The second and final sound library album will be based off horror games from the Playstation 1/2 era (1995-2001). The main inspiration for this sound library would be Resident Evil 2 (1997) and Silent Hill 2 (2001). Both these soundtracks were pioneers of mixing genres in game scores, mixing both orchestral, lo-fi and ambient elements to their scores. Which at the time was dominated by chiptune and orchestral scores. Lost in Fog will be a 16 track sound library, tracks varying in 1-4 mins in length. The main idea with this sound library is to recreate the feeling of games such as the early Silent Hill and Resident Evil games, and a more recent game called Lost in Vivo, which is a homage to those early playstation horror titles. The title to this sound library is a combination of both Silent Hill and Lost in Vivo. Taking the ‘Lost in’ part from Lost in Vivo and the iconic fog from Silent Hill games, which is a staple of the franchise.
The sound of this Sound Library is to mix together peaceful ambient and unnerving horror sections. For example, Silent Hill 2 was composed by Akira Yamaoka, the soundtrack features beautiful ambient passages, such as the track ‘White Noiz’ which feature dark ambient pads and higher octave keys, the track then starts playing more dissonant chords, providing a sense of unease. The track itself is fairly simple in terms of arrangement, but is very affective. It perfectly sucks you into the wonder and ambiguity of Silent Hill 2. Contrasting this would be the track ‘The Darkness That Lurks In Our Mind’. A track that features a booming drum hit, atonal drums, creaking sound that is slowly built up with faster rythmic drum passages. This piece creates a lot of tension and unease with its use of drums and atonal drones, it also throws off the plater due to many of the other pieces throughout the game being more ambient leaning.
For the ambient passages uses of keyboards and synths will be the main priority, this will be for the most part with field recordings and hardware synths, such as the Moog Mother 32 for generative ambient pieces, leads and bass, the Korg Monolouge for a warm analog bass sound, and the universities Eurorack system, Moog Maitriarch and Prophet 5. All these synthesisers have varying sounds which will make for a varied sound library. For the noisier aspects of the sound library, equipment such as the Soma ETHER electromagnetic microphone, hardware synthesisers, and foley recording. In the past I have done foley recordings of throwing metal chains into a metal bucket and playing it like an instrument. Which can then be processed through effects and make a very scary atmosphere. In the process of recording I plan to do recording such as that, to try and create sounds using non instrumental equipment.
Bibliography
Youtube (2020) White Noiz. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q95kw_pBXu0 (Accessed: 30 November 2023)
Youtube (2008) Silent Hill 2 OST – The Darkness That Lurks In Our Mind. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGUi6spQ9M0 (Accessed: 30 November 2023)