ominous music

Check out your local library...mine has so many Halloween CDs it doesn't know what to do with them all.

. . . the prelude would be perfect if you only need a few seconds worth!

jt

Tocatta and Fugue in D minor played by an orchestra - not the standard pipe organ - can be sufficiently creepy. I would also recommend "Night on Bald Mountain"...

A little sumpm-sumpm from Midnight Sydicate might work, too...

http://www.midnightsyndicate.com

In the classical vein, I'll throw in my 2 cents in that genre. These are some other staples of classical halloween concerts (besides the good suggestions already made by Rev. Darkness)

Saint-Saens- Danse Macabre
Orff, Oh Fortuna from Carmina Burana (it's been overdone by everybody from the movies to Ozzy Ozbourne, but what the heck)
The Dies Irae from either the Mozart Requiem or Verdi Requiem

Maybe check out the soundtracks from The Omen and The Shining. Might be something useable there.

I would imagine a 50s movie that had a theramin heavy soundtrack might sound creepy.

How about the soudtrack from the movie "Dune"?
The original one, not the new release. Lots of
great sci-fi sounds of lasers, explosions and
really great music scores.

That's a good idea. I wasn't thinking so much of Halloween, though, but more of something classical with a mad-scientist bent.

Here's an Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00001ZSXC/qid=1097425591/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-5384466-5959862

maybe psycho?

The first two doom games had some music that fits right up that ally. And they are all in midi, so easy to use outside the game.

How about anything from the Star Wars movies? There are a lot of great noises, laser rifle shots, creature sounds and stuff like that.
You should be able to capture sound bites as .wav files and then string them together to play in a loop. Apple Quick Time Player is good for this.

Maybe check out the soundtracks from The Omen and The Shining. Might be something useable there.

The Shining, IIRC, used Berlioz 'Songe D'une Nuit Du Sabbat' from Symphonie Fantastique. One of my faves.

Another old standby is Night on Bare(or bald) Mountain by Mussorgsky (used in Disney's Fantasia).

Wrapping up my classical picks is Mars, Bringer of War by Holst - preferably the electronic Isao Tomita version.

The soundtrack from Raiders of the Lost Ark is a good pick.

The original Quake soundtrack has some (well, all) really cool tracks. Bits and parts might fit the theme.

If you want real spooky ooky mad scientist music, try the soundtrack from "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron - it was the first all-electronic film score. They built different circuits for each sound, some of which were designed to self-destruct while they were being played.

I can also recommend Peter Thomas, or the Peter Thomas Sound Experience. A German film sound artist from the 60s. He did the 70s "documentary" Chariots of The Gods, about Erich von Daniken's alien gods hypothesis. Used to be pretty hard to find, but there was a re-release double album in '99 or so - one side of original tracks, and one of remixes by current artists.

Anything from the BBC Radiophonic workshop is good - ie Dr Who.

Parts of the soundtrack from the second and third Trek movies could work.