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Cyberpunk is a fiction genre that can be described as displaying environments and situations which depict the concept of "High tech; low life".
We generally think of technology as leading us into a better and brighter future, but what if technology actually made our lives worse?
This is what Cyberpunk explores...but how do you go about making music that lends itself to this idea? How do you make Cyberpunk music?
Wonder no longer as in this video, I break down not only the common elements all Cyberpunk songs tend to have...
But I'll walk you through how to create Cyberpunk song, step-by-step, while also sharing with you awesome tools to make this process easier and faster, along the way.
⛓️ LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO ⛓️
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0:00
In this video, I'm going to show you how to make a cyberpunk song from start to finish
0:04
and it's going to sound like this. Competing legends will be destroyed
0:14
Now, obviously, there is more than one way to create a song in any genre of music
0:18
so rather than just telling you, put in a pad that sounds like this
0:22
or put down a bass pattern that sounds like that, I'll break down for you the few key elements that you need your track to have
0:29
in order for it to sound cyberpunk-y. Yes, cyberpunk-y is now a word
0:35
After all, cyberpunk is technically a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting
0:41
that tends to focus on a combination of low-life and high-tech. And what's more low-life and high-tech
0:47
than putting our minds to inventing new words only to have them be words like cyberpunk-y
0:53
Okay, so what exactly is cyberpunk? Well, like I said earlier, it is technically a fiction genre and you have movies in this genre such as Blade Runner and The Matrix, books like Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and actually my wife and I are writing a cyberpunk slash space opera novel called Bleed
1:13
And of course, you have the recent release of the game Cyberpunk 2077
1:19
But we've also seen Cyberpunk as a music genre emerge, mostly because of that game and the
1:25
soundtrack that went with it. And so what characterizes that music? Well, number one is you have dark and aggressive synth sounds
1:33
That is a staple. And then probably most importantly is a distorted synthwave style bass sound where you have
1:39
a running arpeggiated bass, but it is distorted. You're also going to have hard hitting 80s drum machine style drums
1:47
Mixed in with all this aggressiveness is actually some ethereal sounding pads and leads
1:53
synth arps, and of course, lots and lots of different glitchy sound effects
1:59
Cyberpunk is also generally in a minor key and set at a slow to medium tempo
2:04
All right, that little intro, let's dive into how you can go about creating a cyberpunk song
2:09
Now real quick before we dive into the tutorial, I just want to give a big thank you to Synth Control for supplying me with their Cyberpunk Serum Preset Pack
2:18
It has more than 130 serum presets in it and I used a lot of these in the construction of this song
2:24
So if you want to check this out, just follow the link in the description below
2:28
And you can actually get 20% off your order at checkout if you put in my code OAA20
2:35
Also, many of the plugins that I use in this video, I am an affiliate for. So I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you end up purchasing these through one of my links
2:43
But you will also earn a discount for many of these as well
2:48
So sorry if it's a little bit annoying, but I wanted to make sure that you're able to get the best price possible on all these plugins if you decide to purchase
2:55
All right, so here we are in Logic and let's start off with structure
2:59
So there's a couple of different structures you can use with Cyberpunk music
3:02
One is a more pop structure with your alternating verses and choruses
3:07
Another option is the more house style or EDM style where you have a buildup, then a drop, a bridge, and then another buildup and drop
3:16
And so for this song, I kind of took the pop structure, but I made my verses more like buildups from the house structure
3:23
So I kind of did a combination of both. and for the drop or the chorus you're going to be using a very edm or house style drum pattern
3:34
even synth wave is a common synth wave as well where you just have a four on the floor kick with a snare hitting on the two and the four and so it sounds like this
3:44
pretty straightforward and then i'm using two different drum kits for this one is beatmaker
3:54
Vice, which is more of a synthwave 80s style drum kit. And the other one is Nemesis also by Ujam
4:03
which is a more cyberpunk drum kit. And by the way, you can get 20% off all of Ujam products by
