Today we will be checking Cinematic World, a brand new library developed by RT Sonics. Cinematic World was released just a few weeks ago and features more than 600 cinematic sound effects designed for trailers, movies, and video games. The library was created by several award-winning sound designers, whose work can be heard in many AAA productions.
We were kindly provided with a review copy from RT Sonics to check out the quality of the sounds this library has to offer.
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OVERVIEW
Cinematic World is a sample collection consisting of 600 original sound FX samples, divided into 360 processed sound effects and 240 source sound effects. Overall, the library is 2.7 GB in size.
The sounds were recorded with high-end equipment, such as Sennheiser MKH 8040/8050 and Rode NTG8 microphones, and most of the time mixed with the sound of synthesizers. Given the target audience of RT Sonics is composers and video editors alike, the sounds are presented as WAV files to the user, recorded in high fidelity 24bit 96kHz format. As such, these sounds can be dragged and dropped directly into your DAW, without the need of Kontakt or any other proprietary sample player.
BEHIND THE SCENES OF CINEMATIC WORLD
Sound design credits of the RT Sonics team around Rostislav include Disney+, Diablo 3, The Outsider, Pixar/Disney’s Soul, Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Mortal Shell, and many others. Rostislav also worked for the trailer music company Avalon Zero.
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CINEMATIC WORLD IN USE
After downloading and unpacking the library, you are presented with 2 main folders. The first one, “Source”, contains unprocessed sound effects ranging from car pass-bys, wooden and metal rattling noises, to bottle sounds. The second folder, called “Designed”, contains about 120 WAV files covering about 360 sounds in the following types :
- Sub Bass
- Booms
- Drops
- Heavy Impacts
- Pulses
- Whooshes
- Metal Impacts
- Low Hits
- Braams
- Stingers
- Sci-fi Build Ups
- Stutter Build Ups
- Atmospheres
- Pings
- Risers
The library offers several WAV files for each type. Each of these files themselves contains several variations, grouped together due to their sonic similarity. Having gone through all of them, the vast majority have 3 variations per sound on average, while the shorter sounds can go up to 6 or 7. These variations are clearly different from one another, going well beyond what traditional round robins would offer. For example, one single variation might have a different EQ spectrum in order to fit different tracks, but in many instances will also have a different start and end, making each of them really unique, and not just filler content. So you might have an impact effect where the first round robin has a short clean riser leading to the hit as opposed to the second round robin starting with a longer wobbly distorted riser leading to a more low-end impact.
Along with these folders, you will also find an Excel spreadsheet listing the differents files with their associated description tags, which helps to browse the selection and even marking down your preferred sounds for later use.
THE SOUND OF CINEMATIC WORLD
The unprocessed “Source” sounds are clean and useful if you want to start creating your own effects or enhancing existing ones. They could of course be useful as-is for video editors, too.
For the “Designed” processed effects, I chose to use a simple (and obviously subjective) “scoring” system for each sound, based on sound quality, usability in trailers, and originality, among other factors. For this type of library, it is always tricky for developers to balance sounds that are distinctive enough with others that are effective but less recognizable.
RT Sonics chose to tag some of them as Signature Sounds, which feature very distinctive sounds or hooks, great for instant drag-and-drop use. The others are more common in nature and can be used without fear of “sounding like someone else” with just limited layering. I was pleasantly surprised that, when grading them, the vast majority of sounds got a 4 or even 5 out of 5. Only a dozen effects, out of hundreds, got less due to them being a bit too much on the screechy/high-end side, although I have to admit in a glitchy trailer context, they could well fit as layered.
All in all, I really liked how wide and full most of them sounded. Several SFX had a pronounced organic feel, which I loved. Many became instant favorites, with a special mention to the “Distorted String Stinger”, the “Filtered Horn Stinger”, the “Instant Freeze”, the “Creature Riser”, and the “Metal Screech”, just to name a few.
FREE TRY PACK
If you want to check out the sound of Cinematic World yourself, you can get a free try pack by subscribing to the RT Sonics newsletter on their website.
CONCLUSION
All in all, what struck me the most is how much of this library is instantly usable. I could not find filler content for the sake of it, and with so many libraries on the market nowadays this is frankly a relief for composers who have deadlines to adhere to. Priced at $99, Cinematic World represents a very good value for the quality, novelty, and usability of its sounds. It is available for purchase on RT Sonics official website.
Pros
- Massive sounding samples
- Great variety of sound effects
- Lots of originality / hidden gems
Cons
- No user interface
- Round robins would each have deserved their independent WAV files, instead of being collated together
RECOMMENDED: 8/10
HOW TO MAKE CINEMATIC PING SOUNDS
Here is a video from RT Sonics showing their approach to the creation of one of the ping sounds in Cinematic World :
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