“You are the IT consultant on a small salvage team sent to a derelict ship that is currently in a decaying orbit around an unknown world. Your mission is to gain access to the ship and re-boot the AI so it can be flown home. Things do not go to plan…”
The Concept
The Derelict is a concept soundtrack for a non-existent exploratory/adventure video game. I enjoy listening to and writing video game soundtracks, so here I present an EP length collection of music that tells the story of the protagonist and their adventures aboard The Derelict.
I drew a lot of inspiration from post rock and heavy metal (genres I am very familiar with writing for) and also incorporated some more atmospheric and electronic elements to create an EP that is varied, but of a piece, all the while taking the listener on a journey.
I created this EP as a showreel piece over 2 weeks in April of 2019, setting myself a brief with an outline of what would happen and when. The idea is that this could be a short game, or the 1st part of a larger one (a level called The Derelict if you like).
Starting out I set the parameters:
There need to be creepy atmospheric parts when initially exploring the ship
It had to have electronic instrument elements when in the AI core
I bring in 8 string guitars when shit ‘got real’ after the AI sequence
I broke the story up into 6 sections, and these would form the basis of each track:
On Approach/Signs of Unease
You are approaching The Derelict in a shuttlecraft
There is some unease as this is an abandoned ship, but there is still a mood of hopefulness amongst the team and a general sense that this is like any other mission
Empty Halls/Signs of Struggle
You and your team are exploring The Derelict
As you move through the empty corridors you see evidence something happened here
You can hear strange sounds in the distance, and generally feel unsettled
Rebooting The AI/Signs of Life
You have made it to the computer core, it’s time to reboot the AI, the entire reason you are on this team and the crucial next step in your mission
Once you have done this step, your part will be done and it will be up to your team to fly the ship home. You are feeling triumphant as the system comes back online…
But something doesn’t go quite right, the AI seems to have it’s own agenda
Containment Breach/Signs of Chaos
Sirens sound, and in the distance you can hear chaos approaching
Screams from your team mates echo through you head, coming static but strong through your headset
As the chaos comes closer it becomes clearer and clearer what it is you face…
Fight or Flight/Signs of Escape
The creatures are upon you
There is only one chance of escape, you must make it to the life pods. The path is perilous, and the creatures of chaos are stalking your every move, will you make it out?
The last dash for a life pod, the door closes with you safely on the other side, your team has not been so lucky
Escape Pod/Signs of Relief
You look back at The Derelict as your escape pod silently drifts away
Will you survive? You don't know, but you are heading to the planet below…
The Process
For this project I wanted to do as much of it in-the-box as I could. Part of the motivation for this was to be able to go from brief to final product in a fairly short amount of time, I set myself 2 weeks (a target I hit). In the past I have found that tweaking sounds on external gear (specifically guitars and bass) was one of the more time consuming aspects.
Guitars
I relied heavily on my Aristides 080s as I knew I wanted the Meshuggah inspired riffage for the back half of the EP, once the chaos creatures made an appearance.
I did also use my PRS DW CE for one small part in Rebooting The AI as I wanted to use a whammy bar to indicate the computer failing at it’s reboot.
The Aristides 080s was tuned to standard F# while the PRS DW CE was tuned to C standard.
Amp Tones - Guitar
As mentioned earlier I wanted to do this project 100% in-the-box, and because I wanted the Meshuggah vibe I used the Neural DSP Fortin Nameless Suite for all the main heavy guitar tones (This being based on the short lived Fortin Meshuggah amp).
I picked up the new Neural DSP Archetype Plini towards the end of this project, but I did end up using it for a few parts. The rest was done with Bias FX which I have used for years, though I think I will be relying heavily on the Neural stuff from now on as they work and sound great for me.
Drums
While I used Superior Drummer 3.0 for the acoustic drum parts, I ended up using the Post Rock EZX (for EZDrummer 2) as I found as I was writing that I really wanted to utilise a Post Rock vibe to get the slow buildup thing happening. This was especially the case with On Approach and Rebooting the AI.
For the heavier parts, Containment Breach and Fight or Flight, I wanted to go full Meshuggah so loaded up the Superior Drummer 2 base kit and the KOLOSS producer presets.
For the sequence in the AI computer core (Rebooting the AI) I wanted a more electronic feel. Initially I was going for this thought the whole track, but in the end I felt it worked better just after the AI rebooted and stuff started to get a little wacky. For this I used the Wavemorph Kit from the Byte Riot Komplete expansion.
Software Instruments
As always I used Native Instruments Komplete (I’m still on v10) for all my sounds, played in with my Komplete Kontrol S49 keyboard.
I used a lot of the sounds from the Byte Riot expansion as I wanted a bit of the 8-bit chip tune influence in places, even if I wasn’t outright going for that genre I still found it helped with the inspiration a lot.
I ended up using Rounds a lot to bring momentum to Rebooting the AI and Containment Breach. I liked the way you can get rhythm across without always using drums. But, then when you bring the drums in, it can compliment the rhythm already established with Rounds.
Since The Derelict is set entirely in space I really wanted a cool space vibe to set the scene. One of my favourite podcasts, Liftoff, is all about space and the theme song I fell really does a good job at scene setting with just a simple piano and lots of reverb and delay. So instead of using delay on the track directly in Pro Tools I decided to start utilising the FX chains within Komplete Kontrol itself, and in the process really came to like using Replika.
Bass Guitar
You thought I’d forgotten about bass guitar earlier right? Well no. Just before I started this project a new virtual instrument came to my attention. Eurobass II by SubMission Audio was updated to 2.0 and all the usual suspects were demoing it on YouTube. So I decided to give it a go, and wow! Recording tuned down bass isn't the easiest thing, and while I have a bass tuned down to F#, I thought I’d give this a go as I figured it might be quicker and easier for this project.
I started by transcribing the bass parts in Guitar Pro 7.5, exporting the midi into Pro Tools, then with a little transposing added in the articulations for pull offs etc. and got up and running in no time. I really liked the workflow and the bass sounds in Eurobass II really work well, I’ll definitely be using this approach for composition work again.
Mixing, Mastering & Wrapping It All Up
As always I tracked everything in Pro Tools on a Mac. I use the iZotope plugins for mixing and mastering, Neutron and Ozone Advanced, as I find their layout and workflow really suits me. I also used various reverbs and delays from my collection.
My current studio setup can be found here.
I hope that was of interest to people. If there are any questions hit me up on Twitter @_lukejmusic or if you want to work with me on the soundtrack to your next project shoot me a message via the contact page.