The art
of sound design
Our emulations are marvels of music technology, but even the best-sounding synth and keyboard models would be dull without the incredible work and imagination of their sound designers.
Veterans of the industry and young upstarts alike, for more than a decade we’ve worked with some of the most talented musicians, producers, and sound designers around to create sounds that both honor the past, and help you create the future.
On this page, we pay tribute to the amazing men and women who helped create the signature sounds of our instruments, and give you an insight into their creative process.
Steady Pulsar
Marco Iodice
I love the noise and warmth of this preset, perfect for a nice cinematic chord progression. The timbre morphs from big and acoustic sustained and resampled winds to calm and ethereal clarinet granulation! The LFO 1 slowly modulates the volume giving rhythm and movement to the sound, uses the aftertouch if you want to give a nostalgic touch to the vibe, which is always good!
Marco - on Augmented WOODWINDS
I loved creating cinematic presets for Augmented Woodwinds. The instrument is equipped with many samples and many synthetic sounds, one of its strengths is definitely this variety of timbres that you can draw on! The unbeatable feature of this tool is undoubtedly the Morph knob that, if mapped in the right way, allows the sound to literally come to life!!
My approach to sound design was the same that I used for the whole Augmented series: I initially structured some basic ideas and then let myself be guided by the instrument and its unpredictability. For this instrument I chose to focus a lot on the airy and medium high part of the sound, to emphasize the beautiful woodwinds samples available in the instrument.
Synaptic Breathing
Rob Martland
I really like how blurred between the lines this pad is. It’s very clearly a wind instrument, but the synth elements are so enmeshed into the sound that it becomes a new instrument - both real and unreal. I think this combination makes for a really evocative, but distant and cold synth. It’s very sci-fi, but very personal. It’s like hanging around in the split second moment of just realising that you failed a Voight-Kampff test.
Rob Martland - on Augmented WOODWINDS
I love how ethereal wind instruments sound in their natural form, so setting real woodwinds against synthesized sounds allows for a combination of layers that feel like a single original whole - blurring the boundaries between real and unreal. I also enjoyed experimenting with all the extended techniques that Arturia recorded for the woodwinds, it really blew up the textural capabilities when sound designing.
My approach was to first find two A layers/real woodwind layers that complimented each other, I would then use their combination as inspiration for the synthesised layers. I felt that this would keep the woodwinds focal, and would allow me to experiment with synth layers as either emphasis, decoration, to fill in any spectral gaps, or a combination.
Shiny New Thing
Jorg Huttner
The patch 'Shiny New Thing' has a bit of randomness to it from the Woodwind sample and also an eerie undertone, especially when moving the MORPH macro all the way to the right. This always keeps a certain tension to it, even if you play with beautiful chords. It makes the patch just so interesting to play around with, and easily keeps the inspiration flowing. Using the MOTION macro to introduce a rhythm element offers an additional surprise to this sound.
Jorg - on Augmented WOODWINDS
Augmented WOODWINDS is perfect for combining real Woodwind recordings with powerful synthesizer engines and flexible blending of these two worlds. The easy morphing between real performance and electronic tone or the combination of both creates powerful patches always containing a human element. It is a hybrid instrument in the true sense of the word.
I always go through the offered sample pool first to find inspiration from the real recordings. This then guides me to either layering electronic elements to it, or creating an electronic layer I would like to morph the recordings into. Once the base sound is where I want it to be, I play with the patch with a focus on playability and performance options, to make the sound as useful and flexible for the user as possible.
Aroused Reeds
Gustavo Bravetti
This preset's default sound is acoustic, featuring a Pitch Shifter Delay whose pitch is set to -5, producing a sort of diatonic canon. I began with a simple melody and most of the Macros minimized to create a natural, opaque sound with a gentle canon effect. As the arrangement progresses and intensifies, I utilized the Macros and MIDI Velocity to unveil the full expression this sound is capable of.
Gustavo - on Augmented WOODWINDS
Arturia takes a giant leap with Augmented Woodwinds, showcasing superior sample quality that's both cinematic and inspiring. The woodwind samples seamlessly blend with the synth engines, producing a rich, evocative sound palette. Numerous presets offer quick usability, making it a versatile asset for various musical genres. Its cinematic allure sets a new benchmark in the Augmented series, making it a highly recommendable choice for those eager to explore the realms of both the organic and the synthesized.
I focused on harnessing the instrument's detailed samples and dynamic velocity layers, creating rich, responsive sounds. My exploration led to cinematic expressions, authentic soundscapes perfect for film scoring, and some quirky sonic experiments. I invested additional time in fully optimizing the Macro controls, granting users the agility to alter sounds effectively in real-time, ensuring the results remain useful and musical.
Ed TenEyck - on Augmented WOODWINDS
The main strengths of Augmented WOODWINDS to me are the ability to assign multiple parameters from different engines to the Morph knob and doing so with a well laid out, easy to use modulation system.
My approach this time was to start by choosing two samples for the Sample engines then choosing two synth engines. Afterwards I dialled in the synth engine sounds a bit then assigned all Morph knob modulations to them, then adjusted filter settings. From there I assigned FX and Movement modulations, adjusting volume and re-adjusting previous assignments along the way
Quiver
This sound blends a familiar sample with a high 'glassy' texture and a bit of bright synth tone. Then a little bit of Phaser, Chorus, Delay and Reverb was added for flavor. I love to turn the Morph knob up while holding long sustained notes. Doing that turns the sound into a fluttery almost choir-ish texture.
Hit & Rise
Quentin Feuillard
Impactful and energetic preset morph to the other side with a more granular ambient sound, with a 4 bar evolution.
Quentin - on Augmented WOODWINDS
The samples inside and the presets engines are the must have to get inspiration. The intuitiveness of the Morph parameter to blend your two creations and the evolving capacities with macros and modulators give you an infinite possibilities ! The MPE in that type of product push his expressivity to the maximum !
Listening the engines and the content give me the first idea, and I develop the rest with all modulators. The macros definition is very important to change drastically the sound with some knobs tweaking.