Creating immersive soundscapes with cinematic drones

All fear the drone of dread

Cinematic drones are an essential tool for creating suspense and otherworldly soundtracks. The drone is one tool in the composer’s box that is hugely effective in crafting a specific mood in a movie. It’s often used as a foundation for a melody, but it’s also used as standalone underscore. However it’s used, it creates without fail powerful tension or a strong otherworldly, alien feel.

The cinematic composition tool of using drones to create that sense of dread and strangeness goes back to 1931 with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. “It’s really Jekyll and Hyde that begins this tradition of the horror film doing really unsettling effects with the sound and the music together,” says film music expert David Lerner in this interview with Quartz. “And these sustained mysterious sounds that you can sort of identify but can’t quite identify. It creates a really uncanny effect.”

In this blog, we’ll show how some recent movies have used drones in their soundtracks to great success for “that uncanny effect” and are good examples to follow in your own soundtracks, compositions, and soundscapes. And then we’ll let you know about our latest update, which is full of cinematic drones and other effects to use to build that sense of dread and otherworldliness.

Drones in cinema

Drones are a hugely common device in cinema, and here’s a very short list of movies that use the technique to great advantage.

The Revenant

The Revenant has a powerful soundtrack. Ryuichi Sakamoto uses drones in this historical epic to great effect. The soundtrack is minimalist, which is typical in heavy-drone composition collections, and uses those long, lingering notes to reflect the brutality of nature on the early American pioneers.

Bladerunner 2049

This is an excellent example of how sci-fi utilizes drones to not just inspire dread, but an unsettling sense of technology gone questionably wrong. When androids become more human than human, what could go wrong? Outside of the Vangelis-inspired synths, Hans Zimmer uses drones to dominate the soundtrack, adding another layer of beauty to the ethereal visuals.

Interstellar

Tl;Dr: Hans Zimmer + science fiction = drones

Jokes aside, nothing broadcasts the lone stillness of the cosmos like a good, bass-heavy drone.

The Social Network

Industrial pioneers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails lay down a stark and discomforting, drone-filled soundtrack that perfectly echoes the themes of loneliness and isolation. The score is perfect for David Fincher’s film, whose composers no doubt have felt the same feelings while hunkered down behind their own electronic setups.

Arrival

Here we have yet another drone-laden science fiction movie. The disquieting score, composed by Johann Johannsson, perfectly reflects the dark mystery of an alien species who could redeem, or destroy, all mankind.

Annabel

Just to give an example of a modern horror, Joseph Bishara composes all the drone-heavy, discomforting soundtracks of The Conjuring series. Have a listen to the Annabel soundtrack to get a sense of how to create horror with just the sound, never mind the images of dolls and rocking chairs.

Create your own chills

Now you can easily create the same type of immersive, cinematic drones (and more) in the FX section of Smartsound Cloud. Our latest update features 500 designed sound effects, including:

Cinematic Drones – Dark, airy, abstract, calm, sci-fi, mellow and more. Drones create a sense of wonder and suspense.
Ethereal Ambiences – Mystical tones that transport the listener to another realm.
Bells – Ringing and chiming effects that cut through the ambience.
Pads – Long sustained tones that fill the soundscape.
Textures – Elements that add emotion and tension.
Impacts – Percussive hits that signal events.

Click here to browse all the sounds.

The sounds on this album were designed from the ground up to create rich, textured soundscapes for films, trailers, video games, and more. The drones and ambiences provide a sense of scale and space while the additional elements like bells, pads, and impacts punctuate the aural experience.

Content creators can use these sounds in similar ways to the examples. In science fiction and space scenes to create an otherworldly atmosphere, during suspenseful moments to build tension and a sense of foreboding, or to enhance emotional scenes with ethereal textures. Also in video games, drones can give environments or cut scenes a more cinematic feel, or they can really draw gamers into a sense of terror and dread while playing the game (Doom really revolutionized the gaming world in their music design, and all the drones, hums, and weird sound effects are a good example here).

SMARTSOUND CLOUD

Our drone effects are a quick and easy way to pull almost any viewer or player into the setting and fill them with unease, whether you’re making an independent short film or a big-budget fantasy game movie.

So start your engines humming with Smartsound Cloud’s app and sound effects that are flexible and easy to use. There’s an audience there ready for you to give them the chills, and these drones and effects can help you do it… sign up now!… Sign up now now if you dare!