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Discover the top five sound sources—human voices, instruments, animals, metals, and contact mics—for crafting spine-chilling horror sound effects.
November 23, 2021
Here at 344 Audio, we know a thing or two about how to create sounds for horror movies. Whether its a classic jump scare or the creepy ambience of a haunted house, the Horror genre is filled with moments where sound design takes a leading role in making the audience jump out of their seats.
Here are our 5 top sound sources that make for some truly terrifying sound design.
The Human voice is capable of producing an incredible range of sounds, making it an extremely versatile and accessible tool for creating Horror effects. It also involves no proprietary equipment other than a microphone, meaning that you can dive in and start being creative with minimal setup or fuss.
One of the real strengths of working with vocal sounds is that you can heavily distort and mangle them whilst still retaining a recognisable Human quality. This leads to something that feels grounded in reality, yet "not quite human" and closer to some demonic entity. If executed correctly this can produce some extremely sickening effects.
Acoustic instruments are naturally resonant and will contain a lot of harmonics in the sounds they produce. This leads to cool and interesting results when manipulating sounds, especially when pitching things down or applying effects like distortion and saturation.Instruments can be modifying into strange tunings, or make use of atonality which will give a very dissonant and unsettling sound. You can also use uncommon playing techniques to enhance the fear factor, such as playing string instruments with a razor blade or knife.
We recommend that all sound designers should keep a box of broken instruments and random bits in their studio.
Much like the human voice, animals make for excellent sound sources for creating horror effects. Animal vocalisations can be used to similar effect as Human ones, only with a much more guttural and primal quality to them. The pig squeal used in the movie Saw is a classic example of an animal sound being used out of context with terrifying results.
We are naturally wired to be sensitive to predators, so any sounds which have their origins from an animal will have a more dramatic effect on us than synthetic ones. Animal vocalisations and breathing are also great for designing creature sounds, which has long been a staple of the Horror genre.
Metals and glass lend themselves very nicely to creating harsh and sharp sounds such as nails on a chalkboard, or the piercing scrape of a knife across a plate. These are sounds that are impossible to ignore and will make you wince and send a shiver down your spine.
Metal is also highly resonant and responds well to a number of different modes of excitation such as bowing, striking and scrapes. These kinds of sounds are excellent for creating horror stingers and creepy impacts.
Be extra careful when working with glass as you can easily give yourself the kind of cut that needs stitches if you make a wrong move!
Contact microphones work by picking up the physical vibrations as they move through a solid object. This method of recording is particularly effective on surfaces that can bend and warp such as wood, sheet metal or chicken wire. Expected to find lots of strange gurgles, creaks and groans that can be used raw, or processed further into horrifying variations.
We hope you enjoyed this article!
This post was partially inspired by our recent work in creating Jump Scares, our new horror-themed sound effects library. Jump Scares contains many of the sound sources and techniques that we have discussed in this article.
You can check out Jump Scares via this link.
Unlock the full potential of your voice as a sound design tool with these creative tips on improvisation, character performance, and vocal effects.
November 23, 2021
The human voice is an amazingly complex tool, capable of producing infinite variations of sounds as fast as you can think them up. When viewed in pure terms, the voice is essentially a thought-controlled synthesizer that we all carry inside our bodies, and using your voice is the quickest way to present and communicate sonic ideas, conveying the emotions behind a sound.
As sound designers and audio professionals, we are often too quick to reach for a designed sound or library sound effect when the answer could lie in a sound derived from our voices.
In this article, we share with you some tips for how to use your voice for creative sound design.
The first step to amazing vocal sound design is to know what your voice is capable of. This is something that only comes with practice so if you are serious about mastering vocal sound design then you need to invest some time into learning your voice inside out.
Set up a microphone channel and spend an hour or so just freestyling random sound with your voice. It doesn't matter too much what the sounds are, more just that you are exploring the parameters of your instrument and building up an intuitive sense of what sounds you can create, and the level of control you have over those sounds.
