Horror sound effects: 13 scary sound libraries that'll make your audience scream and shiver

Posted October 6, 2013 by Asbjoern Andersen in New sound effects libraries

Halloween is just around the corner, and the days are getting colder and darker here in Denmark.

So I dimmed the lights, sat down with a cup of the blackest coffee we have in the studio and picked out some of the libraries that would work particularly well for horror projects.

They’re great for those of you working on projects where you want to give your audience the chills – and perhaps make them jump a bit.

Oh, and at the end of this guide, I’ll tell you how you can make eight creepy horror sound effects yourself. But let’s start out with the 13 libraries first – here we go:

Eerie atmospheres

Drones & Moods Drones Play Track 40 sounds included $20

40 Two Minute Long Drones

Drones are essential for every sound designer and composer. Combine and layer Drones to add more depth, tension, and suspense to your track. Drones can act as a great background to any sci-fi scene and make your music more interesting.

Bonus:
This library includes the Suburb Rain SFX collection at no extra cost - featuring almost 50 minutes of rain recordings

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When you want to create an unsettling atmosphere, this library of 40 2-minute drones will come in handy – check out the demo and hear for yourself.

Shock Effects

Destruction & Impact Impact Collection Play Track 304 sounds included $40

The Impact Collection is a library of 304 impacts, whooshes, swells, static, rises and zaps all designed with Trailers and Promos in mind.

These sounds were designed using anything I could hit, bang, rumble and smash. In the process I destroyed a couple tools and put a healthy dent in a spare refrigerator, not to mention the smashing of dozens of plates as well as my neighbor’s leftover ceramic tiles.

After recording all of my source material I got to work on building pre-made impacts in various ways as well as adding a healthy dose of plug-in abuse. My Genelecs may never be the same! Thanks for listening.

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Want to shock your audience? This collection features more than 300 sounds that will help you do just that.

Creatures

When you need some otherworldly creature sounds, Russell Gorsky’s aptly titled ‘Creatures’ library could be just the ticket. It features a total of 242 growls, hisses, roars, screeches.

Gore

Destruction & Impact Gore Toolkit HD Play Track 798 sounds included ~~$95~~ $57

A collection of over 530 96k/24bit HD Gore sound effects that comes with an additional 262 48k/24bit sounds FREE! Come and get your body damage galore. Punches, bone, blood, intestines, goops, splats, flesh movement, chewing, tearing, snapping, breaking, blade sounds… It’s BLOODY CARNAGE!

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Need blood-dripping sounds? The Gore Toolkit HD gives you almost 800 sounds total to work with – including sounds of punches, bone, blood, intestines, goops, splats, flesh movement, chewing, tearing, snapping and breaking.

Strange sounds

Drones & Moods LiquidMetal – Waterphone Play Track 263 sounds included
Rated 5.00 out of 5
~~$71~~ $42.60

The LiquidMetal – Waterphone SFX pack contains a lot of great material for your next deep impact horror project, when you need eerie, suspenseful and deep sounds that bring the fear out in you and your audience.

We hit, rattled, bowed, snaped and swashed the real Waterphone – a unique instrument – for really formidable sounds.

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The Waterphone is a unique instrument – and it emits some very eerie and unsettling sounds. The Soundcatcher managed to record the original Waterphone in this library featuring 263 sounds.

Alone in the dark

Drones & Moods Kyma Ambiences – vol.1 Play Track 56 sounds included, 112 mins total From: $49

Kyma Ambiences [USO003] is the third sound effects bundle created by Matteo Milani.

The generation of these “Artificial Reality Ambiences” starts entirely in Symbolic Sound Kyma from the processing of white and pink noise by filtering – in the time/spectral domains – and convolving these sources with custom FM, additive, formant and granular synthesis.   The composition’s resource of sound material is drawn solely from these processed stochastic sound elements: coloured noise is a raw material already full of life and can be sculpted into a variety of temporal forms, movements and textures.

The interaction with Kyma was typical of a composer who explored a device’s potential for sound transformation like a musical instrument. The goal was to obtain an organic and acoustic quality using only a restricted sound source, in order to evoke real spatial characteristics attached to each invented sound.

The “Kyma Ambiences vol.1” sound effects collection is published @ 96kHz (native) – and is also available as dual-layer separated “Elements”, suitable for recombinant stratification, varispeed and spatial positioning in the surround field (for a total of 112 files @ 96kHz).

