Hello again! Welcome to The Month Of Spook (October.)

In this post we'll talk a bit about about making Wytchwood's unique soundtrack and what we do to make it pleasantly unsettling (and spooky.)

Wytchwood's soundtrack is composed by myself and Ryan Roth. In this example we take a page out of a modern film composition technique. As soundtracks get more complex, instruments can often get lost in the audio mix or sound weak on their own. To remedy this, composers will layer or double the instrument track. For Wytchwood, we use this technique to make a unique, full-sounding keyboard. This keyboard acts as a sonic signature in Wytchwood.


Take this example of a simple piano line:
https://youtu.be/9spRhBG0tkQ

It sounds nice but it's a bit quiet and doesn't carry a lot of character on it's own. Here it is layered with a few more keyboard samples:
https://youtu.be/rqxgFW_YlKA

Definitely a more powerful and unique sound print. But we can do better and here's where things get really fun. We take this sound, send it to a hardware output, process the signal through out board effects, re-amp the signal and re-record what we wrote in the music software. This means the signal goes [computer -> external effects -> computer]
In this case we're using a couple of guitar pedals: a trustworthy Electro Harmonix Memory Boy and a Mr. Black Supermoon (as far as I can tell, the spookiest effect pedal ever manufactured.)


The result is a big, washed out sound that certainly fits Wytchwood's audio profile. As a bonus benefit, we can tweak the settings while recording and add a human element to the production.
https://youtu.be/vvzBYJ_nK_c

All this together with a nice ambient pad and the result is an arangement that is dramatic, ambient and fitting to Wytchwood's themes (and spooky.)
https://youtu.be/9-GR_NVlELQ

This is just one example of Wytchwood's extensive soundtrack. Full of different themes and instruments to fit the many locations and characters you'll see. We can't wait to show you more.

Thanks for tuning in!

-Liam