With a vision to use the power of computer graphics applied to sound, Sound Particles is an audio software house based in Leiria, Portugal. The company was founded by Nuno Fonseca PhD, a Computer Science and Music Technology university professor, known to many Audio Engineering Society members as the Audio for Cinema Track chair, and a frequent conference keynote speaker on immersive, spatial and 3D audio topics.
The company's first product was Sound Particles, a unique software tool that before being known by anyone else, started to be used in all major Hollywood blockbusters, and quickly became an essential secret weapon used by movie studios and top game production companies. Basically, Sound Particles uses physics and acoustics as its foundational tool - the sound canvas - over which users can activate particle animation representations of sounds, real or synthetically generated. This allows sound artists to create breathtaking immersive soundscapes that sound more real than anything else in existence, in effective and efficient ways. Being particle animations, the sounds created with the software can be rendered in real time as part of game engines, or synchronized to picture during post, in movie and TV soundtracks - in any existing audio format, from stereo and 5.1 to Dolby Atmos or 22.2.
The Air plugin was originally launched as part of the , nominated for "Outstanding Product" by the Cinema Audio Society, and it is now available for individual purchase. "Many Hollywood professionals reported that Air ends up being frequently used to add a sense of natural depth to most sounds on their mix", says Nuno Fonseca, Sound Particles' CEO.
Air perfectly simulates the dampening effect that happens to higher frequencies from sounds traveling through the air, by taking into consideration distance, temperature, and even humidity to apply the right EQ to recreate an exact behavior. This makes it the ideal audio plugin to use on dialogue, effects and musical instruments in order to make them sound naturally distant.
“As we grow up, our brain recognizes the difference between natural sounds and artificially created effects,” explains Nuno Fonseca, “If you want to recreate certain situations in post-production, you need highly accurate simulation tools, otherwise the brain will perceive it as fake. Using algorithms with precise control over the relevant parameters, Air is designed to perfectly simulate sound traveling through the air, in a real-time audio plugin”.
Air is now available through the Sound Particles store and authorized resellers for a discounted price of $55 (plus applicable taxes) until July 31st, and supports AAX (native), VST, VST3, AU, AUv3. Full system requirements and additional product information can be found at: https://soundparticles.com/products/air/
Earlier in 2020, Sound Particles launched the latest version of its 3D audio software for macOS and Windows. The 2.1 release improves the audio engine substantially, adds 100+ presets, batch processing, increased track-based functionality, Soundminer compatibility, FLAC export, along many more feature updates. Batch Processing allows rendering hundreds of variations of any mixing session, in the background, generating all sorts of audio files for each render and several variations of the random parameters. The new version also introduces new licensing options for multiroom facilities and film productions, through to independent professionals and home audio enthusiasts - with either monthly subscriptions, or one-off purchases.
www.soundparticles.com
