Sandstorm: Cinematic Soundscape Instrument by Sampleson

Sandstorm offers 17 sound engines that you can stack to build complex, evolving textures. The layers span strings, bassoons, tubas, French horns, an upright piano, male voices, two sub synthesizers, a pad synthesizer, a wavetable arpeggiator and wavetable synthesizer, a wind noise synthesizer, and three granular synthesizers.

Because the layers are different in character, you can combine a sustained orchestral bed with granular movement or wind noise to create texture quickly. The developer describes the instrument as a way to try many variations of an idea in a short time, which suits scoring and scene work.

Sandstorm includes controls for Ambient, Reverb, Master Gain and effects processing, plus Modules for shaping each part of the sound. Its parameters are automatable in your DAW, so you can move the character of a texture over the length of a cue.

The instrument is listed with low CPU usage and a download of about 200 MB. It is aimed at film and game composers, sound designers and producers who want cinematic atmospheres without building every layer from scratch.