Dark Ambient Tracks

[Jaxxoon R]

Hello. I made some dark ambient tracks and I thought I should share them here, so maybe people can use them in horror mods if they want. Probably best to listen to them in the background while you do something else, since they're kind of long.

[RUSH]

I really like both of these - I imagine an enormous sea monster growling underwater as it approaches some deep sea submarine and devours it. Perfect for the moments leading up to something like this:

http://monstergirl.blog.com/files/2011/10/1319073222049.jpg

or this: http://www.zastavki.com/pictures/1680x1050/2011/Drawn_wallpapers_Sea_monster_029950_.jpg

EDIT: In fact, staring at those pictures while listening to the first track actually gave me goosebumps. Especially around the 40 second mark, like holy shit. *Shivers*

[Jaxxoon R]

Ah great, I'm glad you liked them. I'm still in the learning process while making them, but this interview and the Hodges soundtracks in general have been a big inspiration for me, especially the use of odd samples at low quality. Although I've noticed mine tend to be less melodic, more organic-sounding, and more environmental.

If you're interested in hearing more, here's a track I made quite a while ago and only just recently dug up:

I'm currently in the process of trying to make one based off of distorted recordings of cat purrs, just to see if it can work.

[darkreaver]

Cool stuff! Especially Smothered. That one was right up my alley. I really dig the low audio quality of (some of) the samples. Very environmental indeed. (y)

[RUSH]

I think Smothered would have been a great track for the Cavern levels in Doom 3. At least that's the vibe I get from it - cold, dark, echoing hopelessness, with the sound of a much larger presence on the horizon...

[Jaxxoon R]

Neat, it's cool to know I'm on the right track. I'm thinking of putting these into a music pack for people to use while they play or in another mod if they like, but I'm kind of stumped on what levels to have them play on.

I'm thinking Smothered for The Abandoned Mines/The Catacombs and Kettle for Underhalls, but Vastness is a bit of a wildcard in that sense. I don't know where to put it.

I've also got two versions of the cat purr song, Chaos Star and Dark Star. One is of course more chaotic and stressful to listen to, the other is more creeping.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/161031419/Chaos%20Star.ogg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/161031419/Dark%20Star.ogg

I'm not sure which one to go with, or that if I should use both somewhere.

[darkreaver]

That Kettle tune. I kept imagining it is recovered audio files from some dead explorers or researchers or something. Like they were using a tape recorder to record some speech about something they had discovered and then they died or disappeared or whatever...the recorder just kept recording. Creepy =)

[Jaxxoon R]

I never looked at it that way before.

Another one of these.

This particular track is inspired by the concept of abandoned residences, less "giant city" and more "tiny house out in nowhere" kind of thing,

[RUSH]

Wow, this one is my favorite by far. Sounds like an "Exorcist" style house possessed by demonic apparitions. The chiming of the porch bells through the wind and creeping floors - Very eerie, I love it.

[jdagenet]

These are pretty good for being made completely out of random samples you can get your hands on!
They sound very similar Hodges' work.

I love creating dark ambient, there's just something about it that keeps me coming back.
As for you as well, Hodges was a huge inspiration for me in my quest to create dark ambient music -- I read his interviews; I learned about the art of digital sampling; I experimented with many different timbres of sound.

I have a few samples I created myself from scratch that you might be able to use in a future track:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/crn2cd0y8o3nk7r/Dark_Ambient_Samples.zip

What software do you use to process your samples?

[Jaxxoon R]

I just load everything up into Audacity, mix it how I like, and then render them together. I don't actually have any actual knowledge of music or access to a tracker program of any kind so it's all brute force.

[Deleted_Account]

I'm a big fan of dark ambient music, I love listening to them while
reading H.P Lovecraft or Stephen King. As for your tracks, they're awesome! They definitely remind me of Silent Hill, keep up the good work.

[Olroda]

Good work! Id' say that the last one is best so far.

[Jaxxoon R]

Interesting story on the making of this one.

I was thinking of how I would make an ambient track suitable for a boss level and came to the conclusion that it would have to be something very loud, chaotic, and disturbing. Sort of like those songs from Silent Hill with all the banging, but obviously more digital.

I then started to layer multiple clips of people talking over each other, crushed the bits until they're unrecognizable, and then played them through the Genesis' DAC chip at a horribly low speed. I also chopped up the clips themselves a bit to make them extremely off-putting-- can you tell what it is?

Basically, I went through a disproportionate amount of effort to make a song that's uncomfortable to listen to. It suits the Mancubi and Arachnotrons on MAP07 very well.

Oh, I'm also switching over to a new PC shortly, so expect a bit a of a hiatus until that's sorted out.