Deconstructing a Classic Dance Track: Kavinsky - Nightcall

Taken from the soundtrack to Drive, Nightcall is an amazing track and one which we thought was more than worthy of the deconstruction treatment.
Point Blank is based in London, the home of electronic music, and has been voted 'Best Music Production and DJ School' by DJ Mag. You can learn Ableton Live or Logic Pro via our online courses or in our state-of-the-art studios in Hoxton. More information here ::www.pointblankmusicschool.com/

[@deniz_ildir]

That's why I love this synthwave genre. You can come up with beautiful results with so few parts and tracks.

[@lentejTV9]

That snare used in NIghtcall is worth millions!!! that sound!

[@IDontDoDrumCovers]

CO-produced by Guy-Manuel

[@vanceoliver7940]

Thank you for the clarification 😂.. I was like well that’s confusing and maybe the one time I don’t want to hear that phrase

[@Hydrotoxic]

I laughed so hard when you talked the lyrics ahaha These are fun to watch +1 Sub

[@mindpe]

How sounds are made? Where to get that Kick, Snare, Synth and Bass?

[@MythicalVigilante]

Kavinsky strictly used the Yamaha DX-7 back then. Not sure about these days. So, the sounds weren't exactly made, but most likely presets on that synthesizer. Because it's notorious for being incredibly difficult to program being an FM synth and all.

[@architchoudhary1385]

Use Roland 707 for kick, and DS drumkit sample with drum buss for snare it's all in the basic Ableton kit. Also I might be a bit too late in telling you this 😂

[@colbyneil7376]

@Miles Khalid definitely, I've been watching on instaflixxer for years myself =)

[@miicroo568]

The vocoder part is so cool!

[@chezchezchezchez]

Fantastic. Love this deconstruction!

[@GeorgeBeyond]

Thank you, I love the deconstructing videos!!

[@RockstahRolln]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Amazing DECONSTRUCTION!!! Learned a LOT!!

[@sassahbrazil]

Epic tune and epic information you providing mate!!!! Thanks!!!

[@SamAndrew27]

Very nice tut, thanks!

[@johannesgorset1393]

That was awesome. Thanks!

[@angledcoathanger]

Fantastic, and so glad people still think of chords in terms of harmonic function.

[@scarabrae]

Another great tutorial Ski, being simpler it matches my skill/knowledge far better. Great stuff mate, appreciated.

[@jessdeus5818]

I hope you share that beautiful ableton bass patch...

[@SapphosSails]

Thanks for the video! Its really helpful! I also never knew that Guy Manuel was involved in the track!

[@stevenwellington3729]

Good freakin tutorial man. I really liked all the instruments you used. Any chance you'd show us how to make those? The arpeggio sound, bass & synth brass.

[@jmq1984]

AMAZING!

[@bastiaanw3519]

Actually the first time I take the time to watch someone work in Live like that. Great to see the workflow, somehow I took a much complexer approach. Thanks for sharing!

[@Scar3croWinHD]

Amazing!

[@knarkis90]

Thanks for picking some of my favourite songs for deconstruction!

[@Stratocaster42]

Great video, but it drives me absolutely nuts that you didn't show how to create the tones, since that's probably why most people are here. Thanks anyway.

[@7erdogdu]

He makes sounds on Ableton's Operator. Just stop the video and copy the settings from there.

[@BLAZE45]

I have the real tones if you want them still. not from those shit Ableton plugins.

[@djbaroke4799]

hey bro, please i need them how can i get them

[@BLAZE45]

whats your email? Ill send them too you.

[@djbaroke4799]

[e-mail] thanks

[@speakertreatz]

great work mate, really informative, the arp is bang on. ONE thing snagged my ear, was the amount of reverb on your snare, compared to the almost dry, crude, in your face snare of the original. but other than that, terrific work, thanks very much

[@achromatic1]

very cool idea!

[@RibasOasis]

The vocoder part killed it! Very nice tutorial. Thanks!

[@munyafiction]

wow ski! nicely done!

[@oscarhuacagonzalez2368]

amazing

[@StackEnergy]

great tutorial, thanks homie

[@-friday]

9:36 oooooooo! *the noise I actually made when I heard this*

[@planetmusicsamos]

Very well!!!! thanx!

[@orionlion8339]

Thanks for this, i bet it was pretty hard to explain

[@vaporstv]

Great!

[@djn3vo]

Please moré tus like this....amazing thx point blank

[@kirkmeister555]

Nice tutorial...although i believe Kavinsky did the vocoder part with using white noise as well.. He low passed the normal vocoder (used for the lows) and used the noise feature on the vocoder (for the highs).