4:10
using my code OAA at checkout. I'll have that linked in the description below. I've also done
4:15
reviews on both of these plugins on my channel, which I'll have linked below as well. So these are
4:20
really cool. I just have these layered up. So they're both playing at the exact same time
4:24
I'm playing the exact same thing as far as the kick and the snares go. And one thing I'm doing here with the Vice Drum Kit here is I am turning up the ambience a lot here
4:35
which is basically gated reverb here. So you see when I turn up that ambience, you get a big gated reverb snare
4:49
and this is very common in cyberpunks. You want to have that big gated reverb on your snare
4:54
and Vice makes this really easy. It's just a single knob, you turn it up, boom
4:57
it sounds really big and nice. If you wanna learn how to actually like route this yourself
5:03
and create this yourself in your DAW, if you don't have Vice, then I have a full tutorial
5:07
on how to create a synthwave sounding snare, which I'll link in the description below
5:11
But I'm also layering this up with a Nemesis snare. And so we can see that this is a lot more like metallic
5:18
and edgy sounding. And so I just got these layered up and the same thing with the kicks
5:27
I'm using a vice kick as well as a nemesis kick to get a really big deep edgy
5:33
Sounding kick you can hear the especially the nemesis kick here You got some distortion there on the transient
5:42
So that's kind of what you want Maybe some white noise or some kind of distortion on the transient of that kick drum to make it sound a little bit more
5:49
distorted and glitchy. At eight bars here I'm just bringing a hi-hat on these 16th notes here
6:01
Pretty straightforward and then in my verses here I'm just have some percussion going
6:07
some metallic sounding percussion, and then I have a snare build-up coming in here
6:19
And we look at the automation here, I'm automating both the pitch, the volume, and actually also
6:29
the velocity. So I'm automating three things here that's increasing over time here to kind of add that
6:34
tension and that build up into the chorus there. Then I got the second verse here where I have more drums throughout
6:49
I got some other interesting effects going in here. So for this percussion is like basically these hi-hats
6:55
Here I have them going to a bus where I have finisher dynamo also by you jam
7:00
And this creates some really interesting movement so we can hear what this sounds like with and without it in
7:06
and just add some interesting sound and movement to make it more dark and glitchy sounding
7:25
And then I also have that going on across the entire drum kit, which really comes into
7:31
play at certain moments here starting in the second drop here really
7:47
That pretty cool and then it really gets crazy at the end here So just kind of making it sound more manic and wild and distorted here
8:05
which is kind of the theme of cyberpunk. And one last thing I'm doing with the drums here is I have some parallel
8:11
aggressor on this to add some parallel compression and saturation. So we'll hear what these sound like without this and then with it in
8:28
Really brings the drums forward, make some punchier and more aggressive sounding
8:33
which is what we want here with cyberpunk. By the way, if you want me to do an in-depth tutorial on how to mix cyberpunk
8:39
let me know because I can't cover it all in this video as it would be way too
8:42
long. So just leave me a comment below. if you'd like me to do a deep dive on mixing
8:46
because confession, I actually haven't mixed this track yet. This is kind of just a raw
8:51
Of course, it does have a few things in here. It's got some effects, but I really haven't done like hardly any compression or EQ
8:57
which is really the foundation of mixing. So just let me know if you want to see that
9:01
So in summary, with the drums, you want them to be hard hitting. You want them to be aggressive
9:05
and you can do anything you want really in the buildups or the verses
9:09
But generally during the drop, you have that four on the floor kick with a snare hitting on the two and the four
9:14
And usually you want your drum kit to be something 80s sounding
9:18
If you don't have any 80s drum machine sounds, I actually have a free 80s drum sample pack that you can download in the description below
9:28
We've got the bass here, and this is probably the most important part of Cyberpunk
9:33
You basically just want some kind of synth bass with a lot of distortion on it
9:38
Your bass also tends to move around a lot. So rather just being kind of following the root note of the chords
9:42
your bass is almost kind of an instrument, a lead instrument itself here in Cyberpunk. So here's
9:47
what I got here. For this bass, I am using a preset by Synth Control from their Cyberpunk
