We sat down with Michael Stein, one of the two composers of Stranger Things, to talk about our latest instrument, FRAMES.
We caught up with Michael as he was nearing the end of music production for Stranger Things Season 5. Part 1 is out now on Netflix, and Part 2 is released on Christmas Day, with the finale released on Dec 31st.
As with any time we show someone a new instrument, we just let him loose and told him to have fun.
'There's so much going on here, It’s crazy.'
'I like how everything I play from you guys has a lot of textural elements and the fidelity is really nice. There's so much going on here, It’s crazy. You can tell that you guys put a lot of work into the sonics of it, because with this going on it would often sound like a murky mess.'
Michael has used STRANDS, FOLDS and FRAMES in Stranger Things 5. While the score is known for its outstanding and iconic synth work, there's a lot more to it than that. FRAMES offers a wide pallette of highly playable, twisted instrumentation, as well as carefully crafted sound beds, textures, and SFX.
'It'll guide you in a direction that you wouldn't have written any other way.'
'A lot of these sounds that have been meticulously designed that are interesting sound design. So that usually quickly inspires you to write something.
I don't really like the idea of starting with a piano sound and then somehow that's gonna magically translate to all these other instruments with very different attacks and envelopes and textures and timbres. I just don't think that's how you get somewhere interesting. I think you play something like this, it'll inspire you to write something that is tailored for this [sound]. It'll guide you in a direction that you wouldn't have written any other way.'
'If I need a drone that's chaotic, I could do it in like two seconds on your instruments or I could spend like an hour on my modular, you know, dialling it in. But I'm just gonna end up with the same kind of sound. It's great when you don't usually have that much time at your leisure. So if you can get something that's already designed, you get what you're looking for.'
As an experienced user of both STRANDS and FOLDS, Michael was comfortable navigating FRAMES, and picked up on the details that we've added to make our instruments as simultaneously approachable and deep as possible.
'You guys have a really good interface. Probably the most important thing. Anything with a good interface probably sounds better in the end than a good sounding thing with a shitty interface. It’s much faster to have an expressive instrument like this that you can, just, like build with or add in extra elements that you need to go along with what's happening in the picture.'
Michael's studio was like a dream for any music tech (especially synth) enthusiasts. But while hardware synthesisers are obviously a core element in the approach of both Michael and Kyle, there are a lot of organic and semi-organic sounds that also feature in their scores. Like any composer, they've made their own instruments too in order to capture some of the more intensive sound design efforts.
'These are exceptional tools.'
'Over the years we have collected stuff and turned it into our own sample instruments so we can reuse them. Like all the interesting stuff that you spend a lot of time designing - but a lot of time that sample stuff ends less playable than an integrated, designed sampler instrument like this. If I’m going to sample this synth or sample this audio and construct something, you know, it might sound a little more sterile than something that has this much thought put into the design. Atmospherics, textural elements and sound beds are a significant thing and they can also take a lot of time.'
'Now that I’m in scoring mode. I’ve been putting your instruments to good use. Finding it all very useful, and navigating the GUI did not take long to suss out. Kudos. These are exceptional tools.'
We'll be back to see Michael soon for more chats and to show him what we're curently working on, but in the meantime we eagerly await the second and final parts of Stranger Things 5 and the fantastic music therein.
STRANDS, FOLDS and FRAMES are available now, in the Products menu at the top of this page. And if you buy more than one, save with code BUNDLE for 20% off.
Top Image Credit: Alex Kacha
