At Wide Blue Sound, Nathan Rightnour and a few dedicated teams build the tools we wish existed. Since 2015, we’ve been designing unique synths and FX that have found their way into 30,000 studios across 68 countries — because everyone needs a little sonic rebellion in their workflow.

Wide Blue Sound Logo How it was made
From planet to W: split in half, place side by side, then join.

The guy behind the sound

Nathan Rightnour in Paris
The Louvre, on my honeymoon.

Hey, I’m Nathan.

I’m a music producer first, software designer, and all-around noise nerd.

I started Wide Blue Sound because all the products out there were dated and clunky. I wanted to share sounds that were on the bleeding-edge, with interfaces that are playgrounds for creativity and inspiration.

Today, tens of thousands of music makers around the world use our sounds and plugins. But at the end of the day, I’m just a regular dude who loves a well-mixed cocktail (Old Fashioned’s are my love language) as much as a well-mixed track.

When I’m not in the studio, you’ll find me hitting festivals or Vegas with friends, playing Stellaris, and exploring new places with my way-out-of-my-league wife (she typed that 😆).

How I Got into Music

Technically, my first sequencer was Mario Paint.

I grew up playing drums and raiding my dad’s CD collection (Green Day, RHCP, Soundgarden, Dave Matthews), making mixtapes on cassette, recording my friend’s bands, and making beats in FL Studio.

But my love for electronic music?

That started with Guitar Hero. Kinda.

Back in the PlayStation 2 days, gaming magazines included demo discs, and that’s how I discovered Frequency as a teenager — the precursor to Guitar Hero, made by the same team. That game introduced me to early pioneers of electronic music like BT, Paul Oakenfold and Crystal Method.

I was instantly hooked.

This was before electronic music was a thing in the U.S., and iTunes didn’t exist yet. So I’d spend hours downloading rips of BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix sets just to find new music. I was also obsessed with Ninja Tune Records and collected their entire catalogue.

I also played drums & percussion in every concert band/orchestra/jazz combo/drumline, and eventually went to Berklee College of Music on a merit scholarship. I taught production to 50 students during my time there, as a student myself.

As I was graduating, I was hired by a video game studio that was making a more-ambitious Guitar Hero (using a real guitar!), which was a full-circle moment. But as much as I loved it, I knew that if I wanted to write music, I had to be where the action was. So I shipped off to LA.

There I began working with acclaimed film composer Jeff Rona, who later cofounded Wide Blue Sound with me, and the rest is history.

My music has appeared in multiple Apple projects, blockbuster films like Baywatch, and more than 8,500 commercial and TV projects for hundreds of household-name brands and networks. My credits include the Olympics, Game of Thrones, AAA games, trailers, and stadium music between plays. My music has reached 688+ million plays across streaming platforms, plus television broadcasts worldwide.

Why I make software

I’ve always been passionate about music, software, and business. So it was only a matter of time before I started a music software business.

The music software space is a copycat industry. That’s because products are crafted by folks who aren’t actively making music and can’t see what’s truly missing.

If something I want already exists, I simply buy it and get back to writing music.

But when I can’t find what I need, that’s when I build it myself, filling the gaps I’ve experienced firsthand.

I only work with the best people, and have hired over 100 people worldwide on the search to find them. If you want to create incredible things, shoot me an email.

I hope you enjoy what we do.

Cheers,
Nathan Rightnour

Nathan Rightnour