Sampleson has announced the release of Backgrounds, a sound design tool that allows you to create immersive soundscapes by simply dragging words/ideas onto a canvas. Mix “Strings” with “Analog Bass”, or “Bassoon” with “Thunder” and get evolving soundscapes in just seconds. It runs 100% on the user’s machine. No cloud or subscription needed.
How it works
Backgrounds is built around a Semantic Audio Retrieval model that understands how words relate to sound — running more than 11,000 embeddings entirely on the user’s machine, across a bank of over 22,000 audio cells curated by Sampleson’s team.
The workflow has three steps:
- Drag — Drop keywords that describe a scene onto the canvas, like sticky notes for sound.
- Generate — Backgrounds will start generating evolving atmospheres blending the words you placed onto the canvas.
- Animate — Move them around to mix or pan over the time. Record movements on your DAW (via automatable parameters) or directly capture the live audio with its built-in recorder.
Each keyword can be regenerated individually with a single click, or removed and replaced, letting users refine a scene without starting over. Five keyword families — Orchestra-based, Synth-based, Bass-Rumbles, Places, and Custom — cover common cinematic needs, while the Custom category lets users type any word and have the engine semantically match it to sound. Finished soundscapes can be captured as WAV files and exported directly to the desktop or dragged into any DAW.
100% Local. No cloud generation.
Backgrounds runs 100% on the user’s computer. There is no cloud upload, no server queue, and no subscription — the plugin is purchased once and generates unlimited soundscapes.
Pricing & Availability
Backgrounds is available now at an introductory price of $39 (regularly $59) at sampleson.com/backgrounds. It runs as a standalone app on Mac and Windows, and as a VST3 and AU plugin inside any compatible host.
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