How to make the sounds from John Carpenter 'Halloween (Theme Song)' with DRC
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When we think of Halloween a lot of things come to mind: carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and lots of hideous masks, but nothing else encapsulates the horror side of Halloween like the 1978 movie of the same name.
In the unlikely event that you don’t know of the film or have never heard its iconic haunting theme, it’s a spooky melody, almost a kind of glitchy arpeggio. It gives off an unsettling feeling and conjures up a sense manic and panicked behaviour, as it meanders over the top of a constantly shifting undertone, with a chord progression that builds, but with some jarring jumps along the way.
Directed by John Carpenter, Halloween is famous for lots of reasons, but for us it’s mainly the music and *that* mask! Both music and mask are intrinsically linked with the main character of the film, the unforgettable killer; Michael Myers. Escaped from an asylum and ready to kill from beneath a horrifying white mask, replicas of which are still seasonally sold as a solid Halloween costume option.
As a low-budget, independent film, ‘Halloween’ turned out to be one of the most profitable in the history of independent cinema, establishing itself as a defining classic in the horror genre inspiring countless derivative works. Considered by many critics as the quintessential slasher film, it is conceivably one of the finest and most influential horror and Halloween-themed movies ever created. These days the ‘Halloween’ brand is not just a single movie, it became a franchise with thirteen films, (yes 13 films!) novels, comic books, video games, and of course merch. The (allegedly) last and final movie in the series ‘Halloween Ends’ (2022) has just been released.
Today we treat to you all the tricks behind the sound design of the Halloween theme, in this DRC Sound Design Tutorial.
Click here to download the Ableton project file
We love a good synth stab,
Team Imaginando