Ever since his youth, composing film music has been a dream ambition for Miles Away. “There’s something truly magical about sitting in a theater and losing yourself in another world, and when the music just hits right, there’s nothing else like it on Earth”, he remarks, emphasizing the unique connection between sound and vision.
Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, the electronic music producer’s work is an immersive blend of synth-driven sounds with organic elements, which has garnered over 80 million streams.
With the latest release of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi adventure epic Dune: Part Two, it’s no surprise that Miles has taken on the challenge of recreating the score, written by none other than the award-winning film music producer and composer, Hans Zimmer.
Watch as Miles gives a step-by-step tutorial on creating the score using Logic and Seaboard RISE 2 for truly dynamic and emotive cinematic expression.
Gathering inspiration from Hans Zimmer scores
Before Miles launches into Logic, he makes note of the key instruments that give the ‘Dune’ score its distinct feel and latches on to the sound of the duduk to create the score’s lead melody.
Unless you have a duduk in your studio, recreating that integral sound might be difficult, but Miles makes great use of the duduk preset in Equator2, playing the melody with effortless fluidity on RISE 2. “You’re not gonna get the same level of expressivity by clicking in notes or playing in the melody on a piano,” Miles says. An MPE instrument allows you to create intricate layers of automation in seconds with a swift movement of just one finger, cutting the time of doing that manually down to a fraction.
Miles also took inspiration from other motifs found in Hans Zimmer's film scores. Miles focused on three of Zimmer’s signature styles – the chord choices bearing similarities with "Time" from Inception, the synthesizer sound design in "Mesa" from Blade Runner 2049, and a continuation of the Middle Eastern influence from Dune: Part One.
Cinematic layering upon simple chord progressions
Miles’ production started with a simple chord progression but built the piece out by layering orchestral instruments such as cello for thickness, and adding contrast with searing synth leads, custom-made in Equator2.
Miles added more sonic detail with granular synth layers between the tracks that provided the melodic and chordal core of the production. After adding brass and timpani to complete the quintessential orchestral feel of film scores, the contrasting textures between the instruments and synths created a moving passage, which was a far cry from the simplicity of the starting four-chord progression.
In an encapsulating end performance with RISE 2 at his fingertips, Miles recreated the cinematic theater magic with ease. Dynamic movements and ultra-expressive gestures brought the layers of emotion and tension that are a hallmark of Zimmer’s iconic sound to the forefront of Miles’ homage to the great composer’s works. With these tips and tricks, you can add awe-inspiring cinematic sounds to your compositions.
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