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If you’re looking to instill a feeling of desolation and loneliness, Matteo Milani has generated some truly strange soundscapes for you in his Kyma Ambiences library – check out the demo.

Screams

Horror Scream Collection Play Track 441 sounds included $25

Introducing the Scream Collection (A Tribute To Wilhelm). This library pays homage to the infamous Wilhelm Scream first heard in the film Distant Drums as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of other films. This compilation includes 441 vocal effects ranging from startled gasps to all out screams.

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Blood-curdling screams are of course a vital part of any horror project.

And in Bruce Bueckert’s Scream library, you get no fewer than 441 vocal sound recordings (screams + many other strange vocal sounds) to work with.

Blades

Destruction & Impact Blades Play Track 260 sounds included ~~$30~~ $22.50

Blades is a collection of 54 audio files containing a whopping 260 individual audio clips. This collection gives you sheath sounds, blade scrapes, clanks, hits, schings, and yes, even scissors snipping. Best of all, if you need 10 sword hits in the scene, you only have to import one or two tracks.

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When your project calls for a bit of knife-wielding, David Fienup’s library has you covered.
His Blades library gives you sheath sounds, blade scrapes, clanks, hits, schings, and yes, even scissors snipping (!). A total of 260 sounds are included.

Smashing and breaking

Destruction & Impact The Abandoned School Play Track 172 sounds included ~~$52~~ $31.20

We recorded an old abandoned school and gained a lot of nice and very unique sound fx for your next sounddesign project. You’ll get up to 1.26 GB / 172 mono & stereo files, tagged (for trouble free use in your loved data base program) and carefully mastered in 24Bit/96kHz.

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Chances are that there’ll be some destruction going on in your project – and this library features 172 audio recordings of things breaking, recorded with natural ambiences at an abandoned school.

Odd strings

Drones & Moods Desolated Strings & Wood Play Track 272 sounds included ~~$79~~ $47.40

The Soundcatcher is proud to announce a new sound design library called “Desolated Strings & Wood“. The found Markneunkirchen Zither from Wernitzgruen was in a very poor condition. I collected it and wrecked it like there was no tomorrow.

You´ll get 272 stereo files (1.48GB total), tagged for trouble-free use in your favorite database program and carefully mastered in 24Bit/96kHz.

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The zither is capable of making some really odd noises – and this library features 800+ sounds in 88 files of stringy weirdness. Hear some of the examples in the demo above.

Creepy resonances

Human Burps & Farts Play Track 82 sounds included $7

Burps & Farts is the perfect addition to your bodily function sound effects library! Tons of deep, resonant burps and farts included, recorded in pristine HD.

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Sound designer Russell Gorsky managed to get a surprising number of creepy, resonant noises out of an old metal shelf. It sounds a lot scarier than it looks!

Scary squeals

Animals & Creatures Pigs FX Play Track 246 sounds included $54

Terrifying squeals, grunts, barks, and sneeze from adult pigs weighing up to 400 lbs, and ambiences from the stables. The second part is recordings of smaller pigs (80 lbs) on the day they were picked up by truck to go you know where! The pigs knew exactly what was going on, which is represented in the sounds recorded.

Needless to say, this library has been ear wrecking to put together, but the reward is 246 single files of pure pigs.

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Ah, pigs – these creatures can emit some pretty horrific sounds indeed. Sound designer Mikkel Nielsen spent days on a farm recording terrifying squeals and grunts + ambience from the stables. Check out the demo to hear what he brought back with him.

Need more sounds?

If you need more sounds for your project, be sure to check out the many other sound libraries on A Sound Effect – click below to continue exploring:

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Hope you found something useful above! If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also create your own horrifying sound effects from scratch. Here are some ideas for doing just that, courtesy of David Filskov’s great list of sound effect ideas, and some clever sound designers:

How to create your own horror sounds

Bats flying

I used an umbrella opening and closing rapidly for the sound of bats flying one time… turned out great. I think I had to filter out some of the low frequency material, though.
-Tim Clarke

A pair of leather gloves flapped about is a good substitute for wings flapping when a bat takes off.
– Garry Taylor

Blood and guts being torn out

I know how to make a nice sound of blood and guts being torn out. Just make a milk pulp, put it into your mouth, and then try to say “Ghhhh”. Mix it with the end section of any water splash sample or add a sample where you’re moving out your hand from a bucket of water.
– Adam

