This course specifically was the reason for getting on Sonic Academy. For some background info, I’ve just gotten into production, but created music for nearly 20 years now. I produce ‘watch me edit’ videos for landscape photography, in which I show and explain how to achieve a certain look in post. I kind of was hoping the same here. How to get synthwave in the style of ‘The Midnight’, for the purposes of expanding knowledge and creativity for future productions. However, I did not find that during this course. Recreation of a track (or a landscape image for that matter) is a daring pursuit, because you will always end up with a different result than the original. No matter how successful a track will be, there is always more to be learnt from somebody who is tied up in the creative process, than from the same person having already done that. I don’t find it particularly strange that Tim is looking for presets or ‘how he did it on the track’, nor do I find it very useful. Like few people have said as well, we want to learn how you got there. Explanation of the reasoning behind the creation of such a brilliant track is worth gold. Don’t get me wrong, The Midnight IS one of my favorite synthwave artists and continue to be after watching this, but I doubt that I will be watching another ‘click it together’ video from them, especially with a 1000 euro worth of plugins, vsts and effects.
Hey @nasha
Sorry that the course didn’t matched your expectation, and yes, there were several discussions already ( if you browse through this topic ) matching your comments on this course.
I really think it all falls down to one simple thing which is the difference between “making it” and “explaining how you made it” in the end, I guess not every one has excellent teaching method & skills, especially true for all kind of artistic things IMO.
Thanks for your feedback & sharing your thoughts on this tutorial.
@nasha I completely agree. I bought the subscription to learn some tips and tricks on how to create synthwave but we weren’t even shown how the synths were created (kind of the key point of the genre!). It’s insane how much the plugins cost as well and most of the time they really just sound subtle/don’t need to be used at all. I’m mostly disappointed that all of the drums were just his own samples and we didn’t get to see how they were created.
Interesting to listen to the difference in sound when he A/Bs the original signal vs the affected signal, but holy man I wasted my time.
He just throws effects on instruments and chooses presets without giving any reasoning behind it. It sounds great, but this feels more like a livestream than a tutorial I should pay for.
I really wanted to enjoy it, but there are much better free tutorials on YouTube. Check out Ste Ingham. That guy knows what’s up.
Awesome! The Midnight has great songs!
Love The Midnight. Would like to see Tim do more of these, and elaborate more on his chord structures and how he comes up with melodies. I also love the synth solos in these songs. I saw them live in Atl. recently and Tim took a few solos. He plays with great feel.
Nice vidio!
Awesome video! Had to purchase some of the plugins used after I watched it! One if my favorite bands!
I’ve learnt soooo much from this. Nice work!
Hmm. It’s a great track and he’s obviously a talented guy, and good to listen to. But this tutorial skips so much stuff I feel quite short-changed.
Eg: how were the samples chosen and why, how did he come up with the chords/melodies, often we don’t even get to see the notes he’s played (??!??!!), how was the song developed, why were specific plugins used, how were the synth sound created. Unless the idea was just to show use the presets and plugins used, but that’s hardly a tutorial.
Very good tutorial on the technical stuff !!! Love the band, really crafting the sound and the vibe, and the musicality is great too. Guys that complain that he’s not showing the notes or chords- train your ears, it’s really simple melodies, if you can’t get them by ear you should work on that first, otherwise how you gonna make your own good melodies if you don’t hear them?
I’m a fan of Tim & Tyler and came here stoked to take this course. Like many of you, I’d imagine, I read the comments first and was disappointed to see so many people pronouncing it rubbish, but I dove in anyway and I am really, really glad I did. Here’s my take: there are 2 sides to putting out a great track, there’s the creative process of writing the melody (and lyrics if you have 'em), choosing the instrumentation and turning them into a song, and then there’s the production of the song, a process that generally takes 'way longer than writing it in the first place. Here, Tim’s already got the recipe for the cake, and now he’s showing us how he baked it. If you’ve come here looking for tips on crafting melodies and creating synth patches, yeah, I can see where you’d be disappointed, but as a production how-to, this tutorial is gold. Sculpting individual tracks with EQ and dynamics to make them sit in the mix, bussing tracks and effecting the busses, why you’d want to put your filter ahead of the reverb instead of after, combining 2 bass instruments to come up with a beastly bottom end and then cutting the lows on it bass to make it sound even better… this is great stuff. If you’re not already using the dozens of techniques that Tim lays out here, open up whatever track you’re working on right now and give 'em a go, I guarantee you’ll be amazed, cuz I was. If you want to be a better producer, don’t be put off by the thumbs-down reviews; get in there and get some mad skills.
Thank you for taking the time to give a very objective & constructive comment on this course, that should help others to decide if this tutorial fits their need or not. Like you mentioned many people are expecting to see all details like the midi notes & patches programing, maybe looking for easy replication. The technical & production tips & tricks are far more important, and there’s a high level in this course.
For you guys that have been trying to workout how to get the “Dreamy Synth” sound into your DAW of choice: in the Resources .zip file (up top under Course Resources) there’s a demo version of the NI KONTAKT instrument AND a folder containing the .wav sample files for the instrument (cuz KONTAKT is basically a sample playback device at its core). Grab those samples, map 'em across the keyboard on your software or hardware sampler (I’m a Reason guy so that’s NN-XT for me), increase the the decay and release on your AMP envelope, and you’ve basically got the Dreamy Synth. The KONTAKT instrument also does some subtle modulation of a lowpass filter envelope with each key press, you could certainly do the same for extra credit! 
Tip: The A samples are named an octave too low, so A1 is actually A2, A2 is A3, etc. So for the first octave, your map’s gonna be:
C1.wav
D#1.wav
F#1.wav
A1.wav
Rinse/repeat
If you’re following along with Spire: the preset for the Bell synth is sws_keys_kingdomh from Sample Magic’s “Sm101 Synthwave Sounds” sample pack. Bass Part 2 is sws_bass_last from that same pack. https://www.samplemagic.com/details/430/synthwave-sounds
To all the moaners… if you put the same energy into making music as you do complaining it might help you more.
Don’t you get it? The fact Tim can’t remember where he found the preset IS the lesson.
There is no exact formula for making great art. The creative process involves experimentation, luck, and the stars aligning at just the right moment. A pinch of this, a dash of that… until it starts to sound awesome… Tim can’t teach you that magic because he doesn’t even know where it came from him himself.
He played those notes because of a lifetime’s experience if listening to and absorbing music. And then letting it flow back out through him. The melodies arise from the sub conscious. And if it’s not in your subconscious then you’re not going to get it from a tutorial. You get it from hours and hours of listening to music and from hours and hours trying to create music.
It may not the the greatest audio engineering course but as a look behind the scenes at how The Comeback Kid was created it’s awesome. Thanks Tim and Sonic Academy
thank you for the tips,
very interesting to see a project made by a pro !
I can not ignore the tutor hitting the “copy” button after almost every move. It is just muscle memory from times when it was necessary in any way? It never results in any pasting whatsoever?