Erratum (typos and errors): 12:01 Should say "Save Menu background music" 18:02 and 18:30 I swapped "Sickness unto Foolish Dead" with "Rain of Brass Petals" 21:57 & 31:13 - It should say "Silent Hill 1" 24:47 The song and the sample were swapped 37:51 I should have mentioned that, in fact, the sample itself comes from the song "Teardrop" by Massive Attack, so then it was included in the sample library.
I feel like it's almost fitting that the soundtrack of Silent Hill would be composed of so many samples. It's sort of like a broken radio picking up random bits of noise from every channel to create a new sound, or the town more literally drawing from imagery and ideas buried in the subconscious to form its monsters and environments. It's an ambience of cobbled together sounds you may have heard in some other media before, but so distorted and reshaped in a new context, you may not even recognize it. It's strange and unsettling, but not entirely alien; it's drawing from the collective human experience. I'm not saying that was necessarily the reason it was done this way, but it really works for Silent Hill.
For those disappointed by the amount of sampling, remember Akira Yamaoka had to produce all this for a game on a tight deadline. Not only did he write and compose all the music, he was the overall sound designer. To expect him to do all that as well as create samples from scratch just isn't humanly possible. On this video itself . . . wow. I've recorded several song covers from the Silent Hill games for my channel. I sonically deep-dived into all the tracks I did to reproduce sounds that capture the vibe of the original recordings. As my covers are more guitar-centric, it involved some creativity on my part using mostly guitar effects. I'm glad I didn't catch this video before I started doing these covers (which this was produced after most of my covers). It would have been tempting to go right to the source and use the same samples Akira did for all the non-guitar stuff.
@@at0micl0bster i would rephrase that because some samples are just pitched down or straight up at its original octave. It's better to say that he picked the RIGHT samples for the project. Now that takes skills.
Most people who are "disappointed" have no understanding of music production and how samples might be used. Samples themselves do not produce the music.
Hip Hop at it's core, was revolutionary because it used 2 bar break beats *as* an instrument, for a new piece of music. Think about the feedback delays as a sort of audio fog, using that sample, as a modulatable midi controlled instrument, is like a fractal of creativity in terms of new dimensions to explore. So I think his music was revolutionary as well. Because he used an extremely limited library and was able to create that using really authentic samples.
tip for sounddesigners: you can do SAME sounds with sampling chords!, pitch Loops, distortion, filter... You don´t need this samples, and you don´t need Omnisphere!
The Day of Night is one of the most beautiful peices of ambient music i’ve ever heard. hearing it slowed makes it even better. i love how silent hill ambient music became an entire sub genre on youtube. it’s amazing for helping me relax and sleep .
I thought I was the only one who used it to relax. I used to listen to a lot of Silent Hill soundtrack music to draw when I was feeling artistic back before I had adult responsibilities. lol You would think that it would creep people out to the point of not wanting to listen to the soundtrack but for many of us fans of Akira Yamaoka it's the perfect music to chill out to.
This video is something phenomenal!!! The analysis of each sample and technique used by Akira in his tracks is very detailed and well done, I love Akira's atmospheres so much and this video literally kept me glued to the screen till late night. As an ambient composer + silent hill super fan I couldn't ask for anything better, really. @Avith Ortega Thank you SOOO much for this video, you did an amazing job!!! 👍👍👍
Index (BTW, the video has English and Spanish captions, activate them next to the video settings): Intro: 0:00 White Noiz Pad: 2:23 Harmonics: 6:51 Pads: 10:23 Pads in Electronic music: 14:46 Unaltered samples: 16:27 Altered samples: 19:54 Beats: 26:21 Sample licence: 32:57 Bonus: 34:57 Credits: 38:41
Thank you for this incredible video! I love Akira's work (in fact, SH 2 OST is my favourite album of all time) and I also love sampling: learning how he even used stock samples from programs and VSTs to make such emblematic music is astonishing! I've recently started to produce my own music, but I still have A LOT to learn: this kind of videos that show how the artists work in order to create their craft are truly a blessing!
Huh...everyone always said Akira used a dental drill to get that nauseating high-pitched sound in "My Heaven", but it turns out it was just radio noises from a sample album, pretty interesting.
IKR, I always wondered from where people got that information, I don't remember reading that Akira said that. What I do remember is that people said Akira made the industrial sounds hitting and smashing things in his kitchen, which I doubt he really did.
@@AvithOrtega Im sure I'd read that it was a dentists drill somewhere so I looked into it, the Silent Hill Wiki is the culprit, lol. silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/My_Heaven I had heard about the kitchen stuff too, but I agree it seems more likely he'd just use samples.
Thank you so much for this video! Lots of people that analyze Yamaokas music for Silent Hill are always quick to say that it is inspired by Industrial but no one ever talks about how Yamaoka is a fan of Detroit Techno where those types of chords are a staple of that sound. Finally someone gets it
I never realized you could do so much with samples ... tbh it just gets me to respect akira yamaoka's work even more. Some of these samples seem to come straight from hell and Yamaoka somehow manages to make them sound even more diabolical! I'm not sure how you managed to tell which samples he was using seeing as they are often so well blended in! I have to agree with others you deserve so much recognition for the amount of effort you put into this video! Great work.
