Recently I did a composition for a re-imagined intro theme for the 1968 film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. The animation is just under 40 seconds long and the theme is inspired by 80's dance music, with a tribute to the original score of the film. Here's a look inside my ProTools session, some info on how I got the synth sounds I was after, and I'll let you know what samples I used too!
Check out the animation along with my theme song here.
Synth sounds:
I've got three main synth sounds in this short track, the 'lead' (or bass), the arpeggiator and the brighter synth that compliments the lead. I was inspired to do these sounds in particular because of the classic 80's dance reference tracks I've been using - check out my blog on those here.
I used ProTools' synth - Vacuum II to create all three of the synths, it's an emulation of a classic analogue monophonic synth, and best of all it's free with PT! It's got two oscillators and all the standard features you'd expect in a basic synth, I really recommend checking it out if you've left it unused til now :). I mostly played around with the plug-in to figure it out and discover its capabilities, though I've also found this handy video that helped me figure out its nuances and signal flow as well!
Lead Synth -
I was wanting a similar tone for this one to my reference track - 'Look out for number one' by Project One.
You can see here that I've mixed the two oscillators at similar volumes, and similar waveform shapes (between triangle and saw), both those oscillators are going through a low pass filter (LPF) with an envelope that produces the kinda 'plucky' sound you hear in my finished track. I continued to play around with the 'MOD' and 'AGE' settings you see above to create a more unique sound, while still getting that 80's vibe from my reference tracks.
I'm also hitting the lead with up to 6dB of compression to bring it up and fatten it out! After that I'm putting it through a saturator (Softubes' Saturation Knob) to again bring out the low end and give it a bit of grit!
Compliment to lead -
This synth is very similar to the lead, however I've changed the 'range' of the main oscillator from 18 feet to 4 feet, which creates the pitch change that you hear. I also adjusted the waveforms slightly to create a cleaner sound with triangle waves that lean slightly toward square waves. My EQ for this guy is more in favour of high end, and I didn't hit this one with any saturation to keep it clean in contrast to the darker lead.
Arpeggiated Synth (arp) -
This one was quite fun to create and play around with Vacuum II and its features. Check out the arp in Project One for the sound I was trying to emulate. Here is a cool article on what an arpeggiator is if you're not sure yet!
Again with a mix of an 18" range osc and a 4" range osc, I had this one tilted more towards a square wave on the main oscillator, with a longer attack to push it into the background a little more and give the synths more variance (along with being accurate to the reference). Giving the ref a close listen, I found reproduced the sequence quite well by getting the arpeggiator speed and sequence basically the same, at a 16th note of rate and an up/down sequence that starts over after every quarter note. It's very difficult to find specifics on how to recreate these synths from blogs and videos online, but it gave me a chance to figure it out using my ears and experimenting with the gear I have! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out :)
Those Wicked 80's Drum Samples!
Yep, they're all samples from a couple different sample packs that I've found. The most prominent ones that I used are from the Loop Lords pack thats available for donation/free download here. The sample pack gave me around 8 different drum kits all made using old 80's real drum machines. The 80's drum machine pack that suited me the most was the BOSS DR-220A samples.
I uploaded the kit into another free plug-in that comes with ProTools - Structure Free. This is unfortunately the only free sampler that comes with PT, however it works just fine with the option to pay to upgrade it (which may be worth it if you use it a lot as one of the restrictions is that you can only use 4 instances of the sampler in any session - so if you'er going to break up your individual samples, it's not that practical!)
I checked out this basic tutorial to speed up my workflow and avoid unnecessary delays because I didn't know how to use it =P. I loaded the kit in and programmed the drums, rocked out for a bit on a MIDI controller, then added the shaker you hear from another sample pack that I got from Noiiz.
Of course, it wasn't as simple as loading up some sampled drums and having the perfect sound, a lot of mixing and effects - especially reverb, went into getting the 80's vibe I achieved in the final product. But that's for my next blog :) - If I've completed it, you'll find it linked here. *link*
Bibliography:
YouTube. (2013). Vacuum. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INFHX6ZZ70E [Accessed 6 Aug. 2018].
LoopLords. (n.d.). 80s Drums Vol.1. [online] Available at: https://www.looplords.net/2017/04/80s-drums-vol1.html [Accessed 7 Aug. 2018].
Samplephonics. (n.d.). Free Percussion Samples | Download Free Shaker Loops Packs. [online] Available at: https://www.samplephonics.com/products/free/percussion/the-shaker-chronicles-freebie# [Accessed 7 Aug. 2018].
Corfield, C. (2013). What Is An Arpeggiator? A Mini Guide To This Synth Staple. [online] Dawsons Music. Available at: https://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/what-is-an-arpeggiator [Accessed 7 Aug. 2018].
Comments