Create Y2K video game sound in 10 minutes with free plugins

In this tutorial you will learn how to give your house tracks a late 90s or 2000s sound using the free Meat Beats Orbhits instrument, a sampled version of the popular E-Mu Orbit 9090 sound module from 1996. This synth was used in classic DnB tracks by Blame and Peshay and is the predecessor of the E-Mu Orbit-3, which was often used in the soundtrack to Metroid-Prime.

To learn more about what a “video game sound” actually is, you can skip to the last section of this article, but if you can’t wait to get started, we’ll show you what to expect.

Here’s what you will do:

We’ll be using Ableton Live for this tutorial, but you can use any DAW you like. You can also use any software or hardware you like instead of Orbhit and Ableton’s default effects – it’s the principles of arrangement and sound that matter, not your equipment.

Step 1: Find a house beat

Load your DAW and set the project tempo to a brisk 132 BPM. We’ll use a breakbeat sample from BandLab Sounds, specifically Chupy_126_FullDrum_4bars, as the basis for our track.

This beat is 126 BPM, so we’ll warp it up to bring it up to the project tempo of 132 BPM. This loop sounds ideal and provides the perfect foundation for our beat. Before we move on, we just need to turn the track down to -3 dB to give us more headroom to add more elements to the mix.

Step 2: Create a chord riff

Our track is based on a chord patch by Orbhits, PAD-RevealMe. We’ll play this on A2, G3, C3 and G2 with a velocity value of 100, which we’ll use for all MIDI notes in this walkthrough.

Add a ping-pong delay synced to two sixteenth notes with a dry/wet level of 30% and a reverb with a dry/wet level of 20%.

Set this track to -7.5 dB to match the beat.

Step 3: Add a bass line

Now our beat has a basic musical idea that we want to develop with a bass line. We will use the BAS-AnyWorld preset and play on A1, F2 and G1. Set this track to -3 dB.

Let’s enhance the bass line with another layered bass tone. This time try BAS-BuzzBass.

Duplicate the MIDI signal from the first bass line and raise the pitch by an octave so that it complements the existing bass sound. Set this track to -8 dB.

Step 4: Sequencing a lead

Our lead part for this track will be very simple, as the chord riff already provides the melodic movement of the track. Also, Orbhits doesn’t actually have any dedicated lead synth patches! Anyway, we’ll use a higher pitched bass preset as the lead. Select BAS-SquareUp and sequence a part that plays A4 and G4.

Duplicate the delay and reverb effects from the chord track so that this part doesn’t sound too dry. Set this track to -7.5 dB.

Step 5: Add a voice sample

Orbhits features some retro-style vocal samples, so let’s add one to our beat to give it more character. Load the VOX-ComeOnYo preset and arrange it to play on A2 just before the third beat and on the twelfth sixteenth note. Loop it to play for the entire four-bar sequence.

Duplicate the delay from the previous track and set that track to -6.5 dB.

Step 6: Apply sidechain compression

Let’s give our beat a loud, pumping sound by combining all the instrument tracks and adding a compressor effect. Set the compressor’s sidechain input to the drum loop track, with a threshold of -28 dB and a release time of 28 ms.

Now you have your beat and can start adding and arranging elements to turn it into a fully-fledged original track.

What is “Y2k video game” music?

Early video games were usually released on floppy disks or cassettes, which did not allow for large amounts of data. This meant that games could not keep up with the popular music of the time sonically, but you can hear the resulting styles in games like Streets of Rage 2 And Xenon 2: Megablast.

With the release of Sony’s first PlayStation and Microsoft’s Windows 95 in the mid-1990s, the CD-ROM became the most common format for video game distribution, and developers were suddenly able to include high-quality soundtracks in their games. Video games began to include licensed and custom-made CD-quality music, with Psygnosis’ Extinction Games are the outstanding example of this trend.

The Extinction The series featured music from established artists such as Photek, The Future Sound of London and Orbital, and brought dance music culture and video games closer together than ever before. With the increasing availability of sample CDs, the influence of dance music began to be heard often in video game soundtracks of the late 90s, and well-known samples can be heard in the soundtracks to games such as Shock troops, Rage Racer And Grand Theft Auto.

Meanwhile, the sounds of fifth and sixth generation video game consoles have gained their own influence, and collections like the “Low Poly Breaks” series are becoming increasingly popular on YouTube.

Want more tutorials delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to MusicTech’s newsletter.