Hey guys, I absolutely LOVED the Deus Ex HR score by Michael McCann. I was wondering if anyone had advice for creating those extremely dark and ambient style arps and pads he used in the score. Heres a great example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiN6t7K7txw

The tools I have currently are a virus KC, Sylenth1, Massive and Absynth5.

If anyone can tell what he is actually using or similar sounding hardware, I would be forever grateful. I am obsessed with his mixture of a Vangelis + Reznor type of sound.

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I fu... love that soundtrack and neeeeed some info about it.

I agree. This soundtrack was the sleeper hit in my music collection last year. I've been working through as much as I can by myself, but most synth tutorials online are about getting [producer]'s bass sound.

I recently got fairly close to Icarus' opening bass sound on Diva. It was simple - I used two saw waves and tuned one to a fifth (+7) above the other and then modulated a 24db filter frequency and resonance. As the filter opened, the resonance would go up, but just enough to give it a slight "wah". Keeping the filter low sounded quite a bit like the first few bars of the piece, but the brighter it got, the less so.

All of the plucks I made suck terribly, but again, I had more luck by modulating the filter. I made the curve the same as the amplitude envelope's, but with a bit more tail so I don't get that nasty "smack" at the end. Run both through reverb and you'll be pretty close. There are some details with delay settings that I haven't gotten down.

As cool as these synth sounds are, remember that most of the power of McCann's soundtrack comes from his dramatic compositional style and the use of the human voice. We don't all have access to great vocalists, but don't neglect the form of the music when figuring out how he's done it. Get some sounds that are close and then write a short piece that really crescendos.

That said, input from more experienced sound designers would be nice.

Use a lowpass filter on what you already have? It's just mixture of orchestral pads with synth pads. Seriously. Those are four AMAZING synths more than capable of doing the kind of sounds you are after.

IMO this is just another unoriginal scifi soundtrack with the vocals being the only silver lining.

I've heard a lot of sci-fi soundtracks in games over the years and this really is one of the better ones, and the number of award nominations it's got would seem to concur. I would agree that there's not much new in the sound design of the pads or whatever but it would still be cool for those of us with less experience to be given more of a hint on how to get those sounds.

Another example I like is the main menu theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpTcZJJ-lm0), and especially the little percussive sonar-like sound that you first hear 20 seconds in, and most clearly at 1:12. I think I hear a multi-tap delay and obviously some sort of reverb, but I can't work out how to make the unprocessed initial sound despite it probably being trivial and obvious to someone with more experience. Any hints?

Agreed.

His DXHR work is excellent but the power of it isn't found in original or hard-to-create sounds. It is the composition, development of textures and build over slow big percussion that gives it majesty.

The OP wrote:

"The tools I have currently are a virus KC, Sylenth1, Massive and Absynth5. "

You will be able to find/create most of the sounds you need out of those excellent tools except the orchestral pads might prove elusive. For that, I created one in Kore 2 using Kontakt brass and string patches, an Absynth patch and Camelspace to glue them together and allow the sounds to evolve.

And if you listen closely, he also has sampled strings layered in there. Their timbre and resonance will add something that a purely synthetic sound will struggle to achieve, unless one is a synth maestro (not me).

And you'll also find a lot of layering going on to build up each line. It's difficult to achieve this kind of lush density by having only one or two instruments per part.

i agree that it sounds really great and gives a great vibe to the main menu theme. however, i think the solution to it is much simpler than you think - it's a high note of a piano with lots of reverb. and if it's not, it's very easily replicable with one. try it.

Hah, you're right, and what I said about it probably being trivial and obvious to someone with more experience was also right!

I got a good approximation of the sound using the East West Steinway Piano, mid-velocity, and running that first through NastyDLA with some cross-fed delay and then through Ambience on the Bright and Long preset with the size increased.