I'm not convinced by the argument that he cheated in some way by using sample packs. Firstly, and my fanboying aside, he's a professional with a deadline using the best tools he had available for the sake of expedience. Secondly, we draw arbitrary lines in "cheating" should we go down that route. Is anyone remixing a song "cheating" and to what degree? Is anyone using or altering the stock patches on a synthesizer "cheating" in the same way and if not, why not? Same question for ROMplers directly, or even a Mellotron.
Thank you! This is outstanding and such a great look behind the scenes of the production of Yamaoka's music. At first I was a little let down to learn that he used so many samples, but then I realized how much work it takes to produce all those elements (especially when Persing said he came back and listened through seven-hour experimental tapes to find what eventually became Distorted Reality). Plus he changed them and added so many more layers. I'm a bigger fan now.
One question: during the Beats chapter, all the loops you included in the video have a beeping sound in them. Is that just something that's included in demo files before you purchase the license?
That's how I felt about it it at first, but now I appreciate and undertand why it is like that, and also admire the work that every individual put in the creation of the things involved into a final product. Answering your question: the beep sound is just to overlay something above the loop because in the terms of use of some sample libraries they dont allow to put a single loop without any other sound at the same time.
I always wondered how much of Yamaoka's work on the soundtrack was a straight up sample without alterations. I'm no music expert but I could have sworn I heard some beats in other media. Excellent effort putting these samples in one video like this. Romersa as the chanting voice was a surprise!
The 'Otherworld Transition' in Silent Hill 3 is actually titled 'RAVISH' from the 'Things That Go Bump In The Night Vol. 2' CD by Big Fish Audio. It's found on Disc 2. Great video btw!
Thanks to you for being there all this time! And sure, more music is on the way, probably in a different way this time, I hope to give more details soon ;)
It must have taken ages to do the research and find the samples. I know how daunting a task it can be looking for one sample, but this is excellent work. Thanks for shedding some light on this!
You have changed my outlook on what it means to create music, sound design is just as integral with sampling being totally ok to do from many available libraries. Combining existing things with new elements to arrive at a new place.
I also wanted to mention that the "Is That The Door" sample was also used in a song called "Ocean", along with another sample called "Futile" from the "Distorted Reality 2" sample library used in a song called "Dreamsleep". both songs are by a duo called Collide!
9:20 I have goosebumps every time that I hear this song. It’s just perfect 👌🏻. What an amazing video you have here my friend, I’m glad that I could find it 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.
I can't believe this video doesn't have more attention! You did so much research and it really shows! I greatly appreciate this! It's so wonderful to learn more about how Silent Hill music was created and hear your analysis of it. Seriously, thank you so much for making this video! :D
Este video es altamente impresionante, de verdad. Me ha encantado. Y bueno, hace mucho tiempo dije que tu música me gustaba mucho, cosa que sostengo. Veo que has publicado tu música en Spotify, por desgracia no uso esa plataforma ya que no me gusta. ¿No has pensado en publicar tu trabajo en NetEase (Cloud Music)? Es como Spotify, pero funciona en China (aunque hay usuarios de todo el mundo, incluyéndome). Tiene una base de usuarios gigantesca y podrías abrirte paso (aunque sea un poco) en el mercado asiático. Créeme que si estuvieras allí, yo estaría suscrita a tu perfil sin pensármelo dos veces xD De verdad me gusta tu trabajo ^^
Muchas gracias! me alegra saber que aun sigues mi trabajo desde hace tiempo :) Respecto a NetEase no tenía idea de su existencia, pero como dices, sería bueno ver si puedo tambièn compartir mi música ahí, gracias por compartirlo!
Silent Hill's OST sounds like a weird mix of Ambient/Pop, like the tempos are way too fast for a normal Ambient music (usually 70~100 bpm) but the timbre of the instruments are way too eerie to be Pop
Fantastic fantastic video! I think I found the sample used in silent hill 2 when you press circle to go back on the menu. It is in the Zero-G's "Tremors Drum and Bass" library. Inside "Keyboards" it's called "Eightball riff"
I've known you from Spotify, listened to a playlist containing "music inspired by Silent Hill" and there was some tracks you've made. But I didn't know you've actually done an analysis of Yamaoka's tracks, so thank you for making this video! Additionally, I think "Sedation" was also used in that music that plays before meeting Angela for the first time in Silent Hill 2.
Verrrrryyyyy well produced video. Damn. BTW would it be possible that u could have shown one silent hill inspired project in ur daw... I myself am a producer and sometimes Im trying to make some silent hill ish vibes... I dont get the melodics right.. I would appreciate it if u could go quickly over a project or if u would even make something from scratch... This would be awesome seeing someone starting a silent hill inspired track. And again thx for spending ur time to make this video
thank you! and yes, I was thinking about making a video like that before, could be a recreation of a SH track or showing one of my projects, or even both. I will see what I can do in the future ;)
@@AvithOrtega omgg i would love to see that. I mean this would help me so much in creating those songs. I don't even wanna copy u then but then i can see what types of chords u choose or how u resample stuff or even what sort of drums u pick for those industrial ambient-ish tracks. But again i think a lot of people would like to see that because u can transfer those melancholic and very dark vibes into other genres and especially into game music
I'm very curious about the origin of "The Darkness That Lurks In Our Mind" song. It has a sound which like a screaming organism or something like that. I have no idea if it came from a sample disc or Akira Yamaoka created that.
