# Trent's Halloween Sound Machine



## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

This isn't music as much as it is sound effects.

Three years ago I created a piece of software that would play random sound effects endlessly until you stop the program. I used it for my own haunt and for the past three Halloweens it has worked perfectly. In fact, it's the one thing about my haunts that I didn't have any complaints about.

It is set up for my own particular haunt, but it can be customized (there is a readme file that should walk you through it). My haunt uses two speakers; a large one on the right (where all of the thunder gets panned to) and a smaller one to the left by the door. If that doesn't work for you, you can easily tweak with each and every one of the sounds. Also, there is a convenient little "Reverse Stereo" checkbox which will simply flip the pan settings, so sounds that would normally go to the right would go to the left, and so on.

The download is about 50 MB. That's about 1 MB for the program, and 49 MB of mp3s.

It is available at the following address:
http://www.trentdavis.net/files/SoundMachineSetup.exe

I am currently working on a new version that will incorporate surround sound, allowing you to pan the settings across 5 different speakers.

Let me know what you guys think. There was another post asking what people listen to when they are building props. Well, this is it for me. I just fire up my Halloween Sound Machine and listen away.


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## pdcollins6092 (Aug 8, 2009)

That is way cool. Thanks for the download..


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## Finn (Aug 2, 2008)

Thanks. That's very cool of you.


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Glad you like it. Feel free to make suggestions on what I can do to improve it. Also, if anyone has any cool sounds they would like to contribute, I can always make a new version with new sounds bundled with it.


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Here is a link to download the alternate version that I created for my indoor haunt. It's about twice the size as the first and sounds more like you are inside a haunted house. The original version was more for outdoor haunts.

http://www.trentdavis.net/files/SoundMachine2007IndoorSetup.exe


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## strangebrew (Jun 18, 2006)

thanks for sharing. i'm downloading it now.


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## davy2 (Sep 10, 2008)

Trent, thanks! 
I can use this this Halloween...really nicely done!


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## kprimm (Apr 3, 2009)

Thank you trent for sharing, can never have enough good halloween music or sound effects.


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

No problem! Let me know what you think and how I can improve it. Like I said, I'm working on a new version that should incorporate surround sound.

Whether or not it will be ready in time for Halloween 2009 or 2010 is another thing altogether.


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## Finn (Aug 2, 2008)

Nice work again. Thanks.


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## Forever Haunting (Jan 1, 2009)

Always seeking new haunt music. Thanks for sharing.


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## litemareb4xmas (Mar 31, 2009)

nifty little program, thanx for sharing!


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

So, I am assuming that some of you have been playing around with this. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve the program? I have a few ideas already, but I'd like to hear from you guys as well.


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## davy2 (Sep 10, 2008)

boy, I can't think of any improvements at the moment! It's very cool!


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## tuggy24g (Oct 24, 2009)

This is great. All the sounds you want and more. There is no CD that has anything close to what this program can do. You did a great job.

What I would say as a suggestion is to maybe upgrade the sound clips. Maybe post a link to add more sound clips would be cool. Other then that nothing I can think of.


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## davy2 (Sep 10, 2008)

I love this...the only recommendation I can make is to make better batch file operations to add files to playlist or to edit playlist or to delete files...dealing with single files is a little tedious...other than that this program is Awesome!


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm making a new version (probably) for this year's haunt, but I doubt if it will be ready until the 31st, leaving no time for testing.

I plan on incorporating a lot of the ideas I read about here into yet another version. When I come up with a design doc for it, I'll share it with this forum and hopefully get even more feedback. I'll also be looking for beta testers sometime in the near future.


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## Bohica (Oct 18, 2008)

Thanks! Just what we needed!


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Is anyone interested in being either Alpha or Beta testers for the next version? If so, let me know.


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## zero (Aug 27, 2004)

i downloaded the program a while ago and just started playing with it today. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SOFTWARE !!!!! this is good stuff , i have it running with my other scare stuff in windows media player , i have speakers on opposite ends of my house and the way the program switches channels is a great effect, anyhoo thx for sharing the great program. as far as improvments,-- a more user friendly control panel would help, grouping familiar sounds together and allowing removal of more than one sound at a time.,, you planning on selling the program eventually?


