The horror of Decent Sampler
Creating a horror / suspense piece.
I wrote about some of the tools I use to create soundbeds a couple of posts back. If you are interested the short piece can be found here https://www.blackcreekpodcasts.com/behind-the-scenes/the-audiodrama-pt2
I mentioned that at the time I had started to use a very limited set of instruments for the Decent Sampler vst - a new discovery to me. This has changed and is also where the title of this post is misleading. I have started to rely on instruments from Decent Sampler a lot more over the last few weeks and currently in producing horror sound beds.
I am always on the search for ‘that’ sound and in truth I spend a decent amount of time in that pursuit and to some extent I have already covered this in previous posts.
A video by Venus Theory – (musician and sound designer) about stripping back and limiting the number of plugins you use to create, just keeping those that you actually ‘can’t do without’, made me think. I don’t use a massive number of effect plugins and I have limitied myself to a few that do what I want and without duplicating plugins that do essentially the same thing. Yes, there are a reasonable number, but they are already limited to those I find useful and use. One and possibly the most pertinent reason for this is I forget that I have them. I will have the ‘effect plugin’ that I always use and hence forget any others. Some I do have multiple of the ‘same type’ of effect. Reverb is one example. I use three different reverb vsts – two purchased and one that is free. I have three as one is my go to if I want a simple quick and easily manipulated reverb, another allows me to get exactly the reverb I want for a specific room or spatial tone and the final one (the freebee) allows me to create improbably massive reverb for sound design effect. However, I looked at this prompt slightly differently and specifically at some of the soundbed tracks I have created and there are a multitude of instruments from different sources. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact I would say the opposite, although sometimes the sheer number of options can be a little overwhelming and I often forget intruments that would have suited my purpose better.
It did spark an idea though - what if I used just one source (e.g. Decent Samples) and a limited number of instruments written for that sampler to create a tension / suspense soundbed and to keep that selection minimalistic.
And so, I did. The result is the short suspense piece and shorter rather melancholic piece below. As part of this idea, I did I have to admit disappear down the rabbit hole looking for more (yes that seems to be opposite to the intended idea) instruments for the Decent Sampler player and this led me to Pianonote (linked at the end of this piece). Many instruments are experimental and created by the creator community, musicians and sound designers that through their own work or passion create instruments from recognisable traditional instruments to distorted versions of the same - to sounds captured and processed into playable instruments from household items to sounds in an underground car park or the sound of a lake! These more experimental instrument sounds fit well into the horror and suspense genre and for anyone without masses of money to throw around many of the community created instruments are available for free along with others that can be purchased.
As a nonprofessional I can’t give any in-depth insight, however I can say that for what I do I have found the Decent Sampler player extremely light on resources to use on my nonprofessional and reasonably low spec production laptop, and the instruments available to be extensive many available free or at very low cost from an enthusiastic community of creators. A definite boon for anyone who like myself creates as a passion and doesn’t currently earn income from my projects.
Decent Sampler and the community created instruments available for it are something that I feel I will be using more and more in upcoming projects. The instruments available are exciting to use and I very much support and enjoy the idea of a community driven enterprise with in some cases the opportunity to give something back if you can where creators also have purchasable packs.
The result of this minimalistic approach can be found below. It was a refreshing change not to have forty tracks and rather just a handful with a minimal number of instruments. As to the process everything I create starts with a feeling and both Liminality and Absence were inspired by the atmosphere and feeling that the Murky Roads and Ice Choir instruments for the decent sampler gave me. Murky Roads an instrument created from the sound of car tyres in an underground parking lot and Ice Choir an instrument created from taking sheets of ice in the dead-of-night atop a frozen loch in Edinburgh to produce resonating sounds. Both these instruments gave me a feeling of isolation and suspense and perfectly fitted the tense soundbeds I wanted to create. This along with three different pianos for the more melodic aspects formed the main basis of the pieces.
Decent Sampler can be found here - https://www.decentsamples.com/product/decent-sampler-plugin/ with instrument packs on the same site https://www.decentsamples.com/
A wider catalogue of instruments can be found on Pianobook https://www.pianobook.co.uk/sampler/decent-sampler/?pb_sort_by=date
Instruments by Venus Theory can be found here https://venustheory.gumroad.com/
The Venus Theory website can be found at https://venustheory.com/home as well as many informative and thoughful videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/venustheory
Liminality and Absence are available for free (with credit) use in non commercial podcasts and are available at https://soundcloud.com/chas-creek
No AI is used in any of my compositons or productions.
