According to composer Mark Korven, the secret to being organically scary is the element of surprise. “When you’re writing for horror or thriller, the whole idea is to catch people off guard, off balance, because it’s that uncertainty that can give the audience that feeling of horror, terror, and suspense.” Our collaboration with him, Korven, is brimming with sounds full of surprises and intricate details you can harness to bring unpredictability into your soundscapes and atmospheres.

Here are a few tips from Mark for making the most out of the collection.

There are over 600 different articulations/patches in Korven, many of them relatively long. So how does one make the most of this collection? Mark’s advice is simple: “Abandon any preconceptions you might have about it being a melodic or harmonic library. You have to adopt more of a sense of playfulness.” In that spirit of playfulness, don’t be afraid to experiment with the sounds and let them guide you.

For those who want slightly more specific advice—don't fear, Mark has a couple ideas and suggestions to get you started.

When you open Korven in the SINEplayer, you’ll see one folder called 'Orchestral metamorphosis,' which is further separated into three smaller categories, each containing numerous patches. These sounds are all constructed from two different sound layers, and you can use the modwheel to fade between them. As the name suggests, one of the layers is more orchestral in its origin—but by no means conventional.

One of Mark’s recommendations, for example, is 'Harmonic drone 4' from the 'Layered disturbance' folder. Try starting with the modwheel in its highest position, soloing the sound of the symphonae, then gradually bring in the recorded orchestral quintet. The length of these samples enables all kinds of sound design.

If you want to create a similar effect using instruments and patches that aren't in the 'Orchestral metamorphosis' folder, you can create your own complex sound designs using SINEplayer’s polymaps feature. This lets you choose two or more articulations/patches from an instrument and crossfade between them using an assignable MIDI cc—the same technique Mark suggested above.

The best part is that setting this up is easy. After you load two or more articulations from an instrument, switch to the 'Performance' tab in SINE. Then click on Poly to see your polymaps. CTRL or CMD click the articulations you want, and then click 'Switch' at the lower left to change into crossfade mode. Now, you can fade between the sounds via MIDI cc. Here's a short demonstration of how to do it:

Most of the patches in Korven are not really suited to melodic music. However, there are some exceptions, there are some you can use for this purpose—you’ll need to experiment and play to find what works best for you. 

One melodic sound Mark loves is 'Glassy pad ebow.' You’ll find this in the 'Layered gurdy nightmare' sub-folder of 'Orchestral metamorphosis.' See if you can find it in Friedrich Gattermann’s audio demo here:

Did you know the SINEplayer lets you stretch the range of any instrument? You can drag the little dots above the keyboard to increase the range of any instrument. This can lead to some very fun and surprising sounds, and it’s worth playing around with to discover new sounds.

For eerie melodies using this feature, Mark suggests trying the 'Distorted freight drone ebow' patch, also found in the 'Layered gurdy nightmare' sub-folder of 'Orchestral metamorphosis.' Extend its range up an octave, then bump up the ambient mics in the 'Mixer' tab. Throw in some modwheel for expression, and you’re ready for some very creepy melodies! 

Just because Korven shies away from traditional melody and harmony, that doesn’t mean you can only play one note at a time. Using a lot of the 'Orchestral metamorphosis' instruments, which tend to whistle as they play, you can get very haunting melodic/chordal sounds.  

For instance, Mark suggests playing 'Hyper mice with drone 1' in a spread voicing, and holding the notes for a while. The result is a cacophony of squeaks with sinister undertones. Experiment with staggering the starts and ends of these notes. In the end, it all comes back to tip 1—just explore and have fun!