[@RIMALDI]

Dude that sounds just about right. I'm gonna try it. Where'd you get that from?

[@kirkmeister555]

I downloaded the stems and it contained 2 different vocals for that one vocal, the normal vocoder and a white noise sounding vocal. Then i realised you can get that same white noise sounding vocal within the default 'noise' on the vocoder.

[@RIMALDI]

Kirk Donnelly I see. I've always wondered how he got the vocals to sound so raspy. Thanks for the insight!

[@kirkmeister555]

Daniel Rimaldi all good dude :)

[@TheSuperCommentGuy]

I'm glad you pointed that out. I checked out the stems and you are 100% correct. It's a really interesting effect, thanks for pointing that out.

[@duncand1964]

Excellent yet again Ski. Do you know if you can do vocoding on Maschine (not with The Mouth add-on)?

[@benstern310]

would be handy to know the settings for the brass

[@panagos1986]

+Ham m Indeed I'd like to know how you made the brass too!

[@fukiro]

Where can we get the sounds/presets/patches used in the video ?

[@g00thier]

This is one of the most awesome deconstruction video's I've ever seen!

[@BenLiteral]

I don't know if you take requests or not, but I'd love to hear your take on "Don't Be On With Her" by Miami Horror. In any case, this was very informative! I've been trying to capture a similar sound for quite some time without much success, but this opens my eyes a bit and gives me several ideas. Much appreciated!

[@pura_boda]

How can I learn to replicate the synth sound I want like in this tutorial? any sound design tutorial?

[@burkuschgoldberg]

great video! could you explain again what vocoder presets were used and what exactly you did with the two compressors on the vocoder track?

[@ner6503]

Without getting into the argument too much, i'm pretty sure this song is synthwave.

[@GamesExposed]

get the word out there people ! :D

[@ner6503]

Vosto Vlad Theres a lot of discussion of that on r/outrun

[@feordedid9113]

Outrun is a variant of synth wave that uses hard kicks and faster bass as the main instruments, nightcall is rather slow so I wouldn't say its outrun

[@ner6503]

@@feordedid9113 Outrun is the artistic aesthetic of synthwave pretty much

[@MythicalVigilante]

It's definitely not a "dance" track. It's synthwave. There are many sub-genres though.

[@anthonyurbina8080]

+1 on this!!!

[@alxiroi]

Great

[@dondoggywest]

Nice one ski :)

[@GoldsHouseMusic]

Amazing job, but vocoder part bloooow my mind!!! :D

[@eddiesheanon506]

More white noise in the carrier synth should get the Vocoder/Talkbox closer to the original;)

[@SamAndrew27]

Eddie Sheanon Bingo, this is correct.

[@fox220]

Totally agree - I could have (any many others I assume) could have worked out the chords and melody with no troubles, but how to reverse engineer patches is still a mystery to me.

[@achromatic1]

it'd be cool if you showed us how to design the synth patches. also, you're missing a really wide panned palm-muted guitar in the intro. but all in all, really good effort!

[@chuuska1972]

Wow!!!

[@djmattblack]

Those drums sound great, how did you get them like that?

[@Supremee022]

i'd really like to know how make this vocoder voice without the original gear (vocoder). Any help?

[@DasMirror]

thanks :)

[@PointBlankMusicSchool]

+DasMirror You are welcome!

[@the0skeptic]

my theme song fr

[@PolaBurrr]

that snare tho

[@Cocabear21]

ok thanks its just id like to see how its done and understand the synthesis

[@2000thecharles]

Can you give us the presets ?

[@tomstevens5134]

Why is this video not available? Really interested to hear this one. Can it be fixed?

[@Cocabear21]

please can we have the patches for this one!

[@OfficialStripesRec]

Hey, this tutorial is great but, could you please make a tutorial of how to make the synthesizer sounds, specially the chords [brass] please? pretty please?

[@zOMGLaserGunzPewPew]

Is there a way to take the voice modulator part out of the song, but still keep the hook and the repeated "look around" thats sung during verses?

[@stevejhkhfda]

ski would you say it modulates the key on the chorus to F major?

[@oguzmelek]

how are we going to find those exact samples can someone help me with that ?

[@blacklite911]

Its crazy how something so fucking simple can be such a great song. Daft punk are gods.

[@MLGXxDempsyxx]

Can i get the synth presets or can you make a tutorial?

[@eksempler69]

Which software can I use to separate drums, bass and voice of a song on different separate tracks?

[@grafhahn9219]

Amazing! Can i do this with FL Studio too?

