I recently had the opportunity to make a soundtrack for a short video, my first time ever working on such a project. It was an extremely low budget affair. I didn't receive a single penny for it. Still, it was actually one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on. Probably because the subject matter was close to my heart and I had complete freedom to do whatever I wanted. It got me thinking that I would love to work with video on a regular basis. There are more possible projects on the horizon so I'm stoked about that.
I'm interested to watch/hear your projects and experiences. What synths/instruments did you use? What software did you use to sync the video? Were the projects well received?
I'll lead off with some details on mine. It's a short documentary/reenactment video about a UFO encounter in my area, so naturally I wanted to go for a bit of a campy retro feel with some cheese. Sort of an homage to Stranger Things, John Carpenter, X-Files, a touch of Steve Roach style ambience...
First part has an otherworldly ambience created with Absynth, followed by the theme where I used a Waldorf Rocket for the bass, Reaktor for the bass drum, Absynth for the pads and the Virus TI (smothered in Eventide Eclipse Blackhole reverb) for the arpeggio and lead sound.
Second part (4:45 encounter) was a simple John Carpenter style thing using the Waldorf Rocket for the bass line and arpeggio (with Eclipse reverb/delay algorithm). Pads were Virus TI.
Third part (9:44 investigation) was just two stock Korg M1 Legacy plugin sounds. They just oozed X-Files cheese.
Fourth part (13:30 reports and thoughts) was another otherworldly ambience created with Reaktor's Metaphysical Function ensemble with an Absynth pad layered on top.
I created the tracks in Ableton Live 9 and the video creator used Sony Vegas create the video and mix in the soundtrack.
I looked into trying to mix it myself using the video feature in Ableton but it seemed to be too much of a learning curve in the short time I had to finish the soundtrack so I did it old school, making notes about the timing and how long the segments should be.
I was pleased with it overall considering it was my first venture with soundtrack work. Let me know what you think! Thoughts and criticisms are welcome.
Post your electronic music soundtracks! I'd love learn more about this and the whole process.
I'm interested to watch/hear your projects and experiences. What synths/instruments did you use? What software did you use to sync the video? Were the projects well received?
I'll lead off with some details on mine. It's a short documentary/reenactment video about a UFO encounter in my area, so naturally I wanted to go for a bit of a campy retro feel with some cheese. Sort of an homage to Stranger Things, John Carpenter, X-Files, a touch of Steve Roach style ambience...
First part has an otherworldly ambience created with Absynth, followed by the theme where I used a Waldorf Rocket for the bass, Reaktor for the bass drum, Absynth for the pads and the Virus TI (smothered in Eventide Eclipse Blackhole reverb) for the arpeggio and lead sound.
Second part (4:45 encounter) was a simple John Carpenter style thing using the Waldorf Rocket for the bass line and arpeggio (with Eclipse reverb/delay algorithm). Pads were Virus TI.
Third part (9:44 investigation) was just two stock Korg M1 Legacy plugin sounds. They just oozed X-Files cheese.
Fourth part (13:30 reports and thoughts) was another otherworldly ambience created with Reaktor's Metaphysical Function ensemble with an Absynth pad layered on top.
I created the tracks in Ableton Live 9 and the video creator used Sony Vegas create the video and mix in the soundtrack.
I looked into trying to mix it myself using the video feature in Ableton but it seemed to be too much of a learning curve in the short time I had to finish the soundtrack so I did it old school, making notes about the timing and how long the segments should be.
I was pleased with it overall considering it was my first venture with soundtrack work. Let me know what you think! Thoughts and criticisms are welcome.
Post your electronic music soundtracks! I'd love learn more about this and the whole process.