I got pointed here from a guy in the studio today, while talking synths and synthesis and whatnot.
As a gamer myself and a guy who fell in love with the original Deus Ex, you can imagine how electrified I was when I got in Michael's studio (good days assisting a former teacher of mine) and the word was out it was music for a sequel of Deus Ex. Kaboom. I was completely pro on the outside but melting like a kid, inside.
Even if I just minded my own business, Michael was never too secretive about what he was doing (I was there for a completely different reason than the game OST) so when I asked out of my own heart what he was doing (I had loved what was on Splinter Cell that he had written) he kinda let some info out.
I just did you the favor to dig something from my backups and here goes a couple screens.
Basically:
- I have no idea if some of the sounds were coming off his real Korg synth
- the plucks you hear are a combo of different VSTs and plug-ins, but you guys are on the right track that Absynth and Zebra were indeed used for those sounds.
Some of the most important aspects are the envelopes to get the percussive behaviour right, then some added click from pitching up the OSC super fast at the beginning of the sound, or having the filter open fast and close right there to get again that percussive aspect. Short decays, and the cool stuff in Absynth is the comb filters and the Etherizer, plus I'd say the organ waveforms are what keep it grindy, definite and not clean (again, Absynth is so cool!). On Zebra you have similar combs that can be used to great effect, and amazing ENV capabilities. To get Michael's sounds on something like a Mini emulation is not the easiest but you can get the character right and it will sound amazing if you layer it with something else! I kinda think if you use a Voyager/Minimoog clone and use oscillators octaves apart and maybe a +7 on the 3rd OSC, you are rolling. Not identical but drench it in ping pong delays with bitcrusher, plus thick reverbs.. we'd be talking!
On a more modern note, have you guys checked out Dune? I am sure you have. I am thinking some of the presets are really close to the plucks you need and then some.. it's a great VSTi for that type of sounds, regardless of it being featured in DX:HR or not.
Attached are a couple screens from, yes, stuff in that bunch of stuff, let's call it that. Also notice the amazing use of freeware VST stuff! (on insert after Absynth) If it works, it works, right.
Hope you guys make use of it and find it useful~
Synth on,
