SIMULACRUM is an amazing collection of musical sounds and special effects by composer and sound designer Steven Tunnicliffe. Inspired by the imagery of contemporary science fiction and horror, Simulacrum comprises a diverse assortment of sounds, from long, evolving textures and drones, to aggressive stingers and risers. The hyperreal nature of this material is manifest through allusions to ‘real’ acoustic sources and spaces as well as those entirely fictional. Consequently, the content may be useful in a variety of musical contexts such as dark cinematic film score or techno and electronic dance music. Sound designers may also discover a wealth of inspiration for their next film, television, video game, or web project.
SIMULACRUM has an elegant and easy to use Kontakt interface that will help you create entirely new sounds from the existing samples. Not only are there 6 individual filters, ADSR and LFO there is also easy access to a whole array of effects, including delay, reverb and modulation that will help you sculpt and shape your sounds to perfection.
Sound Content:
CONSTRUCTION KITS
The opening section of Simulacrum is organized into 25 construction kits each based around a short composition referred to as a ‘Demo Cue’. While each Demo Cue is relatively brief (usually less than a minute), the user is at liberty to shorten or extend the piece, rearrange its elements, or introduce new material. The user could, for instance, construct an entirely new composition using percussion from Industry March, a drone from Command Center, and special effects from Hot Wire. By affording the user flexibility to mix and match sounds while providing some high-level aesthetic guidance, we hope to maximize the user’s ability to quickly and effectively achieve great sounding and unique results. In the Kontakt Instrument the Demo Cue is mapped over one octave from C1 to C2 while the individual samples that make up the piece are mapped from C3 onward.
ATMOSPHERES, DRONES, TEXTURES
Simulacrum contains 130 textural sounds designed to evoke powerful sonic imagery, from the nightmarish hellscape Thermonuclear to the blissful ethereality of Empyrean. Certain sounds may be best read as soundscapes that articulate particular ‘spaces’: Containment Breach, for instance, might conjure images of a futurist clandestine laboratory in lock-down after the escape of some unknown malevolence. Other textures exhibit perceivable pitches and may, therefore, be more applicable in musical contexts, serving as drones or harmonic pads.
RHYTHMIC LOOPS
Simulacrum contains a variety of rhythmic loops featuring a wide range of acoustic and electronic instruments. The loops range in tempo from 66 to 140 bpm and may be applicable across a broad spectrum of musical styles. While useful alone the loops may also be layered to form complex percussive beds.
SINGLE HIT SOUNDS
Simulacrum has a selection of over 250 individual hits. These include Impacts & Stingers, Ambient & Tonal Hits, Drops & Power Downs, Sci-Fi FX, Horror, Orchestral and Metallic Sounds, Whooshes & Transitions, Swells and Sweeps and much more. The Orchestral Sounds folder, for example, contains drum hits, stingers, and risers ideal for use in high impact film trailers. Other sections, such as FX Sounds and Sci Fi Sounds, might be more useful for sound designers in need of content for video game or web-based graphic interfaces. Combining sounds from different folders can yield complex sound design montages tailorable to the aesthetic needs of the specific project. We encourage the user to experiment to find their favorite unique combinations.
