Traditionally, recording great engine sound effects was both time consuming and cost prohibitive. And if you were lucky enough to get great ones, free of environmental noises, you then had to be able to tailor them perfectly to fit your scene. Which was not always an easy task with the tools of yesterday.
Thankfully, Le Sound has created an incredibly intuitive plugin called Audio Motors that allows you to adjust relative parameters in order to finely tune your engine sounds to your scene. Cleverly designed controls offer a faster workflow and unprecedented flexibility.
How does it work?
First, you need a sound with high to work. You have the option of using something from the built-in library, or you can import your own location recording, and use the controls to manipulate the sound. There are 3 control modes: RPM, Scratch and Drive.
1 – RPM
This mode allows you to use automation to set the exact RPM for a given scene, and adjust accordingly to simulate any gear shifts or changes in acceleration or deceleration in order to match your visual.
2 – Scratch
This mode lets you move to a specific position in the audio file. So if your sound file is a full recording of a sportscar going from 0 to 60, and you have a visual that starts halfway through that acceleration, you can move the slider to jump to exactly that spot.
3 – Drive
This mode is perhaps the simplest to understand, and easily the most fun to use. This mode simulates the accelerator on a vehicle. Here, moving the slider to the right is like pressing down on the gas pedal of a car. And obviously, sliding to the left lowers the RPMs, all the way to idling.
Overall, Le Sound Audio Motors plugin is an essential tool for anyone who needs to create great sounding engine behaviours for any visual production. Not only does it give you completely customizable control over your engine sounds, so they can be tweaked as your scene demands, but it also allows you to save your work in a preset library for fast and easy recall.
