My 3 Favorite Tools to Create Sounds Faster

While I love designing sound as best I can, there's almost no better feeling than being able to churn out a bunch of great work super quickly and just being "in the flow".

And since I want to make sure I'm in the flow as much as possible day by day, there are a few tools that I use within Reaper (and one bonus non Reaper tool) to make sure I can get my work done smoothly and quickly!

So, here are some of my favorite tools to speed up my sound design:

1. Rolling Sampler/Global Sampler: A lot of you have heard me mention this before, but the overwhelming majority of people using Reaper for game audio still aren't using it. This must be rectified. Here's the thing: Even though I think a lot of software/gear/plugins are optional, I think this one is absolutely essential to any sound designer. It's that good.

So what does it do?

Well, it'll sound simple, but really all it's doing is recording inside DAW in the background constantly. That's pretty much it.

Global Sampler in action.

There are endless reasons of why this is so powerful, but it's especially useful for working with synthesizers. Instead of needing to record some MIDI, render the track to audio, and then continue editing from there, you can just drag and drop from the always-on recorder, and off you go.

Seriously, even if you don't see the use-case for it, just get it and try it. Your workflow will be forever improved.

There is a free, Reaper-only version available here:https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2506514

Or a paid version (that you can use in any DAW) here:https://www.birdsthings.com/

2. NVK Workflow 2: For those of you who have been using Reaper for a while, you almost certainly at least know about NVK's tools.

Out of all of his tools, the NVK Workflow 2 suite is my favorite, especially when it comes to his folder items pack. Instead of trying to explain the huge list of features he has, just check out his video on NVK Workflow here.

If you're exporting dozens and dozens of sounds a day, this is going to be a godsend.

3. LKC Content Navigator: This one isn't as sexy as the other two, but for those of you who have worked on a decent-sized game project, you know that your project - even if it's well organized into different subprojects, can grow to monstrous sizes, and can become harder and harder to navigate.

Enter LKC Navigator! This basically makes your project super searchable, so you can get to the exact tracks and projects you need to see at any time.

The search function of LKC Content Navigator.

It gets real handy when you have 100s of tracks!

Note that LKC also makes some other great tools, some of which people prefer over the NVK tools! Play around and see what you prefer! You can check out LKC Content Navigator here.

4. Blockhead DAW: This is an extremely experimental and new DAW that I'm loving. It's in an extremely early state, so I wouldn't really recommend it as a fully pro-level tool just yet, but the way it's laid out is specifically made for sound designers like us.

It doesn't work in the traditional way most DAWs do, and focused primarily on sound design/experimental audio over standard music production. Pretty much all DAWs are designed from a music-first perspective, but not this one! Take that, composers!

The new, experimental Blockhead DAW. Really crazy stuff.

You can only get it through the creator's Patreon currently, but if you're curious, check it out here.

If you end up using any of these tools, let me know what you think!