Sometimes our SFX take new and unbeaten paths – here comes the story of one such sound.
You’ve been wondering… How does BOOM Library create these special sounds? What does the process behind it look like? How do they approach their work?
Read on – we’re sharing with you our exciting sound stories from A-Z. From time to time, we want you to get an exclusive insight into the world of BOOM productions and the final use of the product, taking you all the way through background facts, failures and the final success. We call this section “History Of A Sound” (HOAS).
ONE SOUND – MANY WAYS
You might have heard of our SCI-FI library before: it’s full of high-quality futuristic sounds. We can luckily say that it’s been one of our most successful releases and has been used in lots of different projects all over the world within the past two years. Given this popularity, there surely would be many stories to be told about the usage of individual sounds. With this HOAS, we’re going to take you on one such journey of a small creative thought being transformed into a sound data and becoming quite a prominent part of something big – namely a main feature on a popular music album.
A SCIENCE IN ITSELF
When our sound designers first started to record the “science fiction sounds”, they surely had no idea that their efforts would be so generously rewarded and eventually spread across the globe. Their creative mindset was only the foundation for many other creative projects that then built up on BOOM Library’s high hopes for the SCI-FI library. And don’t assume it was all easy and smooth going…
Michael, one of our lead sound designers, remembers the process behind the Construction Kit (CK). Looking back, he says:
“We were actually quite intimidated before starting to work on the SCI-FI CK. Two big questions arose. This was the very first time we used a mix of heavily processed stuff with “normal” recordings for the CK, so the first question was: how do we determine the border between a CK sound and a Designed one, because many of the sounds for the CK had actually been heavily processed…? In the end, we had to consider individually and with keeping in mind that even pre-processed or entirely synthetic sounds of the CK would hold enough creative scope to guarantee high flexibility for further use by our customers.”
After this being sorted, there was another difficulty to look at. Michael recollects the development phase:
“The other question we had to take care of was regarding the content itself: the gathering and processing of really cool SCI-FI stuff for the CK. So at first, we had to generally figure out what was needed: which basic data would we have to cover to meet the needs for doing a SCI-FI movie or game? The list included movement sounds like flybys and engines, ambiences, mechanics, servos, weapons and so forth. Then the fun – or as one would say: hard part began. During the processing part, we had to deal with a high number of crazy plugin chains with massive automation involved as we wanted to create sounds that would be as lifelike as possible. And as you can easily figure out, this part included a lot of trial and error as well… :)”
The making of this library has definitely been both very exciting and educational. Here is a list of some of the most used sound manglers for this project:
• NI Reaktor, especially with the beautiful stuff from Twisted Tools
• U-he, uhbik
• Sugarbytes, Turnado and Effectrix
• GRM Tools
• Soundtoys
TRAVEL JOURNAL: BOOM LIBRARY GOES DANCE MUSIC
After taking a look at the planning and the production process of the SCI-FI library, it’s now time to read out of our BOOM travel journal. It takes us straight to the music genre:
ZEDD is a popular Russian-German music producer, DJ and Grammy winner. He is well known as producer of Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez and other celebrated pop stars. When he writes his songs, he usually spends some time isolated in his studio to write his texts and to then add his captivating dubstep and electro house handwriting to it. His beats push ZEDD far beyond the walls of his own creative halls and quickly heat up international dance floors. To create this recognizable sound, ZEDD crosses genres and falls back to our BOOM Library SFX. He announces:
“BOOM Library SFX are some of the best sounding samples there are! I have used both “Designed” and “Construction Kit” samples on my album “True Colors” and they have become an invaluable tool in my writing and producing process.”
Honestly: we just love hearing this! Thanks for making us part of your great work, ZEDD. It gives all of us another reason to…
PARTY HARD (DISK)
Hard disk? Exactly. Let’s take a closer look at an example of the unique use of a SCI-FI sound sample on ZEDD’s new album “True Colors” being released on May 19th. Anton, as is ZEDD’s real name, shares with us:
“In the song called “Illusion” feat. Echosmith, I used the sample “SF-CK Device Electronic Start Up 04″ at 0:44 from the SCI-FI Construction Kit. It first makes its appearance in the song at 2:12 and plays throughout. The sample is very recognizable and stands out in a really cool way.”
Yes, exactly: the very sound we’re talking about is the booting and rebooting of an external hard drive. Where’s the SCI-FI in it?, you might wonder. That’s daily business, not very spectacular!, you could say. And you’re right! But that’s precisely why we chose this as an example: to point out that it just takes a little creative energy to induce an idea which, by being channeled through expertise, will then become a masterpiece. Let’s just take it from common to extraordinary and travel the world!
WANT MORE?
Did we arouse your curiosity and do you want to know more? Make sure to check out the SCI-FI product page and listen to the demo. Start your own creative journey – we’d be happy to be a part of it! Feel free to share your experience with our SFX or a testimonial with us by sending an email to and make sure to join us on Facebook to always stay up-to-date.