23:48 totally gives me The Last Of Us vibes. shout out to Gustavo Santaolalla. Also well done, it shows how much effort you put into this, i love Silent Hill saga and Akira, greatly influenced my art and music.
4:45 i am doing pretty much this right now- taking synth filth from as far back as 2013 & messing with the best bits. i'm making a SH1 homage album for Halloweentime! trying to use my own sounds as much as possible- but i sampled the Demon's Souls intro for female choir... also: i just subscribed!
DUDE, F** YOU THATS THE BEST VIDEO I'VE SEEN IN A GREAT WHILE. Like i was looking for that content, especially about SH music, but i've never found anything good enough until now!!
This was a really interesting video! I wanted to ask, do you also use the samples Yamaoka used in his music? Also I really really like the music you create, keep up the good work!
What an amazing in depth video.. and well produced.. showing the samples and songs and even analysed the notes of the silent hill white noiz pad.. and showing some Eric Persing facts.. very nice video.. Also the sample you mention @36:03 is also used in the Parasite Eve 2 opening.. literally the sample is the first thing you hear lol.
I can't help but feel kinda disappointed because for years I've considered Yamaoka a synth genius that came up with such an otherworldly and terrifying sounds. Only to find out now that those were samples. I don't think less of him now, but... It's not an easy pill to swallow.
Do you think I never use them? I consider music to be an art and Akira uses it in an incredible way, be it samples or his own presets. Not everyone makes that music.
Thanks❤. But ,the big question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? What was the basis of the sound and atmosphere of the sound design? Noname composers or Akira Yamaoka? the sample inspired, and set the direction of the atmosphere for Silent hill, sample library and original sound even without Akira, already creates texture for forgotten places. Akira yamaoka filled and made the sound more details.
Although he used samples. Every scene in the game series is perfect with the music. It's brilliant and no one else then Akira could do that. He is the master of sounds.
@AvithOrtega Man you did an excellent job with this video. As a huge fan of SH2, mostly because the soundscapes too, I watch a lot of analysis and video on the Silent Hill games, and this one is pure gold. I would like to say thank you. Excellent job !
Also, not a sample exactly, but I'm pretty sure the echoing offbeat claps in "Heaven's Night" and "Underground Dawn - Never Come" were modeled after some in the intro to the 1984 pop song "Plastic Love" by Mariya Takeuchi. (It became a YT recommendation + a source of several Western mashups, since its apparent use in ‘JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.’)
I searched so long for something like this. I already got the samples but this still helped me a lot to create the classic silent hill vibe. thank you.
Really awesome stuff here. I have a question for people that have went through the compositions. The past few years or so, a lot of techno/electronica producers have been "cancelled" for just straight up sampling melodic lines, or using melody samples from sample packs. The most recent one being notlo. Essentially using sample packs and creating songs with the samples that end up sounding EXACTLY like the demo songs in the sample packs, because they use the melody samples without doing anything with them. Producers since the dawn of time have all used and abused percussion and drum loops/samples, because lets face it, there's only so many ways to hit a kick and a snare. Melody and lead loops have gotten so much more taboo in recent years though. So my question is this - Did Akira use any melodic phrase loops or lead loops? Or did he compose all of his melodies and leads and such? And do you think melodic looping/sampling was as taboo back then as it is now? From the video it seems a lot of his samples were one shots, pads, ambient drones, synth sounds, etc. Not entire phrases, hooks, and melodies straight from sample packs like we've been seeing in recent years of electronic music.
Yep, he also used melodic loops, but mostly in his last soundtracks (Homecoming and Shattered Memories). I didn't showed many SH: SM samples in this video but he indeed used a lot more phrase/melodic loops, the songs where you can hear some lo-fi guitars, pianos and Rhode keyboards were the most used ones. In the first games however he did composed most of the melodies as far as I know. I personally haven't explored many modern sample libraries but some of them I noticed there was more melodic phrases, so probably it was more a taboo back in the day.
This video was just an instant like and subscribe after 5 minutes of watching. You did a great job on that video, really. Great research, you saved me a lot of work. After I found some of the samples that were used in Silent Hill 2 i was afraid that the music would lose its "mystery" feeling, but it actually became stronger than ever, because now I want to know how these samples are actually made. Do you have any more infos about where I would need to start to create drones/pads like the Daybreak sample? I want to create such samples from scratch? I mean, thx to your video I can use the chord from the Daybreak sample, but - On which synth or whatsoever do I need to put it (or how does the sound creation for a single of the chords note work and which post effects does the chord have) and - Which chords could I use as an alternative, for which keywords would I need to search (does every 7th minor chord work like this, is that the secret)? I'm thankful for any advice or info I can get about these questions.
