All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 08Creating with Synths

the opportunity in in in in these

devices exists to go and try and do

truly wacky things.

And truly wacky things I I think that's

actually unfair, but it's it's a tool.

It's a tool just like a violin is a tool

or you know if if you want to get more

basic

I think the thing that most kids at one

point or the other get to play with is

like a Fender Strat. Fender Stratacica.

So everybody's got one. Everybody knows

somebody who's got one. And here's the

amazing thing about the Fender Strat.

It's just plank of wood with some

strings attached to it.

It's

but it's such a great design that Stevie

Ray won will sound completely different

from Jeff Beck will sound completely

different from Eric Clapton will and it

amplifies

the you know it it somehow amplifies the

DNA of the human being the musicality of

the human being and that's what that's

what you want this stuff to do. You

don't want it to be in in the way. You

want it to

become expressive. And you just need to

break through the myth the myth of the

elitism that unless it's a sign where

you can't play music on it. You know,

I'm saying if it's a laptop, you can

make music on it.

And for instance, I I I use

I'm surrounded by synthesizers, but if

it really comes down to it,

I use very few and I just try to get

really really really good at them. Um

because the the wealth of possibilities

is there

if you learn how to use it. And it's not

like you know if you approach it as a

musician then learning is a very you the

word learning isn't so difficult cuz

musicians play. So if you're playful

about the thing it actually becomes fun

to experiment and it takes you on

journeys and it takes you places you

never thought you you would get to.

And once you know it pretty well,

you can direct where the journey goes.

And I think that's important. You know,

don't let the machine control you. You

have to be able to control the machine.

So all these computer programs, it

doesn't matter if it's Cubase or Logic

or ProTools or Ableton Live or, you

know,

the best one is the one you know. It's

it's you know there's no favoritism. You

know I work on Qbase because I've always

worked on Cubase and the other advantage

I have that everybody has is talk to the

guys who built this thing. talk to them,

you know, and tell them, you know, how

your workflow is and and and

sometimes are very often

you you get them to change it or you get

to get them to improve it. Um I I

remember sitting there with the Cubase

guys years ago and coming up with this

very elitist statement which was

something like, "Well, you should talk

to me. I'm a professional composer. And

they just went [ __ ] You

professional composers, you just have

this paradigm of how you work. You

always think the same way. You know, the

the interesting ideas come from some kid

in a garage in the Bronx who doesn't

play keyboards and he's going to come up

with, you know, he doesn't think in in

in the fixed metaphor of, you know, the

keyboard in in the classical way. he's

going to come up with a tool and an

invention that is um revolutionary. And

you know, I had to sort of agree with

that because

most of most of the advances that I've

seen happen in musical technology is is

from people who love music but aren't

musicians themselves.

And they think just slightly differently

and they they make you think in a

slightly different way.

I never use presets on synth. I always

start off I have I have an idea for a

sound in my head and I start with a like

a a clean blank patch because if as soon

as I hear a preset, as soon as I hear a

different sound from a preset, it sort

of blunts the memory of the sound I'm

trying to have in my head. you know,

it's it's a distraction. It's like when

you're trying to write a tune and

somebody walks by whistling,

you know, your tune's gone. Um,

and so for me, it it becomes it just

becomes second nature. I hear something

in my head and I sort of know how to

build it. you know, it might be a bit of

a struggle and but part of it is is just

to to to to remember what that thing is

in your head and you can just train

yourself to to to memorize the thing and

and and

figure out how to get there. Um, let me

see if I can There's a thing I've been

playing around with. Now I have to just

find these guys.

I love the idea of that you hear the you

know just before you get slapped that

where you hear the wind.

So just adding a little bit of that sort

of

intent of something

scary could be h you know something

something not quite healthy could be

happening to you. Um, let me see if I

can

I mean that's the opening to

Interstellar which is I just wanted wind

you know.

You know, it's fairly descriptive. I Let

me see what this is.

I wanted

I wanted big waves, you know. So, so I

made them, you know, but then of course

you can do things. Hang on.

Oh, yeah. That was the

because I was using so many organs in

the score and there's certain things

real organs can't do. I just had to, you

know, um let's see this one.

They can't really come from nothing

because it's either on or off,

you know? So,

and what's this one?

