With Unlicensed and Synthesized both out this week, I can finally talk about a musical conundrum that hit during production. One that turned into a perfect example of creative problem-solving for clients.
The director asked:
“Barn, when scoring games have you ever written two cues using the same melody for totally different areas?”
“Sure,” I said. “What are you thinking?”
“A 90-second sequence showing a moment from two perspectives—his and hers. One orchestral, one synth-led.”
So naturally I replied:
“How about we push it further. 18th century European classical and full blown 80s synthwave?”
“Perfect!”
I thought it would be easy. I’ve created action versions, underwater versions, eerie moonlit-forest versions of cues. That’s familiar territory.
I was wrong….
The Classical Cue: A Joy to Build
This part was pure fun—leaning into my classical training:
String section, timpani, soft horns
An A–B–C–A structure built on a variation of the cycle of fifths
Developed a violin-led theme and end on a warm major chord
And yes… a dash of marimba, simply because it sounded wonderful
No harpsichord. You’re welcome.
That track came together like a dream.
The Synth Cue: Not So Simple
The synth track, however, refused to click.
I blamed the tools at first—was using software-modelled synths the issue? I was working with Ian who reminded me: modern software is insanely accurate and far more practical than hardware (which he also has). He was right.
By version three I realised the real problem:
“Same notes, different sounds” is not how synthwave works.
Classical music thrives on harmonic movement. Synthwave thrives on repetition, texture, and slow-burn development. So I rebuilt the cue from scratch.
I dove back into the expressive synth world I grew up loving — Jarre, Vangelis, Kraftwerk — and rebuilt everything from fundamentals:
Custom patches from raw waveform oscillators
FX fully controllable in real time
Slower development, more atmosphere, more space
From there, it became all production craft:
LFO tweaks, timed delays, side-chain and parallel compression, resonant filters, tuned Linn drums, gated reverbs, tape saturation—the full synthwave toolkit.
