Terpentintollwut Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 So I heard Lustmord used "fear-inducing frequencies" on some of his albums. What's that about, is that just some bullshit-PR-claims? Is there really such a thing? Sure, there's certain deep sounds that make you feel uncomfortable or that creep you out, but that's probably all down to conditioning and pop-culture-associations with movie-soundtracks, games etc. I wonder whether there is an archetypal "sound of fear", and if so, I'd like to know how I can create it/where I can get it from ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptowen Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 I think fear in music is very subjective, even more so than other emotions. For example, I got kind of spooked the first time I heard 'Lonesome Tears' by Beck. Something about how it gradually transforms from a simple folky violin riff to this dense, emotional monolith of sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 i used to get a creepy feeling listening to old plasticman (plastician) dubstep (Griiiiime) . i dunno why, just did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted September 25, 2011 Author Share Posted September 25, 2011 I got various creepy-associations with particular tracks as well, of course. E.g. "Shadow" by Brian Eno (On Land), that flute (?) stuff is killing me every time. But I'm looking for archetypes, something that would be equally as scary for some business man from New York and an Aborigine from the outback. Something that is rooted deep in human psychology, like Fire = Hot or something similar. I'm not even sure such a thing exists. It might all be "learned fear". The reason I'm asking this is of course another project of mine. I'm trying to put something together, I got my own ideas already as far as the sound design goes, but I'm always taking myself as a unit of measurement and hence am creating something that would scare ME but might leave others unaffected, which I'm trying to rule out. Best case scenario would be a sound that somehow frightens people without them even realizing they heard it ... not so easy I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundwave Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 a higher midrange shrill type sound is always unnerving like the scream in come to daddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 also ambulances when they drive by: high pitch but phasing in and out like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sprigg Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 High-pitched, dissonant glissando-type noises work rather well, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logakght Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Infrasound has been known to cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place.[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 Infrasound has been known to cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place.[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound brilliant! now all I need to do is create infrasound ... but let me guess, it'll be impossible on regular speakers, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancolecreate Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 the answer is no. It's more about phrasing and structure that create suspense, not singular frequencies. That's like asking if some particular word could instantly strike terror in a human's mind. no. Edgar Allen Poe stories are not scary because of the words. They are scary because of the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 Good point. Although the Infrasound-stuff does sound good. Last year I used a very high pitched sound for Halloween to make people feel uncomfortable. Out of 15 people, only 1 consciously noticed the sound (and he's experienced with Reason and stuff, so he wasn't really neutral to begin with). It worked, but a high pitched noise is rather unnerving and painful. This year I'd like to go for the paranormal fear thing. If I can't get infrasound to work (I'm not really noticing anything when listening to the sample-clips from the Binaural Beats wiki page?), I'll mix something myself and am going to rely on my "usual scare tactics". All additional creepy shit is welcome of course! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tontonz1 Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 some binaural sound patterns can have pretty psychotic effects. they are tasty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancolecreate Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 ah so it's for a halloween installation? Makes more sense now. Ya some binaural stuff on a widely spaced multichannel system could be really rad. Do you have that option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chim Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 378hz is the scariest frequency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoeB Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 I believe infrasound is the right answer, as Logakght said. I was talking to someone about infrasound the other week, and he gave me a free copy of Namlook VII which has something similar. Bonus! ^.^ Anyway, yes, it looks like a real phenomenon that genuinely makes people nervous / anxious without them consciously perceiving a sound. Breaks the ice at séances! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 i was watching a show on history channel, don't remember what it was but thy talked about police using these sounds on protestors and such that are very low sounding and cause people to get quite sick. that's all i know, so they exist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoeB Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 That sounds like acoustic weaponry. On a related note, I gather any given human skull, along with anything else brittle, resonates at a particular frequency, so try not to make any loud, persistent sine waves. It's not something you really want to be messing around with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoeB Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 What's a much more interesting possibility is that our senses of sight, smell and sound may all be different forms of resonance: electromagnetic, molecular and acoustic (air pressure) respectively. I gather the jury's still out on smell, but it'd be pretty neat if it really was based on molecular vibration rather than shapes as had been previously supposed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 It'd probably require too much time I don't have right now to REALLY get into this frequency shenanigans, but I already put together my alternate scare tactics ... if I can't go archetypal, I'll do the opposite and work up all typical human fears culture brought on. I think it's gonna work just fine. But thanks for all the replies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 I heard this last year and thought it was up there as some of the "scariest" stuff I've ever listened to. They seem to draw on a lot of methods: drones, tribal drums (in some tracks), odd phrasing, etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRMu_Q6g1A&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I heard this last year and thought it was up there as some of the "scariest" stuff I've ever listened to. They seem to draw on a lot of methods: drones, tribal drums (in some tracks), odd phrasing, etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRMu_Q6g1A&feature=related sounds straight off a Zoviet France album circa 1988, pretty cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 I heard this last year and thought it was up there as some of the "scariest" stuff I've ever listened to. They seem to draw on a lot of methods: drones, tribal drums (in some tracks), odd phrasing, etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRMu_Q6g1A&feature=related sounds straight off a Zoviet France album circa 1988, pretty cool! Yeah... I wouldn't be surprised if that was an influence! I think this is from the early to mid-90s. It's really just eerie ritual ambient with vocals and imagery to associate it with rituals and witchcraft and such. I came across it when I read that one of the members is the ex-wife of Fenriz, the Norwegian black metal musician. In fact, I dug around online some more and found out they recorded it using his equipment, and he's a big fan of electronic music, even had his own side-project called "Neptune Towers" that was synth-driven dark ambient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokn Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 378hz is the scariest frequency. Will check out later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chim Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Sorry, this is like asking what the saddest key is (everyone knows it's D). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Sorry, this is like asking what the saddest key is (everyone knows it's D). "People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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