9:55
preset pack called Killzone. Pretty cool. And I got a filter opening up here. So if you turn this off
10:07
it's very dark and you can really hear that distortion shine through, help it cut through
10:11
the dense mix. And so like I said, I got this filter opening up here. So I just have this little
10:17
filter opening up here. So again, it's increasing in energy as it goes across the verse or the
10:22
buildup section here. And then actually starting in the second verse here, I actually layered in
10:27
another bass, this one from Syntronic using the T03 synth, which is based on the Roland TB303
10:38
I believe. And this is kind of the acid classic acid bass sound. And this is also very common in cyberpunk
10:43
So just kind of layer these two together here. So just trying to get some of that acid feel going on in here
11:00
And I just threw an ARP on some distortion, some overdrive, and then I cut out the low end because I have the Serum bass taking up the low end here. So I didn't
11:11
want to make it too overpowering. Then we've got the chorus here where I'm again using the Killzone
11:16
Serum bass from Synth Control along with a sub bass by Syntronix. That sounds like this
11:23
So again, you have the bass moving around a lot
11:33
It's almost like its own lead lines, own lead instrument here. So in summary at the base
11:39
all you really need to do is just find some kind of synth base of any kind, add some distortion
11:45
and then maybe add an ARP to it, or just have it play eighth or sixteenth notes
11:49
and have it move around a lot. All right, moving into the chords here
11:57
I'm having my chords really follow the bass. Normally the bass will follow the chords
12:01
but here with Cyberpunk, I found I want to build the chords around the bass
12:05
as the bass is really the foundation of the song. And with Cyberpunk chords
12:10
you're really looking for something more glitchy and ethereal. And so that's what I found here
12:14
with this Angelic Ghost preset here inside of Alchemy, which is just a stock plugin here inside of Logic
12:23
So you can see with this bass here, the kind of the root note here is G and I've got some other
12:38
notes bouncing around it, but it's basically G all the way through and that's good for building
12:42
tension. And so with the chords, I kind of just, again, had that going on here. So I have the root
12:47
note here is G for all of these chords. And I'm just building these chords around the G and that's
12:54
how I end up with these chords. And then I just took the top two notes and all these chords and
12:59
just moved them up an octave to make a bigger, thicker sounding chord. And then I also layered
13:05
in some plucks here using the Andromeda Star Cruise preset from Synth Control's Cyberpunk pack
13:11
and it sounds like this. And so by panning those left and right
13:21
you get that really ethereal sound and you add in that bass and the drums and it sounds pretty cool
13:33
And then one last thing I did here is as I'm really going into that buildup
13:36
I am automating the pitch here on these chords. So the pitch is going up and then it drops
13:41
So this kind of adds to that unsettling glitchy style effect of cyberpunk. Then during the drop
13:56
again I have the chords following the bass. You can see these root notes here are the exact same
14:02
pattern that the bass is playing. And then I just took these, moved them up an octave
14:07
and then built triad chords out of them using a lot of suspended chords
14:12
This is common in synthwave and also cyberpunk is you want to use suspended chords
14:16
That means you just take the middle note. If you're using a typical triad, if it's a major or minor, it doesn't matter
14:21
And you just want to move that middle note around either up or down inside of here
14:25
And I've tried to keep a lot of the notes similar throughout. So you can see this note is the same across basically four different chords
14:34
Same thing up here, same thing up here. So the chords don't move around very much
14:38
You want to keep them kind of close together, all the different notes inside of these chords
14:42
And as far as the patch I'm using, I'm using Strong Contender, another preset from Synth Control's Cyberpunk pack
14:49
Really awesome pack. Definitely check it out. Again, that's linked in the description below
14:54
And it sounds like this. And then in the second chorus here
15:05
I layer it up doing the exact same pattern, only I pan these left and right
15:10
using the Dawn of Man preset from Synth Control's Cyberpunk pack. Pretty cool, and that's the same all the way through. And then we have the bridge here though
15:32
where I'm just using that Dawn of Man here. And I'm using more traditional chords
15:37
