WA Production Cinematic Tension Course [TUTORIAL]

In this course, Dan Larsson gives a complete breakdown of how he goes about creating a dramatic, impactful cinematic soundscape in Ableton. His techniques will help you create incredible tension and huge sounds in a short amount of time.

Video 1 – Drums

In the first chapter Dan adds the drum one-shots but also adds a touch of synthesis inside Ableton Operator to make it his own. After this step, we have a good foundation for our piece.

Video 2 – Main Bass

In the next video, Dan builds up the main bass sequence in xFer Serum and adds additional Ableton audio effects for the post process. At the end of this step, we’ll have some incredibly rhythmic and glitchy textures.

VIdeo 3 – Screech Pad

For the huge screech pad, Dan shows an awesome technique that turns white noise into a crazy cinematic sound. This is a technique you can use in a wide variety oof productions.

Video 4 – Sample Riser

Next let’s use a glitch sample and turn it into a huge tension riser effect! This will add tons of drama and anticipation.

VIdeo 5 – Filtered Bass

To complete the clip we need to put a filtered bass under the sound that we made previously. This gives it nice thickness and crunch.

VIdeo 6 – Mastering

In this step we add some very simple mastering. This will glue everything together, level out the volume, and carve the sound to our liking.

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