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Heavyocity Psychosis: A Horror Scoring Toolkit for Kontakt
Heavyocity Psychosis is a horror and thriller scoring library for Kontakt Player, with 720 organic sources, 332 presets and two engines. Specs, price and rivals.
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Priya Raman
October 20, 2026 · 9 min read
Heavyocity released Psychosis on October 20, 2026. It's a horror and thriller scoring library built for jumpscares, stings, unnerving rhythms and unsettled textures. The library runs in the free Kontakt Player and packs 720 organic sources into two custom engines. Its raw material comes from recordings of real instruments played in ways they were never meant to be. Heavyocity frames it as "fear by design," and the content is aimed at composers scoring tension, not general cinematic use.
At a glance: Psychosis costs 329 US dollars as an intro price, down from 399 dollars, with a 279-dollar crossgrade for owners of Damage 2, Symphonic Destruction, Gravity or Gravity 2. It holds 720 unique sources and 332 presets across two engines, weighs 6.94 GB on disk, and runs in Kontakt 7.10.9 Player or later as standalone, VST, AU and AAX. This is a first look from Heavyocity's official product page, not a hands-on review.
What is Heavyocity Psychosis?
Heavyocity is a New York developer known for cinematic tools like Damage 2, Gravity and Symphonic Destruction. These are libraries that trailer and media composers reach for when they need designed sound rather than a straight orchestral recording. Psychosis narrows that approach to one mood: dread.
The library is built from eclectic acoustic sources recorded at Heavyocity's studios, then twisted into horror. The source list reads like a prop table from a haunted film set: koto, sarangi, rubab, music boxes, jawbone, toy pianos, a thunder sheet, gongs, a wind wand and various resonating metals. Rather than sample these cleanly, Heavyocity performed them by over-bowing, scraping, stretching and bending, so the raw material already carries tension before any processing. That organic foundation is the pitch. A lot of horror sound design leans on synthetic drones and risers. Psychosis starts from real instruments abused on purpose, and that gives it a grain that's harder to fake.
What's inside Psychosis
The 720 sources are organized by what they do in a cue, which is how a composer thinks under a deadline.
Jumpscares, stings and transitions
The largest group is 324 jumpscares and stings, Heavyocity's signature hits built from thunder sheets, twisted metal wire, piano boards and organic instruments. These are the sharp moments a horror cue is built around. A further 72 transitions cover risers and reverses, the connective tissue that carries a scene from calm into shock.
Rhythms, textures and tonal material
For momentum, there are 144 tempo-synced atonal rhythms: skittering plucks, percussive patterns and vocal loops that lock to your project tempo in straight or triplet feels. Atmosphere comes from 120 sustains and textures. When a horror score needs something close to a note, 36 multisampled tonal pedals and 24 key and pluck instruments keep the organic character without turning into a conventional pad.
Two engines, 332 presets
Psychosis ships with 332 custom presets split across its two engines, so you can work top-down from finished cues or bottom-up from raw sources.
The Psychosis Designer is the sound-design engine. It layers three channels of sources through a browser that can load 300 sources across three banks, with a MACRO knob for dynamic, multi-parameter control and sequencing. Each channel has its own FX section for Envelope, Tone, Drive, Motion and Space, and an advanced mixer adds Drift, Scatter and recordable automation. Performance controls handle tempo-sync, start times and sequencing. A custom master FX chain covers Punish, compression, reverb and delay, and a settings page fine-tunes legato, glide, sustain and velocity. Its 160 Designer snapshots break down into 20 Cue Creators, 54 Rhythmic Pedals, 61 Sustains and Textures, and 25 Keys and Plucks.
The Psychosis Menu is the curation engine. It maps 72 individual sounds across the keyboard for fast auditioning, and an Expand Source control maps a single sound across the whole keyboard. Per-source filter, EQ, volume, pan and tuning, plus macro and effects controls and a master FX chain, let you build your own menus from the full 720-source pool. Its 172 Menu snapshots cover 13 Menus, 15 Cue Creator Combos and 144 single-source presets.
Cue Creators
For composers who want a running start, Psychosis includes 35 Cue Creators. These are production-ready presets that draw on the full source pool to drop immediate suspense into a track, from jumpscares to slow-building atmospheres.