Again just trying to keep the similar notes running all the way through If you want a fuller tutorial on how to create wave and cyberpunk style chords I have a full video tutorial on this I link to that in the description below And so here what those sound like
15:51
And then I am automating the drive, I believe, and the cutoff
15:57
So this is increasing an energy over time. That's better, it makes that for a much larger bridge section there
16:14
All right, moving on to Cyberpunk ARPS. I'm, for my verse here, my ARP here is actually just
16:24
exactly copying the, what the bass is doing. Only moved up an octave. So I'm using Abderian Pluck 1
16:30
here inside of Centronic 2 for the patch. And then I've got some super VHS saturation and some
16:37
reverb as well on this, along with some dotted eighth note delay, and also a filter opening up
16:44
again to help increase that energy build. And so altogether, it sounds like this
16:47
So very cool, very dark sounding, and it adds that etherealness, kind of clashing with that
17:07
edginess of the bass. And that takes us into the chorus where I have that same pluck, just doing
17:13
this art pattern here, which just came to me in my head as I was listening to the song. Like I just
17:19
I just heard this art pattern in my head. So I added this in and then I have this, um, I'm going
17:24
to change it up these last two bars here. Cause having the same art all the way through can get
17:29
a little repetitive and sound a little bit annoying. Um, so I just looked at the base here
17:33
and I saw that we have, right. The base kind of drops down here to C, uh, and then it moves up to
17:41
D sharp, right? You got some other notes in here bouncing around just for a variation, but really on what it's really doing here is C and D sharp
17:48
So that's what I decided to do for the ARP here to have it follow the base
17:52
So again, the base is what are the foundation of our song here? And so it sounds like this
18:06
Now of course I have that filter opening up again to add that increase in energy
18:11
And then the bridge, I'm using a different pluck, which is the December pluck, which is actually part of Synth Control's Dark Synthwave Serum Plug-In Pack
18:21
I'll also link to this in the description below. This is really cool as well. And for this, I am automating the drive, the morph, and the cutoff over time here as it increases over the bridge
18:41
And I came up with this just by playing on my keyboard
18:49
I found I liked having C as the root here and having different notes bounce back and
18:54
forth between C. And so that's how I went about creating this
19:01
Now that brings us to leads. And for all these leads here, these three right here that I am layering up
19:07
These are all lead sounds from Synth Control's Cyberpunk pack. Again, can't recommend this enough
19:12
If you want to make Cyberpunk quickly and easily, it's definitely worth getting this Serum pack, of course, if you have Serum
19:18
Confession, though, I actually didn't have Serum before I discovered Synth Control
19:23
But when I saw Synth Control have these amazing presets, I actually bought Serum just so I could use Synth Control's preset packs
19:30
So anyway, here are how they sound. It's actually a pretty simple pattern here, just kind of moving up
19:35
This kind of follows an A, A, B, C style of melody pattern here
19:40
And I've got it down an octave here. And then as it repeats, it goes up an octave
19:44
And I also add in a couple of more ethereal, airy sounding layers
20:05
Now across all these leads, I'm also coloring these with a couple of multi effects
20:16
So Finisher Flux and Finisher Dynamo by Ujam. I've reviewed both of these plugins in previous videos, which you can check out in the description below
20:24
So if we solo the leads here and we'll hear what these sound like without these in and
20:28
then with them added in. so you can hear the finisher flux is adding a lot of grit and distortion and then the dynamo
20:47
actually adds a completely different texture to them make them sound even darker and more glitchy
20:51
and edgy like is the theme with cyberpunk so i just felt it made these sound more
20:56
fitting with the rest of the track and kind of pushed it into the background while still allowing
21:02
it to still cut through the mix. And then I have the bridge section here where I attempted to create
21:07
what I guess would be like a guitar solo or a synth solo here, of course, using synth since I
21:12
can't play guitar. And I layered multiple synths here. Two of them are Synthronic synths and then
21:18
two are from Serum, Synth Control, Cyberpunk Pack. And especially this one here, this lead Hallmark
21:26
I actually threw on a guitar cabinet by Waves and also some Overdrive by Waves, as well as some
21:37
Comeback Kid delay. I also reviewed this plugin in a previous video. This is a really amazing
