Download Killer Sound Design For Live 9 for macOS 10.9.0 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Windows on mac no emulator. Open the Mac App Store to buy and download apps. Open the Mac App Store to buy and download apps. Reason wizard Mo Volans takes you deep inside the world of synthesis and plunges you into the dark underworld of Twisted Sound Design in this exploration of advanced sonic techniques.

I love synthesis, but there’s something just as appealing about creating sounds from other found sounds — especially if you can make the results unrecognizable. I’ve gradually built a series of tricks using some favorite Mac tools. First, the newcomers: Soundtrack Pro: The newest addition to my arsenal is Apple’s, which arrived here last week.

Sure, in theory I should be doing actual work with the 5,000-sound+ file library included, like adding sound effects to a film or something. Instead, I’ve been creating custom drum kits and wacked-out sound by combining and processing those sounds.

I’ve occasionally started a project with a couple of choices from a sound effects CD, but the variety and quality here are exceptionally high. Many of my favorite Logic plug-ins are included, and there’s AU support, so that combined with Soundtrack’s innovative editing scheme (combining multiple effects non-destructively in real-time) means this is one fun sound exploration app. And why use it on paid work when you can be designing drum kits? Audacity (FREE): I thought Soundtrack would replace the superb open source editor. There are still some great little tricks on the Effects menu in Audacity, and it supports LADSPA and VST plug-ins, too. And don’t forget the classics. MetaSynth: I can’t sum up the spectacular capabilities of in two sentences, but suffice to say, the effects alone make this worth the price of admission.

(Try out some of the granular effects and see what I mean.) The real star is graphical editing: paint directly onto a sound spectrum to filter it, or use painting tools to resynthesize sounds. The new version has matured a lot, and it’s OS X native. SoundHack (FREE): Last but certainly not least, is probably the most legendary sound design tool ever on the Mac. Anyone interested in making odd sounds has probably used it. It’s basically a little sound editor with some effects, but unique sound effects like its Convolve implementation mean people still run it on OS X today. Favorite SoundHack moment: Running this baby on a IIci and leaving it overnight to do the processing.

Of course, I’m leaving out the modular workstations, the real-time stuff, the PD, Max/MSP, Reaktor lot, etc. But sometimes it’s nice to do good, old-fashioned, non-realtime waveform-level sound design, and all four of these tools fit the bill. (Note that three of them are Mac-only; the one exception is Audacity.) For more inspiration: Check out today’s story on, or head to for this week’s series on small sound designs (like the THX and Windows sounds). So what are your favorite tools and techniques? Let me know, and I’ll compile some of the best entries.

Version 3.0.3: • Fixed crackling audio that could occur on HDMI and DisplayPort when Sound Siphon is active on Mojave. • Mute output during capture now updates immediately. • Fixed a problem on Mojave that caused playback to shadow devices to fail after wake from sleep. • Uninstaller now removes STZAudioBridge.driver on Mojave. • Fixed microphone capture on Mojave. • Fixed a crash that could occur when unplugging a device that is in use on Mojave. • Reduced memory footprint on Mojave.

• Now works with unified input/output devices on Mojave. • Better handling of sample rate changes on Mojave.