Psychosis specifications
| Spec | Psychosis |
|---|---|
| Type | Horror and thriller scoring library |
| Sources | 720 unique sources |
| Breakdown | 324 jumpscares and stings, 144 atonal rhythms, 120 sustains and textures, 72 transitions, 36 tonal pedals, 24 key and pluck instruments |
| Presets | 332 (160 Designer snapshots, 172 Menu snapshots) plus 35 Cue Creators |
| Engines | Psychosis Designer and Psychosis Menu |
| Library size | 6.94 GB on disk (NI lossless compression) |
| Engine | Kontakt 7 engine; Kontakt 7.10.9 Player or later |
| NKS | NKS 2.0 integrated |
| Formats | Standalone, VST, AU, AAX |
| Delivery | Direct download only |
| Operating systems | macOS 12, 13, 14 (Intel and Apple Silicon); Windows 10 or 11 |
| Price | 329 dollars intro (399 regular); 279 crossgrade |
Psychosis vs Heavyocity Damage 2
If you already own Heavyocity tools, the question is whether Psychosis covers ground your library doesn't. The closest sibling is Damage 2, another Kontakt Player instrument built on the same designed-sound philosophy.
| Psychosis | Damage 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Horror and thriller sound design | Cinematic percussion and impacts |
| Core content | Jumpscares, stings, textures, atonal rhythms | Designed hits, loops, crushing low end |
| Runs in | Kontakt 7.10.9 Player or later | Kontakt Player |
| Price | 329 dollars intro (399 regular) | About 299 dollars |
| Best for | Tension, dread and horror cues | Trailer rhythm and impact |
They're complementary, not competing. Damage 2 is a percussion and impact engine that drives the rhythmic backbone and the big hits of a trailer or action cue. Psychosis handles atmosphere and stingers. It supplies the unease between those hits, plus the jumpscares that punctuate a horror scene. A composer who works in dark genres could reasonably own both, using Damage 2 for momentum and Psychosis for fear. Heavyocity's own Gravity and Symphonic Destruction sit nearer the general cinematic and hybrid-orchestral end, which is why they show up in the Psychosis crossgrade list rather than as direct alternatives. For orchestral color under these designed sounds, a recorded library like Sonuscore LUX Orchestral Brass covers very different ground.
Who Psychosis is for
Psychosis is made for composers scoring horror, thriller and tension. That covers film and TV cues, game audio, and trailers for dark titles. It also suits sound designers who want organic, unsettling material instead of synthetic drones. The free Kontakt Player requirement keeps the barrier low, since you don't need a full Kontakt license to run it. The two-engine design serves both camps: people who want finished cues, and people who want to build sounds from scratch.
Skip it if you score light or general cinematic material, where a broad hybrid library will serve you better. The same goes if you only need the occasional scare and can cover it from an existing collection. At 6.94 GB, it's a focused, single-purpose library rather than an everyday workhorse.
How much does Psychosis cost?
Psychosis is available now from the official Heavyocity product page as a direct download.
- Intro price: 329 US dollars, down from the 399-dollar regular price.
- Crossgrade: 279 dollars for registered owners of Damage 2, Symphonic Destruction, Gravity or Gravity 2.
- Delivery: direct download only, with no boxed option.
FAQ
Do I need the full version of Kontakt to run Psychosis?
No. Psychosis runs in the free Kontakt Player, version 7.10.9 or later, and is powered by the Kontakt 7 engine with NKS 2.0 integration. You don't need a paid Kontakt license.
How big is Psychosis and what does it include?
The library is 6.94 GB on disk with NI lossless compression. It holds 720 unique sources and 332 presets across two engines, the Psychosis Designer and the Psychosis Menu, plus 35 Cue Creators.
Psychosis vs Damage 2, which should I get?
Choose Psychosis for horror atmospheres, stingers and tension, and Damage 2 for cinematic percussion and impacts. They cover different jobs, and many trailer and horror composers would use both together.
Is there a discount for existing Heavyocity customers?
Yes. Registered owners of Damage 2, Symphonic Destruction, Gravity or Gravity 2 can crossgrade to Psychosis for 279 dollars, against the 329-dollar intro price for everyone else.
Verdict
Psychosis is a focused, confident library that does one thing: make a listener uneasy. Its strength is the source material. Real instruments, recorded and then deliberately broken, give the jumpscares and textures a physical, organic quality that pure synthesis struggles to match. The two engines cover both sides of the workflow: the composer who wants a cue in one preset, and the designer who wants to build dread from raw sources. The free Kontakt Player requirement keeps it accessible. For horror and thriller scoring, it looks like one of the more complete toolkits of the year. This is a first look based on Heavyocity's official materials, not a hands-on review.
