Hip hop artists have long been sampling from horror films. We've seen legendary veteran acts such as Three 6 Mafia, Dr. Dre, and Geto Boys to today's chart-toppers like Travis Scott lead the way. Not to mention producers like DJ Scratch and DJ Premier for artists such as Busta Rhymes and KRS-One.
We get the draw. The mood designed by horror movie scores is the perfect accompaniment to the themes found in thoughtful hip hop, often shining a spotlight on some of society's well...more frightening aspects.
Those haunting melodics are most often characterized by eerie and beautiful string compositions, laying the foundation for chill-inducing harmonies. Sounds that leave you feeling simultaneously uneasy and at peace.
As much as we love a good horror film sample, we realized there were no existing string packs specifically designed for hip hop and trap.
We turned to the Splice String Quartet to help us design sounds that can be chopped, screwed, and manipulated by artists to create their own scores and samples to work into their beats and tracks. We recruited Aya Terki on cello, Josh Henderson and Finnegan Shanahan on violins, and Trevor New on viola to join us at Aura Studio in Brooklyn. We recorded on AKG C414s and Avedis ME5 preamps for a clean, warm sound then overdubbed the quartet multiple times to achieve a larger section sound.
Inspired by horror film composers such as Wendy Carlos and John Carpenter, these sounds are primed to add a dark, moody twist to your next trap and hip hop productions.