21:41
plugin for synthwave, any kind of synthwave type of delay sounds you want to get if you want a
21:46
gritty, dirty kind of delay. And then also a Tal Reverb, which is one of my favorite reverb
21:52
plugins for Synthwave even though it's free. And so altogether these sound like this
22:22
And then to get that really cool tail there, that last note that kind of bleeds into the next section
22:28
Again, I use some automation here. So I automated both Finisher Dynamo and Flux, and I just really turned up the, basically the wet knob on these plugins, which is right here
22:40
Just cranked that up with automation, and you get a really cool sound here
22:44
I'll solo it so you can hear it a little better. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I'll do the same thing here on the outro
23:08
Again, it just fits with the theme of cyberpunk and just makes it more interesting and different
23:12
sounding. And finally, we arrive at the effects, which is very important in cyberpunk. You have
23:20
lots of glitchy sci-fi sounding effects, and so I've done that here
23:26
Even from the very intro here, I got these couple effects here. So right from the get I have two effects right here And by the way I got all these effects from artlist They just have a lot of awesome actually cyberpunk effects you can download right there from their
23:44
membership. And then I got this texture going on here all throughout. So this kind of adds
23:57
a nice background texture. And then when I get into the chorus, I also have more kind
24:01
of that background noise, but I actually put some sidechain compression on it. So it's
24:04
actually pumping with the beat
24:17
So it almost becomes a pad at that point. And then I got more sound effects that are panned left and right that just come in intermittently
24:38
It just helps kind of create the sound floor for a cyberpunk song. And then as I transition from
24:45
the verse to the chorus. I've also got these different sounds here
24:57
And then in the bridge, I got this basically spaceship taking off kind of sound
25:15
Pretty cool. And then finally on the outro, I have this sound effect here
25:24
So that'll kind of just fade into the background as the song kind of fades out, dies out. And one other thing I did was add a clip from an audio book version of the novel 1984
25:35
One of my favorite parts in the book. I actually recently read this. Really important book
25:39
especially for the times we're living in now. And this is a really awesome clip. So I threw this in
25:44
and I did quite a bit to this so we kind of listen to this here and we'll listen to it on its own it
25:50
just sounded like this there will be no art no literature no science when we are omnipotent
25:58
we shall have no more need of science there will be no so write basic audiobook reading so add some
26:06
compression to it, added some EQ. There will be no art, no literature, no science
26:14
So really shrinking down the frequency band there that it's coming through
26:17
Then I added some butch vig and vocal synth, and then some reverb and delay
26:25
So one at a time, all of these effects together sound like this
26:30
There will be no art, no literature, no science. when we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science there will be no distinction between
26:41
beauty and ugliness there will be no curiosity no enjoyment of the process of life all competing
26:48
pleasures will be destroyed pretty cool very dark very disturbing sounding which again fits with our cyberpunk theme all
27:01
Alright, final results altogether. Here's how the song sounds. Again, completely unmixed, just with some broad multi-effects thrown on a few of the tracks
27:13
There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent, we shall have no more need of science
27:22
There will be no distinction between beauty and uglyness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life
27:31
All competing treasures will be destroyed. Constantly increasing and constantly growing subtle
28:18
Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of tracking on an enemy who is helpless
28:26
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stacking on a human face forever
28:56
Thank you
29:26
Thank you
29:56
We'll be right back
30:26
And there you have it
30:53
One Way to Create a Cyberpunk Song. Again, big shout out to Synth Control for supplying me with the Cyberpunk Serum Preset Pack
31:02
Be sure to check that out for yourself. And if you decide to grab it, you can get 20% off by using my affiliate link, OAA20
31:11
Now, if you want more help creating a cyberpunk and synthwave style music
31:15
just check out my playlist on the screen right now. Otherwise, have an awesome day and keep creating
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