Forbidden Tonalities, the new U.S.O. sound library, is out on A Sound Effect. Its subtitle is Vintage Cybernetic Circuits, and the starting point is the first fully electronic film score: the "electronic tonalities" Louis and Bebe Barron created for the 1956 sci-fi classic, built from vacuum-tube circuits that behaved like living creatures.
I did not want to imitate those sounds, but to borrow the method. Every sound in the library is born from a simulated cybernetic circuit that warms up, finds its balance, chokes, mutates and dies, and is then shaped with the studio tools of the 1950s: ring modulator, capstan varispeed, reversed tape, splices and loops, tape echo, spring reverb and the echo chamber.
The library comes in two editions. Standard is the sound design kit: 1864 sounds, from flying saucers, ray guns, robots and invisible monsters to alarms, explosions, radio signals and alien skies, plus a family of short abstract signals for interfaces and accents. Deluxe adds the musical side, for 2396 sounds in total: pulses in tempo and in all 12 keys, transitions on the bar, feedback machines driven into self-oscillation and played by hand, and composed ambience suites as seamless loops.
Everything is 24 bit / 96 kHz, with full UCS metadata. It is meant for retro sci-fi, period drama, games, trailers and experimental music.
Find out more and listen to the demo on A Sound Effect.
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