Thread: Question/Survey about ambient noise...

Tweet

Hey everyone, so I need some help with some decision making, as I'm sort of caught in a pickle. For my haunt this year, I'm expanding it across a larger surface area, and this gives me a lot more freedom with ambient noises based on where the people are at in the haunt. Simply put, I have enough space for 2 or 3 different tracks running at the same time without interfering with each other.

Here's where I'm stuck though: years upon years of frightening imagery mixed with sounds has somewhat deluded my sense of what scares the average person, and I'm not really sure what kinds of sound effects I'm going to want running in the background. Should I use the more quiet approach with more subtle sound, or the loud, disorienting kind?

This topic came to mind when I visited Universal Hollywood for the Halloween stuff going on there. Every single maze there used the loud effects, but it didn't have the effect on me that it did on those around me. But then my opinion is probably vastly different then most.


tl;dr?
What types of ambient sound put you on edge most? Loud and disorienting or quiet and subtle?

Personally I think that loud is unnecessary, only certain times / themes. Like my haunted nursery, I like soft haunting sounds of ghost children,etc rather than screaming at ToTers......
I think loud is done by haunt parks as they think it will jolt you, I feel it's a cheap way to scare you.....doesn't work with me. A quieter sound effect with a prop or actor popping out suddenly much better,.....my 2cents

Yeah I'm basically the same way. Quiet sounds with a buildup to a much louder, quick sound get the best of me. Thanks for the reply =)

I like the quiet and subtle. It's all about the build up.

Places like Universal probably don't have much choice. If they went the quiet route, you'd probably just hear the crowds (Actually, I remember going to Knott's Scary Farm years back, and getting the crap scared out of me somewhere quiet off the beaten path.)

Quiet and suspensefu...wait...did you hear that? =8-0

I have been doing sound for haunts for a while and always get compliments.

I would say have sound for the props/rooms that make sense, some may be startle scares and some may just addd to the effect, as in elctric chair. Then I have an overall sound scape going throughout the haunt to fill in. I use basic subtle effects that are lie a rollercoaster, they build up have sudden bursts then it it quiet for a while. Things like rumbles and metal scrapes and sudden quick gasps and screams and really wierd sounds.

It would seem that subtle is the way to go =) Thanks for the replies everyone.