[@ElDaumo]

DAW really doesnt matter. arranging, and synthesis is the same on any platform. its just the workflow/layout thats different.

[@nicokostenbauer4008]

What program does he use?

[@MrHgalvan]

is that snare just a straight sample or did you layer it?

[@Cocabear21]

do anything for these patches

[@RichardRichardVC]

Interesting video, but as others have said it's very odd not to explain where the samples came from and how the synth sounds were designed, and also no mention of other elements like the muted guitar part.

[@DavidMilesMusic]

One area that can be improved is the synth carrier of the vocoder uses much more complex chords than just two notes but its very difficult to hear. Great tutorial thanks I got a much better idea of how the bass works from this

[@Mario.86]

Get Rob Papen - Predator vst. It has every preset in this tut in its 'classic' bank

[@PointBlankMusicSchool]

Can't find the original what? the track?

[@RenatRenat3000]

How to get this bass sound? I've changed all parametres of the synth, like in the video, but i cannot get this sound!

[@semblance1462]

+RenatRenat3000 it sounds like it's to do with Sync/Resonance, crank that shit up to taste and you should get where you're trying to go

[@mediaofhogwarts]

for better vocals you can use vocal synth 2 plugin. i think it is much better than vocoder. there is a tutorial in youtube.

[@xXSweetysourXx]

what program is used to put all this together? sorry I'm really new to all this stuff xP

[@PointBlankMusicSchool]

a rock It's called Ableton Live - we have some beginner courses if you want to learn more :: www.pointblanklondon.com/courses/online/ableton-live-courses/ableton-live-1-production/

[@frigga]

+Point Blank Music School could you PLEASE (please!) publish the settings neccessary to recreate the sounds? Thank you so much !

[@yourlocalcyborg]

What plugin was used to make the sounds?

[@YaDingus]

Only instruments that come with Ableton.

[@Aztechnological]

ineed this bass man, im trying to create a new school 80s hip hop song.

[@davesgameshare2652]

Mini moog VST's are what you're after

[@thepickletheory]

can u do ghosts and stuff by deadmau5 and chris lake

[@Aztechnological]

where you got that bass from? a vst?

[@RadioVideoElectro]

The bass is from Analog, a built-in synth in Ableton that's pretty good for this sort of thing.

[@kepso3]

it's actually a bit difficult. i don't consider myself a beginner anymore but it's still a bit hard cause you can't really see all the envelopes etc

[@hargous]

What about now ? How are things going for you.

Oh Lovefoxxx...

[@eviegas77]

patches pleeeeeeeeease!!!

[@IgorGuerrero]

Slow dancin' :)

[@kepso3]

i'm not sure what you mean but he's using ableton's stock vocoder and not actual gear

[@JohnnyRock]

Oberhiem DMX drum samples

[@nathanvanmiddlesworthmedia844]

Your vocoder setting is wrong,but aside from that...Nice work!

[@edgaradrianhuizar1441]

91 BPM Right? sorry i dont speak English.

[@MarianofFire]

That vocoder was a big "NO". The rest of the tutorial was awesome *thumb up*

[@Pippy_Pappy]

:)

[@SuperioweN]

srly, this is so cool.

[@afisherman7108]

7:15

[@ionnutc]

These are pretty generic sounds, i hear a big drum kit with 80s type snare, muted electric guitar for the arpeggio, saw/brass synth for the chords and a "daft punk" bass. I noticed he didn't use a guitar for the arpeggio but i always thought that's a muted guitar. Some soft synths have that daft bass as preset anyway i'm sure there are some tutorials on yt for it.

[@nathanfinnegan522]

Dudes, make your own presets! Why would you want the exact presets he's using in this vid? ...or Kavinsky's, for that matter!

[@Skrenja]

Sure the melody is spot on, but the sound/sample selection isn't. The lead doesn't sound the same nor the drums. Was that intentional?

[@Skrenja]

Also I think the vocoder was layered in the original.

[@manofwealthandtaste136]

Kavinsky played half of this on some ancient Yamaha he customises, you can't so that kind of synth stuff any more :(

[@FL8SHProductions]

All the songs you deconstruct are mostly very popular songs or have been but after a year you should not yet call them a 'Classic' dance track in my opinion.. But great job though

[@springplus300]

You don't even have to read an interview. Just listen to the original - it's pretty obvious. That being said, this is a nifty way to emulate the sound if you can't sing a note if your life depended on it.

[@StudioStar]

Drums are way off. Original snare is much dryer and fuller... almost 909-ish.

[@sirrichter5336]

Definitely not a dance track