Horror/thriller sounds

Creations & Ideas
1

I’d like to share a piece where I’m exploring making scary, get under your skin sounds that typically characterize horror/thriller movies: https://youtu.be/JtesrrqT_EQ

I was inspired by Disasterpeace and their soundtrack for the movie, It Follows (very weird but good movie you can check out). I really just wanted to make terrifying buildup sounds like those in this movie.

One neat thing here is: if you modulate sample rate of some of the samples like drum_cymbal_hard and make the stepping rate very slow but the sleep time low for the loop, you get very eerie weird sort of build up sound that feel like it’s forever climbing up.

Code:

# lfo for sines
lfo0 = (range 0, 2, 0.25).mirror
lfo1 = (range 0, 1, 0.025).mirror
# lfo for panning
lfo2 = (range -1, 1, 0.125).mirror
# lfos for bd_haus (dark-side of the beat)
lfo3 = (range 0.25, 0.5, 0.025).mirror
lfo4 = (range 0.5, 3, 0.125).mirror
# let's get wonky with it! slow, slow, slow steps
lfo5 = (range 1, 8, 0.005).mirror

time = 1


with_fx :reverb, room: 0.8 do
  
  live_loop :purr_horror_drum do
    sample :bd_haus, amp: lfo0.tick, attack: 0, rate: lfo3.look
    sample :bd_haus, amp: 0, attack: 0.2, rate: lfo4.look
    sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: 0, rate: lfo5.look
    sample :drum_cymbal_hard, amp: 0, rate: lfo5.look
    sleep time
  end
  
  live_loop :purr_horror_synth do
    with_synth :saw do
      play :c1, amp: lfo0.tick, attack: 0
      ##|play :c2, amp: lfo1.look, attack: 0
      ##|play :f4, amp: lfo0.look, pan: lfo2.look, release: 0.1
      ##|play :c6, amp: lfo0.look, pan: lfo2.look, release: 0.1
    end
    sleep time
  end
end
2 Likes
2

Here’s a challenge (along those lines)

1 Like
3

I had forgotten what this was called! Thank you so much for sharing. :smile:

4

See here: Far too much technical stuff going on

Eli…

5

If You want to play that way :smile:

 ############# mornin' ###############

mn=[:r]; for jn in 1..1023
  mn[jn]=hz_to_midi(11*jn).round-36
end; use_bpm 110; puts mn[36]

c=[36,48,32,48, 36,48,32,48, 36,48,32,48, 36,48,32,48,
   36,48,32,48, 36,48,32,48, 48,48,54,54, 36,45,30,30,
   48,48,54,54];     z=[2,0,1,1,9,0,1,1]
m=[2,0,4,0,3,0,4,0]; d=[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0]
f=[2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]; o=[1,2,2]
s=[:fm,  :pluck,:pretty_bell]
e=[1.0,    2.0,     0.2     ]
v=[1.3,    1.0,     0.5     ]

for i in 0..3; play 79, release: 0.01; sleep 1; end

loop do
  
  for i in 0..287; x=i/8; y=i%8; r=rand_i(3)
    
    synth :beep, note: 79, release: 0.01, amp: z[y]/16.0

    synth :dtri, note: mn[c[x]*4], detune: -5.0,
      sustain: f[y], release: 0, amp: 0.3

    synth s[r], note:  mn[c[x]*m[y]*o[r]],
      cutoff: 57, release: e[r], amp: v[r]

  sleep 0.25; end; end
1 Like
6

Thanks, but do you mean my post is too technical?

7

Not at all… my post was a rant against all the technical fix threads which
clutter up the forum, obscuring the few posts that include code that people
can take and use…

You wanted horror sounds… check the 2 pieces of horror code in that post.

Eli…

8

Your horror examples are amazing!! Lots of tricks in there to pick up as well, thanks! :blush:

9

You are welcome.

My favorite is actually the slow heartbeat that is #'d
out in the second example… Mmmm…

  sample :bd_haus, rate: 0.01, amp: 1

Though it could be improved by using:

  sample :bd_haus, rate: 0.01, amp: 1
  sleep 0.1
  sample :bd_haus, rate: 0.02, amp: 0.5

Eli…

1 Like