Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538144
82 M PS E . O R G Current Scope & Collaborations "Partnering with BOOM has been a great experience, not only because they are really great designers, but also because they were the first partner to join Strata." –SIMON ASHBY Growth of Strata Now that Strata has been out for three years, how has it grown? What does the library look like today in terms of scope and available content? Simon Ashby: We released Strata in October 2022 with 12 collections. We are now at over 50! That's on the content side of things, but we also improved quite a lot of the workflow and tools surrounding Strata. For example, the native support in Soundly, Soundminer, BaseHead, and Wwise (which allows you to open the full multitrack project of your Strata rendered audio files). We also released and updated ReaWwise, a tool that streamlines the transfer of audio assets from a REAPER project to Wwise. We also created other REAPER scripts to facilitate copying stems from one REAPER project to another. This easy layer swapping promotes experimentation and supports a "building blocks" approach to sound design, which is often necessary when developing audio for video games. Collaborating with BOOM Library It's impressive to see how quickly Strata has grown, not just in terms of content but also in how much thought has gone into streamlining the workflow for designers. That kind of infrastructure must create a strong foundation for collaboration. Strata has partnered with notable sound providers like BOOM Library. How do these collaborations impact the library's quality and creative reach? Simon Ashby: Our goal from the get-go was to produce a remarkable sound effects library focused on answering the typical needs of interactive media. We also wanted to develop Strata with multiple content providers, each providing the type of content they are the most recognized for, be it for their quality, their originality, or their comprehensivity (the Physics and Footstep collections are great examples of this last point). Partnering with BOOM has been a great experience, not only because they are really great designers, but also because they were the first partner to join Strata, taking the risk with us and helping in solving the challenges that we were uncovering in the development of this new format. Workflow & Integration Built-In REAPER Strata delivers content as fully editable, multitrack DAW sessions. How does this approach empower today's sound designers? Simon Pressey: It gives instant access to every essential element of a sound, and you can quickly edit any of the layers to customize it. Being able to view how the sound is built, see the source sounds being used, adjust timing, make it longer or shorter, and modify the plug-in parameters is incredibly powerful. Some of the projects are specifically set up to alter multiple plug-in parameters simultaneously, allowing you to scale a sound from large to small. This could take several hours to implement if designing a sound from scratch. You might even be inspired to add your own sound as a custom layer or replace the existing sounds, using the project as a template. No one is an expert in every aspect of sound design. With a Strata collection, you get to see, hear, and manipulate sounds created by experts in specific areas of sound design. It can be as simple as inspiring a new direction for recording source material or encouraging you to process your own sounds using techniques demonstrated in the project. Creative Control from REAPER to Wwise How does Strata integrate with DAWs like REAPER, and what advantages does that offer in a professional workflow? Simon Pressey: Strata collections are built in REAPER, which we use for creating, editing, and rendering all our sounds. We chose REAPER because of its inherent flexibility and adaptability to the nonlinear sound design methods in game audio. REAPER's scriptability means we can tailor it to speed up