Whoosh: Designer Tips – UVI Support

Discover some ways to improve your workflow and use of Whoosh with UVI Sound Designer, Antoine Martin.

#1 - Get Started and Create the Perfect Whoosh

It can be difficult to craft the perfect sound effect by starting with the 3 layers at the same time! Instead, try to begin by soloing the Noise; choose a White, Pink or Blue noise type and tweak the cutoff frequency (best results are between 50 and 250 Hz).
Then, add a little bit of Resonance, around 5 to 15 %, and let the Filter Depth close to its default value (50%). There you should have a nice ‘whoosh’ sound.
Now you can bring back the 2 textures layers to spice things up.

#2 - Improve Your Whoosh

To make your whoosh more intense, try decreasing only the right part of the envelope. For example: click on the All button, then on the R button (next to the Curve knob), then click several times on the - button. That’s it!

Tip: to quickly modify the length of your sound use the MIDI Modwheel on your controller keyboard; by default the Duration parameter is assigned to it.

#3 - Easily Reset Your Envelopes

If you try to draw custom envelopes and are not happy with the results, you can quickly reset it with a right-click. (Right-click on the upper-half of the envelope = envelope is set to 0% from start to finish, whereas right-clicking on the lower-half = envelope is set to 100%).

In the Movement panel, the Pitch Mode is set to Doppler mode by default. The other modes (“> Noise”, “> Texture 1”, “> Texture 2”) are follow-envelope modes. These are useful if you want the pitch to be modulated along a particular envelope, for example on a rise or a drop.

Tip: if you want to have more control over your whoosh sounds with a MIDI keyboard click on the Velocity and the Key buttons. ‘Velocity’ makes the Filter Depth change based on the key velocity of the notes as you play. Key links the cutoff frequencies to the keys you play.

#4 - Take Your Sound to an Other Dimension

Using the Convolver in a subtle way is something I like to do to add another dimension to the sound. For instance, to make the sound of a sword in a fight scene, I would take the INIT Swish preset and convolve it with any Metal sample, with the mix knob at about 25%.

Tip: to open the Sources panel, you can -of course- use the Sources button, but you can also click on a source’s label (“Noise”, Texture 1” or “Texture 2”). It can save some mouse travel!

#5 - Randomize Your Whooshes

There are tons of texture samples (545, to be exact), but you can let chance pick one for you by using the Random button. And just below you will find an Undo button so you can easily go back if you click too fast.

#6 - Go Retro

To make a retro sci-fi whoosh, try loading any Classic preset and using the Comb filter on a texture source. Raising the Resonance up to 50% minimum makes it more audible, and if you set the duration to 4 or 5 seconds you can obtain some very nice pass-by effects.

Discover more about Whoosh: uvi.net/whoosh-fx

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