Push your voice to its limits and work out your ideal range and tone of voice. Does your voice crack when you push it too hard in a certain register? Do you have any natural upper or lower harmonics that can be brought out and enhanced? How does your voice behave when used for loud and quiet, or higher and lower in pitch?
By taking the time to learn your instrument you will be much more finely calibrated when it comes to recording your voice and can deliver the goods in less time and with more creative flair.
A lot of vocal sound design comes from the quality of the performance, and this means thinking like a voice actor, using your imagination and embodying the character you are trying to portray. This is especially important for creature sound design as you want to nature of the creature to come across clearly in the vocal performance.
Are they evil, good? big, small? powerful etc. A good technique is to physically act out the performance whilst you are recording, mimicking the posture of the creature and using your hands, body movements to convey the physicality of the character.
This does not only extend to creature and character-based vocal sounds. Perhaps you are creating a wind or atmospheric sound, the same principle still applies. Try and inject as much of the emotion that you want to convey in your performance and it will help to make the final product as effective as possible.
A great vocal performance can be made even better through the use of some creative effects. There are many kinds of effects, each with different purposes. You should work out exactly what kind of effect and feeling you are trying to achieve with the voice and work from there.
Are you looking to enhance an element of the voice that is already present or transform it completely? Perhaps you want to do a gender swap or turn a human voice into a different species. Knowing how much room you have to play with the voice is crucial as it keeps you on brief and lets you be more focused in your creativity.
Some classic examples of creative effects for vocal sound design include:
As discussed in this article, the human voice is a sound design tool with vast creative potential, and every budding sound designer can benefit greatly from reaching some level of mastery at vocal sound design. Make an aim to practice this element of your skillset consistently and you will open many creative doors that will help you to grow and progress as a sound designer.
We hope you enjoyed this article!
This blog highlights five more epic sound design moments in video games, including the iconic portal, door, and button sounds in Portal 2, the powerful Dragon Shouts in Skyrim, the visceral explosions in Battlefield, the spine-tingling eagle screech in Assassin’s Creed's "Leap of Faith", and the delightful level sounds in Little Big Planet.
November 23, 2021
Kicking off this list we have Portal 2.
Portal combines elements of a puzzle game with sci-fi and first-person shooter and is one of the most beloved games of its generation. Whilst it's challenging yet playful gameplay had players hooked, it was the games audio design that stood out and made the world of the game feel truly alive and believable.
In particular, the sound of the portal gun, as well as the door and button sounds are exceptional and convey so much about the story and setting as the players progress through the mysterious facility.
Skyrim was a literal gamechanger upon its release. The immersive world of the game, combined with an epic fantasy story and unmatched player progression made it an instant classic.Central to the story of Skyrim is the Dragon Shouts. These are spells and attacks that the player can utilise and they have many different effects throughout the game. The shouts are spoken in Dragon Language and each one has a ferocious piece of sound design to go with.The rush of summoning a dragon shout before you charge into combat is one of the many thrills that makes Skyrim such a great game, and the sound design for each Dragon Shout is absolutely perfect!
Whether it's storming the trenches with bayonets in WW1 or tank battles across the oil fields of the Middle East, The Battlefield franchise has always delivered a visceral and gritty audio experience for players.
With large scale maps, destructible environments, an armada of vehicles, Battlefield leads the way in delivering a hyper-realistic audio experience that feels both blockbuster and believable.
The sound design and overall mix of the game are impeccable, but we feel that the destruction sound effects deserve the most praise. Nowhere else in gaming is blowing stuff up more fun, and the sound design is the without doubt key ingredient at play here.
At a time where stealth games had fallen out of favour with general audiences, Assassins Creed came along and changed everything.
The franchise would go on to become one of the most popular of the last 10 Years and birthed a whole host of epic moments, but none more so than the iconic "Leap of Faith"
The leap of faith sees you jump from a high building down into the safety of a hay bail and it comes with a spine-tingling eagle screech sound effect. The leap of faith usually came at the end of a long chase sequence, so whenever players heard the eagle sound effect they knew they had made it to safety away from the enemies.