Thanks for the comment! I don't remember if there is a tutorial to make pads such as those, but for example I make some from scratch using Granular synthezisers, and Paulstretch effects, sometimes you make the chord after you create the sound, or in the case of Paulstretch is better that the source is already a chord for better results. Once you have the pad in a WAV file for example, you can load it in a Sampler VST, from there you adjust the ADSR and other things. As for the notes for the chors, most of the pads have chords in 7th minor, but there is also other ones made with 5th minor and 9th minor chords, you can experiment with those chords and their variations to get different feelings (dimished, augmented, etc). This would be the easiest way to make this kind of pads, because as I showed in the video, the original samples from Eric Persing used a lot of very expensive equipment, but that was also because the technology was not as advanced as now. Hope it helps, any doubt I am here :)
@@AvithOrtega Thank you, this will be indeed very helpful. I just want to follow this sounds chain until the very end. What you explained is still helpful to create such sounds in different ways, I will also try this. Thanks and greets
This is pretty interesting. I did some digging and found a site called whosampled where you can see the samples taken from the album by Akira. www.whosampled.com/album/Big-Fish-Audio/Titanium-Rhythms/
I have been a fan of akira's work for years and always got so upset when my more music-savy friends called him a "hack" because of his extensive use of unaldetered samples. Like, my gosh, there's still so much work involved - specially considering he was both sound designer and composer of the whole series. Thank you so much for such a well-researched, in-depth and throughoutly sourced video on the subject. Also, on a weird tangent: love your accent!
Do you by chance recognize the metallic percussion samples used in these two tracks? ruclips.net/video/LHo-6dRx5Wg/видео.htmlsi=8cldzJrrkpfQ6Hye ruclips.net/video/r7hmhzlRSfA/видео.htmlsi=0DTmU7esy79e17ym I’ve heard them a bunch of times in different tracks over the years. I’m sure they’re from a sample library of the same sphere as the libraries used for silent hill. Just curious to know if they sound familiar to you.
The first song I am not sure, but the second one I heard a lot of rhythms and percussion sounds that have a very similar style to what I have found in Stylus RMX loops from Spectrasonics, there is a section named "Cinematic loops" and they sound just as those for my ears
This was really well done. I have one of those Copy form ps1! And still love those sh games.. due can listen to the sound track all the time.. also very helpful info and it’s true about the distortion track!.
One od the greatest analysis i saw on the internet. And now i I wonder what sample was used in ending amience in finał cutscene in "Born from a wish" from sh2. When Maria was deciding about her suicide.
Thanks for the comment! And in that scene when Maria is placing the revolver in her head Yamaoka used the samples "Sleep Cycle 1" and 2, they come from Bizarre Guitar sample library, in the final scene the sample was "Heartland".
I would never expect to see such a huge and detailed essay on the origins of Silent Hill soundtrack. What an amazing work! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
No es tan original como pensabamos, pero al final toda obra se hace a partir de material creado por otras personas, así es como funciona el arte a final de cuentas, siempre y cuando no se caiga en el plagiarismo o uso inapropiado/ilegal del material usado :)
Erratum (typos and errors):
12:01 Should say "Save Menu background music"
18:02 and 18:30 I swapped "Sickness unto Foolish Dead" with "Rain of Brass Petals"
21:57 & 31:13 - It should say "Silent Hill 1"
24:47 The song and the sample were swapped
37:51 I should have mentioned that, in fact, the sample itself comes from the song "Teardrop" by Massive Attack, so then it was included in the sample library.
I feel like it's almost fitting that the soundtrack of Silent Hill would be composed of so many samples. It's sort of like a broken radio picking up random bits of noise from every channel to create a new sound, or the town more literally drawing from imagery and ideas buried in the subconscious to form its monsters and environments. It's an ambience of cobbled together sounds you may have heard in some other media before, but so distorted and reshaped in a new context, you may not even recognize it. It's strange and unsettling, but not entirely alien; it's drawing from the collective human experience. I'm not saying that was necessarily the reason it was done this way, but it really works for Silent Hill.
this is so astute it makes me want to cry
This comment describes it really well. That’s all I can say really.
Making whole the fabric of society
Collective consciousness controlled as you will see
I have literally never seen anyone put so much work into a video than this guy right here
Silent hill is a masterpiece
Have you seen Key and Peele?
@beef business Yes, but he put the effort to compile all this into video, right? You did not do it, neither am I.
He also composes his own music too, similar to Yamaoka’s style.
Man’s got an extremely helpful form of autism
For those disappointed by the amount of sampling, remember Akira Yamaoka had to produce all this for a game on a tight deadline. Not only did he write and compose all the music, he was the overall sound designer. To expect him to do all that as well as create samples from scratch just isn't humanly possible.
On this video itself . . . wow. I've recorded several song covers from the Silent Hill games for my channel. I sonically deep-dived into all the tracks I did to reproduce sounds that capture the vibe of the original recordings. As my covers are more guitar-centric, it involved some creativity on my part using mostly guitar effects. I'm glad I didn't catch this video before I started doing these covers (which this was produced after most of my covers). It would have been tempting to go right to the source and use the same samples Akira did for all the non-guitar stuff.
Nothing wrong with sampling, he took them and made them his own
@@at0micl0bster absolutely
@@at0micl0bster i would rephrase that because some samples are just pitched down or straight up at its original octave. It's better to say that he picked the RIGHT samples for the project. Now that takes skills.
Most people who are "disappointed" have no understanding of music production and how samples might be used. Samples themselves do not produce the music.
Hip Hop at it's core, was revolutionary because it used 2 bar break beats *as* an instrument, for a new piece of music. Think about the feedback delays as a sort of audio fog, using that sample, as a modulatable midi controlled instrument, is like a fractal of creativity in terms of new dimensions to explore. So I think his music was revolutionary as well. Because he used an extremely limited library and was able to create that using really authentic samples.