Okay. The problem is because I don't use

presets. They're just used for that one

project and then I forget what they're

named and I forget, you know, I never

use them again. The the great thing

about synthesizers is you can have a

completely fresh pallet for every

project you work on. And for for me in a

funny way, you know, sometimes I just

sit there making sounds and it's it's

it's a sort of a sideways way of

thinking about what the tunes are going

to be as opposed to sitting there and

confronting the beast head on. You know,

it's it's quite,

you know, it's sort of weirdly little

meditation going on. Oh, I'm just going

to go and make a little wind, you know,

and out of that wind

a tune is going to come.

Okay. So, I start with,

you know, it's this is where I usually

start. It's like my my stupid hands of

starter patch which has nothing in it

other than

you know the the sound of a weasly

horrible oscillator you know I don't

know let's let's go and make a bass

sound. So um well what do I need? I need

to get rid of the weasly horrible

quality at the top. Right. So you shove

a filter onto it. You know stop this

from sounding so boring. Let's put a bit

of life into it. Um, it needs to have a

bit of a shape. Um, you know, things

need to move in in time, right? So, you

can go and say this is a plucky sound or

or it's a

not a plucky sound, you know?

So, hang on. We're sort of already

getting somewhere. It's

I want it to last a bit longer at the

end.

I think it'd be nice if it could do a

bit more than that. Uh let's say we

wanted to go uh and do this sort of

thing just because it's easy.

So now

it's playing by itself.

Of course, it'd be much more fun if

it did something

Heat. Heat.

Heat.

Heat.

I'm not saying that was particularly

good, but you know, it's like instant

something, you know.

I mean this is like 2 seconds or

whatever. How long did it take you? Um,

you know, it's not supposed to be

anything great, you know, but it's just

it's just and

one, two, three, four modules and and

you got something you got you got at

least something to start with.

I usually play with one hand because

um I just find a long sound

Because

part of what real instruments do,

you know, they have a lot of expression.

I mean,

you know, the whole point of,

you know, that's all you get in Batman,

right? So it's it's all about two notes,

but the amount of expressiveness you can

put into them.

So, so there's a lot that can happen

within a note just from them playing

very very quietly

to,

you know, something fairly

opinionated.

It it's figuring out how much expression

you can get wi with with within the note

where where things start to become

interesting and musical.

So just a single note, right?

And what can happen is that

the note starts getting more and more

unstable.

Yes, I wanted to blow up.

One of the things which is confusing

right now is I'm so used to working at

like a set volume in this room. I never

change the volume which is you know the

cinema 85 dB. So you know that when

you're writing or when you're making

sounds, it's the the appropriate volume

for the picture.

You you know, it's it's it's like if you

give yourself those restrictions that

you're not going to move the volume and

that you're just going to move right at

the volume of the movie, um it's one

less thing that can go wrong later on.

And now because of our conversation I am

down considerably in in volume.

So let's just stay on one note. I know

that this guy makes things wobble up and

down a bit.

This guy's reverb. This guy will

introduce

bit of un instability.

So this this it all gets a bit this

sound is just about things being

unstable

and then this was just the idea of

giving it a sort of a

I mean, they're just abstract sounds.

So, so I mean you can specify each, you

know, which which I sort of did in this

case. You specify each fader for what it

can do. I mean, you build an instrument,

you build an abstract instrument. Um,

it's a bunch of LFOs in here. um being

very,

you know, with controlled randomness.

And it's a bunch of if you look, if you

look in here, um down there, there are

all these little, you know, wobbly

things that are, you know, just just

randomness. But, you know,

made randomness. I mean, like this guy

here, um

he's that that clock that Does that make

sense?

And then the big uh hang on. Where's the

big swoop? Okay. So then you can see

that if I

So this is the the shape of the filter

opening and it's just just in a cycle,

you know.

While this guy,

he's actually he's just a subtle, you

know, it's just a subtle very

in tamber going on.

And this this just speeds the whole

thing up or slows it down.

I just wanted things to be unstable in

time and in pitch as well.

But the I be but the idea that you just

have one simple sound

and it can become more unstable as it

goes. And where is this other thing? So

it's just little things. I am Oh, the

big dive is a good one.

So these are all sort of of a family at

the moment.

So I can have more reverb or less

reverb.

I can make it more and more unstable.

It doesn't help that you people have

stolen my sustain pedal.

Now we're scaring the children.

So you know within one sound you can

create all these different textures and

these different worlds and you can you

know rather than playing a keyboard it's

fun to go and just wiggle faders around.

It's just a different it's it's it's

more the way a string player would move

the bow across the string. So you don't

have to limit yourself

to

just being a rotten piano player.