Little Big Planet is a charming and innovative platformer from UK studio Media Molecule. The game features a cast of cheeky characters and places a strong emphasis on players being able to create their own experience, levels, game modes and challenges etc.The audio design for Little Big Planet is truly delightful, and pretty much every event in the game has a corresponding sound that is pleasant and satisfying.
Little Big Planet is also notable for being one of the few games to allow players the freedom to choose their own sound effects, which is something we would love to see more of in other games.
We hope you enjoyed checking out this article!
This blog highlights five iconic sound design moments in video games, including the speeding-up music in Space Invaders, the satisfying World of Warcraft level-up sound, the haunting "Train Room" in Dead Space, the chilling Left 4 Dead 2 Witch, and the intense Gears of War 2 Riftworm sequence.
November 23, 2021
Our list begins with a classic. Space invaders was the 1970s arcade game that became a worldwide sensation after being ported to the Atari VCS home gaming system, spawning countless hours of fun in the process.
The game utilised an iconic 4-note chromatic motif in its soundtrack which kept a steady pulse to underpin the gameplay. When the player has 1 enemy left to kill, the music and gameplay animations would accelerate to put the player on edge and ramp up the excitement. This goes to show that simple ideas executed well can take you very far indeed.
WoW is the quintessential MMORPG, and for many years during the late 2000s and 2010s it reigned supreme as the number one most popular game in the world.
The game features a level system where players must grind for exp and better gear, completing dungeons and quests along the way. When a player finally reaches enough exp to progress to the next level they are rewarded with this iconic sound effect.
For anyone who has played Wow, this sound is super satisfying and is sure to conjure up many fond memories of reaching a new level after hours and hours of grinding.
Dead Space took the industry by storm upon release thanks to its intelligent game design, presentation and storytelling.
The audio design of Dead space is on another level entirely, however, and for many, it remains one of the best sounding games of all time. The audio team really went to town, throwing everything they can at the player to scare them senseless.
In one memorable moment, the player walks through an industrial area of the ship and its greeted by the most deafening and disturbing of ambiences in what has been come to be known as "The train room"
The left for dead series is known for throwing hordes of rampant zombies at the player and giving them many different types of enemies to deal with. The witch has become infamous as the one enemy that no one wants to run into.
Its creepy combination of sobbing and whimpering when it's in its dormant state, contrast with its demonic cries and piercing screams once it has been awoken make for an intensely memorable enemy, and one that has all players on guard when they enter a new area of a level.
Gears of War 2 has no shortage of epic sound design moments, but we felt that chainsaw-ing your way through the heart of a gigantic worm and then slicing your way out in a tsunami of blood takes first prize.
This mission is a long one and has you making your way through the worm's anatomy, encountering various enemies and bodily hazards that are trying to kill you. We love the progression of the background ambiences as you moved through the digestive system up towards the heart of the worm, and the heart itself has a colossal heartbeat that adds a rhythmic layer underneath the climactic section of the level.
We can only imagine the mess that must have been made in the developer's foley studio to create all of these gory sounds.
We hope you enjoyed this article!
This blog provides a step-by-step guide for creating a custom Kontakt instrument, from concept and recording to sound design considerations
November 23, 2021
We are back with the third and final part of our blog series on how to create your own custom Kontakt instrument. In todays post we will be looking at how to use some of the advanced functions that are available to you when in Kontakt.
The sample looping function in Kontakt allows you to loop sections of audio within your samples. This is useful for when you want to create long pad-style sounds then can be held indefinitely and played as chords.
To create a loop you must first come down to the wave editor section of Kontakt and turn on the "sample loop" tab. This will cause a gold coloured locator to be placed over the Wave form.
With the sample loop function now enabled we can further refine the section of the sample we want to loop using the loop start, loop end and X-Fade parameters.
You can then adjust the "loop start" and "loop end" parameters to control which section of the sample will be looped. There is also a crossfade value which can be edited to control the length of the crossfade used in creating the fade. You should tweak these parameters until you achieve the desired sound you are looking for. Remember that most of the time you will be trying to achieve a that loops around cleanly and in a way that is natural and not too obvious.
We have set our locator to loop between 0.25s and 0.75s of our sample. We have also specified a fairly short crossfade of 500 samples.
