Fallout Music Group’s “Trailer Braams II” is the latest addition to their sample library collection, aimed at providing composers and sound designers with high-quality sound effects for use in trailers, films, and other media projects. Building on the success of their previous “Trailer Braams” release, this second installment features a new set of thunderous and cinematic braams, designed to add impact and excitement to any audiovisual project.
In this review, we’ll take a closer look at the contents of this sample library and evaluate its usefulness and quality for different applications.
Over the recent years, Fallout Music Group has thus released a series of Kontakt libraries particularly suited for the trailer music genre. Among those, Trailer Braams I and its successor Trailer Braams II, which we will have a look at today.
OVERVIEW
Fallout Music Group was created in 2019 by the prolific composers and sound designers Randon Purcell, Andrew Skipper, Kyle Kniceley, and Simon Haglund. Having extensive experience in media and production music, these four composers and sound designers decided to create their own sample libraries, with a focus on flexibility, ease of use, and affordability.
The first Trailer Braams, released 3 years ago, was designed as a straightforward and very affordable “braam” creator. Based on live brass recordings and 10 different synths, this first chapter allowed composers to create braams painlessly, using a simple brass/synth mixer and a 1-2 bar length selector.
Trailer Braams I interface
Trailer Braams II ups the ante and allows composers to create their very own signature braams, low stabs, and even pulses, including comprehensive customization options. A “braam” sound effect is a deep, intense, and often brassy sound effect, commonly used in trailer music production to create tension and anticipation. It typically consists of a low-frequency synth or orchestral brass hit with a sharp attack and a long decay, often accompanied by reverberation and other sound design elements.
The sonic source of the Trailer Braams II library is based on four categories: synths samples, organic sounds, transient sounds, and freshly recorded live brass recordings. All in all, the library offers more than 180 raw sound sources, sampled across a full octave, on every key. These can be combined to create thousands of combinations thanks to the powerful Kontakt sound engine. With more than 2300 samples, Trailer Braams II requires 2.5 GB of hard drive space after installation. As another evolution compared to the first original version, Trailer Braams II is now NKS-ready and runs in Kontakt player, meaning users only need the free Kontakt player to be able to enjoy it!
TRAILER BRAAMS II INTERFACE
Trailer Braams II uses a simple yet clear interface, inspired by its predecessor library. The vast majority of the controls are laid out on a single GUI page, which makes shaping sounds very easy.
The upper half of the GUI is comprised of the layer selectors. There are randomizers, attack, release, and tuning controls for each of the three available layers. Under each layer section, users will find stretch/shrink sliders, which are very useful to adjust the length of your braam sound effect. A Settings button allows users to make global adjustments, such as limiting the choice of sound sources for ease of navigation or artificially extending the keyboard’s playable range.
Trailer Braams II interface
On the left-hand side of the interface, you can a low-frequency oscillator (LFO) that features all necessary controls such as wave shape, speed, amount, and fade-in. The LFO is very useful to create pulses and sweeps from the source sounds. The interface also features low and high pass filters, as well as an EQ color knob that either prioritizes the low or high frequencies.
All these controls can be freely assigned to a MIDI CC value and controlled with MIDI controllers. In the center of the interface, you can find the mixing controls of each layer, including pan and volume sliders, along with individual solo/mute buttons. The send effects are on the bottom right. A convolution reverb with several rooms is provided along with a delay effect.
While the vast majority of the controls are located on the main page, the exception to this is the “Power” knob. The Power knob allows users to dial in a chain of effects that adds saturation and overdrive to any braam sound effect they play. This knob can of course also be assigned to a MIDI CC, making it very easy to automate the saturation effect in a DAW.
WHAT’S INCLUDED?
The library comes with over 90 meticulously prepared snapshots. These presets often include reverb and/or delay effects and sound very powerful on their own. They also feel very distinct and different from each other, so there is a great deal of variety offered here. Given this diversity, the snapshots can also be a good starting point for users wanting to dive further into sound customizations, as each of the layers is modifiable.
