On Creating a Playable Foley Preset for Krotos Studio

Athens, Greece (May 14, 2025)—Composer and sound designer John Valasis recently created Water Foley, a collection of 17 performable presets for the Krotos Studio sound design platform.

Valasis, who has spent the past two decades working across film, television and audio post-production, approached the project differently than he would a typical Foley session. Instead of designing to picture, he set out to create a responsive, expressive set of presets that could adapt to a wide range of scenes and styles. 

“I’ve recorded water sound effects for films before, and I’ve used water as source material for heavily processed sample packs,” he explains. “But I’d never created something with so much detail and demand. Here, water became more than a sound source. It turned into an instrument, a means of expression, a storytelling tool in the hands of the user.”

Valasis recorded the Water Foley pack at Athens Film Sound, the Foley and sound design studio he co-founded in Greece. Using a custom-built 500-litre water tank, he captured everything from controlled drips to chaotic splashes, recording in stereo using a matched pair of high-sensitivity microphones and a Zoom F6 recorder. The compact size of the mics allowed for creative placement, including inside sink drains and other tight enclosures. 

“Close miking was essential to bring out the detail and avoid room coloration,” Valasis notes. “I also used off-axis positioning and shock mounts to control handling noise and proximity distortion.”

Back in the studio, Valasis cleaned, layered and refined the recordings before loading them into Krotos Studio for testing. Sounds were adjusted and reworked until they performed naturally and expressively. “Elements like attack and release can completely change how natural or responsive a sound feels,” he explains. 

To keep each preset intuitive and dynamic, Valasis used XY pads to control movement and texture, and layered sounds at different pitches and intensities to create smooth transitions between soft and aggressive performances.

In some cases—like Water Motion—he rebuilt the entire structure around Reformer AI, which better supported long, fluid behaviors. For presets like Water Drips, he added a third granular layer triggered across different regions of the XY pad, allowing for continuous variation and added depth. 

“That shift unlocked the full potential of the preset,” he says, “and gave it the sense of motion and realism it was missing.”

The pack is currently available to all Krotos Studio users.