SOS For Artists: Writing A Cinematic Sci-Fi Cue

The finished cue within Cubase 15 LE, combining six SMP instances, a compact selection of samples from the SOSFA catalogue, and an equally compact selection of effects plug‑ins for compression, EQ, saturation, reverb and delay.

SOSFA has all you need to create Stranger Things‑style cues!

Synth‑infused film and TV scores became prominent in the 1980s, but it’s a musical style that’s seen a big resurgence in recent years. Classic analogue synth sounds (whether real or emulated) generally sit at the heart of these soundtracks, providing pulse‑like bass elements that help define the rhythm, evolving pads for texture and harmony, and lead sounds for melodic toplines. Drop in some atmospheric sound‑design elements and a few spot sound effects, and you have all the ingredients you need to start rolling your own.

Naturally you can find all you need in an SOS For Artists subscription, so in this workshop we’ll give it a go, aiming for an ‘inspired by Stranger Things’ tension‑style cue at around 80 bpm.

The audio example contains the ‘finished’ version of the cue. The track is split into three main musical sections; an introduction with a slow build to a tension hit at around 70 seconds, a more mysterious soundscape section without any defined rhythm, and finally a more intense sections with the rhythm re-introduced that moves to a final hit at the end. Below I’ll take you step‑by‑step through how I created it.

Tools Of The Trade

SynthMaster Player offers several presets suitable for this kind of musical application.My first step was to gather the required tools together. I did this inside Cubase 15 LE (which is included in SOSFA), but any DAW would be suitable. SOSFA has a number of good virtual synths, and for my main sound source I picked KV331’s SynthMaster Player 2.9. I’ll call it SMP below. The supplied presets sound great, and while the sound editing functions are somewhat basic, the sound modulation options provided by the EZ knobs are really easy to use and automate.

To sit alongside SMP, I grabbed a few samples from the SOSFA library. These included a couple of cool drones/textures from Vadi Sound Eerie Drones & Textures, a punchy kick loop from the D‑fused Sounds Synthwave Fashion, impact samples from CR2’s Nocturnal Realms and a couple of risers from Audiogem’s Phonk Fury.

While Cubase 15 LE has options for compression, EQ, reverb and delay, I decided to augment them with instances of Klevgrand’s Korvpressor, the NoiseAsh Need 73 Console EQ (both used on individual tracks), Audiofied’s Linda Ironverb, IK Multimedia’s MixBox SE (which I used here just for an extra delay option), Eventide’s CrushStation and Tone Empire’s Model 5000 VCA compressor (placed on my stereo master bus).

Korvpressor, Need 73 and Crushstation took care of my track‑level dynamics, EQ and saturation requirements.

Take My Pulse

To provide a rhythmic ‘pulse’ for sections of the track, I decided to blend two sounds. Using Cubase’s audio editing tools, I sliced a single kick hit out of my punchy kick drum loop and copied that slice to create a one‑bar ‘heartbeat’ pattern, whose sound I softened with a little EQ from Need 73.

When I browsed SynthMaster Player’s bass presets for suitable bass synth sounds, I wasn’t short of options!

When I browsed SMP’s bass presets for suitable bass synth sounds, I wasn’t short of options! Eventually, I settled on a preset that included a basic rhythmic arpeggiator pattern — it seemed to work well alongside my kick drum heartbeat, and you can hear the two playing together, layered with a pad, in the first section of the demo track.

The part I used was a simple single sustained note and the arpeggiator did the heavy lifting, and a little volume and SMP EZ knob automation (using Cubase LE’s Quick Controls) injected an additional sense of movement. In the final section of the track, the bass performance included some additional notes, just to exploit the arpeggiator pattern more obviously as the cue built to a finish. Korvpressor aside, the only additional processing on the bass synth was a tiny amount of saturation using CrushStation.

Texture & SFX On Cue

Next, as shown in the first screen, I sketched out an initial structure for the cue in Cubase, consisting of three sections: an intro, to build the initial tension; a middle section without the rhythmic pulse, to release that tension and provide contrast; and, finally, with the rhythmic pulse restored and intensified, a build to a final crescendo.

The SOSFA sample collection provided plenty of options for my risers, hits, kick and texture needs, all of which were imported into my Cubase project prior to use.I experimented with placing my various riser and impact sounds to highlight the transitions between the sections. For the risers, this required aligning them on the timeline so their peaks hit the transition correctly. In the middle section, I also layered and automated volume for two texture/drone samples, to create a somewhat unsettling soundscape. This section was around 30 seconds in length, so I simply cropped the samples and applied fades in and out to make them work. To complete this textural section, I layered in a sustained single note from a suitable SMP analogue‑esque pad preset (SMP has plenty of options!) and applied some automation of the filter for further depth and interest.

Then, I went hunting for a further atmospheric pad preset, to add texture in the first and third sections of my cue. The sound I eventually picked was an evolving pad that occasionally added in soft, higher‑pitched elements that sounded almost like they were reversed. You can hear this in the first part of sections 1 and 3 in the audio example. It added an interesting touch of mystery while simultaneously feeling somewhat unsettling. I used a little bit of EZ knob automation, targeting various preset parameters under SMP’s hood, to create some additional movement in the sound.

Arp Master

The final musical elements to add were some arpeggiated synth sounds. I used these in the second half of sections 1 and 3, just to try and raise the musical stakes and bring each section to a peak. Two different SMP presets were used. In section 1, there’s a fairly slow‑moving eighth‑note arpeggiated pattern. The preset sounded very ‘Terminator soundtrack’ to my ears and, again, with some very basic modulation, a touch of CrushStation saturation, and a little extra delay and reverb via a send to MixBox and Linda Ironverb, it hit the spot nicely.

By contrast, the arp in section 3 featured a 16‑note arpeggio to inject a little more intensity, and to help the track build towards its end. Again, though, it’s simply a classic analogue‑style lead synth sound, this time with some nice delay and a bit of EZ knob automation, and paired with a couple of layered riser samples. It brings the track to a nice conclusion.

Make An Impact

The final addition was to create a ‘hit’ at the end of the track. This was done using a blend of two of the impact samples mentioned earlier. A final SMP preset was added to this and I added a little pitch‑wheel tweak to create a pitch‑drop effect. This blend of sounds then had a little bit of EQ73 applied, just to soften it slightly, and some Linda Ironverb for ambience so that this final hit in the cue faded out nicely.

Join The Cue

Having routed my various sounds to instrument busses (Group Tracks in Cubase speak) for drums, effects, bass, pads and arps, I added a gentle bit of Korvpressor dynamics control and EQ73 to each bus, balanced and automated the bus faders to taste, and then popped the aforementioned Model 5000L onto my stereo output using one of its ‘mix glue’ presets to (very gently) keep the overall dynamics under control.

Job done? Yes... sort of! As ever, there’s always plenty more you could do to refine and improve upon this sort of cue, or add additional ear candy. But, as a proof of concept, it demonstrates well what the SOSFA toolset has to offer for this kind of work. And, if your DAW happens to include video support (Cubase 15 LE includes a video playback window, for example), you could certainly make a start with scoring‑to‑picture experiments in this genre without the need for any additional tools.