New TDS Sample Sources

[Burial_Grid]

Ohai everyone! Over the last few months I've been going back and revisiting The Downward Spiral, dissecting the production work, teasing out what gear made what sounds and the like. Listening to the isolated tracks and surround-sound rips I've identified three more sample sources that don't seem to be accounted for anywhere, two of which are extremely odd as I sampled these same exact parts of these films when I was 16 and bought my first EMU ESI-32 sampler back in 1998.

The first is a sample of a scream buried during the guitar solo breakdown of "Ruiner". It's easiest to hear in the isolated tracks found here, at the 3:02 mark:


The source is from the 1989 film Parents. It's played at two different pitches and can be found here:



Next up is a symphonic sample during the first half of "The Downward Spiral". It always sounded to me like an orchestra tuning, but you can hear it isolated at 0:48 here:


The source is a snippet of my favorite film score ever - Howard Shore's work on Dead Ringers. The sample is played down a whole step I believer. It's specifically the intro to the cue titled "Twins" and can be heard here:

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This one is so obscure I thought I was hearing things, but a quick google search turned up that Dead Ringers is actually Reznor's favorite film and it was an enormous tonal inspiration for TDS and The Fragile. Check it out: https://graffitiwithpunctuation.com/...ronenberg-1988

Lastly, we've got the second buried scream in "March of the Pigs". You can hear two samples layered over one another here at 0:32:

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The first has been identified as being from the film Sorcerer. The second is from the opening scene from The Exorcist II: The Heretic. It's pitched down slightly. You can find it here at around 2:30 or so:

. The same sample is played back at regular speed during the intro to the Reznor-remixed version of Marilyn Manson's "Get Your Gunn". Check that out here:




Hope this sheds light on some sonic mysteries we geeks have been trying to unravel for the last 27 years!

[sonic_discord]

I scrolled while listening for the scream in that first video and it made a fart sound effect right on the beat. So that was funny. These are always interesting though! I think I knew about the one from Exorcist II, but the rest are new to me.

[snaapz]

[piggy]

There is a bit of backwards music starting at around 2:47 on this one. Can anyone identify it?

[Prettybrokenspiral]

Ohai everyone! Over the last few months I've been going back and revisiting The Downward Spiral, dissecting the production work, teasing out what gear made what sounds and the like. Listening to the isolated tracks and surround-sound rips I've identified three more sample sources that don't seem to be accounted for anywhere, two of which are extremely odd as I sampled these same exact parts of these films when I was 16 and bought my first EMU ESI-32 sampler back in 1998.

You got the isolated tracks for A Warm Place, friend? What is the buried vocal sample saying at the very beginning, that repeats six times..?

[Burial_Grid]

There is a bit of backwards music starting at around 2:47 on this one. Can anyone identify it?

I remember when I was a kid I had a bootleg interview CD with Trent called Disturbed, and he got into the movie sampling methodology a bit re: TDS. He did mention that there was a sample of an African tribe performing a ritual where they were chanting and beating the hide of a water buffalo and that the idea of it was actually much cooler than it sounded, but that they used it anyway. I can't figure out where else that sample might be on that album. This seems to nail it.

[Burial_Grid]

You got the isolated tracks for A Warm Place, friend? What is the buried vocal sample saying at the very beginning, that repeats six times..?

I know there's the ongoing debate about it being "The best thing about life is knowing you put it all together." I never heard that, myself. I think what we're hearing is a sample of ambience repeated 6 times that happens to have dialogue in it. I don't know if it's from a film or a field recording of some sort. But the ambience also repeats, and it's much louder than the dialogue. What's being said feels arbitrary, as I kinda have a feeling that it's simply an atmosphere-establishing bit of sound design, the same way that some drum loops from old jazz and funk albums might have an inhalation included in them before the vocals begin, usually on the 4th beat. It adds a bit of flavor. I don't suppose anyone has reached out to Charlie Clouser to verify?

[Prettybrokenspiral]

I know there's the ongoing debate about it being "The best thing about life is knowing you put it all together." I never heard that, myself. I think what we're hearing is a sample of ambience repeated 6 times that happens to have dialogue in it. I don't know if it's from a film or a field recording of some sort. But the ambience also repeats, and it's much louder than the dialogue. What's being said feels arbitrary, as I kinda have a feeling that it's simply an atmosphere-establishing bit of sound design, the same way that some drum loops from old jazz and funk albums might have an inhalation included in them before the vocals begin, usually on the 4th beat. It adds a bit of flavor. I don't suppose anyone has reached out to Charlie Clouser to verify?

I wouldn't say it's arbitrary, per se. It's clearly in there, just below the surface, for a reason. I imagine an isolated track would clear it up once and for all. Doubtful Charlie would know. Sean Beaven probably would though..

[artdeco]

Burial Grid, thanks SO much for sharing this. I also have forever been fascinated by the samples on this album. I'm the dude who first found the Sorcerer sample (as far as I know...not to ahem... toot my own horn or anything!) and I was wondering about the other MOTP sound that you got there from the Exorcist 2. Amazing. And that Downward Spiral synth? Holy smokes for years after I heard the multitracks I was always wondering about that specific sound myself. Dead Ringers? Makes perfect sense, too. Thanks much! I appreciate the music archaeology still going on. It makes my favorite album ever....FAVORITER!!!!

EDIT: We should get on those Piggy samples that are running around in the background on that song. There are some cool ones there that I'm still searching for.

[piggy]

I remember when I was a kid I had a bootleg interview CD with Trent called Disturbed, and he got into the movie sampling methodology a bit re: TDS. He did mention that there was a sample of an African tribe performing a ritual where they were chanting and beating the hide of a water buffalo and that the idea of it was actually much cooler than it sounded, but that they used it anyway. I can't figure out where else that sample might be on that album. This seems to nail it.

I had that same interview CD as a teenager, LOL. I just re-listened to it on YouTube earlier, and he said that sample was "300 African children's hands beating on the skin of a dead elephant" and that before he was told what it was, he said it sounded "like someone tapping on a pie pan." Nothing about any chanting, so I don't think that's the source.

[artdeco]

I don't suppose anyone has reached out to Charlie Clouser to verify?

I think that an even better source for information (on the samples at least) would be Chris Vrenna himself. I believe that he was the one recording most of the samples, and if memory serves me correct, I think he might have mentioned that he still has the DATs from those sessions. I would chop off my pinky to get a hard drive of that collection so that I could break more of these down.