Sonic Forest
Cinematic sound design playground of evolving sounds within a custom "forest" engine.
US$20
Hear Sonic Forest In Action
- Luminescence (Naked) Brad Jerkins 1:25
- Chlorosynthesis (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:22
- Liquid Time (Dressed) Henning Nugel 1:33
- The Ragged Breath of the Hunter (Naked) Kurt M. Landre 0:54
- Forest Wind (Naked) Derek Shunia 2:00
- Electric Mammoth (Dressed) Kurt M. Landre 1:09
- The Ragged Breath of the Hunter (Dressed) Kurt M. Landre 0:54
- Myth and Mischief (Dressed) Dickie Chapin 1:16
Reviews
Simon Franglen
Titanic, Skyfall, Spectre, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water
Impact Soundworks make detailed, emotive instruments. I’ve happily bought over two dozen of their libraries which should say everything. They get used every day.
Mark Portmann
Ariana Grande, Luis Fonsi, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones
"[ISW]'s instruments consistently deliver the sound, feel, and reliability I need to do my best work. Thank you for raising the bar and making tools that inspire."
Neal Acree
World of WarCraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Overwatch
"Impact Soundworks has some of the most creative and innovative libraries out there. From world instruments to the insanely deep sampled Shreddage guitar series the Impact catalog is full of must-haves and unexpected and inspiring surprises. Highly recommended!
Stewart Winter
Co-founder, VideoHelper
"I'm a keyboard player -- I can't even make a REAL guitar sound convincing. But Telos and Rosette are my go-to guitars because they sound incredible, sit well in a mix and are so easy to configure to my personal playing habits. I'm constantly discovering new ways to play them and they've saved my ass more times than I can count. And the pedal Steel is still my favorite library of its kind for Country, Folk and organic layering behind synths."
Brian Pickett
PAW Patrol, Lucas the Spider, Daniel Tiger
"I never would have thought that sampled guitars could sound as good as ISW's do. The fact that I can use them to lay down a realistic solo is unprecedented. They’ve pushed the boundaries of realism."
Rosette Mandolin – Sound on Sound
Rosette Mandolin review
"The sound of the library is very pleasing...the more I used the library the more I felt I was learning how to write idiomatically for the instrument." "Rosette Mandolin provides a good sound that could have many applications, with versatile input options that cater to writing realistic mandolin lines, impossible 5+ note chords and everything in between." Thomas Field, September 2024
Richard Jacques
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Overwatch 2, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
"I'm a huge fan of the Ventus Winds series. They feature rare instruments deep-sampled to an incredibly high level of detail. It's so liberating to have such a wide range of articulations & phrases that perfectly capture the nuances and performance style of these instruments... from beautiful to haunting, celebratory to sorrowful. Each is expertly recorded and the sound quality is superb, sitting in the mix with ease. If you want to add authentic world winds to your palette, then look no further."
Kevin Manthei
Angry Birds Mystery Island, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Villainous, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online
"ISW creates some of the most inspiring & realistic guitar sample libraries. I had to write a bunch of really gritty, angry heavy metal & sports action rock cues. I used Shreddage 3 Serpent for leads and was blown away by its onboard processing, programming, and amazing live-sounding leads. I also created a signature sound based on the lead guitar in David Lynch's Twin Peaks series, originally played on baritone guitar. [Serpent] built a convincing replica of that sound just using on-board FX. It was so fun and easy to do!"
Audio Demos
- Luminescence (Naked) Brad Jerkins 1:25
- Chlorosynthesis (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:22
- Liquid Time (Dressed) Henning Nugel 1:33
- The Ragged Breath of the Hunter (Naked) Kurt M. Landre 0:54
- Forest Wind (Naked) Derek Shunia 2:00
- Electric Mammoth (Dressed) Kurt M. Landre 1:09
- The Ragged Breath of the Hunter (Dressed) Kurt M. Landre 0:54
- Myth and Mischief (Dressed) Dickie Chapin 1:16
Overview
A truly unique instrument that takes humble mallet & bowed timbres, and turns them into evolving electroacoustic textures with a custom granular ‘forest’ engine. Even non-sound designers will enjoy the evocative UI allowing you to morph, alter, and grow the forest with infinite possibilities. 25% of sales will be donated to charity!