Gore and squidge

Wet wash leather – fantastic for gore and squidge.
– Mark Estdale

Fruits! Especially tomatoes (for splatters) and potatoes (for wet crunchy sounds). Another classic is making a goo with eggs and dip rags and paper towels into them and play.
– Gustaf Grefberg

Rat shrieks

Pitched-up chickens.
– Ben Burtt

Up-pitched kittens. Especially the screechy ones.
– Gustaf Grefberg

Stone coffin opening

Slide off the top of a toilet tank.
– Ben Burtt

Spirits screaming

Dolphin and sea-lion cries, other animal screams and human vocalizations.
– Ben Burtt

Tentacles, sliding

Get a few day’s worth of stubble on your face. Go somewhere real quiet and record running your hand and arm under your chin – it mixes in nice with the hairs on your arm. Or as I just found out, get a mouse mat with a rubberized or cloth surface and rub that under your chin :-) To further this idea maybe put some shaving gel on and take a credit card and lightly rub it across? That way you get bristly with a bit of slime.
– Dave Sullivan

Having just eaten a bowl of macaroni and cheese shells, I have to say it’s the most convincing tentacle sound I’ve ever heard. It also made the bowl harder to finish :-)
– Jay Semerad

Vocalization of monster

Metal pressed against dry ice.
– Paul Arnold

Slide a straw up or down in a McDonald’s large drink plastic lid. Try pitching it down and stretching it – and voilá! McZilla.
– Max Hodges

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A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

Ambisonics Ambisonic Overview: ALASKA Play Track 66 sounds included, 299 mins total ~~$70~~ $50

For this sound effects library, we traveled across Alaska, from the extreme north to the south coast to capture the spirit of these nordic and wild landscapes: Boreal forests, arctic and alpin tundras, glaciers, rivers, and lakes.

Here the soundscapes reflect the extreme weather conditions: Silent ambiances punctuated by the elements: Wind, snow, rain, serving the erosion.

In this wilderness, animals remain discreet. We had the chance to capture many birds with our microphones: Owls, ducks, seagulls, trumpeter swans, bald eagles, common ravens, migratory birds, and many other species – and a few other animals: Hoary marmots, arctic marmots, squirrels and moose.

-The sound bank contains 66 sound takes recorded in ambisonic at 24/96khZ (a total of 330 files).

here is an exemple of an ambisonic recording embeded in a 360° movie (go on youtube to listen the 360° sound) :

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Mechanical Clocks Vol. 2 Play Track 33+ sounds included ~~$15~~ $5

Clock's Volume 2 is the sequel to the small but unique sound library – not recorded from traditional clocks but of edited sounds that tick tock.

‘Clocks Volume 2’ by Badlands Sound features 30+ tick tock sounds perfect for your projects in high-quality 96k / 24 bit. Sounds include metal and plastic clocks as well as metronomes and grandfather clocks.

We believe these sounds will greatly benefit sound editors and sound designers allowing them to add these files to their projects quickly.

All these sounds are one minute long loopable allowing you to save time editing.

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Mechanical reel2reel Play Track 689 sounds included ~~$20~~ $10

Another electromechanical-focused library from SkewSound! Our reel2reel Sound Library features a professional tape machine from the 1980s. We captured all the sounds this little (well, actually quite large and heavy) piece of gear could create.

DC motors, servos, tape spinning, metal impacts, and more can be found within this library.

And if you are on the hunt for some huge, analog style mechanical buttons, you should hear what this library has to offer.

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:

Sci-Fi Organic Lifeform Textures Play Track 99 sounds included $12

'Organic Lifeform Textures' by Bluezone Corporation is an inspirational sound effect library offering a selection of 99 ( 24 bit / 96 kHz / stereo ) unusual and mysterious sounds : From huge organisms to tiny insects, unexpected groans to invertebrate creatures moving through mud, this SFX library will offer you ultra high quality malleable textures for all your projects. This downloadable sample pack is very usefull for pro editors, film makers, music producers and video game sound designers.

