In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to bring a late 90s or Y2K sound to your house tracks using the free Meat Beats Orbhits instrument, a sampled version of the popular E-Mu Orbit 9090 sound module from 1996. This synth has been used in classic DnB tracks by Blame and Peshay, and is the precursor to the E-Mu Orbit-3 which was used heavily in the soundtrack to Metroid Prime.

• READ MORE: How to make an atmospheric DnB beat in 10 minutes with free plugins

For more context on what a “video game sound” actually is, you can head to the final section of this article, but if you’re itching to get started, let’s show you what’s in store.

Here’s what you’ll be making:

We’re going to use Ableton Live for this guide, but you can follow along with any DAW. You can also use any software or hardware you like in place of Orbhits and Ableton’s stock effects — the principles of the arrangement and sound are what matters, not your gear.

Step 1: Sourcing a house beat

Load up your DAW and set the project tempo to a peppy 132 BPM. We’re going to use a breakbeat sample from BandLab Sounds as the basis of our track, specifically Chupy_126_FullDrum_4bars.

This beat is at 126 BPM, so we’ll warp it to speed it up to the project tempo of 132 BPM. This loop sounds ideal and provides the perfect foundation to our beat. All we need to do before moving on is turn its track down to -3dB to give us more headroom to add further elements to the mix.

Step 2: Creating a chord riff

Our track is going to be based around a chord patch from Orbhits, PAD-RevealMe. We’ll play this on A2, G3, C3 and G2 using a velocity value of 100, which we’ll use for all MIDI notes in this walkthrough.

Add a ping-pong delay synced to two 16th notes with a Dry/Wet level of 30%, and a reverb with a Dry/Wet level of 20%.

Set this track to -7.5dB to balance it with the beat.

Step 3: Adding a bass line

Now our beat has a basic musical idea, let’s flesh it out with a bass line. We’ll use the BAS-AnyWorld preset for this, playing on A1, F2 and G1. Set this track to -3dB.

Let’s enhance the bass line with another layered bass tone. This time, try BAS-BuzzBass.

Duplicate the MIDI over from the first bass line, and pitch it up an octave so that it complements the existing bass sound. Set this track to -8dB.

Step 4: Sequencing a lead

Our lead part for this track is going to be very simple because the chord riff is already providing the track’s melodic movement. What’s more, Orbhits doesn’t actually feature any dedicated lead synth patches! No matter, we’ll use a bass preset pitched up to provide our lead. Select BAS-SquareUp and sequence a part that plays A4 and G4.

Duplicate the delay and reverb effects over from the chord track to prevent this part from sounding too dry. Set this track to -7.5dB.

Step 5: Adding a vocal sample

Orbhits includes some retro-flavoured vocal samples, so let’s add one to our beat for some character. Load up the VOX-ComeOnYo preset, and sequence it to play on A2 just before the third beat, and on the twelfth 16th note. Loop this out to play for the whole four-bar sequence.

Duplicate the delay over from the previous track, and set this track to -6.5dB.

Step 6: Applying sidechain compression

Let’s give our beat a loud, pumping sound by grouping all the instrument tracks together, and adding a compressor effect. Set the sidechain input of the compressor to the drum loop track, with a threshold of -28dB and a Release time of 28ms.

Now you’ve got your beat, start adding and arranging elements to transform this into a fully-fledged original track.

What is “Y2k video game” music?

Early video games were typically released on floppy disks or cartridges, which didn’t allow for large amounts of data storage. This meant that games were unable to compete sonically with the popular music of the time, but you can be hear the resulting styles in games such as Streets of Rage 2 and Xenon 2: Megablast.

With the advent of Sony’s first PlayStation and Microsoft’s Windows 95 in the mid-90s, CD-ROM became the most common format for video games distribution, and developers could suddenly include high-quality soundtracks in their games. Video games began to include licensed and bespoke CD-quality music, with Psygnosis’ Wipeout games being the pre-eminent example of this trend.

The Wipeout series featured music from established artists such as Photek, The Future Sound of London and Orbital, bringing dance music culture and video games together closer than ever. With the increasing availability of sample CDs, the influence of dance music began to be heard often in late-90s video game soundtracks, and familiar samples can be heard in the soundtracks to games such as Shock Troopers, Rage Racer and Grand Theft Auto.

Now the sounds of the fifth and sixth generation video games consoles have become influential in their own right with collections such as the Low Poly Breaks series becoming popular on YouTube.

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