Fear has been flipped upside down…

Fear has been flipped upside down…
October 23, 2017 Tom Ito

The Hit House’s “FRAMEWORK LAYER 4” Horror Sound Design for Advertising arrives for Halloween.

How do you build the perfect haunted house? And no, we aren’t just talking about a place with spotty Wi-Fi and no AC. We mean something so scary that no matter how hard you try, a little moisture escapes into your…

For The Hit House’s 6-time Emmy Nominated sound designer Chad J. Hughes, it began with a clear vision about the dynamics of industry needs. “It’s always a challenge creating something that is useful for trailer editors. In this collection we cover horror in a way never heard before. There is a spectrum of offerings from subtle uncomfortable, to huge bombastic design, and everything in between,” said Hughes.

Categories of sound design in FRAMEWORK LAYER 4 include “Atmospheres,” “Creatures,” “Horror Hits,” “Pulses,” “Signature Sounds,” and “Whooshes.” On cutting through a busy mix, Hughes said, “During the design process I was mindful of how dynamic trailer mixes are in the horror genre. The choice of frequency content was custom tailored to cut through these types of mixes and deliver something that is crisp, terrifying, and that will make you cringe!” This ethos of making it easy for our clients extends through all The Hit House’s music and sound design offerings. Hughes highlighted his intent of making it seamless for the editors’ needs, “We design with fidelity in mind. The end result is something that can be dropped right into a mix and doesn’t tie the mixers hands with overbearing reverbs printed into the cue. It’s something that is tasteful and clean. It just works.”

Additionally, this new horror sound design album’s offerings include even more bespoke elements. “We have introduced several Foley and Design categories that allow the editor to maximize impact and detail in ways never heard before,” said Hughes. These are divided into groups for “Body and Combat,” “Human and Animal,” “Mechanical/Structural,” and “Weapon.” An additional consideration for this album was layering. Hughes said, “Have you ever listened to a cue and thought ‘I’d love this if that one little sound wasn’t in there…’? We found some cues would be useful if broken into two parts. So we gave editors the option of selecting which part of the design they prefer, or choosing the fully layered mixed version of the cue. Adding a level of control never offered before.”

With FRAMEWORK LAYER 4, we hacked and carved away at terror to give you the organs and tissue to create the monster for yourself. Our in-house unlicensed sound surgeon, “Dr. Hughes,” meticulously created this exhaustive and expansive blood bag of sonic guts to play with from the practical, to the ambient to the comple…WAIT WHAT WAS THAT!??!?!

You may want to lay down some plastic sheeting before listening.