Project Story:
Specdrums Sound Packs
The Story
Specdrums: Play the colors in your environment.
One of the coolest inventions we've ever seen: Specdrums. These small wearable bluetooth rings allow you to tap on different colors in your environment and trigger music samples and loops in the Specdrums Mix app. We were recruited to make loops that could layer on top of each other as well as playable samples.
Specs: 'Loopable' 'Simple' 'Engaging'
Picture: Sphero
Creating Interactive Music
One of the challenges of creating music that a user can manipulate is composing instrumental parts that work together, apart, and in any combination.
We started by creating some instrumental pieces that felt groovy, but not too repetitious. We decided on Funk as a great genre to accomplish this.
Superhero Time Crunch
After presenting a few options for demos to the writer and producer, we were given a few notes, some compliments, and 36 hours to return an updated version before the pilot was brought to executives in the company. One busy weekend later we had our (almost) final version.
Because we're an online studio, we're able to record multiple instrument parts simultaneously and keep things efficient.
Arrangement
In order to create a parallel between modern and vintage sounds we arranged some bombastic horns, a chugging 60's surf guitar line.
The horns aim to emulate the classic 'POW!' sound effects from comic-book fame and the guitar creates an almost bluesy feel - a popular direction for TV show themes of that time.
The Final Mix
The horns punctuate with a bombastic and quirky energy, reminiscent of the original Batman Theme. Combined with modern drum samples, a driving guitar riff, and the use of the borrowed IV chord, the theme feels super, nostalgic, and exciting in a single bound. The combination feels fun but still emulates professionalism.
Industry Review
We still continue to get an influx of praise about the original score.
- Mat K. (Writer, CCB)
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