'Midnight City' - M83 synth

[tpantano]

So, apparently Anthony Gonzalez, mastermind behind the group M83, works with Korgs.
http://www.korg.co.uk/artists/anthony_gonzalez.asp

I'm super curious how the main sound in the song 'Midnight City' by M83 was created. It's the very... emotional(?) screechy(?) sound right from the beginning of the song, used throughout and very recognizable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZFcosBTaQ

Any ideas on how something like that was created?

[xmlguy]

There's an upward pitch bend on one oscillator, which you can do by patching the free envelope to osc2 pitch. Try a blend of osc1 with a stable pitch mixed with the pitch bent osc2, experimenting with saw or pulse, with a bit of PWM, sync between the two oscillators. Maybe a bit of portamento. Not much effects besides a tight digital delay. The screachyness comes from the blend of pitches between osc1 and osc2, as osc2 quickly glides up to the root note.

[chris7sam]

I'm not a keyboard player, but my son and I play in a band covering new alt-music. Only yesterday did we set out for the task of re-creating that allusive sound from Midnight City. I always felt it had a human element. The sound not only has pitch, but it sounds like it has some annunciation. My suspicions were confirmed when I read a small passage from an article where the singer commented on the creation of that sound. He mentioned it was his voice heavily filtered. It all made sense. I think we've successfully re-created it by doing the following:

First, we came to the conclusion that he is saying four separate lines. The words in the beginning are:
"Dah-Doo-doo Dah" (in two melodic patterns). When the drums and music kick in, the lyrics become:
"Dah-d-Lee-Doo-doo-Dah" (also in two melodic patters)

I sang those parts separately into Ableton Live along to a metronome. Once recorded, my son pasted the parts together. The last "Dah" of each phrase is repeated 5 times "dah-dah-dah-dah-dahhh".

Then comes the fun part: First, the vocal must be taken up an octave. There are filters and effects in ableton (and most recording software that allow for this). Then the proper amount of echo and reverb are applied to give it that airy sound. Then, a small amount of guitar fuzz is applied to make it more cutting. We fiddled with it for about an hour and it sounds extremely close. It sounds 95 percent there. A little more tweaking will get it right on. Then we'll break the phrases apart into individual samples which can be applied to synth keys. He plays this opening on the synth.

The big starry descending explosion sound leading into each chorus is what we'll be trying to re-create tonight. I play the drums so I'll be the lucky one to bring that sample into my Sampler Pad. I play the song just like the M83 drummer does (on pads to the left of my acoustic set). Cant wait to put this song together in practice. Once we get the samples finished, Ill try to post an audio file to listen to. You can decide if it sounds anything like it. We made a decision early on not to steal samples directly from the songs we're covering, but to completely re-create them. We've re-created all of the vocal-type samples in all of the Foster the People songs we're covering. Those songs are loaded with vocal samples being played on keyboard.

Hope this helped; I just happened to wander into this forum while we were looking for a place to start on this song.

[ego somnium]

I'm super curious how the main sound in the song 'Midnight City' by M83 was created. It's the very... emotional(?) screechy(?) sound right from the beginning of the song, used throughout and very recognizable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZFcosBTaQ

I must have listened to that song about 20 times last night after reading this post - it is soooooooo catchy!