Innovation rarely happens by accident. It's born from a being faced with a challenge, and a drive to solve it.
Krotos is no different. Formed from a student project & made to tackle a specific sound design problem, that project developed into what is now one of the most influential sound effects authorities of the 21st Century.
Like many of us, Krotos Founder Orfeas Boteas developed a love for sound by being continually immersed in the sounds of home.
In a major city like Athens, everything makes a noise. Buskers in the Acropolis, tourists and traffic all combine to form a recognisable sonic identity.
“Growing up in Athens, the city was immersed in music, sound, and noise".
The exposure to a complex palette of sounds led Orfeas to study Music Technology and Acoustics at the Technological Educational Institute of Crete.
Returning to Athens meant returning to the city that fed this passion. Armed with an all-important skillset, Orfeas dived into freelance sound work:
“I edited sound for films, advertisements & TV shows. I did dialogue cleanup. I operated boom mics on set…any work I could find, I threw myself into".
Early clients such as Vodafone, Cosmote, and Mega Channel offered all-too important experience in the early stages of a sound career. But as the experience grew, so did the demanding schedules, long hours…and unpaid work: "I loved sound," Boteas recalls, "but I didn’t love chasing invoices".
This disillusionment pushed him to explore a different path, which led to the beautiful and creative world of sound design.
Here, something clicked:
"I found sound design to be the perfect balance of creativity, storytelling, and technical depth."
The allure was so strong that in 2012, Boteas moved to Scotland, embarking on an MSc in Sound Design at the University of Edinburgh, and the path to something incredible began.
Tasked with creating monster sounds for a student video game, hours of time were lost layering animal recordings and tweaking plug-in chains to make something useful.
“That very frustration planted an idea...What if I could create something that turns your voice into a monster in real time? A tool that layers animal sounds, adds effects, and processes everything live?"
What we now know as Dehumaniser 2 began life as a series of virtual cables and boxes, in a piece of software known as Max/MSP. With some time and tinkering, this ambitious “real-time monster machine” actually worked…
...and worked very, very well.
"I’d be up late at night, howling and growling into a microphone when I was testing the prototype. Other students must have thought I was going mad!”
The university studio became a late-night laboratory, and eventually a functioning prototype was born: a powerful monster vocal tool, stemming from the passion to creatively and excitingly overcome a painful part of the sound design process.
“A friend of mine suggested the name 'Dehumaniser’... safe to say, it stuck immediately!"
The Dehumaniser prototype was shared for free online through communities and forums, eventually catching the attention of the ‘Sound Designers’ group on LinkedIn. The feedback there helped to shape the tool further, refining it into what would eventually be Dehumaniser 2. Even at this stage, forming a business wasn’t even a consideration.
Then, the unexpected happened…
Angelo Palazzo, (Sound designer - Star Trek, Super 8) reached out, as did Coll Anderson (Sound Designer - Black Swan, Captain Phillips). Industry pros were using Dehumaniser, and momentum was building.
Fast forward a few months, and Dehumaniser was being used in blockbuster productions—Avengers: Age of Ultron, Stranger Things, The Witcher, and Game of Thrones all used Dehumaniser to build the aliens, robots, dragons and monsters associated with those worlds.
Dehumaniser wasn’t just a project anymore. It was something far, far bigger.
In ancient Greek mythology, Krotos was a companion of the Muses; a figure symbolising creativity and applause. Furthermore, in modern Greek, the word “κρότος” means a loud sound or bang.
All businesses need a strong, memorable name: one that captures the spirit of what it is setting out to achieve:
"Krotos felt powerful. Personal. It just made sense” - Orfeas Boteas, Krotos Founder
With support from the University of Edinburgh, The first commercial version of Dehumaniser was launched.
Things started out simple — no funding, no expansion; just listening to user feedback and making important improvements.
Dehumaniser was eventually re-built in C++, a more flexible, deeper programming language, which became Dehumaniser 2, and the Krotos name began to spread.
What followed was a snowball effect of cutting edge, forward thinking sound design tools; Weaponiser, Reformer Pro, Igniter and Concept 2 all followed the same principles that led to the creation of Dehumaniser.
Initially, Krotos was built for professional sound designers. Over time however, there has been an increasing awareness from Filmmakers, podcasters, game developers and beyond about just how important sound is.
But these creators often don't have the knowledge or understanding of sound design workflows to enable them to elevate their projects to such professional quality.
So Krotos set out to provide a tool that offered this standard of sound. That’s where Krotos Studio came in.
"Krotos Studio is a more accessible platform for sound design. Made for a wider creative community, but using the reputation we have built over the years, and technology that our early supporters trust.” - Orfeas Boteas
Many of the people who shaped Krotos are still with the team today over ten years later.
The Krotos mission is simple: Change the way people design and perform sound. By listening to every sound designer, creator, and storyteller we speak with, we’re chasing this mission every day, and we’re only just getting started.
The future of sound is wide open, and we’re excited to help shape it.