All sounds were recorded using various sources and processed meticulously using high-end gear. These sound effects have been layered to give you ready-to-use elements. You can easily pitch, modulate, mangle and stretch these sounds to create thousands of variations. 'Organic Lifeform Textures' has been designed to enhance science fiction, mystery, suspense and fantasy video game and scoring projects. Note: The background ambience in the demo is not part of the product but is added free of charge.
Space Cargo Play Track 138 sounds included $22

Bluezone Corporation presents 'Cargo – Spaceship Sound Effects', a new sci-fi sample library covering a wide range of elements including cockpit and interior ambiences, interface and beep sounds, reactor rumbles, spaceship passby sounds and more. Created with a large selection of high quality recordings and then meticulously layered, this downloadable sample pack will enhance your creative potential with as many as 138 highly usable sounds.

All sound files are named according to their content and sorted thematically. WAV files are provided as 24 Bit / 96 kHz and sorted in 11 folders. In order to give you ready-to-use sounds for your productions, all samples are royalty-free for all your commercial projects.
Whooshes Cinematic Metal – Titan Play Track Up to 4600 sounds included ~~From: $119~~ From: $95.20

CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN pushes big screen sound design beyond its comfort zone. New and unheard HITS, BRAAMS, BOOMS, IMPACTS, STINGERS and much more await you in the comprehensive Construction Kit and devastating Designed edition. Get over 12GB worth of clean, dazzling sound effects – available as individual components as well as layered, processed and ready to use.

The library is available in two versions & a special bundle:

CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN CONSTRUCTION KIT
CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN sounds massive from start to finish. This Construction Kit in particular starts off with an unusual amount of kick. While foley and other, more meticulous applications are certainly possible, the main purpose here is to bring out the big guns and stomp any hint of moderation into the ground.

LOCK AND LOAD
Supplement your designs with detailed, high-end metallic sounds. The Construction Kit allows you to build unique, multi-accent effects that not only impress in scale, but also in fidelity, rhythm and character. This library particularly shines in situations, where the visible picture doesn’t necessarily produce the envisioned sound, but warrants its own supernatural emphasis.

Files: 700 • Sounds: 4200 • Size: 10.9 GB

CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN DESIGNED:
Optimized for trailers, action scenes, in-game cinematics and special effects, the Designed edition brings fresh and exciting sounds to the table.

Discover the force of aggressive, low, soft, processed, clean and tonal HITS, BRAAMS, IMPACTS, SCREECHES, STINGERS and SLAMS.

DARK AND POWERFUL
Paint a sense of dread and awe – CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN Designed can evoke fear of the unknown but just as easily kick into rampage mode: Empowered, ready for battle and thirsty for revenge. Find your perfect blend of haunting thriller and jacked, gritty anti-hero.
Files: 100 • Sounds: 400 • Size: 1.5 GB

CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN BUNDLE:
THE BUNDLE – The best of both worlds at a discounted price.
The Bundle gives you the full sound design power as it contains both – the DESIGNED and the CONSTRUCTION KIT edition at a discounted price.

Files: 800 • Sounds: 4600 • Size: 12.4 GB

Included sounds – keywords:
Braam, impact, rattle, squeak, rumble, clang, crunch, bell, groan, squeak, creak, cymbal, stinger, rusty, gate, container, flam, click, chain, dragging, thwack, bolt, door, train, metallic, iron, sliding, pole, oil drum, scrap, nail, gutter, break, steel, rim, scaffold, crowbar, swell, brass, hook, grate

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Environments New Zealand Ambiences Play Track 27 sounds included, 88 minutes mins total $30

New Zealand Ambiences is a beautifully crafted ambience library exploring the incredible country and sounds of New Zealand (mainly focusing on the South Island). This library will take you on a sonic adventure exploring the many unique birds and creatures ranging from locations such as: Haast, Queenstown, Lake Paringa, Lake Wakatipu, Te Anau, the Clay Cliffs and Pukaki!

Recorded at 24 bit/192 kHz you’ll have the flexibility to pitch these ambiences and bird songs to create some truly amazing other worldly atmospheres!
City Life Jamaican Vibrations Vol. 2 Play Track 90 sounds included, 702 mins total From: $30

Get the sounds and ambiences of Jamaica in this very special sound effects library, featuring almost 12 hours of authentic recordings.

An Additional Library of Vol 1. the Jamaican Vibrations SFX library includes Walla sounds of Jamaican Patois chatting, urban and village ambiences, high mountain atmospheres, forest sounds, car rides, coffee farm working sounds, wooden house sounds, roomtones, beaches, as well as a luxury hotel visit. So if you're looking for the real sounds of Jamaica, here they are:

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Horror sound effects: 13 scary sound libraries that’ll make your audience scream and shiver

40 Two Minute Long Drones