For any producers out there, omnisphere has these sounds :)
Thank you tremendously for this.
tip for sounddesigners: you can do SAME sounds with sampling chords!, pitch Loops, distortion, filter... You don´t need this samples, and you don´t need Omnisphere!
Yep! This is a classic technique used a lot of House, Jungle etc., you can do it with pretty much anything really.
The Day of Night is one of the most beautiful peices of ambient music i’ve ever heard. hearing it slowed makes it even better. i love how silent hill ambient music became an entire sub genre on youtube. it’s amazing for helping me relax and sleep .
I thought I was the only one who used it to relax. I used to listen to a lot of Silent Hill soundtrack music to draw when I was feeling artistic back before I had adult responsibilities. lol
You would think that it would creep people out to the point of not wanting to listen to the soundtrack but for many of us fans of Akira Yamaoka it's the perfect music to chill out to.
This video is something phenomenal!!!
The analysis of each sample and technique used by Akira in his tracks is very detailed and well done, I love Akira's atmospheres so much and this video literally kept me glued to the screen till late night.
As an ambient composer + silent hill super fan I couldn't ask for anything better, really.
@Avith Ortega Thank you SOOO much for this video, you did an amazing job!!! 👍👍👍
Index (BTW, the video has English and Spanish captions, activate them next to the video settings):
Intro: 0:00
White Noiz Pad: 2:23
Harmonics: 6:51
Pads: 10:23
Pads in Electronic music: 14:46
Unaltered samples: 16:27
Altered samples: 19:54
Beats: 26:21
Sample licence: 32:57
Bonus: 34:57
Credits: 38:41
How the fuck in the world you have only 707 subscribers?
This is SUCH a valuable asset to the SH community I hope you know.
Thank you for this incredible video! I love Akira's work (in fact, SH 2 OST is my favourite album of all time) and I also love sampling: learning how he even used stock samples from programs and VSTs to make such emblematic music is astonishing! I've recently started to produce my own music, but I still have A LOT to learn: this kind of videos that show how the artists work in order to create their craft are truly a blessing!
Huh...everyone always said Akira used a dental drill to get that nauseating high-pitched sound in "My Heaven", but it turns out it was just radio noises from a sample album, pretty interesting.
IKR, I always wondered from where people got that information, I don't remember reading that Akira said that. What I do remember is that people said Akira made the industrial sounds hitting and smashing things in his kitchen, which I doubt he really did.
@@AvithOrtega Im sure I'd read that it was a dentists drill somewhere so I looked into it, the Silent Hill Wiki is the culprit, lol.
silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/My_Heaven
I had heard about the kitchen stuff too, but I agree it seems more likely he'd just use samples.
Thank you so much
for this video! Lots of people that analyze Yamaokas music for Silent Hill are always quick to say that it is inspired by Industrial but no one ever talks about how Yamaoka is a fan of Detroit Techno where those types of chords are a staple of that sound. Finally someone gets it
Silent Hill 1 had the most frightening and compelling OST in horror history.
I never realized you could do so much with samples ... tbh it just gets me to respect akira yamaoka's work even more. Some of these samples seem to come straight from hell and Yamaoka somehow manages to make them sound even more diabolical! I'm not sure how you managed to tell which samples he was using seeing as they are often so well blended in! I have to agree with others you deserve so much recognition for the amount of effort you put into this video! Great work.
I'm not convinced by the argument that he cheated in some way by using sample packs. Firstly, and my fanboying aside, he's a professional with a deadline using the best tools he had available for the sake of expedience. Secondly, we draw arbitrary lines in "cheating" should we go down that route. Is anyone remixing a song "cheating" and to what degree? Is anyone using or altering the stock patches on a synthesizer "cheating" in the same way and if not, why not? Same question for ROMplers directly, or even a Mellotron.
Thank you! This is outstanding and such a great look behind the scenes of the production of Yamaoka's music. At first I was a little let down to learn that he used so many samples, but then I realized how much work it takes to produce all those elements (especially when Persing said he came back and listened through seven-hour experimental tapes to find what eventually became Distorted Reality). Plus he changed them and added so many more layers. I'm a bigger fan now.
One question: during the Beats chapter, all the loops you included in the video have a beeping sound in them. Is that just something that's included in demo files before you purchase the license?
That's how I felt about it it at first, but now I appreciate and undertand why it is like that, and also admire the work that every individual put in the creation of the things involved into a final product.
Answering your question: the beep sound is just to overlay something above the loop because in the terms of use of some sample libraries they dont allow to put a single loop without any other sound at the same time.
I always wondered how much of Yamaoka's work on the soundtrack was a straight up sample without alterations. I'm no music expert but I could have sworn I heard some beats in other media. Excellent effort putting these samples in one video like this. Romersa as the chanting voice was a surprise!
The 'Otherworld Transition' in Silent Hill 3 is actually titled 'RAVISH' from the 'Things That Go Bump In The Night Vol. 2' CD by Big Fish Audio. It's found on Disc 2.
Great video btw!
Thanks, and you are right! I confused the sample since they sound very similar and they come from the same company, thanks for mentioning it.
Excellent. Thanks for this.
Again, hoping to hear some more music from you when possible.
Thanks to you for being there all this time! And sure, more music is on the way, probably in a different way this time, I hope to give more details soon ;)
It must have taken ages to do the research and find the samples. I know how daunting a task it can be looking for one sample, but this is excellent work. Thanks for shedding some light on this!
