Image from LinkedIn In the 6th part of his Science of Storytelling series, Keith Bound PhD outlines the specific psychological effects of common horror-thriller sounds on moviegoers. "When a diegetic sound resonates with the viewers as a recognizable threat to the protagonist or themselves the viewer, it not only elicits a strong anxiety response but does so very … [Read more...]
Diego Stocco – Sound Composing Fear from his DIY Nightmares
Covering both the subject of last month's DIY and this month's of Fear, we spoke with Diego Stocco about his work as a sound designer, composer and performer. Diego creates eclectic musical experiences with custom built instruments and experimental recording techniques. He loves discovering hidden sounds from organic sources, objects and materials, with an unorthodox musical … [Read more...]
Twenty Thousand Hertz Podcast: Spooky Sounds
Fitting our monthly theme "Fear", a recent episode of the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast explores how Hollywood crafts the sounds of horror and why these sounds trigger fear. Guests include Formosa Group Senior Sound Editor/Sound Designer Trevor Gates and Dan Blumstein, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. You can listen to the episode here. [image … [Read more...]
New SFX Libraries: November Recap
(Source: Flickr) If you are releasing a new SFX library and you would like it to be included in our recap, send us the details with our SFX Independence Submission Form. Please only notify us of libraries that were released within the last month. In this month's SFX recap we hear the soundscapes of Berlin & Japan, adventure games, scary horror sounds & … [Read more...]
Sound Design Tutorial List
These days, resources to improve your audio craft are widely available on the internet. In an effort to help finding those resources even easier, Designing Sound has compiled a list of many of the free Sound Design Tutorials that are available. There is a wealth of information contained in this article, and whether you are an audio veteran or just starting out, you … [Read more...]
News: How to Create Horror Sound Effects
In an appropriately seasonal blog post over at A Sound Effect, Asbjoern speaks to Saro Sahihi of SoundBits, a boutique SFX library and sound design company. Saro, who has released some excellent gore SFX libraries, goes in-depth on how to achieve some truly squishy, wrenching, and disgusting gore sounds for all your horror needs. He even touches on some other horror mainstays, … [Read more...]
Nightmares and Soundscapes: Implementation of Acoustic Ecology Related Sound Design Techniques to Better Terrify your Players
Guest Contribution by Dr Tom Garner This article addresses contemporary concepts regarding how we attune to sound within a fear context and discusses the potential impact of these ideas upon sound design, specifically with regards to evoking disorientation in survival horror computer games. Relevant theory is distilled to consider an ecological perspective of sound experience … [Read more...]