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback. I am definitely going to be changing the program completely in order to make it much easier to manipulate sounds. I'm thinking about having the next version be"donation-ware" with benefits for registered users, but that's further down the road.


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

So, did anyone use this program this Halloween? If so, how did it work for you?


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## Biggie (Jul 29, 2009)

I started to set up lighting, fog, and sound early Halloween day to test to bring over to my friends house. I plugged up my Logitech sound system into my laptop, turned everything up to max. Turn on the program, and nothing, absolutely nothing. I start trouble shooting. Volume is on, mute is off, I check the power strip. As I am bent over I hear this scream come from behind me, scared the hell out of me. I realized that the crickets ambiance track was so realistic that it blended in too well. I got a couple comments from neighbors on the sounds while testing everything. Sadly I didnt uses it at night since my friend was dead set on using his set-up.

It is an awesome program and I intend on messing with it in preparation for next years setup. I showed it to my dad since he is a programmer and he liked the idea instead of just CD's on loop. I cant wait to see what comes out next from you


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

I'm glad to hear it. Sadly, I've had a few of those "Is this thing working? What is going on with...Ahhhh! That scared the unholy poo-poo out of me!" moments.

The version that I used this haunt was a modified version that allowed me to manually trigger sounds, so while the random sounds are playing, and a kid knocks on the door, I press the "1" key on the keyboard and it played a sound effect I made of me locking up my mad scientist's laboratory and walking up some creaky stairs to answer the door. The sound ended up being much to long to use regularly, but I liked the concept.

I'm going to be working on a much-expanded version shortly and I will be looking for alpha and beta testers soon, so if anyone want's to get involved with that, let me know.


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## savagehaunter (Aug 22, 2009)

thanks for sharing. I have been looking for something that would play continuaosly and not have to be fussed with.


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## shadowopal (Sep 6, 2007)

Sounds excellent! I will download it onto my new halloween computer once it's built and put it throguht the paces. Surround sound would be awesome though. I'm focusing on sound next year and surround sound plays highly in my plans.


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## Biggie (Jul 29, 2009)

I really like the manual trigger idea, it would be a cool concept to use.


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## rotting flesh (Nov 3, 2009)

WOW Trent! Nicely done.... THANKS FOR SHARING!


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## rotting flesh (Nov 3, 2009)

Trent your outdoor was so good I downloaded your indoor also.
Fantastic!!! THANKS AGAIN!


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Glad you liked it.


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## Bilbo (Mar 8, 2007)

I got this last year and was very impressed by it. Only reason I didn't use it this year is because it didn't do surround sound. Looking forward to that modification. 

One thing I would love to see is footsteps running at random from one side/corner to the other. Sometimes loud, sometimes soft. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow. 

Being able to turn on/off files on a list instead of one at a time would help too. 

Love it, Trent!


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## Dark lord (Jan 8, 2007)

I would like to bring this buried in the graveyard thread forward. Trent Davis has been MIA since 2012 but he gave us this neat program that some might be interested in playing with.
Go back to his 1st post & you will find an active link, I used it way back on an XP system. I have not tried loading this to my new windows 8.1 & not sure if it will run on it, but it is a neat beta that does work on an XP system !

If you hit his web site (also has active download exe. link) - http://www.trentdavis.net/index.php?Section=Projects you can read a little bit on it. His site hasn't had any progress, so I wonder if he's still around......?

Have fun with it as this may help a few as I see a few were interested in a centralized multi speaker / audio player to play in different areas of they're haunt without several players. Mind you this is a mono system & no surround, Trent was working on a surround one but he vanished shortly after.......

My hope he is well & pops back in here, until then this is his present to us !

Enjoy


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

Yeah, I'm still here.


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## Dark lord (Jan 8, 2007)

Awesome to know your still around Trent !! done anything else with the sound machine since it's 1st beta release, any new features added like the surround or stereo you were playing with ? 
I used this few times back when you 1st offered this up & added my own audio as needed & worked great ! It' a neat program even in mono 

Thank you, hoping this gets some new attention & use


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## TrentDavis (Aug 31, 2009)

It's always been stereo. I toyed around with making a version for Android but nothing ever came of it.


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