Akira Yamaoka legit my fav producer so many thanks to you.
Holy excrement! This had WAY more detail, analysis and musical theory than i expected, also found some new dope 90's dnb because of the "pads" part.
You have changed my outlook on what it means to create music, sound design is just as integral with sampling being totally ok to do from many available libraries. Combining existing things with new elements to arrive at a new place.
I also wanted to mention that the "Is That The Door" sample was also used in a song called "Ocean", along with another sample called "Futile" from the "Distorted Reality 2" sample library used in a song called "Dreamsleep". both songs are by a duo called Collide!
I think I said the word "called" too much, lol 💀
9:20 I have goosebumps every time that I hear this song. It’s just perfect 👌🏻. What an amazing video you have here my friend, I’m glad that I could find it 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.
It's fantastic, man! Thank you! You've done a tremendous job! How much did you spend on it and why so few views? It's unfair.
Greetings from Russia!
Thank you! It took me weeks to make it, and I guess is because very few people knows about my channel, because I tried to share it in some places.
I can't believe this video doesn't have more attention! You did so much research and it really shows! I greatly appreciate this! It's so wonderful to learn more about how Silent Hill music was created and hear your analysis of it. Seriously, thank you so much for making this video! :D
Este video es altamente impresionante, de verdad. Me ha encantado. Y bueno, hace mucho tiempo dije que tu música me gustaba mucho, cosa que sostengo. Veo que has publicado tu música en Spotify, por desgracia no uso esa plataforma ya que no me gusta. ¿No has pensado en publicar tu trabajo en NetEase (Cloud Music)? Es como Spotify, pero funciona en China (aunque hay usuarios de todo el mundo, incluyéndome). Tiene una base de usuarios gigantesca y podrías abrirte paso (aunque sea un poco) en el mercado asiático. Créeme que si estuvieras allí, yo estaría suscrita a tu perfil sin pensármelo dos veces xD De verdad me gusta tu trabajo ^^
Muchas gracias! me alegra saber que aun sigues mi trabajo desde hace tiempo :)
Respecto a NetEase no tenía idea de su existencia, pero como dices, sería bueno ver si puedo tambièn compartir mi música ahí, gracias por compartirlo!
Silent Hill's OST sounds like a weird mix of Ambient/Pop, like the tempos are way too fast for a normal Ambient music (usually 70~100 bpm) but the timbre of the instruments are way too eerie to be Pop
Fantastic fantastic video! I think I found the sample used in silent hill 2 when you press circle to go back on the menu. It is in the Zero-G's "Tremors Drum and Bass" library. Inside "Keyboards" it's called "Eightball riff"
Interesting, thanks for the contribution, and also thanks for your comment!
Great video but the most incredible part is the amount of tracks you miscredited to the wrong games.
you are right, I should appoint those mistakes/typos, thanks for the suggestion!
I want both Spectrasonics: Distorted Reality 1, Bizarre Guitar, and David Torns: Pandora’s Toolbox album covers on a shirt lol 😂
I was looking for inspiration and this is perfect por anyone that loves sampling!
This video is a hidden gem!!!! Speechless!!!
Would be badass if you made a similar video covering Yamaokas involvement with the Shin Contra (Contra Shattered Soldier) OST.
Oh my god, this is such a fantastic resource. Thank you so much for this
I've known you from Spotify, listened to a playlist containing "music inspired by Silent Hill" and there was some tracks you've made.
But I didn't know you've actually done an analysis of Yamaoka's tracks, so thank you for making this video!
Additionally, I think "Sedation" was also used in that music that plays before meeting Angela for the first time in Silent Hill 2.
Verrrrryyyyy well produced video. Damn. BTW would it be possible that u could have shown one silent hill inspired project in ur daw... I myself am a producer and sometimes Im trying to make some silent hill ish vibes... I dont get the melodics right.. I would appreciate it if u could go quickly over a project or if u would even make something from scratch... This would be awesome seeing someone starting a silent hill inspired track. And again thx for spending ur time to make this video
thank you! and yes, I was thinking about making a video like that before, could be a recreation of a SH track or showing one of my projects, or even both. I will see what I can do in the future ;)
@@AvithOrtega omgg i would love to see that. I mean this would help me so much in creating those songs. I don't even wanna copy u then but then i can see what types of chords u choose or how u resample stuff or even what sort of drums u pick for those industrial ambient-ish tracks. But again i think a lot of people would like to see that because u can transfer those melancholic and very dark vibes into other genres and especially into game music
I'm very curious about the origin of "The Darkness That Lurks In Our Mind" song. It has a sound which like a screaming organism or something like that. I have no idea if it came from a sample disc or Akira Yamaoka created that.
that "scream" sound is a sample too, its called "Aim Hare" and comes from "Rarefaction - A Poke In The Ear With A Sharp Stick, Vol.1"
23:48 totally gives me The Last Of Us vibes. shout out to Gustavo Santaolalla. Also well done, it shows how much effort you put into this, i love Silent Hill saga and Akira, greatly influenced my art and music.
28:48 I swear this sample was used in halo somewhere. Martin O'Donnell had to have used this.