When it comes to creating a sound effect from the ground up, the raw sound sources are organized into four categories: Brass, Synths, Organic, and Transients. The unique collection of sounds ranges from low brass, guitars, and distorted organic sources to modern distorted synths, among many others.
After getting an idea of the qualities of the sound we are trying to create, all we need to do is to select an appropriate sound for each layer: does the sound effect need a punchy attack? Should it be short or sustained? Do I want it to feature a particular tail sound? The interface then makes it easy to modify each parameter as you go. After you selected a combination of sounds, you can go wild by enabling the LFO, stretch settings, and tuning controls. Here’s a small tip: automating the tuning controls of each of the three layers separately can yield very creative and extreme results. All in all, Trailer Braams II reveals itself to be very capable of not only crafting braam sound effects but also massive low stabs, swells, or even pulses!
Here is a demo of a few sound effects, either modified versions of snapshots or created from the ground up:
Click on the button to load the content from soundcloud.com.
The first example features a pre-made snapshot, a touch of the internal reverb, and a bit of pitch bending. As you can hear, with Trailer Braams II it is quite easy to obtain convincing trailer-like effects. The second example was customized with a fairly aggressive LFO setting. The third and fourth ones demonstrate how Trailer Braams II is very capable of creating other sound effects than just braams, as mentioned above.
CONCLUSION
Trailer Braams II is a hard-hitting, straight-to-the-point library that comes packed with amazing sounds and controls.
Designed by composers that actually work in the trailer music industry, this library provides a great collection of sounds, ranging from custom signature braams to swells and aggressive pulses. The fact that all sources have been sampled over a full octave is a great plus since you can easily play leaping melodic lines without getting too many pitch-stretching artifacts.
With an RRP of $79, Trailer Braams II offers excellent value and gets an unquestionable recommendation from us.
Fallout Music Group’s “Trailer Braams II” is the latest addition to their sample library collection, aimed at providing composers and sound designers with high-quality sound effects for use in trailers, films, and other media projects. Building on the success of their previous “Trailer Braams” release, this second installment features a new set of thunderous and cinematic braams, designed to add impact and excitement to any audiovisual project.
In this review, we’ll take a closer look at the contents of this sample library and evaluate its usefulness and quality for different applications.
Over the recent years, Fallout Music Group has thus released a series of Kontakt libraries particularly suited for the trailer music genre. Among those, Trailer Braams I and its successor Trailer Braams II, which we will have a look at today.
OVERVIEW
Fallout Music Group was created in 2019 by the prolific composers and sound designers Randon Purcell, Andrew Skipper, Kyle Kniceley, and Simon Haglund. Having extensive experience in media and production music, these four composers and sound designers decided to create their own sample libraries, with a focus on flexibility, ease of use, and affordability.
The first Trailer Braams, released 3 years ago, was designed as a straightforward and very affordable “braam” creator. Based on live brass recordings and 10 different synths, this first chapter allowed composers to create braams painlessly, using a simple brass/synth mixer and a 1-2 bar length selector.
Trailer Braams II ups the ante and allows composers to create their very own signature braams, low stabs, and even pulses, including comprehensive customization options. A “braam” sound effect is a deep, intense, and often brassy sound effect, commonly used in trailer music production to create tension and anticipation. It typically consists of a low-frequency synth or orchestral brass hit with a sharp attack and a long decay, often accompanied by reverberation and other sound design elements.
The sonic source of the Trailer Braams II library is based on four categories: synths samples, organic sounds, transient sounds, and freshly recorded live brass recordings. All in all, the library offers more than 180 raw sound sources, sampled across a full octave, on every key. These can be combined to create thousands of combinations thanks to the powerful Kontakt sound engine.
With more than 2300 samples, Trailer Braams II requires 2.5 GB of hard drive space after installation. As another evolution compared to the first original version, Trailer Braams II is now NKS-ready and runs in Kontakt player, meaning users only need the free Kontakt player to be able to enjoy it!
