braaam

plural braaams · alternative BRAAAM

1. A low, loud sound, originally produced by brass instruments and a prepared piano but sometimes made synthetically, included in film and trailer scores to increase audience stress.

   The ominous braaam, the sinister boardroom, the horrific imagery, the cloaked cult members, embryonic deformity, Jason Isaac’s German accent, mad scientists’ labs: it’s all very intriguing stuff… then I saw the running time.

   2017, Benedict Seal, “Why I’m Worried About the Running Time of 'A Cure for Wellness'”, in Bloody Disgusting

   3 more examples

   Most agree that Hollywood's obsession with braaams began with a series of trailers for Christopher Nolan's 2010 film, Inception. But just who invented them is "a very, very, very touchy subject," according to Bobby Gumm, head of music for Trailer Park, the company behind such braaam-filled trailers as Mad Max: Fury Road and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.

   2015, Seth Abramovitch, “'Braaams' for Beginners: How a Horn Sound Ate Hollywood”, in Hollywood Reporter

   From Zimmer’s Batman scores, via the many knockoffs for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to Marco Beltrami’s score for World War Z, the main ingredients — churning strings hectically repeating the same four- or five-note motif, with a BRAAAM dropping every so often — are both pulse-quickening and exhausting.

   2016, Adrian Daub, “'BRAAAM!': The Sound that Invaded the Hollywood”, in Longreads

   Falling firmly into the aforementioned ‘braams’ category and far beyond, each patch is sample driven, being completely derived from the original recorded content, while allowing for real-time control of high- and low-pass filtering and EQ.

   2019, Dave Gale, “Review: Audio Imperia Talos Volume Two: Low Brass”, in Music Tech

plural BRAAAMs

1. Alternative letter-case form of braaam (onomatopoeia for a low loud brass sound).

   1 more example

   From Zimmer’s Batman scores, via the many knockoffs for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to Marco Beltrami’s score for World War Z, the main ingredients — churning strings hectically repeating the same four- or five-note motif, with a BRAAAM dropping every so often — are both pulse-quickening and exhausting.

   2016, Adrian Daub, “‘BRAAAM!’: The Sound that Invaded the Hollywood Soundtrack”, in Longreads