Review: Doomsday by The Unfinished & Sonic Mayhem

by Raborn Johnson

Doomsday is a bad thing – unless you are talking about an exciting set of sonic wonders from the likes of The Unfinished and Sonic Mayhem. Doomsday is a dark, pulsing, atmospheric collection of sounds for both Absynth and Massive. From pulsing atmospheres, drones, and basses to beautiful pads and soaring leads, these sounds will serve as a great secret weapon for composers who are working on everything from horror films to ambient tracks to synth-heavy projects.

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Review: Doomsday by The Unfinished & Sonic Mayhem

Doomsday is a dark, pulsing, atmospheric collection of sounds for both Absynth and Massive. From pulsing atmospheres, drones, and basses to beautiful pads and soaring leads, these sounds will serve as a great secret weapon for composers who are working on everything from horror films to ambient tracks to synth-heavy projects. Doomsday features 128 sounds each (256 total) for both Absynth and Massive. You can purchase the full version for £29.99 or each individual sound set for £19.99 here:

Doomsday by The Unfinished & Sonic Mayhem sells for £29.99 or each individual sound set for £19.99 from The Unfinished

Thoughts

The Unfinished has been one of my great musical discoveries over the last few years. The Unfinished is the moniker for composer and sound designer, Matt Bowdler. Matt has a way of pushing a synth beyond where you might expect it to go, and has designed cutting edge sounds for Hollywood movies, AAA games scores, and hit TV shows around the globe. I have purchased several of his sound sets and have featured quite a few of these sounds in my own tracks. Doomsday represents a collaboration between The Unfinished and Sonic Mayhem (aka Sascha Dikiciyan), who is himself an award-winning, Hollywood games composer who has contributed music to such series as Mass Effect, Quake, Tron, Borderlands, and most recently scored Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The sounds in Doomsday were originally created for Sascha’s debut 2015 album, Doomsday. These sounds run the gamut from hard-hitting, digitally processed basses, drones, and leads that you might find in industrial or electronic music, to more subtle pads and dreamy synth sounds that would feel at home in underscore, hybrid, or ambient music.

Pulses. I LOVE pulses. This is the first thing I noticed in Doomsday – lots and lots of unique pulses. The pulses here are different from anything I’ve ever heard before. Beyond the usual pulsing bass lines or pulsing sounds for underscore, there are pulsing drones, soundscapes, and static-filled yet airy synth sounds. I found myself creating a spreadsheet just to keep track of all the sounds I liked, and recorded multiple instances of inspiration from various sounds that I wanted to come back to later! These sounds are really unique.

Both the Massive and Absynth sound sets are great, but I found myself especially captured by the Absynth presets. These are divided into Piano/Keys, Synth Leads, Synth Pads, Synth Misc., Plucked Strings, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Mallet Instruments, Brass, Vocal, Soundscapes, and Sound Effects. So many of these sounds take you to a digitized wonderland that somehow also incorporates an organic-like undertone, and a number of these take on a whole new life with a simple flick of the modwheel. These sounds are quite stylized and would fit nicely into hybrid tracks or would add unique character to your underscore work. A personal favorite here is the synth pad ‘Frozen Nebulae’, described in the set as a “Hard-edged, glittering, digital pad.” That really sums up this Absynth sound set rather nicely; somehow it is both hard-edged and glittering at the same time!

The Massive sound set is no slouch either. Massive has the ability to produce some really growling, digitized basses, drones, etc., and The Unfinished does not disappoint here. These soun

ds are divided into Synth Leads, Synth Pads, Synth Misc., Bass, Mallet Instruments, Soundscapes, and Sound Effects. These sounds feel gritty, growling, and digitized. Many of these would

fit especially well in EDM or aggressive hybrid or trailer-style tracks. One of my favorites here is a sound entitled ‘East of Arizona’, described as “a pulsing, dirty synth.” That really sums up this sound set for me – dirty, pulsing, aggressive, and unique.

Make sure to check out the official walk-through videos below to determine if this sound set would fit into your composing toolkit.