Garageband

Once creating the project on Garageband for the film opening, I had to choose tempo, signature and key. I choose 100 beats per minute, as horror film music classically contains long notes or drones so I had to choose a fairly average speed. I choose ¾ time signature as it’s off the normally heard 4/4 or 6/8 time signatures to create an unusual rhythm. The key of C# was chosen to create an unusual or unfamiliar sound.

The first software instrument I used was ‘Izmir Ambience’. This is a synthesizers and fits in with modern horror film music. It creates the sound of a long drone with a hint of ringing as well, with gives a very eerie atmosphere. I used the musical keyboard on Garageband to create this sound, I focused on the key of C#m so started with that note for the long drones. I only played the note for a bar but the effect on the synthesizer continued the note and faded it for a further bar. For the transition of fade to white for the flashback in  the opening, I held the note down of considerably longer and the effect of it meant that it would gradually get louder as well.

As I wanted to use a mixture of classic and modern sounds, I used strings. The ‘Hollywood Strings’ were one of the only strings on Garageband that could hold notes for very long time. So I used the strings to sustain C#m throughout the whole strings section. I then added other notes from the scale over the top but continued to have these notes lasting from 2-8 bars long.

Next instrument was the ‘Rotuma Bells’. These created a very low sound and used them as long bass notes. As each instrument is added one at a time, it sounds like a build up of suspense.

Nearer the end of the piece the sound needed to pick up pace, so I used an introduction from ‘Lunar Strings’ which were high pitched but shorter than any other note. Then the ‘Sub Synth Bass’ kicks in with a steady and fast 2 notes. The bass also links into the clip of the women looking at her phone and the sound is to represent her heart beat.

The ‘Rotuma Bells’ also add in just after the bass with a quick up beat riff from the scale of C#m, to add to the change in tempo.

In Garageband, I recorded what you are playing on the musical keyboard and then edited and adjusted the notes using the precision cutting tool. Here I could lengthen or shorten, delete or change the notes positioning and pitch. This meant that if I played the wrong note I could easily just change it to the right note without re-recording the whole sequence. I also used this technique so all of the notes ended at the same time at the end, as I could see all the notes from each instrument at the same time and shortened or lengthen different instruments to end at the same bar.

Once all of the instruments had been precision cut, I adjusted their volume levels separately. So I made the sub synth bass louder to create a big impact. I also changed the long drones and the beginning to be louder as the clips have sounds of cars driving passed and the drones needed to be heard with it. The strings and the bells also needed to be quieter as they were all playing as the same time so didn’t need to be as loud as they complimented each other.