As we approach the end of a busy 2025, it’s time for one final synth soundset: Zebra Kobalt.

Kobalt continues the series of releases, started by Apotheosis and Hyperion, taking unsent and unused sounds from synth programming sessions for films, TV and games over recent years and then collating, tweaking and reworking them to create soundsets for you to use in your scoring and music production projects.

The original form of the sounds had a very organic and dark ambient vibe. They were full of woody and metallic tones; percussive, blown  and bowed techniques; with a layer of the synthetic under-pinning it all, to provide an uncanny hybrid feel. With these patches, I was able to put together an initial collection of 180 sounds. But, for some reason, I felt there was something missing.

In thinking about how to market Kobalt (which also wasn’t called Kobalt initially), my mind was drawn to which films and TV shows I felt best reflected the soundset. In particular, films like Arrival, Annihilation and Prey, and shows such as Devs, Andor and The Mandalorian. I took a closer listen to them all and it suddenly clicked. Alongside the more organic sounds were eclectic synths, primarily with a broken and processed sound.

I started making some new patches to reflect the gaps I felt needed filling… and… went… mad.

Alongside the new damaged analogue synth sounds I was creating, I found myself making more organic patches and a whole host of sounds that combined the two flavours. The key factors being analogue and noise oscillators being run through comb filters and driven by distortion and saturation.

I had so much fun. As I often do when I get carried away.

This left me having to collate a brand new soundset utilising the original 180 presets and all the new ones, which I eventually got down to 200 (with plenty inreserve!). On top of that, I had a huge amoutn of variations of most patches, both from the film and TV sessions and also the new programming I’d been doing.

This resulted in the Expanded version of Kobalt where I’ve put together 220 of my favourite “alternate takes” of Kobalt patches.