Hello Audio friends,

Which vsts or kontakt banks do you guys use to achieve the dark "horror" sound? I'm thinking screechy violins, abnormal pizzicato strings, or anything else you get mileage from when trying to achieve that dark spooky sound.

<3

 

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Hello @surely
Definitely have a look at these 2 libraries :

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I recently got the Aperture Cassette Symphony for free on the recent black weekend sale & it is so good ,if you like Loki or 1899 as I do you will like this a lot,also Polaris has a lot of dark tone strings (& synths),last but not least you will find a lot of dark tone strings & articulations in Solstice :



^ Hope this helps you, cheers !

 

Absynth is hard to beat for terrifying soundscapes. Not even nice to look at.

 

Zebra2 and dark zebra, bazzile, have Nice Atmos sounds in general.
For kontakt there is a library call Legendary, and one than call Groth o think.
In wav files i use cinetools.

 

Virus. whichever emulator. Serum for Abrasive things. Omnisphere for Spooky things. You might want to look at Phaseplant for a phase distortion synth.

 

I recently did a score for a horror film that just premiered in a few decent sized horror festivals in October. Used all falcon synths and free spitfire labs stuff, and everyone involved was very happy with the results. I never really got the spitfire stuff in relation to using in my own music but once I started scoring stuff it was like...oh yeah...that's what this is for. Falcon is just amazing though in terms of getting old school horror movie vibes, especially running through some fx like arturia fragments. Most used expansions for the last project were Sunbox and Emulator II+. I also used their Nagoya Harp during a scene where the protragonist rips their own face off and it really ratcheted up the tension of the scene. Also, the freakshow industries plugins can be pretty great for making creepy sounds.

 

I've done a lot of VGM-style horror (think Resident Evil, Silent Hill). So, more electronic/synthetic, atmospheric.

I've actually found that free VSTs to be most effective.

- Bigtick Angelina (free now - formant synth)
- Full Bucket The scrooo (free - formant synth)
- Stone Voices Marazmator (weird SFX) -- also maybe Stone Voices PolyGAS
- HERCs Abakos / Abakos Pro (free now)
- Green Oak Crystal
- HG Fortune shuniji-pro (a rompler with a lot of potential for dark evolving soundscapes)
- Psychic Modulation Aethereal (vector rompler synth, also great for dark evolving sounds)

You can also get far with external effects like ring modulators, frequency shifters, formant filters (maybe comb filters too), resonators, etc.

 

There's a lot of stuff on the market doing instant creepy sounds. But IMO it all comes down to your own creativity to create the perfect sound for a given atmosphere or scene? I think with these libraries you'll have enough arsenal to last you for a long time to come:

https://8dio.com/products/christopher-young-orchestral
https://8dio.com/products/https://8dio.com/products/christopher-young-textural

 

I like UVI IRCAM Solo Instruments for Falcon.
Used a certain way, it's got some of the dustiest, scratchiest strings I've found. Lots of pizzicato banks too. You might expect a more immaculate sound given the companies involved, but to me it sounds a bit gritty and processed, in a neat way. You can really go nuts with automating the unusual articulations. And like Golde mentioned above, Falcon is a great tool for making unsettling things, especially complex sounds that continuously evolve in a flexible way, which the more static Kontakt struggles to do. After all, it's half-synth.

https://www.uvi.net/ircam-solo-instruments-2.html

That Plasmonic synth sounds freaky too. It's the Absynth guy, and I'll second or third the Absynth suggestion.

 

For ambience & atmosphere

TG-8H (lazyfish)

It's a Reaktor generator, just hit record in your DAW and maybe mess with the parameters every now and then in between bong rips. It will not disappoint

Oh yeah, how could I forget PolyComb? It's a CPU hog but it's worth the hassle to bounce the audio. Check out the two blades presets (13&14) for that classic creepy horror movie sound.

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2022

good one to mention for sure! i use the ircam solo stuff a fair amount in my own music when I want a somewhat realistic sounding sax or viola, but where it really shines is with what you mention. A more recent one that seems like it might have some cool scoring applications (at least for the kind of lower budget indie stuff that I do) is the Cosmic VST by audiority. There is a free lite version too that is pretty cool. I made the mistake of loading that one up while super stoned the other day and it was just very immersive sounding.

 

https://electroniksoundlab.com/

 

Which movie did you score? I'd love to see it, buy it and show support if I love it. I love horror movies, also what other Falcon synths suit the horror score aesthetic? I've never used Falcon but now I'm intrigued because I thought it was basically just a giant rompler expansion host mostly for vintage analog synths. I do know actual Falcon is a beast of a sound design work horse all on it's own thought, I was just speaking about the expansion side of Falcon.

Does anyone know how to get the types of tones featured in cheesy 70's, 80's and 90's Slasher films? I don't even want to score movies or anything, I just love horror cinema and I don't think it would hurt to learn how to incorporate atmospheric parts in my own music with this type of vibe.

I never know where to start because I wondered about that so many years ago before readily available tuts and free tools on hand. I just assumed I would need loads of analog gear that I sadly just can't afford. But since that time I guess virtual synths have come a long way in emulating trve anal log warmth.

 

There are a couple Falcon expansions I wouldn't recommend buying. Like a handful of them, compared to the ones that are highly useful. None of them are "bad", they just do not compare well to the rest.

It's just like Kontakt, but with a very capable synth included. You can make anything with it.

Vintage Vault expansion would cover all the analog synths for this application very very well.

 

Last edited: Dec 4, 2022

Synths you can try: Westgate Studio Wraith and HG Fortune STS 21 Pro. For Kontakt Big Fish Audio Sinister Strings, the old discontinued Scary Strings from Spitfire Audio, Echo Collective Forgotten Zither, Sound Label Piano Attack and a library of Kankling, a tibetan bone horn-flute which I can`t remember the name ( I`m not with my main computer now )

 

Last edited: Dec 4, 2022

Loki and 1899... as in the netflix series? you mean the loki score?

 

Horror Box 2 - Electronik Sound Lab

old version is K'ed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaT9-zy3tlc

 

Thrill kontakt library by native instruments.

 

Yes, also very nice.

 

ProjectSAM Symphobia PANDORA has some great clusters and risers that work good for horror.