Winner - Sound Particles Pro License including Doppler + Air Plugins Worth $990

April 8, 2020 Mike Thornton

Throughout March 2020 we offered the opportunity to win a Sound Particles Pro License including Doppler + Air plugins worth $990.

The competition closed on March 31st 2020 and we’re pleased to be able to announce the winner is Forbes Noonan.

I work in post-production as a re-recording mixer for a Soho based studio in London, UK. With 14 years experience across all aspects of sound post-production and specialising in broadcast drama I have worked on shows for BBC, Sky, HBO, Starz, Netflix and more. I am currently mixing a new Netflix original drama due to premiere later this year. My personal interests in sound and music have lead to a varying collection of synths and hardware over the years, which since the birth of my son are patiently waiting in storage to emerge when the long-planned home studio build finally reaches the top of the priority list.

Sound particles is a very exciting piece of software for me in both my professional and personal projects. As immersive audio formats become more prevalent for film and TV, we are increasingly being asked to mix and deliver our projects to take advantage of these new technologies. Dolby Atmos mixes are now becoming standard delivery requirements for many of the shows that I work on. This feels like a very exciting time for post-production sound as this new push forward in immersive formats is opening up so many new creative avenues that we have not had available to us before.

Sound Particles, in particular, is a tool that will allow me to harness and control any sound’s movement in space allowing me to achieve my ultimate goals as a re-recording mixer, which for me are to support and where possible enhance the storytelling of the drama in line with the shows creative vision whilst building an immersive sound world for the end viewer.

Thanks for this prize once again and please send my thanks to the team at Sound Particles too.

I also just wanted to say that The Expert Sites are a great resource for all of us in the industry. My colleagues and I all reference your sites regularly and have found many timely, relevant and informative articles over the years that have helped hugely in our work.

What Is Sound Particles?

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If you haven’t heard of Sound Particles, it is a CGI-like software for Sound Design, capable of using particle systems to generate thousands of sounds in a virtual 3D world.

Particle Systems are a common tool used in computer graphics and VFX to create fuzzy/shapeless objects like fire, rain, dust or smoke. Instead of animating all individual points (water drops, grains of dust or smoke), the user creates a particle system, an entity that is responsible for the creation and management of thousands of small objects. Sound Particles uses the same concept, but for audio: each particle represents a sound source (instead of a 3D object) and a virtual microphone captures the virtual sound of the particles (instead of the virtual CGI camera).

Having been used on many feature film releases (including Aquaman, Ready Player One, Batman vs Superman, among many others) since its release just over three years ago, Sound Particles 2.0 adds binaural monitoring, Windows support, Ambisonics file import, CGI file integration and real-time rendering, along with many more significant feature updates.

Huge Sound - Up to millions of sound sources playing at the same time.
Immersive Formats - Support for several multichannel formats, including immersive audio.
Audio Modifiers - Use random effects to make sure each particle sounds different from any other particle (gain, delay, EQ, pitch/speed, granular).
Movement - Use automation or movement modifiers to move sound sources and microphones.
Video - Import reference clips and see the particles moving on top of the image, obtaining a perfect time and space coherence.
Sound Propagation - Control the propagation of air (speed of sound, air attenuation, Doppler).
3D Views - See what is happening, using the fantastic 3D views (top, front, perspective, etc.).
Granular Synthesis - Use our optional granular audio modifier, and use particles to reproduce small audio fragments of original audio files.
CGI Integration – following extensive use on productions from the industry’s leading animation studios, Sound Particles 2.0 adds CGI metadata recognition. Import native CGI animations, such as Autodesk’s .fbx files. Tag graphical components and automatically track keyframes, saving time by streamlining workflows for dynamic objects.
Realtime Render – audition projects in realtime, whatever the scene. From a simple doppler pass to hundreds of sound sources in a battle scene, Sound Particles 2.0 facilitates instant feedback for realtime adjustment of complex sound designs.
Binaural Monitoring – monitor and audition immersive audio creations with direct binaural output to headphones, avoiding traditionally complex DAW import and routing requirements.
Windows Support – Sound Particles 2.0 is Windows and macOS compatible.
Ambisonics and surround file import - ability to import up to 6th order Ambisonics files. Build complex immersive projects using prerecorded 5.1, 7.1 or Ambisonics encoded material.

Further enhancements include a VR Client Application, desktop-based VR slider control of parameters, an enhanced audio I/O module with output VU metering and recall for multichannel virtual microphone templates.