Krotos plugins are known for both their ease of use and the performative approach they take to creating sounds. I incorporate a number of Krotos plugins into my own work, and in the video below, I demonstrate how I like to use some of them.

The project is a short section from an action sequence which features soldiers moving through a warehouse, taking down zombies. For this, I used four different Krotos plug-ins to build and layer the required sounds.

Weaponiser

As its name would suggest, Weaponiser is great for triggering gun sounds. This can be done from an actual MIDI keyboard, or from the floating MIDI keyboard window in Pro Tools. Weaponiser includes a number of presets, and sounds can be layered and manipulated from the 4 engines within the plug-in, labelled Onset, Body, Thump and Tail. One of the things I like about Weaponiser is that it allows a good amount of variance from one sample activation to another by varying duration, pitch and which sample is triggered. Despite its name, Weaponiser can also be used to create any other sounds which lend themselves to being triggered by MIDI. In the video example, I also use it to trigger footstep sounds.

Krotos Studio

Krotos Studio is designed to be a quick, all in one solution for anyone who wants to easily create ambiences, foley, footsteps, whooshes, weapon sounds, vehicle effects and a wide array of other sounds. Primarily aimed at those who want results with the minimum of fuss, I find it very useful for ambiences. Sounds can be activated from within the performance area of the plug-in and varied over time so fit your requirements. This is something which I often use when I need to create backgrounds which are a lot more interesting than just a static ambience, but when I perhaps don’t have the time to go all out with layering of lots of individual recordings.

Reformer Pro

Performing foley typically requires a dedicated foley studio, or at the very least, a quiet room with a high quality microphone, preamp and the right props and surfaces to work with. At home, this can be quite a challenge to get right. Fortunately, Reformer Pro provides a solution to this by allowing you to trigger foley sounds from a live mic input or recording. The input sound activates the playback of samples, be they cloth, animal roars, armour, various different materials or any number of the hundreds of included samples. Up to 4 sets of samples can be combined at once, for endless variations which can be customised as needed. Reformer Pro is a great option when it’s simply not practical to record foley from scratch. For me, it’s a good choice for cloth movement sounds.

Simple Monsters

Based on Krotos’ Dehumaniser plug-in, Simple Monsters offers a stripped back method of warping and contorting vocalisations to create all manner of creature and monster effects. In the video example, I use it to give my zombie vocalisations a more menacing and un-human sound. Simple Monsters includes a useful set of presets, all of which can serve as a starting point for your own sounds, which can be modified and tweaked using the controls in the plug-in.