Sonic Ocean
Acoustic, synthetic, and water-based sounds for atmospheric sound design & composition.
$25
Hear Sonic Ocean In Action
- Adrift (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:40
- Nautilus (Dressed) Henning Nugel 1:57
- Ruins of Atlanta (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:11
- Operation Orca (Dressed) Dickie Chapin 2:00
- Tropical Wave (Dressed) Pixelee 2:16
- Operation Orca (Naked) Dickie Chapin 2:00
- Birds in the Ocean (Naked) Ramiro N. Álvarez 2:20
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
- Adrift (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:40
- Nautilus (Dressed) Henning Nugel 1:57
- Ruins of Atlanta (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:11
- Operation Orca (Dressed) Dickie Chapin 2:00
- Tropical Wave (Dressed) Pixelee 2:16
- Operation Orca (Naked) Dickie Chapin 2:00
- Birds in the Ocean (Naked) Ramiro N. Álvarez 2:20
Overview
A unique virtual instrument built from water-inspired sounds: mallets, synthetic elements, ambient textures, and percussive hits. With our custom granular ‘ocean’ engine, any note can be turned into an endlessly evolving electroacoustic texture. A visually stunning UI allows you to morph, alter, and shape the ocean even if you’re not a synth expert. 20% of every sale donated to charity!
Product Info
24 unique sound sources
Synthetic and found sounds inspired (and transformed) by water, encompassing pitched and percussive tones alike.
Hybrid acoustic & synthetic instruments
Ideal for evocative ambience, pads, textures, and soundscapes.
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.
Custom microtuning engine & presets
Use one of the 10 included microtuning scales or create your own from scratch to evoke truly otherworldly sounds.
39 bonus water ambience recordings
Use to add additional texture and meditative ambience to your music.
40 NKI presets
Load and play for instant inspiration. Virtually no load times.
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.
2GB 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
Walkthrough & Sounds
Featured Artists & Composers
Ben Prunty
FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach, Subnautica: Below Zero
“I’ve been using ISW since 2015, and their instruments have shown up in Into the Breach and Subnautica Below Zero, and in nearly all of my solo albums. Shreddage helped me fill in the gaps around my own guitar performances. Super Audio Cart provided some great raw synth sounds for parts of Below Zero. Impact Soundworks is often the first place I go to when I’m shopping for a new project. Everything they make works and sounds great.”
Christopher Gordon
Ladies in Black, Mao’s Last Dancer, Salem’s Lot, Master and Commander
“Impact Soundworks’ range of guitars and fretted instruments sound amazing and are crafted and nuanced with expert detail. Intuitively set up to get straight to composing. And I have a real soft spot for the juicy, screaming Shreddage 3 Hydra!”
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.”
Built on the unique engine we created for Sonic Forest, Sonic Ocean is an artistic sound design instrument inspired by water. Its 24 hybrid sound sources were created using a mix of acoustic instruments, synthesis, and recordings of flowing water on two continents.
Just as in Sonic Forest, you can layer and shape these sound sources using tools like our powerful poly-arpeggiator and sequencer, microtuner, and FX rack. But the real gem is the granular ocean engine: by playing a note and pressing “Sail”, a single sound becomes an endless, evolving and one-of-a-kind atmospheric texture.
The instrument’s evocative interface lets you adjust the timbre of the ocean with creative controls like “Submerge”, “Tides”, “Ripple”, and “Freeze”, providing inspiration and feedback for how the sound is affected.
We hope that the many sound design possibilities of Sonic Ocean will provide a sea of inspiration for your music!
As we recorded and immersed ourselves in the beauty of our planet’s water, we resolved to help protect and conserve this boundless source of life and inspiration. To that end, we are donating 20% of all revenue from Sonic Ocean to one of the highest-rated charities, the Clean Water Fund.
The Clean Water Fund is a highly transparent and effective organization that advocates for the protection of water through education, outreach, and policy, such as the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. They also support efforts to innovate alternative fuels and clean up disastrous waste, two crucial elements to the future of our planet’s water-based ecosystems.
Reviews
Testimonial – Jimmy ‘Big Giant Circles’ Hinson (Black Ops 4, Borderlands 2, Threes)
“Between Shreddage, Super Audio Cart, Juggernaut, and Mega Brass I don’t remember the last time I haven’t used an Impact Soundworks instrument in a track. The attention to detail is astonishing and it’s all so easy to use out of the box, which is a big deal.”