Product Info
Mallet and bowed articulations
Ten original and highly-varied articulations recorded by striking and resonating the springs and tines of the sonic forest.
Up to 3 dynamics / 5 round robins
Struck and plucked articulations offer plenty of detail for repeated notes and dynamic sequences.
Harmonic and inharmonic timbres
Easily create tones that range from beautiful and celestial to dark, eerie, and full of tension.
Custom microtuning engine & presets
Use one of the 10 included microtuning scales or create your own from scratch to evoke truly otherworldly sounds.
Endless variations and inspiration
Produce a near-infinite range of timbres, textures, pads, and strikes by tweaking things yourself, or using the “Seed” control to randomize all parameters in a musically-pleasing way.
Features
One-of-a-kind custom instrument
Breathtaking granular engine
Inspiring and evocative visuals
Poly arpeggiator & sequencer
User sample import
Requirements
500MB of disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
4GB of RAM
Higher amounts of memory let you load more instruments.
Kontakt 5.3.1+ Full Version
This library is NOT compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OS
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11 or 12 (latest update).
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11 or 12 (latest update)
Kontakt Requirements - Windows
Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit). Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU. Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher. Windows 10 strongly recommended.
Tutorials
Overview and Walkthrough
Featured Artists & Composers
Neal Acree
World of WarCraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Overwatch
“Impact Soundworks has some of the most creative and innovative libraries out there. From world instruments to the insanely deep sampled Shreddage guitar series the Impact catalog is full of must-haves and unexpected and inspiring surprises. Highly recommended!
Richard Jacques
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Overwatch 2, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
“I’m a huge fan of the Ventus Winds series. They feature rare instruments deep-sampled to an incredibly high level of detail. It’s so liberating to have such a wide range of articulations & phrases that perfectly capture the nuances and performance style of these instruments… from beautiful to haunting, celebratory to sorrowful. Each is expertly recorded and the sound quality is superb, sitting in the mix with ease. If you want to add authentic world winds to your palette, then look no further.”
ShadyCicada
“Impact Soundworks software is an absolute mainstay in my work when it comes to Video Game and Anime-inspired tracks! The amount of ease and wonderful sounds these plugins offer allows me to get straight into writing and brainstorming.”
The Sonic Forest includes a stunning UI that is meant to inspire your music. The serene imagery in the center of the interface gradually changes as you change evocative controls like “Flood”, “Shade”, and “Grow”, providing feedback for how the sound is being affected.
This center area is the heart of the granular ‘forest’ engine. As you play with the various articulations, pressing the Plant button captures the last played sample and stretches it across the keyboard. Then, as the Grow knob is increased, the granular forest effect is introduced. The Volume knob can be turned down completely to leave only the beautiful, evolving forest sound in its place.
The evolving granular sound is shaped and altered using the rest of the knobs in the center of the UI. For instance, Blossom adds grains that are pitched up to 2 octaves above the original sound. Flood washes out the forest with lush, purely wet convolution reverb. Tangle increases the speed and intensity of the granulation effect, and Wither puts a gradual envelope on the sound to fade it out over time.
The sound design possibilities with this forest engine are endless!
In addition to the granular engine, the Sonic Forest also includes an array of useful features like an arpeggiator and sequencer, microtuning, and 6-module FX rack (which can be used on both the source articulations AND the forest.)
Reviews
Sonic Forest – Producer Spot
“Today I found something very special. A library that is extremely creative, well-designed, affordable, and even for good cause. I’m talking about “Sonic Forest” by Impact Soundworks. This library is based on a one it’s a kind instrument, sampled with a lot of depth and precision to create a unique sound, but beyond that Sonic Forest has a lot more to offer. (ProducerSpot.com)
Sonic Forest – Sounds and Gear
“I love when companies do this quirky experimental instruments, it breaks up to standard sounds and ideas we are used to and sparks your imagination in a new direction. I dig the interface a lot, it’s simple but useful, and actually powerful in terms of all that you can do do the sound. I say just go grab a copy, seriously, it’s 20 bucks and well worth more in my opinion.”
JK Swopes (Sounds and Gear)
Sonic Forest – Sound On Sound
“Sonic Forest would be a good addition to any ethnic or world collection. Factor in the stunning granular engine, the giveaway price of $20 (25 percent of which is donated to charity) and I can’t think of one reason not to snap it up!.” (Sound On Sound)