Hey, it's Andrew Huang. Music obviously has a huge impact on any video it's paired with. And today we're gonna see what happens when four different people score the exact same scene. So joining me are Homay Schmitz, Alex Moukala, and Tennyson. And just to avoid any copyright stuff, we're gonna use a scene of my own. We're gonna revisit my space time series, which if you don't know, was kind of this like, multimedia, experimental, space opera music video project. I did a behind the scenes of it recently. I'll link to that. So the scene we're using is right towards the end of the series. This is, spoilers by the way, this is after a meteor has collided with my ship. I might be stranded on a planet, there's tension between me and an alien because I wanted to take his crystals for time travel. It's a whole thing. Let's see what everybody came up with. ♪♪ Hey, I'm Homay. I'm a composer, producer. One of the first things that I do before I start writing is I put down a bunch of markers, just a few key hit points that help me break the scene down. The first scene here already comes in with high tension. I have a blend of synths and string sounds here. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you seeing this?" Spacetime Andrew: "What are you doing?!" Brick: "Setting course for Earth." So the strings are playing in sixteenth notes and octaves. I'm adding an octave a little bit later on just to help with the build. And then I'm reinforcing that with a combination of different synth sounds. So I have some gated ones here, distorted. They're going up and down the octave just to really support the intensity of that moment. ♪♪ Then I have this little guy here, which is a really lovely ominous pitch bend. ♪♪ I think it gives it a lovely extra little push there. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Horace, watch out, no!" ♪♪ All right, here it just goes dark. I'm coming out with the music, just letting it hang in the air a little bit. It is very still, and I wanted to give a sense of space and openness. I'm using a combination of pads, drones, woodwinds, piano, to create something texturally really interesting. There's some movement there, but it's not going anywhere. ♪♪ Also wanting to keep it emotionally quite ambiguous because we don't know yet whether Andrew made it or not. On top of that, I was building with a solo violin. When I write for violin, I very often use dynamic and expression that you can see down here. It's just to breathe a little bit of life into the instrument. ♪♪ As we zoomed out, you could hear that sub coming in. I just wanted to bring in that gravitas of being out there in space. On the next scene, I recorded some vocals in there. I wanted to have something really human as a stark contrast from the spacecraft and all this high tech that you saw. Well, I've double tracked my vocals here and just put on a reverb for which I used the LiquidSonic's Cinematic Rooms. ♪♪ And I gave Horace a little nod when he's coming in. Again, a pitch-bended sound. This one's going downwards, more like a Doppler effect. ♪♪ So in this scene, he's trying to come and rescue him and I wanted to bring in a little bit more tension and hopefulness, combine that a little bit ♪♪ to see whether he'll be able to do so. ♪♪ These are all my strings and I'm using different performance techniques here, some are playing trills, some are playing short notes. All together, sounds like this. ♪♪ You can hear some of them are climbing up the notes to help with the build and then the same principle applies over here with the synths. ♪♪ Keeping the theme of the pitch bends here. ♪♪ And then the combination of the woodwind flutter and piano pads. ♪♪ It just created this really lovely texture all together. ♪♪ Horace: "Andrew, awaken!" ♪♪ From this moment onwards, there's a lot more dialogue to consider. There's also quite a few different emotions that happen. So I have introduced short notes again, trying to keep a little bit of tension in here. Then I wanted to highlight that with a major triad. ♪♪ I'm really coming down here with the music because there's this real realization of the severity of the situation and the low probability of survival. I just have a little bit of piano that goes up in fifths and octaves and there are some pads playing from the other synth sounds here. Spacetime Andrew: "I'm gonna run out of oxygen," Spacetime Andrew:: "...probably by the time the sun goes down." Spacetime Andrew: "And then I'm gonna die." After that moment, it seemed there's a little bit of a sense of acceptance and I'm bringing back here the vocals for that human element again. ♪♪ So yeah, that's pretty much how I approached the scene. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you seeing this?!" Spacetime Andrew: "What are you doing??" Brick: "Setting course for Earth." Spacetime Andrew: "Horace, watch out, no!" ♪♪ Super beautiful. There's this sense of like, you don't know what you're supposed to feel. ♪♪ Homay decided to portray the beauty in this scene rather than the horror. ♪♪ This is so pretty. ♪♪ Wow. ♪♪ Oh, those like sweeping lines are so cool. I love the sub-bass. ♪♪ Okay. Continuing to build through the black. ♪♪ Horace: "Andrew, awaken!" ♪♪ Horace: "Your ship collided with an asteroid" Horace: "and you were thrown into space." Horace: "I thought it best to bring you back here" Horace: "and I must thank you for helping to protect the crystals." ♪♪ This flows really well. So elegant. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you still there?" Horace: "Is everything all right?" Spacetime Andrew: "I'm trying to figure something out." Horace: "What are you figuring out?" Spacetime Andrew: "How long I have." "Maybe a few hours." Horace: "I never did understand your time measurements--" Spacetime Andrew: "Horace!" "I'm gonna run out of oxygen." "Probably by the time the sun goes down." "And then I'm gonna die." "Dying is when you--" Horace: "I know what dying is." ♪♪ Texturally, this is so great. Like so well orchestrated. ♪♪ It really makes you feel Andrew's feelings now on a deep level. Spacetime Andrew: "I think I just need to be alone for a minute." ♪♪ Horace: "How long is a minute?" Oh, man. That is such a nice unresolved feeling for this scene. This is the type of score that maybe when you listen to it, you're like not noticing all these details, but the fact that they are there really helps. I am blown away. That is some beautiful work. ♪♪ In the introduction, we see Andrew in his spaceship and it's basically about to crash. So I wanted the scene to sound kind of dangerous. I started by writing a basic idea with some spiccatos playing some subdivisions and some brass underneath. ♪♪ And then it kind of speeds up. ♪♪ I wanted something more, so I added clusters from brass and strings. ♪♪ And also this bassline here. ♪♪ Very inspired by Inception's "Dream Is Collapsing." In the part right after, we see Andrew floating in space with the debris of his ship. I thought that would be nice to symbolize with some synthesizer arpeggios. ♪♪ In the part right after is where my optimism kind of shines through. I thought it would be cool to actually repurpose the main theme from the first episode. So I did something like this. ♪♪ We are floating in space. So I thought it may be a cool idea to make it a bit more ethereal by adding something like Jacob Collier vocals in a way, like 7,000 million layers to get something like this. ♪♪ I don't know if you noticed so far, but there's not a lot of bass in this track. That was actually intentional because up until this point, we are floating. But there's one point in the scene where Horace, Andrew's friend, shoots a beam at him and transports him back to Earth. I wanted to symbolize that with the music by using bass. ♪♪ That is also the moment where I go crazy kind of with the multiple layer of vocals. So you get this. ♪♪ You know, that sort of like, sort of impact. I wanted this moment to sound wonderful. So I decided I was going to let the main focus go from one instrument to another and change focus like five times over the span of, I don't know, 10 seconds. So to start, the focus is on the piano and the pads playing the main melody. ♪♪ Right after that, the focus goes to a synthesizer solo inspired by one of my favorite music producers, Haywire. As the synthesizer fades out, we have the French horn now playing the main melody. ♪♪ And after the French horn fades out, we have the cello. ♪♪ And after the cello fades out, we have some guitars. ♪♪ And as you noticed just now, the guitars are being accompanied by some woodwind staccatos, which are a reference to one of my favorite tracks from Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game, which ends with woodwind staccatos like this. ♪♪ When you put the whole together, it kind of sounds like this. ♪♪ Oh yes! Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you seeing this?!" "What are you doing??" Brick: "Setting course for Earth." So intense! Spacetime Andrew: "Horace, watch out, no!" ♪♪ Strong start. ♪♪ Love the mystery feel here. Wow, this really captures the aloneness of this moment. This ambience is great. ♪♪ Ohhh! ♪♪ Oh, bringing in my theme! ♪♪ This is so cool. ♪♪ Very cool. ♪♪ That's epic, that's epic, oh man. I got chills, I got chills! ♪♪ Horace: "Andrew? Wake up, Andrew." "Andrew, awaken!" ♪♪ "Your ship collided with an asteroid and you were thrown into space." "I thought it best to bring you back here" "And I must thank you for helping to protect the crystals." ♪♪ Super cinematic. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you still there?" Horace: "Is everything all right?" Spacetime Andrew: "I'm trying to figure something out." ♪♪ Horace: "What are you figuring out?" Spacetime Andrew: "How long I have." "Maybe a few hours." Horace: "I never did understand your time measurements--" Spacetime Andrew: "Horace!" ♪♪ "I'm going to run out of oxygen," ♪♪ "Probably by the time the sun goes down." ♪♪ "And then I'm going to die." Very emotional. "Dying is when you--" Horace: "I know what dying is." This is so epic. ♪♪ But also very hopeful. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "I think I just need to be alone for a minute." ♪♪ Horace: "How long is a minute?" Oooooh. Very cool. Enjoyed that a lot. It was always just taking you on that journey, like really, really paying attention to all the different emotional possibilities. There's like an energy level that's consistent in the whole thing. That was super cool. ♪♪ Hello, I'm Tennyson. I'm a producer from Canada. And here's how I approached scoring this video. So the first thing I did was play the video. I have this piano sound. It's a Kontakt library called Noir. ♪♪ And I just played for a while until I found some chords that I liked. ♪♪ On top of that, I layered a Mazzive patch. ♪♪ And together they sound like this. ♪♪ After I had the chords, I used a sample of a violin harmonic, which sounds sort of screechy and weird. And that became the main melody sound. ♪♪ After that, I created a set of ambient drones. This is some mechanical sound from freesound.org with a rotary organ emulator. I found this on the internet somewhere. ♪♪ It says, glasses, bowed piano, e-bowed, resophonic, guitar. ♪♪ I used random samples with lots of reverb. ♪♪ Just about any sound will work as long as it's going through this 20 second hybrid reverb. After I had the middle section done, I realized I wasn't finished. The intro sounds like this. ♪♪ This is a Mazzive patch with an arpeggiator and a bunch of stuff on it. ♪♪ And a bunch of stuff on it. I think this is a drum stem from one of my songs pitched down and distorted. This is a DX7 pad sound and then a few different erosions set to sine mode. ♪♪ Lastly, this is called Eek. ♪♪ I froze it, but it was originally made in Mazzive. And then for the second half of the video, I used some of the tracks I had already created and used them in different ways. ♪♪ So the same sort of ambient tracks, except I've added ♪♪ some kick drums and... This is a binaural recording I took of ice melting. It's probably a five minute recording, but I've sped it up so it's just a few seconds. ♪♪ I think this is a pretty creepy sound and it fit the mood. It's a reversed wind chimes. It's a reversed wind chimes. One other new track. I was trying to make a hi-hat sound, but it turned into something else. ♪♪ Alright, that's everything. Thank you so much, Andrew, for the opportunity. This was really fun. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you seeing this?!" "What are you doing??" Brick: "Setting course for Earth." ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Horace, watch out, no!" ♪♪ Oh, damn. ♪♪ Love the sounds. ♪♪ I love this dissonance. ♪♪ Yeah, this is going to be like a horror movie. ♪♪ We're going a little creepy. ♪♪ Really cinematic. ♪♪ Ooh. ♪♪ I feel like we're sensing Andrew's feelings. ♪♪ That's beautiful. ♪♪ Oh, man. Chills again. This is just like, this is so beautiful. ♪♪ Horace: "Wake up, Andrew." "Andrew, awaken!" ♪♪ "Your ship collided with an asteroid and you were thrown into space." "I thought it best to bring you back here," "And I must thank you for helping to protect the crystals." ♪♪ I love the sound design. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you still there?" Horace: "Is everything all right?" Spacetime Andrew: "I'm trying to figure something out." And the anxiety it creates, wow. Horace: "What are you figuring out?" Spacetime Andrew: "How long I have." "Maybe a few hours." Horace: "I never did understand your time measurements--" Spacetime Andrew: "Horace!" ♪♪ "I'm going to run out of oxygen," ♪♪ "Probably by the time the sun goes down." ♪♪ "And then I'm going to die." Very emotional. "Dying is when you--" Horace: "I know what dying is." ♪♪ Great thump. ♪♪ Awesome combo of more organic and more electric textures. