>Step by step
Creating an 80s-inspired soundscape chord progression using ‘parent scales’
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To illustrate a few typical 80s-style sounds and the parts that make them tick, we’ll add some tracks to a project that already contains a suitable drum loop.
This was made using sampled sounds from a classic 80s sampling drum machine – the E-Mu SP1200. The tempo of our track is 90bpm. 4
Analogue synth pads are the glue that holds everything together musically. Let’s load up u-he Zebra CM and select the ‘JA Subtle Phazor Strings’ preset. To thicken up the sound we add a touch of compression and one of Logic’s own stock Chorus plugins, then program in some
Bb simple triad chords – C major, G major, major and F major. 2
To emulate an 80s-style, stepsequenced analogue bass synth part, let’s turn to Synapse Audio’s excellent Dune CM. Load an instance onto a Software Instrument track in your DAW and select 010 Chorus Bass RL, then program a sequence of sixteenth notes, all with the same length and velocity, on the
Bb notes C, G, and F, as shown. 5
To really 80s it up, use a slightly different voicing on a couple of these chords. Extend a regular triad by adding extra notes from the scale, such as the seventh and ninth. If you just add the ninth without the seventh, then transpose the ninth an octave down so that it sits between the root and the third, you get an add9 chord, 3
In the 80s, compressor sidechaining livened up the dynamics of sequenced basslines like this by allowing non-accent notes to poke out in between drum beats. Place a compressor across the Dune CM track and select the drum loop track as the sidechain input. The settings shown dip the bass in volume when a kick or snare hits, giving the bass a pulsating feel. 6
Here’s what it looks like if we apply this to the G major and F major chords. In this case, instead of adding the ninth to the triad to make a four-note chord, we’ve simply shifted the root note up a whole tone to make a three-note add9 chord. So G major (G B D) has become Gadd9 (A, B, D), and F major (F, A, C) has become Fadd9 (G, A, C).
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To create an arpeggio part, we first load up an instance of Bazille CM and select the ‘3ee Pulsea’ preset. Because the arpeggio we want is a four-note ascending pattern, we program some four-note versions of the chords. Here we’ve ended
Bbmaj7 up with Cadd9, Gadd9, and Fadd9 – with a sneaky Gadd9 tacked on at the end to bring us back round to the C.
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Lastly, to get yourself an 80s-style synth hook that might work for a chorus or tag section, we load up an instance of Cherry Audio’s Voltage Modular and select the Wide Modular preset. This is a monophonic lead sound with portamento applied so that the note pitches glide together.
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We’re going to use an external arpeggiator for this, as would most likely have been the case in the 80s. So we use Logic’s Arpeggiator MIDI FX plugin with the settings shown, to produce a simple, ascending four-note arpeggio based on notes within each chord. Finally dial in some delay via Logic’s stock delay plugin, sent from an Auxiliary send.
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For the part, we’ve come up with a hook that uses a particular technique for playing monophonic lead sounds – we hold down one long note and play shorter notes higher up in pitch so that after each short note, the pitch reverts to that of the long held note. This makes good use of the glide setting built into the sound.
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Use another Bazille CM’s HS Double Tap for a stabby synth part. We’ve copied the chords from the arpeggio almost exactly for this part, but played one inversion higher, and placed one long and three short, clipped instances of each chord in each bar. The preset’s built-in delay effect creates a syncopated rhythm that interplays nicely with the short chops.
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As a finishing touch, we add a hint of modulation via our MIDi keyboard’s mod wheel controller on the last note of each phrase. Mod wheels in the 80s almost always controlled vibrato, and this sound has been selected largely due to the fact that MIDI CC 1, as transmitted by the mod wheel, controls vibrato for an authentic 80s feel.