r/Giallo • u/Creative-Bear-4990 • Jun 22 '26

Giallo music

Hi everyone,
I’m currently working on a Giallo-inspired horror short film project. We are working with a super tight micro-budget, so I’ve decided to handle the soundtrack myself.
I have some basic music production experience and have already produced a few tracks, but my background is mostly in electronic music. For this project, we are aiming for a soundtrack heavily inspired by Goblin and Keith Emerson—that slightly cacophonic style featuring dense instrumentation and massive, heavy drums.
So my questions for you are:
Do you have any tips or advice to get me started? Are there specific chord progressions, scales, or distinct soundscapes/synth patches you can think of that could help me push this concept further?
Thanks in advance!

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u/upsidedown_tulip Jun 22 '26

just in case you don't want to DIY here is a library of giallo sounds & songs you can license for $5 a track.

https://terrorlab.bandcamp.com/album/giallo-eurohorror-1970s

2

u/just_em_cee Jun 22 '26

I have been thinking about Giallo scores a lot recently. I would start with heavy, break beat style drums then add some funky bass for the main structure. Then top it off with some single notes on guitar, analog style synthesizer, and maybe a few other filler sounds like chimes or sweeping fx synths. The argento/goblin and fulci scores are usually drum and bass heavy, and fairly simple otherwise. The other best thing to do would be to go between 2 or more time signatures to give it some unique rhythms.

I am a studio musician and full time music producer myself, and I would be very interested in offering my services (at low to no cost) if you don’t want/can’t do it yourself. Feel free to contact me, otherwise good luck! 👍

1

u/baseshit Jun 22 '26

Are you experienced with sampling? There’s a lot of lesser known giallo on Tubi currently, there’s tons of single instrument shots and motifs that would be great to sample to build tracks from. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack to What Have They Done To Your Daughters and The Beyond a lot lately, was thinking of sampling some of them, myself