SHR4C004M-002 Composition & Production Template

Synthesis process evidence

For the main melody present in the intro and throughout the song, I used Retrologue 2. I used a square waveforms on oscillator 1 for a wider sound and changed the shape (setting it to 7 on the knob) for a “brighter” sound so the melody sounds hopeful yet futuristic. I set the octave of oscillator one to 16′ to add some low end to the synth while I increased the octave of the other 2 oscillators to 4 to add more to that “brighter” sound, character and variety in frequencies. The main octave was set to 4′ to further add to this. I also set oscillator 2 and 3 to saw waveforms so the brightness sounds sharp and not too quiet (as this happened using triangle and sine waves). I decreased the coarse of oscillator 2 to between -6 and -3 for more low end so the synth isn’t too high. I set the envelope to 6 and the cutoff at 5 to create a very retro-futuristic sound. The cutoff setting also made it sound “fuller”. I wanted the melody play fast-attack notes with a standard time between note changes, so I gave it fast attack and decay, maximum sustain and I set the release in the middle of the slider.

I then created a bass synth, which I wanted to be quite cinematic, so I made sure it had a soft, slightly swelling sound but still enough low end for it to be a bass. I set oscillator 1 to a saw waveform for that softer yet still impactful sound and made the octave 8′ on all of the oscillators including the mains’ octave setting. Oscillator 2’s waveform was set to square and the shape knob set between 6 and 7 for a wider sound so that the bass can make up for all of the high synth frequencies of the other synths and melodies. Oscillator 3 was set to the saw waveform for the same reasons as oscillator 1. For that very retro-futuristic sound, I set the envelope to 6 but the cutoff at 1 as any higher would have emphasised the synth too much, consequently taking away from the main melodic synth(s). The ADSR was set exactly the same as the previously mentioned melodic synth. To add more to the softer swelling cinematic bass, I added an LF01 modulation and set the waveform to sine because sine waveforms are very soft.

I also decided to create an arpeggio melody in certain sections of the song using a duplicate of this bass synth but changing the settings slightly such as changing the oscillator 1 waveform to square but with a higher octave (4′) for brightness since it is a melody track. To further this brightness, I increased the mains’ octave to 4′ as well. And to really change the sound to be higher and more retro, I increased the resonance to 5.

Due to the cinematic feel that I wanted as well as the idea that the midsection of the song is meant for a fight scene, I created another synth as a background “pulse” meant to make the feel faster and gain momentum. Oscillators 1 and 3 were set to square waves for a wide bass sound with oscillator 3’s octave set low (16′) for a more background guttural sound. Oscillators 2 and 3’s and the mains’ octaves were set at 8′ for a middle ground of being kind of high but still low for a bass. I then added an arpeggiator to it to create that pulsing movement. The arpeggiator was set to 1/16th tempo and the octave on -2 as any higher didn’t sound right and clashed with the higher synths. The fine tuning of oscillator 1 was turned up to 6 as it added more variety of sounds and frequencies. This combined with the envelope set at 6 and the cutoff at 5, it made a sinister sound similar to Nine Inch Nails, which would create an ever-so-slightly menacing background component to the track. I set the release to be a little fast as moments in the track required the synth to die down quickly and not linger.

For the other 2 synths in the tracks, I used presets that I liked but altered the settings slightly. For example, I used the synth program “Trip” and its preset “Breaker line”, which was a very funky arpeggiating synth line. It seemed to sweep and bounce through multiple frequencies and so the higher frequency would get too high and sharp so I turned down the arpeggiator’s octave. And to make it more of a bass, I changed oscillator 1’s waveform from saw sync to square sync for that wider, lower and harsher sound. And I decreased the envelope amount slightly for less high frequencies and retro sounds so it doesn’t clash with the lead lines. For the intro, I simply used a synth drone preset with no alterations. And for the main melodic bass synth I used another preset but boosted the distortion and resonance and added a chorus effect to add more character and make sure it didn’t just sound like some basic bass as I wanted this to be a main melody bass line.