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Darkstar — Haunted House

Spectral synth textures

  • Overview
  • Listen
  • Walkthrough
  • What's included
  • Tech specs
  • Spectral synth textures

    Immerse yourself in the unique and inspiring sound world of electronic duo Darkstar — processed analogue synth textures and loops, rich sub-basses, pitched-down drums, and icy, warped vocals, each layered with subliminal spectral echoes of rave culture and industrial white noise — ghosts in the machine, bleeding in and fading out.

    Haunted House expands on the sonic palette of Darkstar’s 2020 album Civic Jams, out now on Warp Records — ‘a photonegative of a dance record’. From mournful and ominous, to warm, heartfelt nostalgia, each sound is full of character and emotion, designed to create tension, depth and atmosphere for any setting — from contemporary electronic music, to hybrid, modern film, TV & games composition. Presented in our award-winning, easy-to-use dedicated plug-in, this versatile tool offers a range of controls and effects, so you can immediately transform each preset to facilitate your own vision.

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    Our dedicated plugin

    Ghostly synth textures

    44 presets

    Dedicated plugin

    Listen to Darkstar — Haunted House

    Features Albion Neo

    Haunted House is made up of those sounds that creep around and lie in the periphery. We look to the body of a sound, then a blurred edge; a ripple of something that burns.

    James Young

    Darkstar

    Darkstar band picture
    Haunted House GUI

    Darkstar’s journey into electronic music began with sequencers and extensive sampling — found sounds from the real world, films, TV shows, and samples of existing music. Their unique approach to sonic experimentation is palpable in the colour and shade of this versatile collection, made from analogue synths, organs sampled at Union Chapel, found sounds, vocals and drums, transformed via finely tuned processing techniques — from tape saturation to outboard re-amping, implementing warmth and texture in various ways.

    A distillation of a sonic palette built up over the last few years, Haunted House swings from introspective to expansive, moody and industrial to nostalgic beauty, from the highs and lows of nocturnal inner-city life, to the dawn coming through. Electronic beds of uneasy ambience are haunted by disquieting white noise, peripheral shimmers, taking influence from various dance music genres — from shoegaze to deep house to grime, and the euphoria of 90s rave abandon — echoes of millennial-era underground dance parties at clubs including The Void and Plastic People (with presets named in tribute to Darkstar’s favourite club nights).

    We've never really been about the technical aspect of making music, it's always been the intangibles, the periphery, the things that bleed into recording from the everyday things you do.

    Darkstar

    Haunted House advert

    Warp Records x Spitfire Audio

    Haunted House invites you to reimagine, recreate or completely pull apart Darkstar's sound world, following the release of Darkstar’s acclaimed 2020 record, Civic Jams, out now on Warp Records. The Civic Jams album is available to purchase via Warp Records, either on its own, or as a bundle (limited edition 12-inch vinyl + download + sample library).

    Both Civic Jams and Haunted House explore Darkstar's experience of the ever-changing London music scene — the claustrophobia and the euphoria; the sense of belonging found amidst the isolation of inner-city life; the uncertainty of its future. Reminiscent of the hauntology movement, these sounds reflect the things which lurk at the back of our mind or in memory alone — the beauty and heartbreak found in everyday life; a nostalgia for a future promised that never came to pass; faded cultural memories, with sinister undercurrents; London as a shell of its former cultural self. It captures the collective spirit of a city in mourning and its desolate horizons — a ghost town, waiting for the dawn.

    Warp Records and Spitfire Audio

    Limited edition vinyl & sample library

    Buy

    What's included

    Synths

    • Sublow LDN 1
    • Sublow LDN 2
    • Sublow LDN 3
    • Sublow LDN 4
    • Plastic RIP 1
    • Plastic RIP 2
    • White Widow 1
    • White Widow 2
    • White Widow 3
    • White Widow 4
    • Slimzos da 2nd
    • Slimzos da 3rd
    • Ghost in yer lappy
    • HAUNT 4 U
    • TEXT HER
    • NIGHT MEMORY
    • UR SMOKE
    • R SMOKE
    • 4 THE GRAVE

    VO1CES

    • LOST DUBS 1
    • LOST DUBS 2
    • XTC MANTRA
    • SE Serenade 1
    • SE Serenade 2
    • Ghost Glue 1
    • Ghost Glue 2
    • Ghost Glue 3

    Found sound

    • Solo N253 1
    • Solo N253 2
    • Solo N253 3
    • HAZE BOO

    RVVM

    • DEVIL BEATS 1
    • DEVIL BEATS 2
    • DEVIL BEATS 3
    • DEVIL BEATS 4

    W4RPD

    • MASS BASS 1
    • MASS BASS 2
    • ACID BOO
    • SLEW DEM BASS
    • Vauxhall Warp 1
    • Vauxhall Warp 2
    • Vauxhall Warp 3
    • Esso AM 1
    • Esso AM 2

    FAQs

    How do I add this library into Kontakt?

    You don’t! Haunted House is a dedicated, free to use plugin available as VST2, VST3, AAX and AU, so it can be used directly in your favourite DAW.


    What software will I need to install?

    You will only need the Spitfire Audio App which you can download here.

    Read more FAQs for this product

    Tech specs

    Mac system requirements

    Mac OS X 10.15 to OS 13

    Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 minimum (quad-core), 8GB RAM

    Recommended: 2.8GHz I7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

    Both Intel and Apple Silicon/ARM are supported

    32-bit systems are not supported.

    PC system requirements

    Windows 10 or Windows 11 - (Latest Service Pack, 64-bit)

    Minimum: Intel 2.8 GHz i5 (quad-core) or AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM

    Recommended: Intel Core i7 6th gen and later or AMD Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM

    32-bit systems are not supported.

    File size

    1.1 GB

    Darkstar — Haunted House sounds great with…