Sampleson

Tired of wading through sample libraries to fulfil your soundtracking needs? Let SkyWaves bring you ashore, says Sonia Tsesarsky

It can be daunting to sift through orchestral sample libraries with hundreds of different instruments or articulations, in search of the cinematic. And that’s assuming you haven’t been overwhelmed by the incredibly oversaturated market for soundtrack-making tools to begin with. If you want a break from the sample library-based approach and aren’t looking to emulate the sounds of a classical orchestra, SkyWaves has you covered. It is intended for creating “analogue cinematic soundscapes”, and is available in VST and VST3 format, plus as a standalone application.

Sounds astronomical

Consisting of three analogue-modelled synths and a wavetable synth, as well as an effects section and macro panel allowing for finer control, SkyWaves makes it easy to dive in and create impressive sounds in minutes. Looking more closely at the first three synths, we find a VCO section with basic waveforms and detune controls, VCA and VCF sections with ADSR controls, an LFO section, and finally, FX send knobs. This would all be pretty standard stuff, but the first synth also plays host to sophisticated arpeggiator controls, with a visual editor which allows you to change not only the velocity of individual arpeggiator steps, but also their duration.