Thank you for creating this.
i listen to the Silent Hill 2 Soundtrack pretty much every day.
since i was 12. i am now 28
There's another song that is wrong there, sickness unto foolish dead and rain brass of petals are switched.
thanks for noticing it! I added it to my Erratum comment
We all must feel lucky for being born in this generation and having knowing silent hill...
4:45 i am doing pretty much this right now- taking synth filth from as far back as 2013 & messing with the best bits. i'm making a SH1 homage album for Halloweentime! trying to use my own sounds as much as possible- but i sampled the Demon's Souls intro for female choir...
also: i just subscribed!
Thanks for this bro i was wondering how this great producer made such masterpieces on sh2
imma need the tracklist for this video the song selection is crazy.
Amazing, incredible video. You're the besttttt
DUDE, F** YOU THATS THE BEST VIDEO I'VE SEEN IN A GREAT WHILE. Like i was looking for that content, especially about SH music, but i've never found anything good enough until now!!
Question: what is the instrument used in the beginning of the Silent Hill 1 theme?
Is a Mandolin, especifically comes from the sample library Mediterranean Atmosphere by Back in Time Records
@@AvithOrtega Oh that's what it is! Thank you!
Just goes to show that omnisphere is a god of a vst
I played Silent Hill 2 in 2002 on XBOX and over 20 years later the music lives in my head rent-free everyday haha
This was a really interesting video! I wanted to ask, do you also use the samples Yamaoka used in his music? Also I really really like the music you create, keep up the good work!
Thank you! And I almost don't use the same samples, I always try to create or to use different sounds so I can give something new on the table :)
Incredible work!! Thanks a lot for this!!
What an amazing in depth video.. and well produced.. showing the samples and songs and even analysed the notes of the silent hill white noiz pad.. and showing some Eric Persing facts.. very nice video.. Also the sample you mention @36:03 is also used in the Parasite Eve 2 opening.. literally the sample is the first thing you hear lol.
Wow had omnisphere all this time and had no idea the samples for sh where in there.
I can't help but feel kinda disappointed because for years I've considered Yamaoka a synth genius that came up with such an otherworldly and terrifying sounds. Only to find out now that those were samples. I don't think less of him now, but... It's not an easy pill to swallow.
Do you think I never use them? I consider music to be an art and Akira uses it in an incredible way, be it samples or his own presets. Not everyone makes that music.
Absolute banger of a video, recently stumbled on your Spotify profile and I'm amazed by the feelings you can portraiy with your music, keep it up!
Thanks❤. But ,the big question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? What was the basis of the sound and atmosphere of the sound design? Noname composers or Akira Yamaoka? the sample inspired, and set the direction of the atmosphere for Silent hill, sample library and original sound even without Akira, already creates texture for forgotten places. Akira yamaoka filled and made the sound more details.
Although he used samples. Every scene in the game series is perfect with the music. It's brilliant and no one else then Akira could do that. He is the master of sounds.
@AvithOrtega Man you did an excellent job with this video. As a huge fan of SH2, mostly because the soundscapes too, I watch a lot of analysis and video on the Silent Hill games, and this one is pure gold. I would like to say thank you. Excellent job !
I think Eric Persing deserves at least half of the credit for the music of Silent Hill 2
I've never played Silent Hill but I love the soundtrack and seeing how it's done !
Also, not a sample exactly, but I'm pretty sure the echoing offbeat claps in "Heaven's Night" and "Underground Dawn - Never Come" were modeled after some in the intro to the 1984 pop song "Plastic Love" by Mariya Takeuchi. (It became a YT recommendation + a source of several Western mashups, since its apparent use in ‘JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.’)
I searched so long for something like this. I already got the samples but this still helped me a lot to create the classic silent hill vibe. thank you.
Your music has been recommended to me on Spotify. I like your covers!
Do you have a link to the sound on sound article?
the link is shown in the video, you have to paste it in wayback machine webpage
This is somehow both soul crushing and inspiring at the same time
Did you know that a lot of the silent hill tracks use "90s sample pack" sample pack
This video is amazing. Plz keep up the amazing work!
As a native to Philadelphia, PA (look it up) - trust me, your English is better than most.
where can I download Peculiar Beats samples from video?
Great work
amazing video.
Really awesome stuff here. I have a question for people that have went through the compositions. The past few years or so, a lot of techno/electronica producers have been "cancelled" for just straight up sampling melodic lines, or using melody samples from sample packs. The most recent one being notlo. Essentially using sample packs and creating songs with the samples that end up sounding EXACTLY like the demo songs in the sample packs, because they use the melody samples without doing anything with them. Producers since the dawn of time have all used and abused percussion and drum loops/samples, because lets face it, there's only so many ways to hit a kick and a snare. Melody and lead loops have gotten so much more taboo in recent years though.
So my question is this - Did Akira use any melodic phrase loops or lead loops? Or did he compose all of his melodies and leads and such? And do you think melodic looping/sampling was as taboo back then as it is now? From the video it seems a lot of his samples were one shots, pads, ambient drones, synth sounds, etc. Not entire phrases, hooks, and melodies straight from sample packs like we've been seeing in recent years of electronic music.
Yep, he also used melodic loops, but mostly in his last soundtracks (Homecoming and Shattered Memories). I didn't showed many SH: SM samples in this video but he indeed used a lot more phrase/melodic loops, the songs where you can hear some lo-fi guitars, pianos and Rhode keyboards were the most used ones. In the first games however he did composed most of the melodies as far as I know.