A Round Robin is a type of sample playback that allows us to use multiple versions of the same sound, resulting in more natural patterns when the same sound is triggered multiple times. Round Robins are especially useful for creating instruments of a percussive nature such as drums, tuned percussion and pizzicato strings. To create round robins in Kontakt, we must house our samples within separate groups, which are then cycled between when a sound is triggered. This is why all the way back in part 1 of this guide we talked about recording multiple versions of each sample during the sample recording phase.
Continuing with our xylophone example, we recorded 3 velocity layers and 4 different round robin layers. In Kontakt we created a group for each round robin, which each contained 3 samples, soft medium and hard.
Our Kontakt architecture now looked a little something like this:
RR 1 - Soft 1, Mid 1, Hard 1RR 2 - Soft 2, Mid 2, Hard 2RR 3 - Soft 3, Mid 3, Hard 3RR 4 - Soft 4, Mid 4, Hard 4
With our groups created and our samples correctly placed in each of them, we must now instruct Kontakt to cycle between the groups.
Select "group start options" within the group editor. Select each group one by one and change the group start to "cycle round robin" and manually set the groups potion in the round robin chain via the value input just to the right of group start. RR 1 needs to be set as position 1, and so on and so forth for each of the other groups and their corresponding position in the chain.
Using built in effects within Kontakt is actually a fairly simple process. Kontakt gives you 3 places to use its built in effects and these are, Post Amp FX, Insert FX, and FX.
Post Amp FX can be accessed in the brown tab underneath the wave editor. To select an effect simply click on one of the empty slots which will be marked with "Add FX". This will bring up a drop down menu with all of the available effects. Most of the effects in this section are more dynamics and tonal based such as compressors, limiters and different types of EQ. There are also several great amplifier and distortion effects such as saturator, tube emulation and skreamer effects.
A more extensive selection of effects can be found in the beige insert FX tab located just below the Post Amp FX.
Insert FX function much in the same way as the Post Amp FX although there is an expanded list of effect option to select from. In addition to most of the effects included in the Post Amp FX section, the insert FX also gives you a choice of several reverbs, delays, modulation and dimensional effects which can be used to further enhance your sounds.
An arpeggiator is a very fun and creative tool to include in your Kontakt instruments. Not only can they be used to create interesting rhythmic patterns, but they help give your instrument an extra dimension of usability and variety.
To add an arpeggiator to your instrument click on the "script editor" tab to reveal 5 empty slots. Using slot 1, navigate through the pre-sets to the "sequencing "sub folder and select "Arpeggiator".
With an arpeggiator now added you can view all of the different parameters such as rate, swing, note order and number of octaves. There is also a 16 step sequencer which can be mapped to different parameters. In this example we are using note velocity.
When you come out of edit mode your arpeggiator should be viewable as a separate tab as seen below in our Shamanic Drums melodic patch.
There are many other pre-made effects to choose from such as sequencers, beat repeaters and randomisers so don't be afraid to explore and try out some of the more uncommon ones.
Kontakt scripting is a fairly deep subject, and is not something that can be easily covered in one blog post so we will just keep things simple and give you a basic overview of what's going on.
In layman's terms, Kontakt uses its own language "KSP" to control how the program operates. KSP is used to control everything from GUI, Key Colours, Envelopes and much much more.
Users can access Kontakt script by hitting the "script editor" tab. This will open up a blank area which is used to write code into. Above we can see some basic commands being used to specify different key colours of the GUI. If you hit apply in the top right hand of the scripting window, Kontakt will check your code for errors automatically and tell you which line contained the error. This is especially useful for troubleshooting and getting various elements of your script to work in tandem with each other.
When writing their own scripts, users must follow the syntax that is specified in the KSP reference manual below, which has a specific format.
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/52902847/ksp-reference-manual
You've made it to the end of this guide, Great Job! you should now have a custom Kontakt instrument that goes beyond the basic functionality and incorporates some of the advanced functions of Kontakt, showcasing your talents and sonic personality as a sound designer!
Thanks for checking out this article!
