In this video for Production Expert, Paul Maunder looks at Krotos Weaponiser, an all-in-one solution for weapon sound design. Weaponiser has a comprehensive library of professionally recorded weapons and presets. They were designed with high-end, real-time synthesis and sound quality, providing you with a powerful and efficient workflow. Weaponiser isn't limited to just Weapons. As Paul shows, Weaponiser can be used to create dynamic assets for any sound in your project.
Sound Design has always been quite a labour intensive process. Recording and manipulating sounds or even just sifting through large collections of existing recordings can be time consuming. As far as I’m concerned, any tool which allows me to speed up some aspect of the sound design and tracklay process for a post production project is a welcome addition to my arsenal of plug-ins.
Speaking of which, Weaponiser from Krotos Audio is an all in one layering solution designed to make the sound design process quicker and more efficient. As the name suggests, it’s well suited to the creation of weapon sounds in particular but it has much wider applications than that. In essence, it’s a sample/synthesis engine which allows you to layer sounds and trigger them in real time via MIDI.
Weaponiser Versions
Weaponiser is available in two versions: Basic and Fully Loaded. In both cases the software is identical operationally. The difference lies in the number of included samples. The basic version comes with 1650 assets and 124 designed presets while Fully Loaded includes a huge array of 9746 assets and 561 presets. Weaponiser is available in VST, AU and AAX plug-in formats.
Weaponiser Interface
On the left hand side of the interface, you’ll find the File Browser. Sounds are categorised with tags so it’s very easy to narrow down a search simply by clicking on the required tags buttons. Alternatively, you can type a search term into the search box. The results will be listed below. I’m using the Fully Loaded version of Weaponiser and Krotos provide a nice collection of well recorded sounds which include numerous high quality weapon recordings from different perspectives. Other categories include Sweeteners, Footsteps, Magic, Whooshes, Trailer FX, User Interface Sounds and Impulse Responses which can be used in the built-in convolution reverb. Where file names exceed the width of the search results box, the name conveniently scrolls when you hover the mouse over it, allowing you to read the full file name. Most of the recordings are at a 192khz sample rate. When using these in projects of other sample rates, the trigged sounds get re-sampled on the fly.
Engines
The plug-in contains four main engines. These allow for sounds to be layered and also include a synth module to further enhance the sound. The 4 engines are Onset, Body, Thump and Tail. Each of these is designed to deliver a specific part of the composite sound.
Onset is for the initial attack of the sound
Body is intended for the main content of the sound
Thump allows you to add a bass layer
Tail is for the decay of the sound
Within each engine there are 4 banks. Each of the 4 banks will play back simultaneously, allowing you to create a composite sound out of several layers. By making a selection within the waveform area of any given bank, you can set which part of the sample will actually play back. For Onset, I found that triggering just the initial transient worked well when combined with the other engines. Up to 5 separate samples can be loaded into each of the 4 banks. Where multiple samples are loaded into a bank, the sounds will cycle when triggered, adding variety and realism and avoiding obvious repetition on playback. This can be even further enhanced by changing the playback speed and level within each bank. A range can be specified for each of these and every time the Fire button is triggered, a random value from within the specified range will be chosen.
Synths
The first 3 engines, Onset, Body and Thump each contain a synth. They all operate slightly differently and are tailored to the specific engine. Both the Onset and Body synths are FM synths. The Onset synth is poly-phonic and contains 4 voices which can be used simultaneously. These can be controlled from the Pitch and Level sliders on the left of the Onset synth UI. For sci-fi weapon sounds or abstract sound design, the synths are a great addition.
The Thump synth is designed to add low-frequency weight to your sounds and can be combined with samples in the Thump engine.
Tail Engine Convolution Reverb
The tail engine is where you load the decay or tail part of the sound. There is no synth in this engine but a convolution reverb is included instead. This can be used as well as or instead of tail samples. A range of impulse responses is included with Weaponiser.
Fire Button!
Over on the right hand side of the plug-in you’ll find a red Fire button! As you might expect, hitting this will trigger your sound. There’s also a Burst Mode button which is useful for automatic weapon sounds. The fire rate can be set from the dial below.
Timeline
A timeline view is provided, allowing the timing and arrangement of the engines to be offset. This is useful, for example, if you want to slightly delay the Thump or Tail elements of the sound.
Master Section And Effects
The relative level and panning of each of the 4 engines can be set from the master section. Effects such as EQ, compression, limiting, flanging and saturation can also be applied. Up to 4 effects can be applied per engine and an additional 4 within the master section, allowing for great versatility and control.
Summary
Having used Krotos Weaponiser in a few projects now, it’s already becoming an invaluable part of my sound design workflow. It is fairly CPU intensive so you may want to freeze or commit tracks once they’re done, especially when running multiple instances within the same session.
I’ve found Weaponiser to be a great time saver and a fantastic tool not only for weapon sounds but also for triggering foley sounds such as footsteps. The included cinematic trailer samples and whooshes are also a nice addition and I can see Weaponiser becoming a regular part of my sound design workflow.
For full details on Krotos Weaponiser and start a free 10 day trial: head over to their website.