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "I think I just need to be alone for a minute." ♪♪ Horace: "How long is a minute?" ♪♪ Love that sweep out of the scene. So atmospheric. That was awesome, Luke. That was very unique. Oh, that sounds amazing. I want to hear that piano again. ♪♪ Alright, so the first part of my soundtrack that I'm going to show you is the perfect example of why I never throw away ideas. So this was a sketch that I had started over 10 years ago and was just stuck on. and was just stuck on. It was just this arpeggio... ♪♪ And then a bass line and a beat that come in later, which aren't part of this scene. ♪♪ This is actually a full song now that I developed that is on my album Spacetime, and the rest of the song also soundtracks other parts of this episode. ♪♪ But anyway, for the scene that we're looking at in this video, it just all of a sudden came together where I was like, that sketch was the mood that I needed for this score. ♪♪ So that arpeggio is just a stock Ableton synth. I added some Digitone keys through the Microcosm. ♪♪ A handful of layers of that synth just to create some atmosphere and a really gentle build. There's this little impact sound from Splice, ♪♪ which I used so many times throughout the Spacetime series. I mean, maybe like four times, but it became a thing that shows up in a few different songs, a few different places. And then I was inspired to do this vocal part. ♪♪ This vocal part was several layers of vocoder because I really wanted a melody to come through, even though it's always kind of this moving chord. I just did different passes where some of them would be chords, some of them would be individual lines, and then each one would be processed with different effects. And the main melody I did different octaves of. ♪♪ And then there's the other part of the scene that we're looking at today, which is mostly dialogue between me and Horace, the crystal alien. So I wanted to keep this super, super sparse because the scene that follows this one, which is not part of today's video, has this important musical moment that I wanted to stand out in contrast. ♪♪ So there's just a couple of different patches from outputs, analog strings. ♪♪ There is one part where I just wanted a touch of ominousness, I guess as I'm talking about dying. Spacetime Andrew: "I'm going to run out of oxygen" Spacetime Andrew: "Probably by the time the sun goes down." So I tried a bunch of different really low, deep notes on different synths, and the one that I actually ended up using was from the MicroFreak. Boop! This guy right here. Just your classic something-bad's-about-to-happen-in-the-movie low sustained note. You're thinking about like more of the implications of what's being said rather than just looking at these two characters talk. ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Brick, are you seeing this?!" "What are you doing??" Brick: "Setting course for Earth." ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "Horace, watch out, no!" ♪♪ Ooh! ♪♪ I like these sounds already. ♪♪ Definitely a darker vibe. ♪♪ Yes! Yooo! ♪♪ What the hell? ♪♪ Sounds so good. ♪♪ Wow. ♪♪ Oh, great. ♪♪ Really great. ♪♪ Wow. Horace: "Wake up, Andrew." "Andrew, awaken!" ♪♪ "Your ship collided with an asteroid and you were thrown into space." "I thought it best to bring you back here," "And I must thank you for helping to protect the crystals." ♪♪ Interesting sound design. Really cool. I love the contrast between the song when Horace came to the rescue and then him waking up. ♪♪ I love that synth. Brick, you still there? You feel a sense of dread. Horace: "Is everything all right?" Spacetime Andrew: "I'm trying to figure something out." ♪♪ Great sound. Horace: "What are you figuring out?" Spacetime Andrew: "How long I have." "Maybe a few hours." Horace: "I never did understand your time measurements--" Spacetime Andrew: "Horace!" ♪♪ Very tense. "I'm going to run out of oxygen," ♪♪ "Probably by the time the sun goes down." ♪♪ "And then I'm going to die." ♪♪ "Dying is when you--" Horace: "I know what dying is." ♪♪ Spacetime Andrew: "I think I just need to be alone for a minute." ♪♪ Horace: "How long is a minute?" Wow, that floats so well. That was sick. Very well done. Thank you so much for watching. Love to hear your thoughts in a comment and shout out to all my guests. I've linked to them in the description. I've linked to them in the description.
♪ [chime] ♪ ♪ [second chime] ♪ What? Never heard that sound before in my life. If you haven't watched Spacetime yet, I will link to a playlist of it. I highly recommend it. It's some of the most fun I've ever had on my channel. So yeah, hope you enjoyed this video. I'll see you in the next one. Bye!