I personally haven't explored many modern sample libraries but some of them I noticed there was more melodic phrases, so probably it was more a taboo back in the day.
24:49 i think you swapped both, and this sample was also used in SH 2 and 4
yep, I made some more errors 😅, but you are right, that sample was also used there :)
Man this guy’s accent is all over the place. Great video but I hope you know there’s work to be done there.
white noiz sounds like twilight princess amirite fellas
This video is awesome. Incite into some of my favorite videogame music.
This video was just an instant like and subscribe after 5 minutes of watching. You did a great job on that video, really. Great research, you saved me a lot of work.
After I found some of the samples that were used in Silent Hill 2 i was afraid that the music would lose its "mystery" feeling, but it actually became stronger than ever, because now I want to know how these samples are actually made. Do you have any more infos about where I would need to start to create drones/pads like the Daybreak sample?
I want to create such samples from scratch? I mean, thx to your video I can use the chord from the Daybreak sample, but
- On which synth or whatsoever do I need to put it (or how does the sound creation for a single of the chords note work and which post effects does the chord have) and
- Which chords could I use as an alternative, for which keywords would I need to search (does every 7th minor chord work like this, is that the secret)?
I'm thankful for any advice or info I can get about these questions.
Thanks for the comment!
I don't remember if there is a tutorial to make pads such as those, but for example I make some from scratch using Granular synthezisers, and Paulstretch effects, sometimes you make the chord after you create the sound, or in the case of Paulstretch is better that the source is already a chord for better results.
Once you have the pad in a WAV file for example, you can load it in a Sampler VST, from there you adjust the ADSR and other things.
As for the notes for the chors, most of the pads have chords in 7th minor, but there is also other ones made with 5th minor and 9th minor chords, you can experiment with those chords and their variations to get different feelings (dimished, augmented, etc).
This would be the easiest way to make this kind of pads, because as I showed in the video, the original samples from Eric Persing used a lot of very expensive equipment, but that was also because the technology was not as advanced as now.
Hope it helps, any doubt I am here :)
@@AvithOrtega Thank you, this will be indeed very helpful. I just want to follow this sounds chain until the very end. What you explained is still helpful to create such sounds in different ways, I will also try this.
Thanks and greets
This is pretty interesting. I did some digging and found a site called whosampled where you can see the samples taken from the album by Akira.
www.whosampled.com/album/Big-Fish-Audio/Titanium-Rhythms/
This is incredible, thank you for doing this!
37:24 sounds like the end to the tear drop from massive attack
I have been a fan of akira's work for years and always got so upset when my more music-savy friends called him a "hack" because of his extensive use of unaldetered samples. Like, my gosh, there's still so much work involved - specially considering he was both sound designer and composer of the whole series.
Thank you so much for such a well-researched, in-depth and throughoutly sourced video on the subject.
Also, on a weird tangent: love your accent!
When I searched this up I didn't think I'd get any results, let alone a whole channel dedicated to this style, I hope I can learn from you a bit haha!
This is literally one of my favorite videos here on youtube. Thanks a lot!! :)
Do you by chance recognize the metallic percussion samples used in these two tracks?
ruclips.net/video/LHo-6dRx5Wg/видео.htmlsi=8cldzJrrkpfQ6Hye
ruclips.net/video/r7hmhzlRSfA/видео.htmlsi=0DTmU7esy79e17ym
I’ve heard them a bunch of times in different tracks over the years. I’m sure they’re from a sample library of the same sphere as the libraries used for silent hill. Just curious to know if they sound familiar to you.
The first song I am not sure, but the second one I heard a lot of rhythms and percussion sounds that have a very similar style to what I have found in Stylus RMX loops from Spectrasonics, there is a section named "Cinematic loops" and they sound just as those for my ears
This was really well done. I have one of those Copy form ps1! And still love those sh games.. due can listen to the sound track all the time.. also very helpful info and it’s true about the distortion track!.
Amazing video and thanks a lot for sharing all this info
Can you go into how these sounds were made in the first place?
holy crap how did U find all these xD good ear
Excelente video y gran trabajo al buscar los pads en los cuales se basó Akira Yamaoka, eres grande te ganaste un suscriptor más.
One od the greatest analysis i saw on the internet. And now i I wonder what sample was used in ending amience in finał cutscene in "Born from a wish" from sh2. When Maria was deciding about her suicide.
Thanks for the comment! And in that scene when Maria is placing the revolver in her head Yamaoka used the samples "Sleep Cycle 1" and 2, they come from Bizarre Guitar sample library, in the final scene the sample was "Heartland".
Excellent work!! Thanks for
I would never expect to see such a huge and detailed essay on the origins of Silent Hill soundtrack. What an amazing work! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
Here are a track that are inspired by Silent Hill :o spoti.fi/2qCbOzs
Can i get a copy of distorted reality 2 from anyone?
Una sorpresa inesperada este video. 👌👌👌
Yo que pensaba que todo su trabajo era original, no sabía de esto de los samples.
No es tan original como pensabamos, pero al final toda obra se hace a partir de material creado por otras personas, así es como funciona el arte a final de cuentas, siempre y cuando no se caiga en el plagiarismo o uso inapropiado/ilegal del material usado :)
This video help me a lot to start a project.... Ty m8