Instant Cinematic Sound

Want to soundtrack a Sci-Fi game or the zombie apocalypse? With 40 epic pads, gritty drones and otherworldly textures, SampleScience Nostromos BE is the first choice for creating cinematic atmospheres. Our current plug-in highlight inspires with expressively playable instruments that show their strengths in film, game and trailer music, as well as in Ambient, Chillout, Downtempo & more. Great cinema!

From the depths of space

The name Nostromos will immediately remind Alien fans of the spaceship from the 1979 movie. And it’s a fitting name, since the plug-in is also a wonderful provider of atmospheric sci-fi sounds ranging from pads to drones. Nostromos BE comes with a small player that allows intuitive access to the 600 MB preset library. The sounds can be customized in a few simple steps.

Load sounds

If you click on the Preset line, you can switch between the 40 instruments from Nostromos BE. In addition to Pads, Drones and Textures, you‘ll also find Basses, Leads and otherworldly sounds. Synthesizer sounds and organic sounds have been skillfully combined to create inspiring instruments.

Envelope

Use the first four controls in the upper row to adjust the volume of the selected preset. You want to give the sound a more powerful bass foundation? All you have to do is turn up Sub a little. The control to the right adds vinyl crackle to the sound, which can provide more vintage flair à la Boards Of Canada.

Need aggressive sounds?

A special feature are the Low and

High controls, with which you can create a gentle overdrive or a biting distortion by boosting the bass and treble. Using these controls requires a bit of sensitivity, as the signal can get very loud. If necessary, you can compensate for this with the

Volume control on the right.

Spice up sounds and modulate

For sonic variety, you can use the

Noise and Dust controls, which add a Pad sound and a noisy, yet melodically playable texture to the sound, respectively. The Reverb effect of Nostromo‘s BE blends very well into the sound. To the right, you will find the LFO parameters Depth (Modulation Depth) and Rate. The waveform (Wave) and the modulation destination

(LFO Dest) of the LFO can be set below the Preset Navigation.

Filter with two modes

Nostromos BE has a filter that lets you switch between Lowpass and Highpass types at the top, and you set the Cutoff Frequency with the Cut Control. Finally, the Volume and Pan controls determine - of course - the instrument‘s gain and pan position.

1 Inspiration for Ambient

If you combine several sounds from Nostromos BE, you can create a short Ambient track in no time flat. We start with a pad such as 25 - Synesthesia, with which we play a sequence of notes. Since the sound is already quite complex, we‘ll only play single notes, no chords. The bass sound 08 - VectorBass provides a rich foundation. 1

2 Dull bass

In combination with other sounds, however, it can be too rich in overtones. Use the Cut control to quickly remedy this and make room in the mix for other sounds. The bass plays the same notes as our pad sound. Experiment with the octave position here. Some of Nostromos BE‘s presets are great for arpeggios, such as 32 - Outer Space.1

3 Pad as arpeggio

The previously used patch 25 - Synesthesia is ideally suited for this purpose. By setting Sustain to 0 and reducing Decay and Release, you give the sound the desired short volume curve. We choose High Pass as the Filter Type here to filter out the low frequencies, leaving room for the pad and the bass. 1

4 Effective variety

By varying the Decay value of the envelope using host automation, even a simple arpeggio sounds varied and unique. Be sure to try adding a stereo delay with dotted eighth notes and a dense reverb effect to the sound. In no time at all, you‘ll have a classy atmospheric arpeggio that doesn‘t need to play anything elaborate. 1

5 Gated noise

Sounds with a noisy component such as 01 - New Dawn Pad or 02 - Unearth are best suited for effect sounds. Select the high pass filter here and set the frequency quite high, so that only the high-frequency, noisy part can be heard. Tip: Modulate Expression to create gate and tremolo effects with Nostromos BE. 1

6 Pad

This way you can chop up a sound rhythmically. It doesn‘t always have to be in sync with the host tempo, just set the Rate by ear. With long attack and release times, the sound fades in slowly and fades out long. Now, how about a sustained melody to accompany our backing? For this, we adjust patch 34 - Outer Space as shown in the picture. 1

7 Vibrato effect

Again, the Highpass filter ensures that it doesn‘t clash with the lower frequency sounds. Be sure to try subtle vibrato effects by selecting Pitch as the LFO Dest and setting a low modulation depth. Rate can be adjusted to your liking. For stereo sounds, modulating the pan position (LFO Dest: Pan) is very effective. 1

8 Melody

Now you can play a melody with the preset. With these five sounds, you can immediately build up a small arrangement. For example, start with the Pad and then add the bass first and then the arpeggio, or slowly increase the volume via automation so that the sounds slowly start to fade in. Simple, but effective! 1

9 Create tension

And the Sci-Fi track takes shape. You can also build and release tension by automating the filter cutoff value. Or how about adding effects like delay and reverb or modulation effects to the sounds and also control their settings dynamically using automation? Have fun with your further experiments!