TRAILER BRAAMS II INTERFACE
Trailer Braams II uses a simple yet clear interface, inspired by its predecessor library. The vast majority of the controls are laid out on a single GUI page, which makes shaping sounds very easy.
The upper half of the GUI is comprised of the layer selectors. There are randomizers, attack, release, and tuning controls for each of the three available layers. Under each layer section, users will find stretch/shrink sliders, which are very useful to adjust the length of your braam sound effect. A Settings button allows users to make global adjustments, such as limiting the choice of sound sources for ease of navigation or artificially extending the keyboard’s playable range.
On the left-hand side of the interface, you can a low-frequency oscillator (LFO) that features all necessary controls such as wave shape, speed, amount, and fade-in. The LFO is very useful to create pulses and sweeps from the source sounds. The interface also features low and high pass filters, as well as an EQ color knob that either prioritizes the low or high frequencies.
All these controls can be freely assigned to a MIDI CC value and controlled with MIDI controllers. In the center of the interface, you can find the mixing controls of each layer, including pan and volume sliders, along with individual solo/mute buttons. The send effects are on the bottom right. A convolution reverb with several rooms is provided along with a delay effect.
While the vast majority of the controls are located on the main page, the exception to this is the “Power” knob. The Power knob allows users to dial in a chain of effects that adds saturation and overdrive to any braam sound effect they play. This knob can of course also be assigned to a MIDI CC, making it very easy to automate the saturation effect in a DAW.
WHAT’S INCLUDED?
The library comes with over 90 meticulously prepared snapshots. These presets often include reverb and/or delay effects and sound very powerful on their own. They also feel very distinct and different from each other, so there is a great deal of variety offered here. Given this diversity, the snapshots can also be a good starting point for users wanting to dive further into sound customizations, as each of the layers is modifiable.
When it comes to creating a sound effect from the ground up, the raw sound sources are organized into four categories: Brass, Synths, Organic, and Transients. The unique collection of sounds ranges from low brass, guitars, and distorted organic sources to modern distorted synths, among many others.
After getting an idea of the qualities of the sound we are trying to create, all we need to do is to select an appropriate sound for each layer: does the sound effect need a punchy attack? Should it be short or sustained? Do I want it to feature a particular tail sound? The interface then makes it easy to modify each parameter as you go. After you selected a combination of sounds, you can go wild by enabling the LFO, stretch settings, and tuning controls. Here’s a small tip: automating the tuning controls of each of the three layers separately can yield very creative and extreme results. All in all, Trailer Braams II reveals itself to be very capable of not only crafting braam sound effects but also massive low stabs, swells, or even pulses!
Here is a demo of a few sound effects, either modified versions of snapshots or created from the ground up:
Click on the button to load the content from soundcloud.com.
Load content
The first example features a pre-made snapshot, a touch of the internal reverb, and a bit of pitch bending. As you can hear, with Trailer Braams II it is quite easy to obtain convincing trailer-like effects. The second example was customized with a fairly aggressive LFO setting. The third and fourth ones demonstrate how Trailer Braams II is very capable of creating other sound effects than just braams, as mentioned above.
CONCLUSION
Trailer Braams II is a hard-hitting, straight-to-the-point library that comes packed with amazing sounds and controls.
Designed by composers that actually work in the trailer music industry, this library provides a great collection of sounds, ranging from custom signature braams to swells and aggressive pulses. The fact that all sources have been sampled over a full octave is a great plus since you can easily play leaping melodic lines without getting too many pitch-stretching artifacts.
With an RRP of $79, Trailer Braams II offers excellent value and gets an unquestionable recommendation from us.
Pros
Cons
RECOMMENDED: 10/10
“Trailer Braams II” is available as a download through the Fallout Music Group online shop for $79.
TRAILER BRAAMS II – VIDEO WALKTHROUGH
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