Can I make oldschool sounds with NI products? (ex. Deus Ex, Unreal)

Medstone

Hi!

I really love atmosphere and characteristic sounds that are in old Deus Ex soundtrack, or in Unreal games. It's very characteristic. I'm wondering if its possible to achieve this kind of sounds with Native Instruments products?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhjkBE3d3Uw&t=9413s&ab_channel=ThisIsGamer

DeadMouse

Sure you can. Get Komplete 13 ULTIMATE Collectors Edition. It's on ebay/Reverb for as low as 750€ (new).

But you can also find what you're looking for with Falcon 2.5 + Richard Devine + Atmospheres + Ether Fields expansions and learn some synthesis. Waldorf Blofeld + a synthesis training is another solution.

Komplete 13 Collectors Edition has the advantage of the Orchestral and Cinematic Instruments, although there's a basic Orchestral expansion for Falcon.

In terms of value for money, Komplete 13 Ultimate Collectors Edition is by far the best choice, since you can play pretty much any genre with it and the Orchestral/Cinematic stuff is one of the best available on market today. Plus the integration with Maschine is a plus.

I'm not selling any NI product here, but there's absolutely no competition for what Collectors Edition offers for the money. 17.000€+ of Native Instruments products in a bundle that does it all and is used by grammy winner producers out there, especially for film scoring/video games, not to mention Electronic music producers.

Paule

You can start also in smaller size with Reaktor only.

Use the user library or build your own synth/fx/seq.

https://www.native-instruments.com/de/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/

thomast0001

Something you can do is query the original creators of the music for Deus Ex for example. They've been out there. Not sure how hard they'll be to track down. See for example https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemusic/comments/1zdgep/ama_hi_im_alexander_brandon_i_wrote_music_for/

Also check out https://deusex.fandom.com/wiki/Deus_Ex_Soundtrack

You could ask them for hints on creating music with the same "sound".

Medstone

Thank you for replies!

valerianmengsk

Komplete Ultimate is probably excessive overkill, Komplete Standard alone is more than enough. Most of those sounds sound old and lo-fi, probably from '90s ROMpler boxes like the Roland JV-1080, Korg NX5R, and Yamaha MU1000, just to name a few. The same goes for most old games from Playstation2 era and earlier until SNES. You'll have need of the post effects included in Komplete Standard. There's plenty of freeware effect VSTs out there that you may find handy. If you find Kontakt libraries of those old '90s sounds, those will come in handy if you must really use those kinds of sounds.

I grew up gaming on a SNES, N64, and Windows 98 & XP PCs, so I'm quite familiar with these kinds of sounds, but I never came to love their squished, lo-fi nature. I love the music, but mainly the arrangements. My dream of remastering some of these old tracks with better sounds led me to eventually messing with DAWs and VSTs and music production. EDM kinda made me forget about remastering anything (for) now, lol!

Kontakt sample libraries instead of ROMpler gear like JV1080 for the acoustic sounds is a great idea, but the Kontakt Factory Library has you covered for acoustic sounds. You can change their vibe and mood with post effects, besides how you use them in arrangement.

If you must try hardware, I don't recommend a Blofeld for this stuff, but feel free to try one and see if the Blofeld's particular sound is to your tastes, but for that kind of money, I would instead recommend getting a JV1080. Maybe consider a used Roland MC-707 instead or a used Juno-DS61 for Roland sounds in a more modern form. JV1080 is one of Roland's best, though, even when taking the modern stuff into account, but the post effects suck. A pretty good all-rounder in modern hardware VA synths is the Ultranova or Mininova. Now there's also the Modal Cobalt8, Argon8, Skulpt, and Craftsynth. Other notable VAs are significantly more expensive, like the Access Virus or Nord Lead. Korg Minilogue XD, Behringer Deepmind, and IK Multimedia Uno Synth Pro for versatile modern analogue, or Novation Peak or Summit at a higher pricepoint.

If you want to go beyond old sounds and what acoustic sounds are in the Kontakt Factory Library, Komplete Ultimate may be your best bet. The hardware VAs I mention will come very well in handy for modern music, too. If you want to focus mainly on electronic sounds, Komplete Standard has you fully covered. Battery for drums (included with Komplete), or mess with Maschine 2, it's up to you.

chk071

The Deus Ex and Unreal soundtracks are pretty unique. I love them. :)

Not sure where to start though... I'm sure they were made with different machines. I'm sure I heard a lot of sample stuff in there as well.