overcoming Industry Limitations Why reinvent the sound library format? What limitations in traditional libraries were you aiming to address, particularly for game audio? Simon Ashby: Traditional SFX libraries provide access to the final, rendered sounds. Some collections will also offer "construction kits" at a premium price, which are renders of a series of stems used to produce the designed sounds. Strata offers both the design and construction kits' rendered files, but what makes it truly unique is that it allows the users to "explode" these sounds when needed and let sound designers dive into the original multitrack project that was created to render those audio files. "Exploding" such sounds means that, by pressing a button or right- click option from your favorite sound librarian software (Soundly, Soundminer, BaseHead and Wwise offer native support for Strata at this point in time), it automatically retrieves the multitrack project these sounds were rendered from in REAPER. Now, in REAPER, you have the freedom to make the most subtle or drastic changes that you want to perfectly fulfil the needs of the project you're working on. Slide clips around, change fade durations, edit the effect plug-in settings, swap layers, etc. It's all there for you to impeccably craft the designed material to your needs. Design Philosophy Audiokinetic is known for solving complex interactive audio challenges. How did that philosophy influence Strata's development? Simon Ashby: With Wwise, we obsess over providing as much flexibility and control to interactive sound designers so they can craft really engaging storytelling with the audio they produce. Strata comes from the same DNA: It exposes all the possible levers that sound designers can use to craft their artistic content. To use a software development metaphor, Strata provides the source code of its sound effects. Another aspect that video game sound designers are very familiar with but may fly under the radar of post-production sound designers is the necessity for having many variations of each and every sound. As some actions are repeated endlessly in video games, it's important that they are slightly different each time the players hear them to reduce listener fatigue and to preserve the suspension of disbelief. This is an area we've laser-focused on, ensuring that each sound comes with many variations available right out of the box. Wwise 2024.1, released in 2024.