Strings of Dread is a synth for the free Kontakt Player, or Kontakt 7. Strings of Dread is composed of four distinct quad-oscillator synths designed to create eerie pads, melodies, and rhythms for drama and suspense. It is designed to both replicate traditional instruments and arrangements used in film, analog synthesis sounds from 60s and 70s horror films, and digital synthesis pads found in modern dystopian science fiction.
All oscillators are 96 khz, 24 bit quality. Each synth has eight resonant filters with a choice of ladder notch, ladder peak, low pass, band pass, high pass, formant 1, and formant 2. The filters are controllable via LFO or AHDSRC envelope. Every filter and every oscillator has envelopes and LFOs to control modulation. All of these are editable. All parameters are midi enabled and automatable in your DAW.
We sampled real instruments such as cellos, violins, basses, bells, and guitars. We then mixed various harmonic techniques to create lush and/or discordant ensembles. After that, we applied additive synthesis and FM synthesis to create 16 aggressively harmonic oscillators which retain the character of the performances, while giving plenty of frequencies for the highly resonant filters to work with.
It can be used to form ambient backgrounds, aggressive themes, and hybrid elements for inclusion in a variety of genres but is most adept at discordant and haunting sounds. We painstakingly recorded discordant, strange harmonics and sub-harmonics in order to achieve ghostly and malevolent sounds.
There are over 300 dark, haunting patches and 50 multis included. Each of these is eerily prefect, but can be edited dramatically with vector synthesis, analog modeling, ring modulation, etc. There are post effects such as reverb, echo, flange, and chorus. There is also a "flair" module, which creates up to 16 seperate voices per note and links their pitch to lfos for effects ranging from detuning to trailing chaos.
From dark drones to stabbing jumpscares to ominous rythms, these patches will get you started on your synthesis journey toward adding unique character to your dark tracks and ambiences.
