Here, Dzuban shares his insights and tips on how to design amazing horror sounds!
Interview by Jennifer Walden
Sound designer/re-recording mixer Joe Dzuban (at Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services in Burbank) is an undeniable authority on designing and mixing sound for horror films.
Sound designer & Re-Recording Mixer Joe Dzuban
Dzuban was sound designer and re-recording mixer on two films from director John R. Leonetti: Annabelle and Wish Upon, and sound designer on director André Øvredal’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and director Jacob Chase’s Come Play. He also mixed Paranormal Activity 3 (directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman) and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (directed Christopher Landon).
Get ready for some great tips on designing horror sounds, courtesy of Joe Dzuban!
What are five essential tips you’d share on how to design gory/scary/cringe-inducing horror sounds?
1. Record something! Find something unusual and unique to record for your gore. Try various things you can tear and destroy to get a variety of interesting textures. Take a trip to the grocery store!
2. Don’t over-do it: As sound editors, we love to layer our sounds. But when it comes to gore, fewer layers are better. Give the audience something strong to hold onto. Don’t clutter the moment.
Evocative sounds will make the picture all the more squeamish.
3. Sync is optional: Don’t get too tied to picture. Make a sound that works and tells a story, and 9/10 it’ll work to picture. Evocative sounds will make the picture all the more squeamish.
4. Don’t stack all your sounds: Think of moments in terms of double or triple events. So a stab isn’t just a single sword ‘shing;’ it might be a tear followed by a thrust, followed by a juice splat.
5. Try, try, and try again: Try your sounds to picture, live with them for a few days, revisit them, and then try new sounds. Experiment with different types of sounds and rhythms until you get to that ‘moment’ where it works!
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Popular horror sound libraries:
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Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries Spells Variations Vol 4 Play Track 255 sounds included $10.20
Spell Variations Vol. 4 marks the grand finale of our magical sound series, delivering a diverse and powerful collection of spell effects. Inside, you’ll find summonings, blood spells, petrifications, healing spells, dark incantations, and much more!
This volume includes 255 high-quality sound effects, organized into 27 distinct spell types, each with multiple variations (3 to 17) to ensure no spell sounds the same, even when reused across your project.
Each spell type is carefully named and sorted into individual folders, giving you intuitive navigation and maximum flexibility for magical scenes, game effects, or cinematic transitions.
Recorded, edited, and mastered in 192 kHz / 24-bit, these sounds deliver exceptional clarity and full adaptability for pitching, layering, or creative processing.
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More about the pack
– Intuitive file naming
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Use the sound effects over and over, in any of your projects or productions, forever without any additional fees or royalties. Use the SFX in your game, in your trailer, in a Kickstarter campaign, wherever you need to, as much as you want to.
– Totally mono compatibility
– All sounds have several variations.
– Use your imagination and feel free to use any sound for a creature other than the one described, remember that the world of sound is totally subjective.
– For any questions or problems: khronstudio@gmail.comFeatures
– 255 spell sounds
– Number of Audio Waves: 255
– Format: 192KHz / 24 bits
– Win/Mac: Yes
– Minutes of audio provided: 19:2140 %OFF -
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SONIC SPELLS WITH REAL PERSONALITY MAGIC – ALCHEMY is a professional sound effects library built from real chemical reactions and elemental forces. It delivers short, character-rich magic sound effects perfect for spellcasting, magical UI design, and fantasy storytelling. Designed to sit cleanly in a mix and shimmer with personality, these spell sounds are ideal for games, trailers, audio dramas and more. Real reactions, recorded with obsessive detail.
Magic Sounds from Real Chemical ReactionsNo digital fakery here. Every sound in MAGIC – ALCHEMY began as a live experiment — alcohol burning in jars, butane growling through pipes, fuses igniting, water swirling in glass. These are true-to-life textures, captured in a lab-grade recording setup. The result? Magical sound with depth, realism, and spark..
Short, Sharp, and Ready to UseThese are not long, cinematic flourishes. This library is about immediacy — short, dry, punchy magic effects that are easy to slot into your project. Ideal for game asset design, magical feedback sounds, and trailer moments where clarity counts.
Three Spell Flavours: Holy, Cursed, NeutralNeed a healing chime, a cursed hex, or something more ambiguous? The Designed section is grouped into Holy, Cursed, and Neutral categories — giving you emotional options that match your scene’s intent, whether you’re crafting a fantasy RPG or a subtle magical interaction.
Built for Professionals, Whatever You CreateWhether you’re layering magic for a fantasy film, adding interactive audio to a mobile game, or creating rich textures for audiobooks or theatre, MAGIC – ALCHEMY fits right in. It’s mix-ready, flexible, and full of sonic character.
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What’s your approach to creating effective jump scares? (Any tips to offer on how to make the best/most effective jump scares?)
Jump scares work best when the audience least expects them. Much of the success of a scare comes from picture editing. But as sound folks, we can help those moments by trying to ‘lull’ the audience before the big jump. We want them to lean in a bit. Getting into that lull is the creative challenge and is different for every film. Sometimes the lull lives for say 15 seconds before the scare, other times it’s a brief pause just before the action.
Take the transient ‘edges’ off of door closes or footsteps, or EQ them a bit so they are tucked into the mix…
I make sure all the sounds preceding scares are ‘rounded’ and less staccato. Take the transient ‘edges’ off of door closes or footsteps, or EQ them a bit so they are tucked into the mix – we don’t want any sounds capturing the audience’s attention.
Also, try to find a way out of music so that we really minimize the soundtrack.
For the sting itself, use sharp, strident sounds and play them ‘loud and proud.’
Bonus: Download 13 free horror / gore sound effects from Soundbits:
Anything that sound designers should avoid when creating sounds for a horror film?
Avoid excessive sounds in horror films. Don’t overdo the soundtrack with a classic ‘Hollywood’ feel. We don’t need to hear EVERY footstep, EVERY hand-pat, or 30 layers of BGs!
Find those few sound elements in a scene that tell the story and make them come to life.
Horror soundtracks tend to be concise, compact, and incorporate only the bare essentials of what is needed to tell the story. Find those few sound elements in a scene that tell the story and make them come to life.
A big thanks to Joe Dzuban for sharing excellent tips on designing horror sounds and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!
Want to learn more about horror sound?
Check out the Ultimate Horror Sound Guide below:
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Level up with Kawaii UI 2 the perfect companion to Kawaii UI.
Kawaii UI 2 follows up with more charming, modern, rounded user interface sounds designed to make your projects pop.
This library provides an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
Bring your games and apps to life with Kawaii UI 2. It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.What’s Inside?
The designed folder of Kawaii UI 2 gives you a selection of ready to use UI sounds. You’ll find sounds for button presses, cursors, notifications, swipes, errors, bootups, app opens, loading loops, etc.
Inside the source folder you’ll also find a large collection of general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds. Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.
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