How much low-end is too much in a horror score?

I got asked a really good question the other day.

“How much low-end should I use in this song?”

My first answer was, “I don’t know, man. Feel it out.” That is what we call in the business a rude thing to say.

When you think about being scared, do you think about noise at all? My mind actually jumps to the importance of silence in a score, but that is a subject for another post. Today, we are talking about bass in a score.

We need to talk about the role of sound in human survival. The human ear is very good at perceiving the directionality of a good amount of the frequency spectrum. Lower frequencies are harder to hear but it’s thought that we can feel it more than we hear it. I believe that comes with a caveat though. If there is something close enough to us to produce those lower frequencies then it is big and it is close.

In that regard, the lower register has a huge place in horror. An obvious example is Kaiju movies. It is absolutely necessary in any piece of media featuring an insurmountable challenge. Spend some time listening to the Godzilla Minus One soundtrack. Satō absolutely killed it.

I think the real question is how do you implement it effectively. Well, it may not surprise you that my answer is “It depends.”

If we are talking about a horror game that utilizes jump scares then you might consider holding back the bass till the “big bad” is on screen. You also have to consider the gear most players are using. Serious horror fans are probably going to use headphones so hitting them with too much bass could bust some eardrums.

If you are making a survival horror game where the action is extended then moderate bass levels is going to be a more realistic implementation. Instead of using bass as your “fear enhancer” you might use tempo or key instead.

I’m personally a fan of the “low drone.” It’s when you play a low note that seems barely audible. Then every now and then introduce a pad 2 or 3 octaves up that slowly fades in and out.

The last thing you should do is try to blast people away with the bass. That might make your jump scare a full-on assault. The opposite is also true. Every song should have some low-end. It’s like only using half your toolbox to make a cabinet.

For most things horror I recommend people listen to the Alien Soundtrack. Goldsmith is a master of the horror blockbuster. Between Alien and The Omen you have a lot of great studies to do but if you just listen to the lower instruments you can hear a lot of what I’m talking about. It’s about hitting the listener with the right information at the right time.

Also, chants in Latin never hurt.