Thread: Creepy Forest Soundscape: Download and Critique

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I was recently inspired by Halloween Forum contributor Cab (and his commercial release on iTunes) to try my hand at creating a soundscape.

I'm offering my creation for the HF folks to download as well as critique. The file will be available here.

My original intention was to expand the 3-minute "Night Creatures" soundscape from Disney's 1979 Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House. My final result is a bit over 18-minutes. This was made possible with additional sounds I found for free at freesound. Special thanks also goes to Halloweiner for posting the Disney album from a cassette source that had no pops or clicks.

The soundscape is a collection of owls, ravens, wolf howls, bats, frogs, blowing winds, creaking iron gates and lots of insects. Many of the sounds are on isolated channels or will move between stereo speakers. The file is made to be played back continuously with an appropriate build-up at the beginning and fade-out. Hopefully, it is done well enough so nobody would know it is looping at the end.

Please note this is not meant to be an ultra-terrifying soundscape. Think of it more like the night sounds that chilled Ichabod in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow cartoon movie. It will be used for a family Halloween party where some of the guests will be toddlers — so I'll be waiting at least a few years before adding chainsaw sfx.

Wow, nice job. And 18 minutes!
If you have the sound of leaves blowing on the ground I would mix that in too.
Also, perhaps some tree and branch movement from a little wind here and there.
I liked the church bell in the background.
What do you think about a handful of low whispers in the background... just ever so faint? Only a few.

Great job... and thanks for the nod.

Cab

Thanks Cab.

I like all your suggestions and plan to look for some leaves and branches sounds to fill-out some of the lesser-populated areas. Maybe even footsteps crunching through leaves would work. What do you think?

I had thought of whispers, too, as well as an occasional witch cackle or two.

Very subtle. Nicely done.

Thanks for sharing this!

q

A few footsteps scattered throughout would be good... it gives the impression that something is close and watching you.
A well placed witch cackle, in the background with a little reverb, should add a nice effect.
Also, perhaps a moan or two - off in the distance - with a little reverb.
Do you have any sounds of an animal scurrying through bushes? This could placed in the foreground for a quick attention-getter.

Hope this helps

Cab

Good ear. And your suggestions are dead-on, Cab.

q

SHweeeet, well done ! yes, a few rustling leaves maybe, cab's ideas. But i like your composition.
Maybe other than those additions, a 2nd version can add in the creatures & things in the night....... Thanx, nice to have another talent add in here

Just found a bunch of great leaves sounds on freesound, including rustling in the wind and getting crunched by feet. I may play with the speed while keeping the pitch the same to make some sound more like animals.

Creaking branches has been a pain to find. However, a search for just "creak" came back with a ton of cool sounds from shipyards. My plan is to try and use SoundSoap to remove the ocean sounds, leave the creaks and combine with leaves and wind effects.

In light of the many great suggestions, I'm thinking to reorder the composition to have more of a flow where the grouping makes more sense. Cab: May I ask how you "scope-out" your basic plan when doing your soundscapes? Do you plug-and-play as you go, or do you develop something of a storyboard and outline a general idea in advance?

Also — It turns out my sound editor is a 5:1 mixer (didn't know that after all this time). I may try my hand at some 3D sounds — depending on how my schedule goes.

I hope this post works, I'm working a gig in Sonoma, California right now.

When I make a soundscape, I write a short and general outline of what I want to hear - and the "story" I want to tell.

Then, I start with a few basic drone tracks - like the sample I put up on my website. After that, I start searching and listening to effects in my library. I tweek every individual sound - from pitch shift, reverse wave, flange, chorus, distorion, reverb, or a combination of all. It makes the process take longer, but it's worth it.

Also, if an audio clip isn't "working" at a particular spot - I move it somewhere else... Some effects just don't play nicely together. As I start to move clips, that's when the project becomes organic and takes on a life of it's own. That's when you really start to create your story.

By the way... The music box sound that I used at the end of my track "Haunted Dreams"... It's Green Sleeves played in reverse with delay and reverb. I recorded it from my wife's music box.

I hope this wasn't too long-winded.

Good luck with your project.
I'm currently working on an effects idea from Dark Lord.
I hope to have it finished by next week and available for free download.

Cab