Nondescript Horror Sound Effects

Olaf99

Olaf99

Active member
Can anybody share some links on where one could find methods used to produce these effects? I've been using the effects from the Soundtrack Pro library and there are some really cool sounds but I have very specific requirements in my horror films and would like to know how they're made. Particularly the non-orchestral hits.

To give you an idea of what I'm referring to, see this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwNgXNQv8dc

Parts I'm referring to are around 0:13-0:19, 0:43-0:44, and 1:46.

My guess is, they're recorded sounds from industrial machines and foley that are heavily processed. My question is, how are they manipulated to sound so abstract.
 
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First the obligatory, it's Foley not foley. It's always capitalized because it's a mans name.

Second you should look at the post sound sticky because 99% of what you are hearing is layered up SFX.

I think you are talking about what are basically whooshes.
There is a lot of speed manipulation and sound reversals going on in that trailer. Also a lot of animals sounds.

So for instance one of those sounds that sort of sucks you into a hit.
Reversing things will be a big part, especially impacts or explosions.
Animal growls, probably slowed and probably reversed.
Maybe some metal scrapes, slowed and reversed... you get the idea.

Then as you approach the end of the SFX your going to want to transition into forward sounds with a punchy hit, maybe a door slam, animal bite, forward whoosh, a hit of some kind??
And you probably want that end hit to have a nice reverb tail on it so it sounds "final".

As a guess I would say that those "nondescript" sounds are probably around 15 - 30 tracks wide.

If you start asking questions like this I would find a better word than "nondescript" since some editor spent hours, possibly days, working on it and they might get offended.
 
Noiz2 said:
First the obligatory, it's Foley not foley. It's always capitalized because it's a mans name.

Second you should look at the post sound sticky because 99% of what you are hearing is layered up SFX.

I think you are talking about what are basically whooshes.
There is a lot of speed manipulation and sound reversals going on in that trailer. Also a lot of animals sounds.

So for instance one of those sounds that sort of sucks you into a hit.
Reversing things will be a big part, especially impacts or explosions.
Animal growls, probably slowed and probably reversed.
Maybe some metal scrapes, slowed and reversed... you get the idea.

Then as you approach the end of the SFX your going to want to transition into forward sounds with a punchy hit, maybe a door slam, animal bite, forward whoosh, a hit of some kind??
And you probably want that end hit to have a nice reverb tail on it so it sounds "final".

As a guess I would say that those "nondescript" sounds are probably around 15 - 30 tracks wide.

If you start asking questions like this I would find a better word than "nondescript" since some editor spent hours, possibly days, working on it and they might get offended.
Click to expand...

My bad on foley instead of Foley. I knew it was a guys name.

Thanks for the advice. It's very good and I didn't realize it would be in the Post Sound sticky above.

Also I definitely didn't mean to offend someone by using the word "nondescript". My intent was to be clear so anyone interested in responding wouldn't confuse the creaking doors, shouts, and echoing footsteps as what I was referring to. I know how to get that audio and have been accumulating my own audio for them.

Again, thanks for the great advice.
 
Check out the sound samples for this reverb plugin. (Always thought that would be handy for spooky sounds).

At its core, it's pitch shifting reverb - though we generally think of reverb as "last in the chain", that's an example of creative sound mangling.

I'm a pro tools user, which has really excellent audio editing capabilities. If you want to try ideas like those expressed in the above reply, you need a way to layer sounds, reverse sounds, and adjust the pitch and timing - often independently - with as few artifacts as possible. And you need decent (or excellent) plugins for EQ, compression, reverb, distortion, and shifting.

I have friends who work in logic, pro tools, etc - I'm primarily familiar with PT, which now functions with most any audio interface, comes with a mountain of great plugins and instruments, and can keep you up all night mangling sounds. You might start researching the best tools for what you want to do; it's really a career unto itself.
 
Those samples are pretty sweet. While not PT i know Soundtrack Pro is capable of some of this. I'll start tweaking, layering, and reversing to see what I can come up with. I also have a friend who runs Logic so I can go to him to add additional tracks. Your response is definitely going to help me though.

Thanks!
 
A word of warning RE: STP. If your pulling sounds from your library make sure to "Replace with independent audio file project". It's near the bottom of the CLIP menu or the right click pop up menu.

The way STP works is that by default it is always working ON the original file, so you need to do the above long winded function to make sure that you are modifying copies of your library files.

It's non destructive so you can undo if you forget but then your undoing the work you just did also, so...

And that goes for copies also. If you copy a clip, say for reversing, run the function on the copy or everything you do to it will also happen to the original.

Also STP by default always works in 5.1. So you need to set your submix to stereo or all the files you create will be 6 tracks wide, even if you only have sound on two of them.

Other than that everything I mentioned you should be able to do in STP. Some part will actually be easier to do than in PT.
 
Another good mangling plugin is any convolution reverb that you can use your own impulses in. You can take things like sword shings and it will add this metallic "shine" to whatever you send though it. I have spent way too much time slicing up inappropriate sounds to try as IR's. A lot of stuff isn't very interesting but some are really fun.

For general audio mayhem GRM tools is hard to beat.

Most of this stuff is AU also so it should work in STP.
 
Noiz2 said:
A word of warning RE: STP. If your pulling sounds from your library make sure to "Replace with independent audio file project". It's near the bottom of the CLIP menu or the right click pop up menu.

The way STP works is that by default it is always working ON the original file, so you need to do the above long winded function to make sure that you are modifying copies of your library files.

.
Click to expand...

Dang, I had no idea this was the case. Thanks for saving me tons of frustration. I'm 1/4 way through the STP Apple Pro Training Series and hadn't come across that info yet. Also a good tip to work in stereo versus 5.1. Thanks again!
 
There are up sides to their approach. For one thing you can undo forever in any order. So if you EQed something and then reversed it and then did XYZ to it, you can undo the EQ and leave the rest. You can also re check the EQ and it's instantly back. But it means you have to keep track of what is an independent clip and what is just a reference to an existing clip. Also the stap "files" (really packages) can get pretty large because that are storing everything. Whenever you make a clip independent it will flatten the changes and remove the undo trail, for that clip.
 
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