Motionpulse Sound Design Tools Trailer

By Brady Betzel

At this point you might be sick and tired of my ranting and raving over the products created by Andrew Kramer and the Video CoPilot family, but this review just fuels my enthusiasm further.

The new Motion Pulse Sound Design Tools library created by Video CoPilot and its team of audio engineers is a collection of over 2,000 sound design elements, including some of the most monstrous, heart pounding and robotic space sounds I have ever heard.

About a year ago I remember being in an audio mixer's bay hearing a collection of sound effects from the KAP Music Library and thought that I had heard some of the best sound effects ever. The only problem was that the KAP library is geared towards high-end productions that license music cues and SFX through ASCAP/BMI instead of a one-time purchase. So for someone like me who tries to do as much side editing and motion graphic design work as I can get my hands on, I need ultra-high-end SFX that I can pay for once, download and use without having to license it each time. This is where the Motion Pulse Sound Design Tools come in.

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What You Get
The Motion Pulse libraries can be purchased separately (for $49.99) or as a bundle via the Video CoPilot website. The first bundle is the Motion Pulse Black Box, which costs $149.95 (saving you $99). It contains all five libraries plus my personal favorite: the Toolkit, which has some of the pre-layered sound effects separated into their individual layers.

For example, if you love the Machine library with its gears and cranks or attachment sound effects, but want just one part of the effect you can probably find it inside of the Toolkit. It's pretty great because we all know these SFX will be used in almost every motion graphic from now on, and as Andrew Kramer says in his tutorials, "It's really all about customizing what you make so that it becomes unique and truly your own work."

The second bundle costs $199.95 and includes everything in the first bundle, Motion Pulse Black Box, plus the new Shockwave Particle FX (which can be purchased separately for $65): a collection of 50 HD (1080p @24fps) pre-matted shockwave particle VFX simulated using real-world physics (some sort of Krakatoa looking wizardry). What I really hope is that Kramer is quietly slipping in the features of a forthcoming Element3D V2 — the ability to create Shockwave elements in After Effects. Usually he doesn't show VFX that were created with non-Video CoPilot products in his videos so here's to hoping that I'm seeing the future…please let this be true.

Anyways, back to reality. Keep in mind when reading this review, that these SFX are all geared toward motion graphic use and not necessarily your every day Bravo docu-drama.

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The Five Sets
First up is the Impact library, which includes Bass Drops, Crashes, Debris, Distortion Waves, Dramatic Hits, Metal Slicers, Quick Impacts, Slams, Sonic Pulses, Sub-Sonic Impacts and Trailer Hits. While all of the SFX are pretty amazing in this pack, the Bass Drops and Trailer Hits seem particularly awesome. You've got your super-deep bass drops combined with some debris and hits as well as some stuttering whooshes leading to a massive hit. These SFX are great for flying around titles or some heavy motion graphic elements eventually landing very hard. If you already bought the pack, check out "Metal Slicers > Sword_Mech_01." Some pretty awesome aural magic happening here.

Next up is the Machine set. Included in this set are your mechanical and robotic elements. You get Attachments, Gear Up, Gears & Cranks, Locked Down, Metal Blades, Micro Madness, Mini-Bots, Pistons and Robotic. My first instinct was to play in the Mini-Bots folder, but I think where this set really shines is in the Attachments and Locked Down folders. They have some amazing mechanical loading and unloading sounds that can be used in any type of promo or motion graphics work that needs the extra mechanical element. Specifically check out the "Attachments > Attachments_Machine_06." It has some awesome pressure valve goodness going on there. Definitely check out everything in the "Locked Down" folder; it is begging you to make some mechanical Cinema 4D models.

Third is the Organic set. This is my favorite set because of its abstract contents. If you have an alien-like blob shifting or an organic orb morphing, this set is for you. Under the Organic SFX hood you will see Abstract, Air Pressure, Disintegration, Lifeforms, Liquids, Meat Slices, Medical, Splashes, Stress and Wind. I was a little disappointed when listening to the liquid and splash SFX because some cues sound a little muffled (not a lot, but a little), probably due to limitations of recording liquids. They still sound pretty good, but as I was flipping through all the other SFX these stuck out to me as not being as pristine as the rest. However let's be real, this set is worth the price of admission for the Meat Slices alone!

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Fourth is the Signal collection. It contains interesting sounds such as Analog FX (Tick Tocks, Camera Clicks, etc.), Beeps, Distorted Signals, Electrical, Glitches, Noise, Pulses, Record and Transmission. There are some great sounds in here, like Glitch Tech Chatter and some stellar Transmission sounds, but by far my favorite is the Pulse — especially the Pulses Deep and Pulses Throb (Yeah, I said it). But really they have some great electrical current-like atmosphere in this set.

The fifth and final set is Velocity, which includes Atmospheric, Doppler FX, Drones, Epic Swishes, Gleams, Power Downs, Power Wooshes, Reverse FX, Risers, Space, Spin FX (MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME) and Waves. Most SFX in this series are pretty self-descriptive, but the Spin FX, well they are just awesome!

Recently. Kramer gave a talk at NAB 2014. Adobe recorded it, and put it on tv.adobe.com. First of all I gave him a standing ovation in my edit bay when he persistently made jokes while seemingly no one was laughing or the audience mics were turned off (don't worry Andrew, it was awesome in a good way — you are the man). He asked the audience if they ever make sounds with their mouth to accompany their VFX. I don't think anyone answered him, but the answer is yes, or at least it should be. Have you ever wanted that bassy, stuttery, spinny, swooshy effect that is virtually indescribable? You've found it in Velocity > Spin FX.

For the true nerds like me who want to know what the audio engineers over at www.videocopilot.net used to record these sounds, they gave me a little glimpse behind the curtain. They called on the Schoeps (@SCHOEPSmics) CMIT 5U shotgun microphone, the TASCAM (@TASCAMpro) DR-100mkII – portable 2-channel PCM recorder, and for audio editing they embraced all sorts of software, including Adobe Audition (@AdobeAudition), Avid Pro Tools (@AvidProTools), Ableton Live (@Ableton), and even Imagine-Line's Fruity Loops Studio (@Image_Line).

Summing Up
Motion Pulse is a mind-altering sound design library that is worth every penny. If you ask me I will tell you to buy the Black Box bundle. It gets you all the libraries plus the invaluable Toolkit. If you need a little motion graphics blast you should take advantage of the Shockwave bundle because there are hundreds of uses for those blasts (plus it will save you at least 20 hours of render time in 3D Studio Max — and we all know time is money!).

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For info check out Video CoPilot's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Video-Copilot/106337146331 where they constantly post updates and content that you will only find there. Also follow them on twitter @videocopilot, every once in a while you get some great pithy one-liners.

In the end, with the Motion Pulse Sound Design Tool bundles and a little creativity you can create some truly stunning aural creations that will push your motion graphics beyond the bleeding edge. Please don't go too crazy though, I don't want any emails about how you made your boss throw up because you went all binaural with Motion Pulse, all right maybe I do.

I leave you with these main highlights: Comes with three versions of each effect: 16-bit WAV, 320kbs MP3, and 24-Bit WAV; when purchased as the "Black Box Bundle" you also get the "Toolkit" with the individual SFX layers; and it works in virtually any NLE or VFX program.

Brady Betzel is an editor at Bunim Murray Productions, a reality television production company. He is one of the editors on Bad Girls Club. His typical tools at work are Avid Symphony, Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe Photoshop CC. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter, @allbetzroff.