How to use Quick FX in Krotos Studio
Wouldn’t it be great if you could easily immerse your audience into your project by providing a sense of depth and space to your sound effects? With Krotos Studio, you can. Now, adding space and distance to your sound effects directly from Krotos Studio is possible thanks to the addition of Quick FX in the January 2024 update.
What is Quick FX?
Quick FX is a new feature in Krotos Studio that allows you to place any sound effect you are designing into an environment with just a few clicks. Select the desired environment on the Quick FX menu, and it will be automatically incorporated into the performance recorded by Krotos Studio, adding instant dimension to your sound effects.
Quick FX features a convolution reverb and a filter, which can be used in three modes - reverb only, distance (reverb and filter), and filter only. Now, the creative possibilities are endless and easy to apply, thanks to this new feature from Krotos Studio. Let’s look at these FX a little closer…
Convolution Reverb
In the same way, you might take pictures of an inspiring or exciting place or location. Did you know you can do the same with sound? These are known as impulse responses. They enable you to capture the sound of a location and then place any sound within that space. Whether it’s the long echo of an apartment stairwell or the short, lively ambience of a room in your home, convolution reverbs heighten the sense of realism, grounding your viewers in real-life spaces.
Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, we got you covered. You don’t need to know the technical stuff about how convolution reverbs work. With Quick FX, all you need to do is switch it on! You don’t even need to record your own impulse responses. We’ve included 90 Impulse Responses covering indoor spaces, public places, and exciting and experimental presets for you to choose from.
Filter
The Quick FX filter applies what is known as a low-pass filter to your chosen preset. It removes high frequencies from the sound and only lets the low ones pass through, mimicking what happens in the real world when a sound is far away.
This effect is perfect for muting or muffling a sound. If someone is walking around upstairs or in another room in your scene, you can use the filter to muffle one of the footsteps presets, making them boomier, similar to what the walls or ceilings would do. Another example could be from an underwater preset, where the water in your ears would muffle the sound around you.
The 3 Quick FX Modes
Depending on your needs, Quick FX can run in three different modes: Reverb Only, Distance and Filter Only.
Reverb Only adds the selected reverb to the sound of Krotos Studio. Control the amount of reverb you need with the intensity dial, and you are all set.
Distance combines reverb and filtering together for a handy distance effect. Control the distance with the intensity dial to locate your sound within the desired space.
Filter Only applies a low pass filter without reverb to the sound from Krotos Studio. Control the amount of high frequencies filtered out by simply moving the intensity dial.
Bringing These FX Into Krotos Studio
This new feature allows you to infuse your scenes with an authentic sense of space, taking any production to a new level of detail and realism. Anything you create in Krotos Studio can use Quick FX. Switch it on and dial in the intensity in the selected mode.
Do you need the footsteps of someone in heels in a kitchen? No problem! Use Quick Fx to place the ‘Heels Indoor’ preset in whichever environment the character is in. Need to transform any cinematic impact into a massive trailer boom? No problem! Use the distance effect on any cinematic preset, and crank that intensity dial.
Convolution reverb isn’t only good for big echoey spaces. Everywhere we go, sounds reflect off the surfaces around us and bounce back into our ears. Living rooms, bedrooms or bathrooms sound the way they do because of how these reflections bounce. All these spaces and more have been captured and added to the Quick FX engine to make your sound effects sound more realistic than ever before!
List of Spaces Included in Quick FX
Quick FX houses a diverse collection of impulse responses tailored for all your sound design adventures, neatly organised into five groups: Domestic and Outdoor Spaces, Public Places, Equipment, and Experimental.
Immerse yourself in the nuances of Domestic Spaces, where “Rooms, “Kitchens”, “Bathrooms” or “Car” ambiences are portals to the intimate reverberations found at home. Wander through the Outdoor spaces with “Rooftop”, “Street”, “Park”, “Sewer”, or “Alley”, capturing the essence of open-air environments in every sonic detail. Public Places invite exploration with ambiences from "Airport Terminal”, “Cafe”, “Cathedral”, “Corridor”, “Offices” or “Museums”, providing a symphony of echoes from bustling locales. Dive into the depths of Equipment like plate reverbs or Halls featuring gems like "Spring Reverb '' and "Bright Medium Plate," offering a palette of tools to sculpt your soundscapes. Finally, the Experimental group beckons with "Automatic Fire", “Metallic Slide”, “Guitar Distortion”, “Clock Echoes”, or "Beast Snarl”, pushing the boundaries of conventional reverberation into uncharted sonic realms.
Sign Off
Now that you know how Quick FX works, it's time to dive into your projects and continue to supercharge your sound design workflow with Krotos Studio.
Stay tuned to keep up to date with all the new features, sounds and more that we add to Krotos Studio…this is only the first update of the year, and we’ve got an exciting year ahead. You won’t want to miss the new upcoming features 😉.
Show us what you are working on!
If you find yourself working on something extraordinary with our software, why not email us and tell us what you are up to? Whether with the Quick FX feature or an exciting combination of sound effect presets. Whatever it is, we are all ears!
