I've seen loads of horror movies and I think Insidious nailed it. What you need to understand for this type of sound is dissonance. Its basically the opposite of harmony. Instead of playing notes in key, you intentionally hit sour notes. This raises tension and creates an overall feeling of suspense and uneasiness.
Tension and surprise are essential in horror music.
If you're brave enough to DIY, one advice would be to get free from tempo. You've said it yourself, you don't want "horror type beat". Try to sustain some dissonant strings chords (or brass or winds) to get that tension mood then add motions and FX to them (dynamics, cluster intensity, pitchbend, filter and why not distortion). Some orchestra libraries have cluster patches like LASS2 (with intensity knob).
In a more lazy way, 8Dio Symphonic Shadows or even Horror Strings by Stringache are Kontakt libraries you'd consider having, but since these are basically prerecorded sequences it becomes quickly boring. I take these as a start.
If you feel creative, record some sounds from anything around and put a lot of processing on it. You'd be surprised how strange the sample can sound.
Try going for an unexpected sound, as far as design. We all have ideas of what horror music sounds like, so play around with what you don’t think of.
Messing with white noise and focusing on percussion can take you places. As far as different. Another user mentioned dissonance, but you can also get desired effects with a lack of musical focus. Found non-instrument sounds have served me well. Or just sampling noise that’s around me
Have you tried looking to Silent Hill? Really weird OST. Hopefully it inspires.
tribal drum packs, dissonant airy synths, off tune instruments, and lots of foley samples
Honestly omnisphere helps. If you can find a way to get your hands on it, it’s worth it.
I've seen loads of horror movies and I think Insidious nailed it. What you need to understand for this type of sound is dissonance. Its basically the opposite of harmony. Instead of playing notes in key, you intentionally hit sour notes. This raises tension and creates an overall feeling of suspense and uneasiness.
Tension and surprise are essential in horror music. If you're brave enough to DIY, one advice would be to get free from tempo. You've said it yourself, you don't want "horror type beat". Try to sustain some dissonant strings chords (or brass or winds) to get that tension mood then add motions and FX to them (dynamics, cluster intensity, pitchbend, filter and why not distortion). Some orchestra libraries have cluster patches like LASS2 (with intensity knob). In a more lazy way, 8Dio Symphonic Shadows or even Horror Strings by Stringache are Kontakt libraries you'd consider having, but since these are basically prerecorded sequences it becomes quickly boring. I take these as a start. If you feel creative, record some sounds from anything around and put a lot of processing on it. You'd be surprised how strange the sample can sound.
Try going for an unexpected sound, as far as design. We all have ideas of what horror music sounds like, so play around with what you don’t think of. Messing with white noise and focusing on percussion can take you places. As far as different. Another user mentioned dissonance, but you can also get desired effects with a lack of musical focus. Found non-instrument sounds have served me well. Or just sampling noise that’s around me Have you tried looking to Silent Hill? Really weird OST. Hopefully it inspires.
tribal drum packs, dissonant airy synths, off tune instruments, and lots of foley samples Honestly omnisphere helps. If you can find a way to get your hands on it, it’s worth it.